Jacob van Velsen - A Musical Party [1631]

Jacob van Velsen - A Musical Party [1631], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

The depiction of elegantly dressed people singing and playing music often refers to courtship and the harmony of love. The pleasures of music are set against those of food, wine and tobacco. With the exception of one portrait, van Velsen painted only genre scenes in the style of the earlier work of Anthonie Palamdesz. (1601-1673), who became a master in the Delft guild four years earlier than van Velsen. This painting was once falsely signed as the work of Palamedesz. Jacob van Velsen was born and worked in Delft. He died in Amsterdam.

[Oil on oak, 40 x 55.8 cm]

Henri Rousseau - Carnival Evening [1886]

Henri Rousseau - Carnival Evening [1886], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

An air of mystery pervades this wintry forest landscape. Dressed in festive carnival costumes, a lone couple stands in front of barren trees. The figures seem to shine from within rather than from the light of the moon, which has strangely left the forest in darkness. An unexplained face leers out from the empty hut beside the figures, and an unexpected street lamp incongruously glows nearby. Known for his fantastic scenes, Rousseau was a self-taught artist whose works appealed to the collectors and avant-garde artists of the early twentieth century, including Pablo Picasso.

[Oil on canvas, 117.3 x 89.5 cm]

Caspar David Friedrich - Sunset Brothers [1830-35]

Caspar David Friedrich - Sunset Brothers [1830-35], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

[Oil on canvas, 25 x 31 cm]

Simon Denis - Sunset in the Roman Campagna [c.1800]

Simon Denis - Sunset in the Roman Campagna [c.1800], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Simon Denis (1755 – 1813) painted this rapid sketch of a sunset in the open air, in the countryside around Rome. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, open-air sketching in oil paint became common artistic practice in the warm climate of Italy. This sky study, intended to capture fleeting effects of light, would have been used as a basis for a large-scale landscape painting, made in the studio.

Simon Denis was born in Antwerp but settled in Italy from 1786, living in Rome and Naples. He was court painter to Joseph Bonaparte, King of Naples, from 1806 until his death in 1813. While in Italy Denis specialised in finished landscapes of famous sites, such as the waterfalls of Tivoli near Rome. His technique was exact and detailed and he paid great attention to naturalistic details and light effects. During his period in Rome he also made oil sketches in the open air, which unusually he often signed and annotated.

[Oil on paper, 18.2 x 26.2 cm]

Erdmann Hummel - The Granite Dish in the Berlin Lustgarten [1831]

Erdmann Hummel - The Granite Dish in the Berlin Lustgarten [1831], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

There are two levels of meaning to the painting of the granite dish as seen in 1831 on a slightly raised podium in the Lustgarten. At first sight Hummel, a Biedermeier painter who was often known as “Perspective Hummel,” is simply chronicling the temporary erection of the massively heavy, highly polished dish from the factory of the industrialist Cantian, thereby proudly depicting an outstanding technical achievement of his day. And yet at the same time Hummel is parodying the age of the Industrial Revolution he admired so much, showing Cantian representing industry and an uhlan cavalryman representing the state, small and distorted, upside down on the underside of the dish, while the rest of the populace of Berlin are literally standing on their heads, from petit-bourgeois to grand lady in a poke bonnet.

[Oil on canvas, 66 x 89 cm]

Henri Martin - The Port of Collioure [c.1920]

Henri Martin - The Port of Collioure [c.1920], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

[Oil on canvas, 90.2 x 110.5 cm]

Alfred Stevens - In the Studio [1888]

Alfred Stevens - In the Studio [1888], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

A female artist and her model take a break from a painting session to welcome a visitor to the studio. On the easel is Stevens's version of Salomé, which is based on Regnault's famous painting of 1870 (hanging nearby). The setting is thought to be Stevens's studio, which was admired for its stylish arrangement of the exotic and luxurious objects that he collected. With the open portfolio, picture-within-the-picture, and mirror (reflecting a mundane coal stove), this work presents an elaborate play on the relationship between art and reality.

[Oil on canvas, 106.7 x 135.9 cm]