Richard Morris

By 1925, Otto Dix had moved from Dresden to Berlin where he would start the portraits that have come to represent arts in Germany during the interwar period. This portrait (1926) is of Josef May, the manager of the Grünberg grain company in Arnsberg.

'The Shirland.' (c1950) The Shirland Arms on Shirland Road in Maida Vale, London was a mere 350 yards (320 metres) from Edward Ardizzone's front door so consequently he was a frequent visitor.

'The Shirland.' (c1950) The Shirland Arms on Shirland Road in Maida Vale, London was a mere 350 yards (320 metres) from Edward Ardizzone's front door so consequently he was a frequent visitor.

It is rare to find Hans Heysen's early work from when he was at Académie Julian and Colarossi’s Academy in Paris in the decade before WW1. This work, painted on a cold Parisian morning, is prosaically titled, 'From the Apartment Window, Paris, 1901.'

Emerging at a crucial juncture in van Gogh’s early development as an artist, 'Bridge Over a Ditch' from 1883 is amongst his earliest explorations of colour in his depictions of the Dutch landscape, made while living in The Hague.

'Woman in a Rowing Boat.' (1886)
Albert Edelfelt was the leading proponent of Finnish Realism. The first Finnish artist to gain international renown in his own lifetime for painting scenes like this.

Fireplaces, and specifically mantelpieces, were of great significance to Walter Sickert as shrines that expressed individuality. In this work from 1907, the surface is a mosaic of touches of paint in rich, lively and varied colours; the tonality is, for Sickert, relatively light.

'Pond in the Mist.' (1910) Henri Biva painted a very good line in meditative landscapes. Inspired by the example of English watercolour painters, notably Turner, he was a painter of rivers, lakes and coasts, often depicted at twilight or, as here, early morning or daybreak.

This painting shows a corner of Matisse’s apartment at 19 Quai St. Michel, Paris where he lived from 1899 to 1907. The subjects of domestic interiors and still lifes (such as the carefully arranged objects on the small stand here) were typical of his works of this period.

Edwin Smith was a brilliant photographer as well as a painter and during his lifetime he produced a huge volume of oil and watercolour paintings. This little gem, 'Turf Fire,' was made in the 1940s.

'A Day Indoors.' (1962) A classic Fairfield Porter picture of its period. Although a realist in subject matter he not only admired the work of Willem de Kooning, but also himself gravitated to the inherent abstraction found sometimes in interiors.

In this watercolour from 1907 John Singer Sargent has depicted a detail of the three-arched loggia in the grounds of Villa Giulia at the Borghese Gardens in northern Rome. It's an exercise in painting the presence and absence of light by using warm and cool tones of his palette.

Léon Cogniet's painting shows him in his room at the Villa Medici in Rome in 1817, the year he won the Prix de Rome for history painting and which enabled him to study art in Italy for five years.

I don't think she was.

'Café Singer,' (1879) is one of several pictures by Degas investigating the chanteuse who performed at the popular Parisian café-concert - the singer likely depicts one of his favourite stage acts, Thérésa (Emma Valadon) or Emélie Bécat.

'Pont Saint-Louis, Paris,' (1928) shows off Albert Marquet's command of light, colour and space. There's real atmosphere in this work; a feeling of luminosity, the way Marquet articulates the flow of the Seine is a masterclass in creating movement.

'Cliffs, South Stack, Anglesey.' The darkness implicit in so many of Kyffin Williams's mountain landscapes was a facet of his own make-up. He recognised in it the Celtic tendency to melancholy and that a certain despair and gloom were the logical sequel to his epileptic seizures.

Trained in advertising art, Henry Eveleigh began working in this field in 1930. 'The Fortune Teller,' was painted in 1939, shortly before he began making propaganda posters for the information services of Canada’s Wartime Information Board.

Four years before John Constable painted this in 1821, John Keats was writing about 'Negative Capability: 'when man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts without any irritable reaching after fact & reason.' This is what negative capability looks like in paint.

'The Open Window.' (1907) Much like his friend Vilhelm Hammershøi, Carl Holsøe is celebrated for his depictions of sparse interiors, which convey stillness and introspection.

This work was painted at Gerald Gardiner’s home in Gloucestershire in the mid 1930s and is a good example of his depiction of a night-time scene, showing the light, the reflections and shadows cast by the oil lamp and fire as his wife, Evelyn contentedly reads a book.

There is a great wealth of detail in Aristide Malliol's 'Portrait de Mademoiselle Jeanne Faraill,' (1888) Like his contemporaries, he was influenced by the aesthetics of Japanese art, particularly woodblock prints.

Gustave Dore's drawing (1882) was made for Edgar Allan Poe's narrative poem, 'The Raven.' It depicts the narrator opening his chamber door to a mysterious tapping, as described in the poem: 'I opened wide the door; Darkness there and nothing more.'

Every detail and nuance of colour in Gustav Wintzel's picture 'The Chess Players,' (1886) adds to a sense of obsessive purpose. Nothing is accidental in this work. Wintzel (facing us) wants us to see his world, his wide interests: it's his intellect made visible.

'The Doge's Palace.' (1906) Henri Le Sidaner’s work parallels that of Claude Monet in terms of style as well as choice of motif; both would reiterate the same subject matter in all seasons and during all times of day and night in order to isolate the variations of light.

'River at Sandvikselven,' (c1890) is a good example of Harriet Backer's summer landscapes, which show the glory of the Norwegian countryside. At this point in her career, Harriet had established herself as a successful artist and had opened a painting school in Kristiania (Oslo)

'My First Studio.' (1928) Luigi Lucioni's painting style spared him from the contentiousness of Modernist circles; while he respected the artistic trends of the period he looked beyond what was in-vogue in favour of technical skill.

Akseli Gallen-Kallela and his family spent the summer of 1905 by Lake Keitele in Konginkangas, in Middle Finland. The far looming island can be seen as one variation from the theme 'island of dreams,' a familiar subject in the history of art.

'Cloud study, sunset.' (1821) John Constable’s interest in the changing appearance of the sky dates to hus early as a student. At twenty-two, newly enrolled at the Royal Academy, he described the London sky as being how ‘a pearl must look through a burnt glass.'

'Self Portrait.' After settling in London from South Africa in 1916, Edward Wolfe studied at the Slade and was then employed by Roger Fry's Omega Workshops in 1918-19. Wolfe's fame owed much to regular exhibitions with the London Group and friendship with the Sitwell family.