Rose Van Lear

This early work by Ribera, who was Spanish by birth but spent his career in Italy, is first mentioned in Rome in 1644 in the collection of Cardinal Benedetto Monaldi Baldeschi. The painting shows Saint Peter after he has denied Christ, his eyes red with tears and his hands clasped in prayer. The figure's pose embodies the crushing weight of his sin. Seen as a form of confession, such dramatic shedding of tears became central to Catholic devotional practices and was praised in poetry and song. #art #painting

The Tears of Saint Peter, ca. 1612-13
Jusepe de Ribera (called Lo Spagnoletto)
Oil on canvas
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The Guitarist, 1965 Pablo Picasso Oil on canvas #art #painting

The Guitarist, 1965
Pablo Picasso
Oil on canvas
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Green Coca-Cola Bottles, 1962 Andy Warhol Acrylic, screenprint, and graphite pencil on canvas #art #painting

Green Coca-Cola Bottles, 1962
Andy Warhol
Acrylic, screenprint, and graphite pencil on canvas
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In his depiction of a blind man holding bread and lightly touching a jug of wine, Picasso underscored a feeling of lonely despair through dramatic formal decisions: thin, elongated anatomy and a somber, unearthly palette. As in many canvases from his so-called Blue Period (roughly 1901-4), Picasso partially took inspiration from El Greco. The Greek artist's expressively contorted figures and colors, suggestive of religious visions, anticipated aspects of late nineteenth-century Symbolist movements with their religious undertones. #art #painting

The Blind Man's Meal, 1903
Pablo Picasso
Oil on canvas
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El Greco painted this triumph of dramatic storytelling either in Venice or Rome; its palette, figure types, and paint handling bear the influence of Venetian Renaissance artists, notably Paolo Veronese. It shows Christ healing a blind man whose parents seem to be behind him. The canvas's upper left portion is unfinished. The architectural stage set is typical of El Greco's compositions before he largely did away with efforts at spatial structure in his later work. He made two other versions of the subject, but he may have brought this one with him when he left Italy for Spain in 1576. #art #painting

Christ Healing the Blind, ca. 1570
El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos)
Oil on canvas
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Peasant in the Underbrush at Moret, 1901 Camille Pissarro Oil on canvas #art #painting

Peasant in the Underbrush at Moret, 1901
Camille Pissarro
Oil on canvas
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In autumn 1901, a year after arriving in Paris from Spain, Picasso painted six canvases in a singular style that inaugurated his Blue Period. Dialogue with artistic predecessors was part of this breakthrough: in this painting, Picasso looked back to café scenes by Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas by way of Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin. For the distinctive costume of Harlequin, he was inspired by the Italian theater tradition of the commedia dell'arte, which peaked in popularity in the eighteenth century but underwent a revival during Picasso's youth. The trickster Harlequin always wears a checkered costume, while the sad clown Pierrot has a white face, ruffs, and collar—but Picasso merged the characters for his own twist on the tradition. El Greco soon joined Picasso's diverse sources of inspiration as he developed the cool palette and distant, melancholy aspects seen in his classic Blue Period paintings. #art #painting

Seated Harlequin, 1901
Pablo Picasso
Oil on canvas
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This work is a fragment from a large altarpiece made for the church of the hospital of Saint John the Baptist in Toledo. It depicts an apocalyptic moment at the biblical end of time, based on the book of Revelation (6:9-11), a subject perfectly suited to El Greco's visionary palette and otherworldly forms. #art #painting

The Vision of Saint John, ca. 1608-14
El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos)
Oil on canvas
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In February 1888, Vincent van Gogh left the cold, dreary Paris winter behind and moved to the town of Arles in the south of France. Inspired by the landscape and light of the region, van Gogh created more than two hundred paintings in fifteen months, including The Old Mill. The artist depicted the building and its surrounding landscape with exaggerated angles and an unnatural palette. The result reflects his belief that objects did not need to be reproduced on canvas as they appeared in real life and that color should express feeling. The mill of the work's title, for example, stands out prominently against lapis blue mountains that rise to meet a seafoam sky. #art #painting

La Maison de La Crau (The Old Mill), 1888
Vincent Van Gogh
Oil on canvas
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Study for Le Chahut, 1889 Georges Seurat Oil on canvas #art #painting

Study for Le Chahut, 1889
Georges Seurat
Oil on canvas
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Isabelle Lemonnier, a fashionable young woman, was one of Manet's favorite models during his final years. She posed for six oil portraits and many pastel and watercolor studies. In this portrait, Isabelle wears a brown coat trimmed with fur, and her hands are tucked inside a fur muff. The details of her costume are thinly painted, and Manet's attention is concentrated on her lively face. The dynamic brushwork in the lower body makes it appear as if she is moving to the left, casually throwing us a glance over her shoulder as she departs. #art #painting

Portrait of Isabelle Lemonnier with a Muff, about 1879-1880
Edouard Manet
Oil on canvas
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The Little Restaurant, about 1900-1901 Edouard Vuillard Oil on paper board panel #art #painting

The Little Restaurant, about 1900-1901
Edouard Vuillard
Oil on paper board panel
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In Starry Crown, a majestic trio of Black women celebrates female power across multiple African cultures. The crowns of the three women are based on three historic African kingdoms-Egypt, Benin, and the Dogon of Mali. The quilt they are working on together features patterns drawn from Kuba textile design as well as from a quilt crafted by the artist's mother, Cora Biggers. The golden string symbolizes the spoken word, which passes on traditions and knowledge through generations. "Starry Crown," the name of a traditional spiritual, also refers to the women's headdresses, crowns of their cultural glory. #art #painting

Starry Crown, 1987
John Thomas Biggers
Acrylic and mixed media on Masonite
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The New Testament parable of the Prodigal Son describes a headstrong young man who goes out into the world to seek his fortune and falls into vice. When he returns home broken and battered, he is welcomed by his father. The narrative teaches the limitless possibilities of forgiveness. Benton reimagined the story's conclusion, possibly based on his own experience returning to his native Missouri during the Dust Bowl and Great Depression. This work, completed in the final years of his teaching career, presents a contemporary Prodigal Son whose house and property suffered greatly in his absence. #art #painting

Prodigal Son, about 1939-1941
Thomas Hart Benton
Oil and tempera on panel
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Monet spent the summer of 1867 with his family at Sainte-Adresse, a seaside resort near Le Havre. It was there that he painted this buoyant, sunlit scene of contemporary leisure, enlisting his father (shown seated in a panama hat) and other relatives as models. By adopting an elevated viewpoint and painting the terrace, sea, and sky as three distinct bands of high-keyed color, Monet emphasized the flat surface of the canvas. His approach-daring for its time-reflects his admiration for Japanese prints. Twelve years after it was made, Monet exhibited the picture at the fourth Impressionist exhibition of 1879 as Jardin à Sainte-Adresse. #art #painting

Garden at Sainte-Adresse, 1867
Claude Monet
Oil on canvas
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This was Delacroix's first treatment of a subject drawn from Sir Walter Scott's popular novels of medieval chivalry. The eponymous hero of Ivanhoe (1819), straining to leave his sickbed, listens to the terrified Rebecca as she describes a battle raging outside the window. Rather than show the battle itself, Delacroix sought to stimulate the viewer's imagination by evoking violence through the gestures of the characters reacting to it. The fastidious execution of Rebecca's extended hand stands in contrast to the jumble of strokes immediately surrounding it and to its left, which suggest the frenzy she witnesses. #art #painting

Rebecca and the Wounded Ivanhoe, 1823
Eugène Delacroix
Oil on canvas
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This bright, joyful scene of children playing on a carousel is one of only four paintings that Prendergast dedicated to this theme. He developed his stylistic blending of naturalism and decorative abstraction while visiting Europe in the 1890s. He took inspiration from the flat, ornamental aesthetic of the Nabis in France and the colorful designs of stained-glass windows in Italy. Despite these international influences, Prendergast's subjects were drawn from New York and Boston, where he lived most of his life. This scene may represent a carousel that was located along Paul Revere Beach Boulevard (originally Railroad Avenue) just north of Boston. #art #painting

Merry-Go-Round, 1902-1906
Maurice Prendergast
Oil on canvas
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For Joseph Stella and many of his contemporaries, the Brooklyn Bridge became an icon of modern industry the moment it was completed in 1883. Stella first depicted it in 1918 and returned to it throughout his career. He saw the bridge in religious terms, as a "shrine containing all the efforts of the new civilization of America." Fittingly, he painted the bridge's soaring cables and pointed Gothic arches in a palette of blues, reds, and blacks that allude to light filtering through a stained glass window. #art #painting

The Brooklyn Bridge: Variation on an Old Theme, 1939
Joseph Stella
Oil on canvas
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Lighthearted urchins like this were profitable stock-in-trade for Frank Duveneck, who went to Munich at age twenty-two to study at the Royal Academy. The broad brushwork and unblended dark colors of this portrait reveal Duveneck's admiration for old-master painting techniques, which he adapted to depictions of urban street life. #art #painting

Whistling Boy, c. 1870s
Frank Duveneck
Oil on Masonite
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Egon Schiele developed his own unique style in both drawing and painting, marked by nervous linework and vigorous execution that conveys a palpable sense of angst. In 1915, he married his neighbor Edith Harms and entered a period of domestic intimacy. Around the same time, he began to garner greater artistic success and turned toward increasingly naturalistic portraiture, as seen in this likeness of his father-in-law, Johann Harms. Rather than produce an idealized representation, Schiele evidenced Harms's age and weariness. The artist often exaggerated body parts, and here elongated his sitter's frame, accentuating Harms's thin wrists and his large, expressive hands. Schiele employed a subdued palette and situated the figure against a neutral backdrop, allowing the dark ground to set off and harmonize with the soft tonalities of Harms's clothing and the raw hues of his weathered skin. This image's quiet dignity and somber monumentality express Schiele's deference toward Harms. #art #painting

Portrait of an Old Man (Johann Harms), 1916
Egon Schiele
Oil with wax on canvas
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In Self Defense, a boy prepares a snow-ball, likely in response to one just launched at him. Yet the painting is not just of child's play. In the background are advertisements for a notorious lottery scheme, a lowbrow musical rabble rouser, and an announcement for a performance of Uncle Tom's Cabin, the first staging of the play based on Harriet Beecher Stowe's controversial book. As the boy defends himself against a faceless aggressor, Yewell hints that his viewers must brace themselves in an age of predatory schemers and rising political tension. #art #painting

Self Defense, 1854
George Henry Yewell
Oil on canvas
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Kazimir Malevich b. 1878, near Kiev, Ukraine, Russian Empire (now Kyiv, Ukraine) d. 1935, Leningrad, USSR (now St. Petersburg) Morning in the Village after Snowstorm (Utro posle viugi v derevne) 1912 Oil on canvas Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York #art #painting

Morning in the Village after Snowstorm, 1912
Kazimir Malevich
Oil on canvas
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Among the first American painters to dedicate himself to landscape, Asher Brown Durand was best known for his detailed renderings of America's natural bounty. His early work as a watchmaker and engraver accounts for his fine, linear style. This quiet picnic scene boasts a romantic and lyrical spirit: the precisely rendered foliage and expansive vantage point express the beneficence of nature, a common theme among nineteenth-century landscape painters. #art #painting

View Near Rutland, Vermont, 1837
Asher Brown Durand
Oil on canvas
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After the 1865 assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, many artists received commissions to perpetuate his memory. Rogers drew from various sources for this three-dimensional likeness but added his own neoclassical touches. Although he portrayed Lincoln in contemporary dress, the swag-like fall of his cape suggests antique sculptures of Roman orators and philosophers. #art #sculpture

Abraham Lincoln, ca. 1866
Randolph Rogers
Marble
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This small scene explores the intense effect of sunlight on five youthful sitters. Johnson experimented with rendering outdoor light during his summers on Nantucket Island, just off the Massachusetts coast. As a student in Germany, the Netherlands, and Paris, he had earned the nickname "the American Rembrandt"—a complimentary comparison to the 17th-century Dutch painter. After his return from Europe in 1855, Johnson gained popularity for sentimental images of everyday life such as this one. #art #painting

Five Boys on a Wall, about 1875-1880
Eastman Johnson
Oil on composition board
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Milhazes has long explored natural forms in her work, drawing inspiration from the Botanical Gardens and the Tijuca Forest in Rio de Janeiro. Her observations of nature transcend physical form, capturing the spiritual essence and beauty of each depicted element. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Milhazes deepened her investigation of circles as symbols of spirituality—a concept she began exploring in 2017. At the same time, she introduced preparatory drawings into her process, utilizing them to plan her compositions before moving to the canvas. Created in quarantine, this work meditates on the fragility of life and humanity's connection to nature. The title alludes to a "sacred mixture" of life, spirituality, and the natural world. Celestial and earthly motifs—sun, stars, leaves, and waves— combine to form a vibrant abstract landscape. Geometric patterns provide structure by balancing repeated elements with contrasting forms. #art #painting

Mistura sagrada (Sacred Mixture), 2022
Beatriz Milhazes
Acrylic on canvas
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This portrait of Dorothy Roosevelt was executed in 1901-1902, when John White Alexander returned to the United States from his most recent ten-year European stay. The sitter was the first cousin of President Theodore Roosevelt and was soon to marry Langdon Geer. The portrait effortlessly demonstrates all the qualities that put Alexander in demand. The simplicity of the composition—the solitary seated figure accompanied by her dog Shamrock—allows for a focus on Miss Roosevelt, whose grace is emphasized by the sweeping brushwork that defines her tall, elegant figure. Yet the oblique gaze and profile view remove this painting from the straightforward depiction of a particular sitter and position it as a study in reverie. John White Alexander was a truly cosmopolitan painter whose mature career is a synthesis of the major stylistic trends affecting late 19th-century American art. He studied in both Paris and Munich and subsequently became friends with the expatriate American artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler, whose influence may be seen in the mysterious, slightly melancholy nature of this portrait. Alexander was also widely acclaimed as a muralist and illustrator. #art #painting

Miss Dorothy Quincy Roosevelt, 1901-1902
John White Alexander
Oil on canvas
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Lise in a White Shawl, about 1872 Pierre-Auguste Renoir Oil on canvas #art #painting

Lise in a White Shawl, about 1872
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Oil on canvas
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Dauzats traveled to Egypt with a French diplomatic mission in 1830 and painted this striking view of the Great Pyramid soon after he returned to Paris. In his written account of the journey (Quinze jours au Sinai, 1839, co-authored with Alexandre Dumas), the artist marveled at the "lizard-like" physical dexterity required to scramble over the ancient monument's massive stone blocks to reach the summit. #art #painting

The Great Pyramid, Giza, 1830 or later
Adrien Dauzats
Oil on canvas
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Bernard Harmon's portrait of a young man playing the clarinet is indicative of his loose, expressionistic approach to portraiture. Both an artist and a celebrated educator, Harmon's portraits often feature the very students he loved to inspire, reflecting the strength, uniqueness, and individuality of each subject. Harmon is celebrated for his commitment to promoting the work of emerging African American artists during his lifetime. #art #painting

Musician Boy, 1968
Bernard Harmon
Oil on Masonite board
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