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The figure ascending the stairs is Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa (63?‒12 BC): general, statesman, architect and close friend to Augustus Caesar, who reigned as the first Roman Emperor from 27 BC. Agrippa moves through his impressive villa, away from the figures making their requests, and the objects t...

In a simple bare room, featuring only three objects, a sofa, a full-length mirror and a picture on the wall, a young woman stands in quiet contemplation of her appearance. She wears a striped dress with an overdress of a pale grey, tied in a bow at the waist with a black fringed scarf. Her hair i...

This painting is a spectacular example of the later style of Abraham Bloemaert, one of the most influential Dutch artists of the seventeenth century. It depicts a moment from the Old Testament story of Lot and his daughters which recounts how Lot and his family fled the destruction of the immoral...

Staring straight at us while nonchalantly holding a cigarette is the Hungarian-born art dealer Joseph Brummer (1883‒1947), who had opened his gallery in Paris that same year. Brummer dealt in African works of art and was one of Rousseau’s most devout patrons. Seated in a wicker chair covered in r...

In the late 1630s, Poussin painted one of the summits of his art: the first series of Seven Sacraments. Commissioned by his friend and patron Cassiano dal Pozzo (1588–1657), Poussin depicted the seven rites of the Catholic Church: Baptism, Penance, Eucharist, Confirmation, Marriage, Ordination an...

Saint Bartholomew sits alone in the wilderness. Enveloped in the folds of his mantle, he turns towards us, unable to look at the knife clasped in his left hand. One of the twelve apostles, Bartholomew was said to have preached the gospel in India and Armenia. When he refused to make a sacrifice t...

Charlotte Cuhrt was 15 years old when Max Pechstein painted this striking full-length portrait. The daughter of Max Cuhrt, a successful solicitor and patron of the avant-garde, she sits confidently in an armchair, her big black eyes looking directly at the viewer. She’s dressed in red, with a lar...

For its lavish interiors, the objets d’art in the background, and the swaggering self-confidence of the sitter, this portrait has become an icon of the late 19th century’s Aesthetic movement. Painted by Jacques Joseph (James) Tissot, a French émigré who settled in London in 1871, it depicts the a...

A native of Berne, Switzerland, Ferdinand Hodler spent much of 1902 in the Oberland painting mountainous landscapes. This work shows the Kien Valley looking towards the Bluemlisalp, a massif at the far end of the valley. During his artistic retreats in the Alps – not so different, in spirit, from...

Dressed in a sumptuous black velvet doublet and satin robe trimmed with ermine, the man in this portrait looks out to his right with a steady, impassive gaze. Seated in front of an architectural column against a backdrop of shimmering green drapery, the full-length format of this portrait conveys...

Christ Carrying the Cross is a painting dating from the beginning of Lo Spagna’s professional maturity as an artist. Bent under the weight of the large wooden cross, Christ looks towards the viewer as he makes his way along the road to Calvary. Behind him, a raised area of ground falls away to r...

A young girl stands by a column and a balustrade, her hair tied back in a chignon, with tendrils hanging down on either side of her face. The girl’s dress dates the picture to the late 1640s. Isaack Luttichuys often painted his sitters against architectural backdrops and at first glance the paint...

This portrait of Charles William Lambton - aged six or seven - was commissioned by the boy’s father John George Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, a Whig politician and MP for County Durham. Popularly known as The Red Boy, it remained in the Lambton family until it was acquired by the National Gallery...

Lovis Corinth (1858–1925), was a key figure of German modernist art. Active since 1892 in the Munich Secession, in 1899 Corinth participated in the first exhibition of the Berlin Secession. That same year he painted Dr Mainzer’s portrait, also in Berlin, and shortly afterwards he relocated perman...

In 1884 Pissarro settled with his family in the village of Eragny. He painted a number of views of this meadow which is planted with small trees still surrounded by their protective cages. It is late afternoon and the long shadows thrown by the trees radiate out in a fan shape towards the left co...

Van Gogh moved to Arles in February 1888, after having lived with his brother Theo in Paris for almost two years. It was Van Gogh’s dream to establish a new artist’s colony in southern France and he believed the warm colours of the south would inspire the future of modern art. To his surprise, ho...

In the early 1890s, Cezanne repeatedly painted the same set of objects in the isolation of his studio – fruit, dishes, cloths, and a water jug – to render them from different perspectives and interrogate their formal properties. In this picture, Cezanne introduces subtle effects of distortion to...

Anna Brownell Jameson (1794–1860) was a pioneering writer and art historian who made significant contributions to art criticism and literature. She is considered England’s first female art historian. Born in Dublin and educated in London, she began her career as a governess before rising to promi...

Floris van Dijck was one of the most important pioneers of so-called ‘display piece’ still lifes. His works are very rare but were highly influential. Almost all his compositions centre on a stack of cheeses on a plate seen from a high viewpoint so that the various elements of the composition are...

This is the only surviving example of a work in which we can be sure that Hals collaborated with another painter. It is signed by his Haarlem colleague Claes van Heussen, who rendered the market stall laden with fruit and vegetables. Hals painted the young woman holding a pair of scales. Caught i...

Geltenbach Falls (the Geltenschuss) lies in the Lauenen Valley in the Canton of Bern. Wolf painted this view as a preparatory study for a picture (Oskar Reinhart Collection ‘Am Römerholz’, Winterthur), painted for Abraham Wagner’s engraving project, Remarkable Views of the Swiss Mountains, on whi...

Jan Toorop was a Dutch-Indonesian artist, born to a Dutch father and Chinese-Indonesian mother. After travelling to the Netherlands as a young boy, he enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts in Brussels in 1883, where he met many influential artists such as James Ensor and Théo van Rysselberghe.Toor...

The dead Christ, draped in white linen, is lowered into his tomb as mourners look on. Mary Magdalene and the Virgin, distraught, cradle his right arm and legs. The sculptural quality of Christ’s elongated, suspended body, based on Michelangelo’s Bandini Pietà (Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Florence...

In the 1890s and early 1900s, Cezanne painted numerous views of the Bibémus Quarry. Situated not far from Aix-en-Provence, the site was renowned since Antiquity for its yellow-ochre limestone. But while the artist was mesmerised by the quarry’s chromatic qualities, he also had personal and intell...

This canvas is the sixth of a series of nine painted by Andrea Mantegna depicting The Triumphs of Caesar.The procession continues with men bearing the spoils of victory, some almost buckling under their heavy weight. A bare-footed bald man crouches down to rest his pole on the ground, his cheeks...

This canvas is the third of a series of nine painted by Andrea Mantegna depicting The Triumphs of Caesar.A young man in colourful attire and carrying a halberd walks before a cart heavily laden with booty – composed of a towering assembly of captured weapons and armour. His gaze looks out toward...

This canvas is the first of a series of nine painted by Andrea Mantegna depicting The Triumphs of Caesar.Trumpeters herald the arrival of the triumphal procession celebrating the victories of Julius Caesar during the Gallic Wars (55–50 BC). They are followed by men bearing flags and streamers. Ot...

This painting belongs to a series depicting the Seven Works of Mercy that Sweerts painted during his stay in Rome. The central figure is a bald pilgrim poised to drink from a bowl. Sweerts shows the fundamental Christian charitable act of quenching the thirst of others, set amidst the vibrant bac...

At the steps of a church, hungry people are being fed. At the centre stands a beggar making direct eye contact with the viewer. Painted in Rome, the work belongs to a series depicting the Seven Works of Mercy, the guiding principle for compassionate deeds inspired by the teachings of Christ, as o...

This canvas is the second of a series of nine painted by Andrea Mantegna depicting The Triumphs of Caesar.In this scene, colossal full-length statues of Roman gods are transported on a richly ornamented cart, while a smaller one is lifted by a member of the entourage. An inscribed tablet praising...