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In this study four trees, probably oaks, progress diagonally into the landscape, establishing a rhythm across the picture surface. A pool of sunlight illuminates the ground, with patches of light catching the branches. Leafless branches poke through the foliage, dramatic in their angularity. From...

The Greek hero Achilles is disguised as a woman, in a pink gown with a white ribbon in his hair. He holds a sword above his head and a shield at his side. On the left, Ulysses points in accusation having just exposed his true identity. Achilles’ wife, Princess Deidamia, falls to her knees to prot...

In this arresting head-and-shoulders portrait of his friend Louis Montchal (1853–1927), a librarian from Geneva, Ferdinand Hodler focuses entirely on the sitter’s features. Nothing indicates Montchal’s social status, profession or everyday surroundings. Set against a neutral black background, wit...

This small, arresting work was painted at the height of Carus’s friendship with Friedrich. The view looks out through a barred window onto a blue sky streaked with whisps of white cloud. On the grey stone windowsill a few stalks of straw are scattered. To the right the first few links of a heavy...

It was in Haarlem that many of the genres for which Dutch painting is best known were first developed. Floris van Dijck was among the city’s most important pioneers in the field of still-life painting. Celebrated for their precise realism, his paintings invariably depict banquet tables laden with...

The identity of the artist behind this impressive panel is a mystery. In fact, whether the painter was Netherlandish or French is up for debate. The panel’s overall eccentricity and the dramatically foreshortened faces of the saints and angels are reminiscent of the early work of Jan Gossaert. En...

Degas enjoyed capturing moments behind the scenes. Here, four ballet dancers are relaxing in the wings. Dressed in vibrant tutus, they are placed along a diagonal line within an asymmetrical composition cropped at the lower right, reflecting the influence of Japanese prints. The first young woman...

King David was a biblical warrior king and musician, who is credited with writing several Psalms in the Old Testament. Here, David is not young but not yet old. He looks at a tablet inscribed with a line from a Psalm: ‘Glorious things of thee are spoken, O City of God’ (GLORIOSA / DICTA SVNT / DE...

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 (1895−1989) 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...

The Raging One (‘Le Rageur’) was a famous oak tree in the Forest of Fontainebleau, situated on the route Marie-Thérèse at the entrance to the Gorges d’Apremont. It was so celebrated that when it finally collapsed during high winds in April 1904 it was given an obituary in a French newspaper. Its...

This view probably shows a quarry in the Forest of Fontainebleau. The artist, thought to be French, has made a study of a scene of trees standing behind a wall of rocks. Both trees and rocks were subjects sketched by landscape artists on the spot. The landscape painter Pierre-Henri de Valencienne...

This full-length portrait of Victoria Stanley (1892–1927) was commissioned by her parents, Edward George Villers Stanley, the 17th Earl of Derby and his wife, Lady Alice Maud Olivia Montagu. It was painted at the height of John Singer Sargent’s fame as a society portraitist and was widely praised...

Henry Loftus, 1st Earl of Ely (1709–1783) was an Anglo-Irish politician who spent a fortune remodelling Rathfarnham Castle near Dublin. He married his second wife, Anne Bonfoy (1752–1821), in 1775 and commissioned the leading artist of the day, Sir Joshua Reynolds, to paint this portrait of the n...

This work is a prime example of Pieter Claesz’s signature monochromatic breakfast pieces from the 1620s. Its subject matter, diagonal composition, and consummate tonal style are all characteristic of an early phase in the artist’s career, demonstrating his revolutionary focus on light and texture...

In the mid-1920s, Picabia began a series of paintings known as ‘Transparencies’. In these esoteric, dreamlike compositions, the artist layers images from an eclectic array of sources. Picabia painted Salome in the middle of this period. The story of Salome itself is biblical: the stepdaughter of...

This portrait is a sensitive representation of the studio assistant who would ‘carry the artist’s materials when he went into the country to sketch’. His name is not recorded, but this painting has been named after the child’s home village in Somerset. The loose handling of the paint and unfinish...

This portrait of Gainsborough’s older daughter Mary was produced in 1777 around the same time as a portrait made of his youngest, Margaret Gainsborough, holding a Theorbo (NG6687), which entered the National Gallery Collection in 2019. Unusually, the artist has inscribed the work with the name of...

Edward Gardiner was Gainsborough’s nephew, and recorded to have spent time in his studio. He is depicted in this portrait at the age of around eight or nine. It is thought that the painting was created as a pendant to a portrait of the sitter’s sister Susan, at the same age.The portrait of Edward...

While working on his meticulous paintings in the studio, Seurat also made small studies outdoors on wooden panels, which he called croquetons. He used these panels to record first-hand the atmospheric effects of nature, its play of light and colour, before transforming them into large-scale canva...

Ribera depicts Saint Jerome, one of the four fathers of the Western Church, as a man of learning. The watery-eyed, bare-chested saint looks up from his work, his face catching the light. The scroll he holds refers to his monumental achievement: the translation of the Old and New Testaments into L...

The Virgin Mary, crowned with stars and standing on the moon, is surrounded by her attributes, which include a temple, fountain, and walled garden. Bowing her head, she presses her fingers together in prayer, eyes half-closed. All around, cherubs swirl in the clouds as a wash of light emanates fr...

A winged angel, resplendent in billowing yellow fabric, reaches out to stay Abraham’s hand, preventing him from killing his son, Isaac. To test Abraham’s faith, God commanded the ageing patriarch to sacrifice Isaac, relenting at the last possible moment. The glinting blade, already raised, menace...

Hogarth’s self portrait is a statement about his professional ambitions. His oval canvas is propped up on books by famous British authors. The curved line on his palette represents the ‘Line of Beauty and Grace’, which he believed underpinned all harmony in art and nature. His casual clothes crea...

This small painting, made around 1510, shows the Holy Family resting during their journey to Egypt to escape King Herod’s order to kill newborns. Mary sits at the centre, tightly embracing the Christ Child with a mix of motherly tenderness and quite concern. Nearby, Joseph rests leaning on the ro...