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The Threatened Swan

A buck jerks to the right as it leaps toward us, over a boulder and away from a rolling river in this horizontal watercolor painting. The buck is just right of center, and his body scissors, presumably as a gunshot lands. His curling horns nearly meet in an oval overhead, and one front leg is pulled up. The river is painted with tones of spruce green and sapphire, topaz, and celestial blue. The black silhouettes of two animals, either more deer or dogs, are in the distance to the right, and a white puff is along the far bank to the left. The forested background is painted broadly with tones of earthy green, tan, and smoky blue. The artist signed and dated the watercolor in the lower left corner, “Oct 12 1892 Homer.”

A band of indigenous Americans ride horses toward and through a herd of buffalo, which spreads along a river that winds through plains to mountains in the deep distance in this horizontal landscape painting. The scene is lit with golden light that warms the browns and harvest yellow of the landscape. Several dead or injured buffalo lie across the ground close to us, along with the body of one hunter, barely visible between the bodies of two animals. Just beyond the corpses, one hunter rides a rearing white horse as he lifts a spear lined with feathers high over a charging buffalo to our right of center. Facing away from us, the rider has light brown skin and a feather headdress over long dark hair. He wears a pumpkin-orange loincloth and red and orange bands encircle the ankle, thigh, wrist, and upper arm facing us. Sage-green grass grows in tufts on the dirt ground, which is littered with several animal skulls around the charging buffalo and rider. A smaller buffalo looks on from our left, and a prairie dog pokes its head out of hole in the ground in the lower left corner. A little distance away to our right, along the edge of the canvas, seven hunters gallop into the scene, leaning forward over their horses’ necks. The dozen or so buffalo nearby, as well as a fox and two deer, move away from the hunters, headed to our left. Hundreds of buffalo dot the landscape along the banks of the winding river and some wade in the water. A few trees rise on the plain but the land is mostly flat until it reaches the mountains and cliffs along the horizon, which comes halfway up this composition. Forms along the horizon could be a line of clouds or snow-covered moutains in the deep distance. A few wispy white clouds float across the watery blue sky above. The artist signed the work in the lower right corner: “Albert Bierstadt.”

This painting depicts a coastal scene with a perspective from the water. There are dark, billowing gray clouds above the horizon, and the sky is pale orange. Below, large sailboats are on the dark water, as well as some smaller rowboats and a few pieces of driftwood. The water reflects the ships and the colors of the sky. On the left is a low stone building on a bit of green land, and there is a green hill in the distance on the right, covered with houses and small buildings.

Inside the Bar

The painting depicts a wintry scene from an elevated point of view, showing people skating and playing games on a frozen river. On the left, leafless trees line the frozen bank. On the right, there are brown buildings with snow on their roofs and smoke rising from their chimneys. A woman stands on one of the porches, holding a small child. On the snowy ground outside the buildings, a sled is being pulled by two horses. In the center of the painting is the wide frozen river. The people on it wear colorful clothes in shades of red, yellow, green, blue, and brown. Some of them slip and fall on the ice, and others lace skates on their feet. Four men in the center hold long curved sticks and look towards a small round ball on the surface of the ice. In the distance, the horizon is marked by blue-tinged mountains under a cloudy gray sky.

Channel Bass

This painting shows a person in a small boat on a body of water. The person is all the way on one end of the boat, leaning towards the right and reaching out over the side of the boat, holding a rope that appears to be tied to the white antlers of a large brown deer that is almost completely submerged in the water. A black-and-white dog swims in the water behind the deer. The person has pale skin and short brown hair, and they are wearing a black hat and a gray coat. The boat is gray-brown, and the water below is painted with lines of blue, white, green, and teal. The background is a mix of dark gray and olive green.

Washington Crossing the Delaware

Leaping Trout

Hilma af Klint - Group IX/SUW, The Swan, No. 1, 1915

This painting shows a maritime scene from the water, with a coastline in the distance marked by small, colorful buildings and distant green hills. Closer to us, a large ship with white sails floats on the green waves, flying the American flag and a flag that appears to have the word "Arkansas." Miniscule figures are visible on the deck of the ship, and thin ropes crisscross the three tall masts. On the left are two smaller ships. The one in the back flies a flag that says "Russia," while the closer ship near the bottom left corner has a design on the back that appears to say "Cuba." The sky above is bright blue, uninterrupted by clouds.

Fishing Boats with Hucksters Bargaining for Fish

Charcoal-gray clouds fill most of the sky over a turquoise-blue body of water in this horizontal watercolor painting. The gray clouds on the left become more blue as they move to the right. The water is framed by low hills sloping down from both sides, which are painted in cinnamon and dark brown with touches of forest green and topped with a few slender, windblown trees. Several black rocks form a curve along the lower right side of a cove directly in front of us. Loose strokes of brown, tan, and pale blue fill the lower right corner below them. On the horizon, at the center of the composition, is a dark gray finger of land with a tiny steamship drifting by, smoke rising from its two smokestacks. The artist signed and dated the lower left, “Homer 1901.”

This painting shows a person in a rowboat on calm water, fishing. The boat is positioned horizontally across the painting, and the person in it faces the left, looking forward. Their left hand holds the side of the boat while the right holds a long fishing pole that is placed over their shoulder. They wear long-sleeved brown garment and a tan hat with cloth panels that cover their neck and chin. Their skin is a light red color, and they appear to have a gray mustache. In the background there are dense dark green trees, and in the upper left corner a sliver of glowing sky in shades of orange and yellow is visible. Around the boat is dark blue water, with a hint of the yellow sky reflected in the bottom left corner.

Two Rabbits, from The Picture Book of Realistic Paintings of Hokusai (Hokusai shashin gafu)

Howling Wolf in a Deep Mountain Valley

We look across a palm-tree lined river winding into the distance before a monumental, snow-covered mountain at the center of the composition in this horizontal landscape. The spit of land along the riverbank in the lower left corner is filled with lush vegetation, including waving ferns, vines, leafy trees, and palm trees. At the bottom center of the composition, along the shoreline, a boat with a pointed prow is occupied by three people wearing white pants. Two of the men are bare-chested and the third wears a red shirt. The boat is covered with a rounded, hut-like structure and tendrils of white paint, perhaps indicating smoke from a fire, waft up in front of the opening to the structure. The placid river widens beyond the boat and across from us, the distant shore is lined with white buildings with brown thatched roofs and a white church with two spires and a red tile roof. Trees around and beyond the buildings fill in the space before brown hills that eventually lead to the snowy peaks of the central mountain. The earthy moss and sage green and tawny brown of the vegetation and river closer to us fades to pale caramel and pinkish-tan in the hazy distance. A few birds fly across the pale blue sky to our left, and wisps of light gray clouds float in from our right. The artist signed and dated the work in the lower left corner: “Church 1854.”

This painting shows two women walking towards the left on a gray-brown shore, dressed in white blouses and blue skirts, one wearing red stockings. They both have pale skin, and their faces are turned away from us. Their skirts are blowing in the wind, and strands of dark hair have come out of their low buns. The sea behind them is turbulent with crashing white and blue waves, under a dark gray overcast sky. The shore is dotted with small areas of green, white, and rusty red. The scene is painted in soft and fluid strokes.

Fox, from The Picture Book of Realistic Paintings of Hokusai (Hokusai shashin gafu)

Child Asleep (The Rosebud)

A white boat with sails lowered floats in an aquamarine-blue ocean under a pale, sapphire-blue sky in this horizontal watercolor painting. To our right of center, the boat floats with its right, starboard side facing us and the bow angled slightly away. The white sails bunch up under the lowered, horizontal booms just above the top of the boat. The masts and rigging extend off the top of the composition. A group of a few people are gathered in the bow, on the far side of the sails. They are painted loosely but appear to have brown skin and red or black clothing. Waves lap against the side of the boat. To our left, an island or sliver of land with three palm trees deep in the distance lines the horizon, which comes about a third of the way up the composition. The water and sky are painted with layers of pale washes. The artist signed and dated the work in the lower left corner with dark paint: “HOMER KEY WEST 1903.”

This painting dates from the later part of Martin Johnson Heade’s long, varied, and peripatetic career. After traveling through the United States, to England and continental Europe, and three different times to Brazil, Heade settled in Saint Augustine, Florida, at the age of 64. There he began painting detailed arrangements of native flowers, including the Cherokee rose, orange blossom, and, as in this work, magnolia.

Le radeau de la Méduse

Natural Bridge, Bermuda

Cat at Play

This painting shows a bowl of red raspberries resting on a surface. The bowl is pale blue with blue details on the rim, and it is surrounded by a pile of pale peaches and pears, red plums, and green and purple grapes. In the bottom left corner, there are some pale purple-and-white carrots and a small group of red berries. On the right is a tree with yellow pears and a small vase with red and white roses. On the left is a thin brown branch with a bird perched on it. The bird has a green back and a yellow chest, and it is leaning down towards the raspberries, its wings flared and its beak partially open. The surface these items rest on is dark gray and the background is a gradient of pale yellow on the left and light blue on the right.

The image shows a young child standing next to a rocking horse. The child is standing upright with one hand resting on the rocking horse's head and the other hand holding a whip. The child has fair skin, blue eyes, and short blonde hair with a small curl at the top. The child wears an orange dress with floral patterns, white lace-trimmed pantaloons, white stockings, and black shoes. The background includes red drapery on the left side and a bright landscape visible through a window, as well as a deep green hue on the right side.

Sloop, Nassau

The Sunlight

During Raphaelle Peale’s time, still lifes were relegated to the bottom of the hierarchy of painting subjects. Peale, however, ignored their low status and is now acknowledged as America’s first professional still-life painter and leading practitioner. In this particularly fine example, the rhythmic balance of fruit, nuts, and Chinese-export porcelain is enlivened by the diagonal branch of grapes becoming raisins and an orange leaf.

Monkey Hanging on to a Branch

Nassau

A flatboat with eight light-skinned men floats toward us down a wide river in this horizontal painting. The boat nearly spans the width of the composition and has low sides and a shallowly arched, low cabin upon which the men gather. At the center, a man with dark hair and wearing light blue trousers and a pink shirt dances with one foot and both arms raised. To our right a seated musician plays a fiddle, and to our left a smiling man holds up a metal pot and strikes the flat bottom with the back of his fingers. The remaining men sit or recline around the musicians and dancing man, some looking toward the dancer and two looking out at us. Bedrolls and animal skins are stored in the cabin below. The olive-green surface of the river is streaked with pale blue. The horizon line comes about a third of the way up the composition. The trees and riverbanks in the distance are hazy beneath a watery blue sky.

Bernat Martorell was one of the greatest painters in Catalonia, Spain, during the first half of the 15th century. Here, he rendered a frequently depicted episode from the popular legend of Saint George, in which the model Christian knight saves a town and rescues a beautiful princess. George’s halo and armor and the scaly dragon are richly modeled with raised stucco decoration.

We look across and down at a channel of water separating two landmasses labeled "Boston" and "Charles Town" in this horizontal landscape painting. Four three-masted ships are in the aquamarine-blue harbor between us and the land. Three of them have their sails unfurled and smoke billows from the broad, starboard side of each. Tidy rows of brown houses line the area of Boston. A puff of white smoke rises from the farthest point. Two arrow-shaped missiles, perhaps projectiles on fire, arc toward Charles Town, where billowing gray plumes of smoke rise from vivid orange fire on the far side of the landmass. Rowboats bring soldiers to the shore of Charles Town, close to where hundreds of soldiers line up and fire at each other. Much of the rest of Charles Town is a hill leading to sheer cliffs to our right. Tan and gray-colored smoke mixes among bright white clouds against a pale blue sky on the top half of the painting.

The Windmill

Hunting near Hartenfels Castle

We look slightly down into a lime-green and white rowboat carrying a woman holding a baby and a man in this nearly square painting. The man wears midnight-blue shoes, pants, jacket, and soft, floppy cap. He sits with his back to us, bending forward to row the boat, which is cropped by the bottom edge of the canvas. The left side of his ruddy face is visible over his left shoulder. The woman and baby both have pale skin. The woman and baby sit across from the man, facing us to our left in the bow. The woman’s long-sleeved, sky-blue dress is crosshatched with pink lines. The baby leans back in the woman’s arms, and wears a pink dress, blue socks, and brown shoes. The wide-brimmed hats on both the woman and baby are painted pale celery green. They gaze toward or just past the man. The corner of the boat’s sail, also painted pale green, is pulled taunt by the wind to our left. Azure-blue water surrounds the boat up to the high horizon line, which brushes the top edge of the painting. The shoreline in the distance is lined with trees and dotted with white houses with red roofs.

Indian Camp, Roberval, P.Q.

This painting features two large yellow pears in the center, surrounded by clusters of purple and green grapes cascading down from a gilded teal dish on the right. Next to the pears are two pink peaches, with walnuts and green figs in front of them. In the background on the left, there is a decorative blue vase with gold filigree, filled with various colorful flowers and green leaves, including a white rose, red flowers, and small pale blue flowers. The arrangement is on a table with a red covering, and the wall behind them is dark brown.

Cabin in the Cotton

Still Life with Herring, Bread, and Cheese

This painting shows a person fishing in a small blue-gray boat, situated to the left of center. The individual's back is to us, and they hold a fishing rod that extends from the center of the painting into the water on the far right. The person is wearing a tan shirt, tan pants with a brown belt, and a wide-brimmed tan hat. There are thick, dark green and blue trees in the background; the water reflects dark greens and blues, as well as shades of tan and white from the boat and person. The brushstrokes are loose, and different colors of paint blend softly with one another.

Stag at Sharkey's

The Pyrenees, the Peak of the Midi de Bigorre

We look slightly down onto a rocky, natural stone arch next to a cave opening, both perched on a high, grassy cliff in front of a shimmering, aquamarine-blue body of water in this horizontal landscape painting. The arch is situated to our left of center, and the cave beyond the gaping opening extends off the left side of the canvas. In tones of ash and caramel brown, the jagged arch and outcroppings are lit from our left so deep shadows are cast along crevasses to our right. Shadow also sweeps across the emerald-green grass at the base of the arch and cave. A few more serrated rocks poke out of the water like teeth far below, to our right, presumably at the base of the cliff on which we are situated. To our left, the rocky shoreline juts into the water in the distance in front of mauve-purple mountains in the deep distance along the horizon, which comes about halfway up this composition. Tiny in scale, minuscule, triangular white sails dot the waterway. Similarly tiny white birds fly high above the water. Pale, petal-pink and white clouds line the horizon beneath a sky that deepens from light turquoise over the clouds to the same aquamarine blue of the water below.

Boating

This painting shows a village nestled in hills and trees with a cloudy blue sky at the top. Closest to us are simple white buildings, some with white spires and others with red and brown roofs, surrounded by tall trees. In the distance there are hills, smaller trees, and sailboats on a body of water on the right. The artwork has visible brushstrokes, and the buildings are simple and flat. The color palette is earthy, with soft greens, warm tans, and light whites and yellows.

In the Waves (Dans les Vagues)

Cuckoo Flying under a Full Moon

Twigs of a magnolia tree with light green, glossy leaves and three cream-white blossoms lie on a sapphire-blue cloth in this horizontal still life painting. Brightly lit from our left, the blossoms and leaves nearly fill the composition, and the cut ends lie on the fabric to our right. The blue fabric cascades from the upper left and across the table or ledge. The three flowers are in various stages of bloom. The tightest bud is to our left, overlapped by a stem and the tender, unfurling leaves of a branch. The blossom next to it, at the center, is starting to open. The petals of the third blossom, to our right, splay open around the flower’s oval-shaped stamen. Light glints off the waxy leaves surrounding the flowers. The tawny-brown underside of one leaf is visible where it turns over, near the cut ends of the branches. Light shimmering on the fabric darkens from bright blue to our right, to deep royal blue in the shadows to the upper left, suggesting the fabric is velvet. The background is streaked with tan and pine green behind the fabric, and becomes nearly black in the shadows of the upper right corner and along the bottom edge. The artist signed the lower right corner, "MJ. Heade."

Evening, Melancholy I

This is a painting of a pastoral scene near the water with a ship and buildings in the background. The artwork is in the style of American folk art, presented in an oval frame. The image depicts a serene landscape by the water, with figures engaged in activities such as gathering flowers in the center. The foliage is in shades of green and brown, spreading above under a lightly clouded, blue sky. On the left side, a ship is anchored near the shore, with buildings visible in the distance. The water has soft waves, contrasting with the rocky ground in the foreground. The pastel colors create a calm and reflective mood, evoking tranquility and connection with nature.

We look across a wide, low clearing at a mountain rising beyond rocky hills, which are mostly covered in pines and blazing red and orange autumn trees, in this horizontal landscape painting. The green grass of the clearing is littered with dead trees and stumps. Beyond a narrow opening between the hills, almost at the center of the composition, a massive mountain towers against the powder-blue sky, nearly reaching the top edge of the painting. The mountain’s jagged face is mottled with warm tones of cinnamon, rust, and caramel brown. The scene is bathed in warm light coming from our right but pewter-gray storm clouds move in from the upper left to encircle the mountain peak. Closest to us, a line of broken tree trunks spans the width of the painting, mixed with scarlet-red, marigold-orange, and green vegetation and reeds. A silvery pond lies just beyond them to our left. Tiny in scale within the landscape, a horse and rider gallop along a wide dirt road emerging from the lower right toward a white house nestled at the foot of the hill to our left. The rider wears a knee-length, denim-blue tunic and red leggings. Upon closer inspection, two children and a white dog become visible, walking toward the rider. A straw-yellow structure sits against the hill to our right. A horse-drawn carriage moves away from the house in the far distance, where the road curves toward the notch. The artist signed and dated the painting as if he wrote directly onto a broken trunk in the lower left corner of the painting: “T. Cole 1839.”

Insects and Flowers, Ming dynasty, 14th-15th century, color on silk, Tokyo National Museum

The Mower

Hebe

Presentation Drawing of "The Statue of Liberty Illuminating the World"

Taking on Wet Provisions (Schooner Marked Newport, K. W.)

The Trojan Women Setting Fire to Their Fleet

Invocation to Love

Portrait of Catherine Grey, Lady Manners

Still Life

Maharana Bhim Singh in Procession

We look across a coral-pink beach that curves around a royal-blue bay, under a glimmering, pale blue sky in this horizontal watercolor landscape. The area of the beach closest to us is cast under a pale, plum-purple shadow. The beach curves away from us and to the right, like a backward C. At the curve, a short distance from us, a bank of emerald-green vegetation and a scrubby, dark green tree leads back to a low, grassy hill. A pair of two-story buildings with oyster-white walls and bright white roofs perch on the spit of land opposite us, across the water. Pale pink boats are pulled up onto the beach in front of and to our left of the buildings. The buildings and the green hill reflect in the water, which laps against the sand closest to us with bands of azure blue. More loosely painted buildings line the horizon, which comes about a third of the way up the composition. Two brick-red smudges to our left could be people standing at the water’s edge in the distance. The sky above has puffy white clouds against a brilliant blue sky. The artist signed the painting in the lower left, “HOMER.” In the lower right, the location and date are written in dark gray, “Salt Kettle Dec 1899.”

Still life of flowers

Portrait of Victor Ritter von Bauer

The Siesta

An October Day

A man stands and a woman sits near a herd of seven cows under a light-drenched sky in this horizontal landscape painting. The herd gathers on a grassy rise just beyond some large boulders and twiggy branches. The cows are caramel or copper brown and ivory white. They stand and lie, legs tucked demurely beneath their hulking bodies, facing different directions, their short horns curling like parentheses against the sky. The man stands on our side of the herd with his back to us to the left of center. He holds a tall shepherd’s staff in one hand as he hunches slightly and points with the other, to our right. He wears a high-crowned, wide-brimmed black hat, a crimson-red jacket, black trousers, and black knee-high boots. A knapsack hangs across one shoulder and rests behind his left hip. The woman sits on the far side of the herd so we see her under the man’s raised arm. She looks at him, her face peachy and round under a wide-brimmed straw-colored hat. She wears a white shirt under a robin’s egg-blue dress, and also holds a tall staff upright with both hands. Two more pale-skinned people sit on the ground or on a donkey in the near distance to our right, near the right edge of the canvas. Both wear hats and earth-toned clothing in black, gray, and blue. The donkey stands facing us, its face low, and a pair of baskets are slung across its back. The people and cattle cast long shadows from the setting sun, out of view to our left. The sunset ignites the undersides of the towering, slate-gray clouds with peach and gold against the ice-blue sky. A body of water stretches from beyond the low hill to a distant shore, where stone ruins are outlined on the horizon, which comes about a third of the way up the composition. A flock of six birds and another pair dot the sky.

Rosso fiorentino, san giovannino, collezione privata firenze

Hilma Af Klint Series SUW, No 14 Swan, 1914 -1915

Cranes on snow-covered pine

Palm Tree, Nassau

Under the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura), also known as The Great Wave, from the series "Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjurokkei)"

Amitabha Triad, Tokyo National Museum

Seesturm

Fishing in a Springtime Valley

Youth Playing a Pipe for a Satyr

This painting depicts two nude women standing, facing the left. The women have pale skin, and the woman on the left has red-blond hair while the woman on the right has dark brown hair. They are both reaching upward, and behind them is a tall tree with green leaves. Behind the tree is a green landscape with distant blue mountains under a cloudy blue sky.

Flower Garden and Bungalow, Bermuda

The Conch Divers

Approximately two dozen people gather around a man standing with his mouth wide open and holding up two objects in a scarlet-red structure on a horse-drawn cart in this horizontal painting. The people appear to all have pale skin and most are men. Near the center of the composition, the man in the cart wears a white robe over a black, high-collared garment and a tall charcoal-gray hat. A hatch on the red structure appears to be open, and he holds up what might be books or pamphlets. A ginger-brown horse stands behind him with its head bowed. In the crowd, the men wear black, brown, gray, dark blue, or olive-green clothing and hats. Two women are to the left. One wears a green gown with a pumpkin-orange shawl and a wide-brimmed bonnet. She faces away from us. She and two men talk near a stand where another man and woman sell food and drink. More people gather around a second stand or structure beyond this, and, in the lower left corner of the painting, a man with white hair and a hooked nose and chin sits by an open cart with a sign reading, “Bear O! Pi Aiggs.” A few men dance and others mill about to the right of the cart. Closer to us, one boy runs toward another as a soldier lies belly-down on the ground, holding a bayoneted rifle out toward a brown dog. The dog crouches with its mouth open. Beyond the dancers and onlookers, a field stretches back to wooded hills. In the field, more than a hundred people stand or march in lines. Lavender-tinged clouds pile up in the blue sky over the horizon, which comes about halfway up this composition.

The image shows two children, a girl and a boy, depicted from head to toe. The girl is standing to the right, slightly turned towards the boy. She has dark hair tied back with a pink ribbon, and her facial features are serious with a fair complexion. The boy also has a fair complexion and short light-colored hair. They are both wearing matching red dresses with white lace collars and cuffs, and white pantalettes underneath. The boy holds a yellow ceramic jug decorated with a floral pattern, while the girl holds an open book in her hands. Around the girl's neck hangs a long chain with a circular pendant. The background features a dark, wooded area with bare trees, and in the distance, there is the silhouette of a house with smoke coming from the chimney, set against a pink and blue sky.

Gezicht op bolwerk Westerbeer

Figures on the Beach

The Power of Music

Exhibit in the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, University of Oregon - Eugene, Oregon, USA.

The Light House, Nassau

After the Hurricane, Bahamas

On the Sands

By the 19th century, Niagara Falls was already an iconic American landscape, nearly verging on mythical. Thomas Cole visited the landmark in May 1829 and composed this romanticized, autumnal scene the following year. In amplifying the natural grandeur of the American landscape, the artist wilfully ommitted the factories, scenic overlooks, and hotels that populated the area in the early 19th century.

The Banker's Table

Woman before an Aquarium