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A rutted, dirt road curves from the bottom center of the canvas toward and behind a grove of tall trees to our left, beneath a pale blue sky with fluffy white clouds that fills the top two-thirds of this horizontal landscape painting. The broad, green canopies of the trees to our left create deep shade over twisting trunks, shrubs, and grasses. A narrow stream meandering alongside the road to our left reflects the moss, pine, and sage greens of the leaves. The land rises in a sloping bank to our right, and leads back to open fields with hedgerows that stretch to the horizon. Shorter, more spindly trees cluster along the bank in the distance. Tiny in scale, people are sprinkled throughout the landscape, either singly or in small groups. In the shade of the grove to our left, a man with dark pantaloons, a brown hat and coat, and a walking stick strolls along the road with a woman wearing a red skirt, a dark shirt, and a white apron and cap. Just off the curve of the road to our right, another man with a walking stick, tan hat, and dark gray pantaloons talks to a woman also wearing red, black, and white. Another person, slightly smaller in stature, stands between them. At a pond farther back from this trio, a man with a broad-brimmed hat sits fishing at the edge of the water. Barely visible, a house with a pitched roof, a tall, brick-red chimney, and a white picket fence peeks out from behind the trees beyond the pond. Finally, a man wearing a rust-orange coat, gray pantaloons with white stockings, and a tall hat, carrying a pole propped on his shoulder, walks toward us on a footpath running alongside the fields. Tall, cream-white clouds dot the pale blue sky above, and tiny dots of dark paint suggest flying birds. Soft sunlight pours across the countryside. The artist signed and dated the painting in small script in the lower right corner: “meijndert Hobbema F 1663.”
We look across a stream and through a loose screen of shadowy trees at a sunlit farm under a powder-blue sky with towering, puffy clouds in this vertical landscape painting. The ground and stream closest to us are painted in tones of olive green, sepia and earth brown, black, and slate gray. Nearly lost in shadow, a group of six people gathers at the water’s edge in the lower left. Small in scale within the composition, they wear brick-red, gray, or caramel-brown garments. Beyond them, a low picket fence winds through and between a loose band of shadowy trees, which are painted with gnarled, dark gray trunks and camel-brown, sage, and pine-green leaves. The trees to our left are closer and taller, while those to our right are a little farther away. The sun pours from the upper left into the field beyond. The farm buildings there have tan walls and sloping, peach-colored roofs. A few animals and people, smaller than the group in front, stand among the buildings, and more cottages can be glimpsed through a stand of trees on our right. The horizon line comes about a third of the way up the composition, and a church and steeple are silhouetted against the sky in the deep distance. A few birds fly in front of gray and white clouds that rise from the right side and spread across the top of the canvas.
The Watermill with the Great Red Roof
Several people sit, stand, or stroll along a dirt road that winds from the lower left corner of this horizontal landscape painting into the distance, past trees and cottages under a vivid blue sky. The horizon line comes about a third of the way up the canvas, and the cloud studded, azure-blue sky fills the space above. Sunlight filtered through puffy white and steel-gray clouds illuminates the scene from the upper right, creating patches of light and shadow throughout. The road meanders through the center of the composition and is lined with dark and sage-green shrubs, scrubby growth, and gnarled, crooked trees. Closest to us and to our left, two tan cottages are tucked into deep shade created by a grove of several tall trees. The cottages have steeply pitched roofs and windows flanked by gray or brick-red shutters. Three people sit and stand near the path outside the closest building. A short distance to our right, a man sitting on a fallen log carries walking stick and a bundle on his back. His body faces us but his head is turned to our right to gaze toward the man and woman about to stroll past him, headed in our direction. The woman wears a black dress over a white skirt, and a white head covering and shawl. The man wears a brimmed hat with a red decoration, a brown coat with gold buttons down the front and a wide white collar, and heeled shoes. Beyond them, the road curves to our left around a small pond in front of the second cottage. Two people crouch to set a toy sailboat afloat by the edge of the pond, and a brown dog sniffs the ground nearby. Two more people stand talking at the doorway to the second cottage and another dog leaps up at the half-door. Further along the road, the light becomes stronger, illuminating a horse, rider, and another person walking alongside the horse. The road continues to curve around a butter-yellow cottage nestled in a grove of trees on the right. A sunny field is visible in the far distance.
Leaving the Forest, Fontainebleau: Setting Sun
Poplars, Eragny
Italienische Landschaft
Path Near the Pond of Vipers, Fontainebleau Forest
The Bathers, Souvenir of the Banks of the Anio River at Tivoli
The Windmill
Twenty-one men in long waistcoats and women in elegantly trimmed gowns gather and dance within a verdant landscape in this horizontal painting. The men wear jackets and breeches in ginger brown, pale pink, or spruce blue. The women’s gowns have full sleeves, tight-fitting bodices, and full skirts in shades of bronze, teal blue, butterscotch gold, or rich pink edged with ribbons and lace. Some of them wear floral wreaths or ribbons in their upswept hair. Groups gather around a woman and man who dance together to our left in the scene. Some in the group of onlookers to our left hold musical instruments, including a violin and a pipe. Another group is nestled among trees just beyond the dancers, at the center of the painting, and more sit and stand to our right. The dancing woman wears a gleaming, ice-blue gown with rows of flowers in muted pink, blue, and gold down the full skirt and around the bottom hem, which falls short of her thin ankles. More garlands cross her chest and shoulders, and flowers are tucked into her dark gray hair. She faces us with her head turned to our right as she looks off in that direction with dark eyes under curving brows. She has a delicate nose, rosy, round cheeks, and pink lips. She holds her arms spread wide with the thumb touching the index finger of each hand. The man with whom she dances wears a coral-red tunic and breeches with sleeves decorated with pale pink and blue ribbons. The brim of his brown hat is turned up. His body faces us but he turns his head to look at the woman, his lips parted. The man and woman each have one gracefully pointed foot raised. The dancers and groups are enclosed within a park-like setting with tall trees to either side, and a screen of trees across the back of the space. The trees have slender trunks and canopies in shades of pine, sage, and moss green. Near the back middle of the scene, a stone column topped by a human head wearing a wreath of laurel leaves rises above the central group. A fountain with a vertical jet of water is tucked into the shadows within a grove of trees along the right edge of the painting. The water falls into a pool in the lower right corner.
The Pond at the Entrance of the Woods
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.”
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.”
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.
Sahurs Meadows in Morning Sun
The Windmill at Wijk bij Duurstede
Der Auszug der Römer aus Vicenza
A pale, nearly nude young woman perches on a rock under a tree surrounded by small animals including dogs, deer, and birds, in this horizontal landscape painting. Her body faces us as, lips parted, she looks away to our left. She is covered only by an olive-green drape over her left thigh, on our right. She cradles what appears to be a tall stone tablet in her left arm and touches the inscribed surface with her right hand. White, buttercup-yellow, and crimson-red flowers crown her long blond hair. Her smooth pink skin stands out against the brown bark of the tree trunk behind her. By her right knee, a small brown doe stands looking at her. Closer to us, a white, wading bird dips its beak into a pool of water in the lower right corner of the painting. A large book of diagrams lies open next to the woman's foot, on the slate-gray ground. A small, white dog crouches next to the book on our right in front of a sleek, brown dog and a buck with antlers, and all face the woman in profile. In the trees above, a white hawk perches near the upper right corner of the canvas, and an owl sits on a branch over the woman’s head. Beyond the woman to our left, a steep bank is topped by wispy trees and shrubs. A sandy path meanders past the bank toward a wooden building in the distance. Delicate trees with rust-red and gold canopies frame the building, while a topaz-blue haze behind it suggests a forest beyond. Full, gray clouds fill the sky overhead above a band of pale light on the horizon.
The Pyrenees, the Peak of the Midi de Bigorre
This painting shows a green landscape from an elevated viewpoint. In the distance, light blue water meets a pale-yellow sky, and the sun casts a golden glow over the landscape. Closest to us is a shore covered in overlapping greenery and several round trees. There is a small hill on the right, with a small gray structure sitting atop it. At the bottom, two indistinct brown animals graze on a dirt mound. Behind them, another gray building is tucked away behind bushes and trees. Golden clouds drift across the sky.
This painting depicts a green field of cotton plants with white blossoms. Three individuals are seen harvesting the cotton. They appear to be wearing skirts and bonnets and have dark skin, although their faces aren’t detailed. The background includes buildings on the left and green trees against a pale blue sky with hints of grey. The painting utilizes loose, visible brushstrokes. The color scheme is warm and natural, featuring shades of green, brown, and muted tones.
The Forest at Pontaubert
Still Life: Balsam Apple and Vegetables
Six elegantly dressed, light-skinned women, a man with dark brown skin, and a person of short stature gather around a nude baby boy in front of a landscape with a town in the distance in this vertical painting. Attention is focused on the baby, held by a woman kneeling to our lower left, and on a woman wearing a silver and gold-colored brocade dress standing near the center of the painting. The central woman's dress is trimmed with gold and jewels. She wears a pearl necklace, and her blond hair is wrapped with pearls around a gold, jeweled tiara. She leans to our right, toward another woman with blond, pearl-adorned hair wearing a blue and white stripped dress with puffed sleeves. In front of that pair, and along the right edge of the painting, another woman with pearls in her hair bends over a person of short stature and gestures toward the baby. The person of short stature has brown hair over a high forehead and a tan complexion. He holds an instrument like a recorder and wears a navy-blue and crimson-red jester’s costume. Seen from the waist up in the lower left corner of the painting, the man with brown skin has close-cropped black hair and wears a marigold-orange garment. Looking onto the scene from the sunken riverbed, he gazes to our right in profile and holds a basket. Above him, the woman holding the baby looks at the woman wearing silver and gold. An older woman holds up a cloth, presumably to wrap the baby. Another person looks on over that woman’s shoulder, and two more women stand farther back to our left, apart from this group. Behind the main scene, a few spindly trees with feathery pine-green or harvest-yellow leaves extend off the top edge of the canvas. An arched bridge spans the river in the distance to the left and beyond a town is painted in blue and gray against rocky hills. Blue sky above is strewn with white clouds.
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.
Mount Sainte-Victoire
Palm Tree, Nassau
Twilight in the Wilderness
The Test of Fire of Moses
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.
A pale-skinned woman wearing a long, rose-pink gown sits amid a lush landscape in this vertical portrait painting. The woman’s body is angled to our left, but she turns her head to look at us with green eyes under dark brows. She has a long, straight nose, smooth, flushed cheeks, and her carnation-pink lips are closed. Her long, curly, ash-brown hair is loosely pulled back in an emerald-green ribbon, but tendrils floating around her face seem to lift as in a breeze. A ponytail or thick tendril drapes over her far shoulder, almost reaching her waist. The low neckline of her gown is wrapped with translucent, gold cloth, and the elbow-length sleeves are gauzy white. The gown has a pale pink bodice and long, full skirt. Ribbons the same green as the one in her hair wrap around her waist and around the elbow we can see. She crosses her ankles so delicate, high-heeled, charcoal-gray slippers peek out from the bottom hem of her skirt. She sits on a gray boulder, her hands folded in her lap as she holds the ends of her translucent scarf. A tall tree grows along the right edge of the composition to arc up and over with olive-green and harvest-gold leaves. Beyond the woman, the land dips down to our left back into a tree-filled valley. Swipes of slate blue in the distance could be mountains. A short distance from us, to our left, one tree with a narrow, pale green canopy grows up against the sky. Behind that tree, yellow sunlight breaks through light blue, lavender-purple, and silver clouds that fill the rest of the sky. Parts of the scene are loosely painted with swirling, fluttering strokes, especially in the woman’s costume and the trees around her.
The Fishermen (Fantastic Scene)
Sheer, vertical, cliffs, brightly lit in cream white and rust orange by the low sun, tower over a band of people riding horses into the distance in this long, horizontal landscape painting. The glowing cliffs dominate the upper right quadrant of the painting. They lighten from burnt orange along the jagged tops to flame orange down the steep sides, and are and warm, parchment white near the earth. One tall, narrow promontory to our right looms over a range of lower, rounded cliffs. As the cliffs move into the distance, they are shrouded with a lavender-purple haze. The land closest to us dips into a shallow valley at the bottom center of the composition, leading away from us. The dirt-packed earth is dotted with pine-green, scrubby bushes and vegetation and a grove of low, gnarled trees a short distance to our right. One chestnut-brown horse walks along the path at the bottom center of the composition, lagging behind a cluster of at least two dozen horses and riders winding into the distance. The horses range from ivory white to tawny brown and charcoal gray. The riders are loosely painted so some details are indistinct, but they all seem to have brown skin and dark hair. They wear feathered headdresses and garments in teal blue, fawn brown, or golden yellow. They ride over a low hill toward a crystal-blue river, and then back along a flat expanse toward a row of minuscule, triangular tepees lining the horizon in the deep distance. The horizon comes halfway up the composition, and the tepees are backed by a row of rose-pink, flat-topped cliffs. A pale yellow disk hangs low in the sky, over the distant cliffs. The sky above deepens from soft, lilac purple along the horizon to ice and sapphire blue along the top. A few wispy clouds are burnished orange in the sunlight. The artist signed and dated the painting in the lower right corner, “TYMoran 1881,” with the T, Y, and M overlapping to make a monogram.
Bridge at Poissy (Pêcheurs à ligne)
View of Schroon Mountain, Essex County, New York, After a Storm
The Blue Boat
A young woman with pale skin and flushed cheeks stands in a landscape looking to our upper left in this round-topped vertical painting. Her body faces us in the center of the scene. Her fingers are interlaced at her waist, and her head tips slightly to our left. Honey-brown hair cascades over her shoulders, and her hazel eyes roll up under thin brows. She has a short nose and a small, pale pink mouth. A translucent scarf is tied around the full-length, pine-green mantle that drapes across her shoulders and wraps around the V-neck of her rose-red robe. A wine-red inset fills the neckline, and a matching belt is tied around her waist. She stands barefoot on the dirt ground, which is scattered with pebbles. Plants grow and bloom, including a blue iris, in shallow water along the bottom edge of the composition. A lidded pitcher with a narrow neck and scrolling handles sits on a flat rock next to her right knee. Taller, peanut-brown rock formations pile up beyond her under a powder-blue sky. Tawny-brown and sage-green trees, leafy plants, and shrubs sprout among the rocks. Beyond the woman is an open gate in a wooden fence built into one of the rock formations to our right, and sage-green hills dotted with moss-green trees roll out along the left side of the painting.
Six women, eight men, two satyrs, and one child gather in pairs and trios in a loose row that spans the width of this nearly square painting. They are set within a landscape with craggy rocks, cliffs, and trees. Most of the people face us, and the men, women, and child have pale skin. The two satyrs have men’s torsos and furry goat’s legs, and they have darker, olive complexions. Most of the men wear voluminous, knee-length togas wrapped in short robes in shades of white, topaz blue, grass green, coral orange, or rose pink. Most of the women wear long, dress-like garments in tones of shell pink, apricot orange, or lapis blue over white sleeves. For all but one woman, their garments have fallen off one shoulder to reveal a round, firm breast. Several objects are strewn on the rocky, dirt ground in front of the group, including a wide, wooden bucket with a piece of paper affixed to its front to our right, a glass goblet, a pitchfork, a large blue and white ceramic dish filled with grapes and small yellow fruits, and an overturned cup near the center. Cliff-like, craggy rocks rise steeply behind the group to our left, filling much of the sky opposite a tall grove of leafy, dark green trees to our right. A few puffy white clouds float across the vivid blue sky. The slip of paper on the barrel has been inscribed, “joannes bellinus venetus p MDXIIII.”
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.”
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.
The Trojan Women Setting Fire to Their Fleet
A three-storied, white manor house with a rust-red roof and wings extending off both sides sits across an emerald-green lawn lined with tall, sage and dark green trees in this horizontal painting. Straw-brown paths lead to the house from either side of the lawn, where they meet an oval-shaped path directly in front of the house. The grassy area inside the oval is cordoned off with posts and weighted chains. Closer to us, three men, two women, and a gray dog stand on the lawn. Two of the men wear uniforms with navy-blue, button-lined jackets with golden yellow epaulets and collars, dark, tricorn hats, and butter-yellow britches over black, knee-high boots. The third man wears a brown suit with a white collar. Both the women wear white dresses. One has a sky-blue sash around her waist and the other has a black shawl wrapped across her torso, and wears a white bonnet. Two light-skinned people, perhaps a man and a child, walk along the path to our left, wearing gray suits. Four people closer to the house have brown skin. One of them, a woman, stands at the front center of the oval path and other three men approach a door in the wing to our left. One of that trio carries a shovel over his shoulder, one a rake, and the other a staff. A carriage guided by a seated horseman and pulled by four horses enters the scene from our right. To our left and right, covered walkways connect the main house to the side wings. The wing to our right is mostly hidden by trees and cut off by the right edge of the painting. The wing to our left has a teal-blue roof, red brick chimneys, and the same white walls as the manor. The main house has a triangular pediment over the front door and chimneys to each side of the red roof. A spire-like lantern is at the center of the roofline, over the pediment. Faint, wispy white clouds billow against the azure-blue sky above. Centered at the bottom of the scene across a white margin are the words, “A VIEW OF MOUNT.VERNON THE SEAT OF GENERAL WASHINGTON.”
Cottage among Trees
Rectangular plots of flowers, each in a single color, stretch toward us below a sky nearly filled with cream-white clouds in this horizontal landscape painting. Together, the monochromatic plots create the impression of a patchwork quilt, with large areas of pale pink, butter yellow, bright white, and baby blue. A person walks across the plots to our right. The horizon line comes almost halfway up the painting and is lined with dark brown houses with tall, pitched roofs. Two barren trees twist into the cloudy sky. The loose, short, parallel brushstrokes and touches of paint create a soft, hazy effect.
Invocation to Love
This painting depicts a sunlit forest with densely packed trees. Sunlight filters through the leaves, casting a warm glow and illuminating shades of green with hints of yellow and gold. The forest floor is covered in dark green vegetation and gray rocks, with small visible people in the distance. One of the people is wearing a red shirt or jacket. In the background, the trees become less defined and merge into a misty blur of light and dark greens. The paint has been applied with thick, visible brushstrokes.
Sonniges Felsental
Well at the Side of a Road
Marshland
The Pigeon Tower at Bellevue
Cypresses
Two Poplars in the Alpilles near Saint-Rémy
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.
Gezicht op bolwerk Westerbeer
The Large Plane Trees (Road Menders at Saint-Rémy)
The work of Carl Blechen, a pivotal figure in 19th-century German painting, marks a transition from Romanticism to a more realistic view of nature. Inspired in part by his encounter with the Italian landscape and light during a trip he made around 1828 or 1829, Blechen developed a fluid technique that enabled him to capture fleeting atmospheric effects. He often used his landscapes as settings for mysterious figures, reflecting his early contact with Romantic painting and theater.
The image shows an elevated view of a landscape with hills and a river or lake in the distance. Several buildings, including a church, are scattered across the land. Soldiers in red and white uniforms are lined up near a stone wall and gravestones in the foreground. The sky is blue with a few scattered clouds. The painting style uses precise brushstrokes, featuring a color palette of soft blues, greens, reds, and muted tones.
The Gardener
The Garden Gate, Bahamas
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.
Figures in the Woods
Fishing Boats with Hucksters Bargaining for Fish
This painting shows a body of water in between wooded mountains. On top of the water there are several long wooden logs with people on them. One of the people stands atop a large log, while the other appears to sit or recline. The people both wear hats, and one of them holds a long stick with a pointed end. The water is a vibrant blue, and the logs are in shades of brown, tan, and yellow. The forest behind the water has trees in shades of dark and light green. The sky has clouds in white and gray against a blue background. The brushstrokes in the artwork are loose, and some of the colors bleed into one another.
Paulownias and Chrysanthemums
Das Innere der Piaristenkirche in Wien
The image shows five individuals standing closely together in a line. On the left is a man in a dark blue coat with a gold emblem, beige trousers, and black shoes. Next to him is a woman in a black dress with a lace collar. In the center is a young boy in a brown suit with gilt buttons. To the right stands a young girl in a white dress with pink ribbons, and a taller woman in a similar dress holding a parasol. The background shows lush green trees and a clear blue sky.
The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons, 16 October 1834
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.”
The Siesta
Spearing Eels
Phoenixes and Paulownia
The Bather
The Light House, Nassau
A Woodland Fête
Wheat Field with Cypresses
This painting shows a landscape with tall palm trees and bright green ferns by a body of water. In the background is a dense, dark forest in shades of black and dark blue. Closest to us, light blue water flows horizontally across the painting. In the bottom left corner, there is a long gray canoe that appears to have a person sitting in it, wearing red and holding a long white fishing line. The color palette includes shades of green for the trees and soft blue, white, and grey for the sky. The brushstrokes in the painting are loose and expressive, allowing colors to overlap and blend together.
Three whole, green pears against a caramel-brown background fill this horizontal still life painting. The painting was created with long, parallel, visible brushstrokes throughout, and a strip of unpainted canvas lines the top edge. We look slightly down onto the fruit, which was painted with thick strokes of lemon-lime, asparagus, and spring green, and each piece of fruit is outlined with navy blue. The two pears to either side stand up and the third, between them, lies on the table with its brown stem angled to our left.
Die Fruchtbarkeit, umgeben von den vier Elementen
Low Tide at Pourville, near Dieppe, 1882
This is a landscape painting depicting a body of water surrounded by greenery, with tall green and purple mountains in the background under a sky full of dark pink clouds and a strip of bright blue-green. To the right of center, a person stands in the water, submerged up to their thighs. The person faces away from us. Their skin is painted in shades of light orange and tan, and they have an orange cloth wrapped around their waist. They hold a long, thin spear, and look down at the water. Behind them, on the opposite shore, another indistinct person looks on, standing on the grassy green ground. At the edge of the tall mountains is a line of green trees. The wide water reflects the green and purple of the mountains, as well as the pink of the sky.
Natural Bridge, Bermuda
Hebe
This painting shows a white thatched-roof house on open, sandy ground. The brown thatched roof of the house has some yellow grass poking through. People can be seen in the open doorway of the house, identifiable by spots of red, blue, and light-yellow clothing. Behind the house is lush green tropical foliage with a few tall palm trees. A rooster is visible on the sandy ground in front of the house next to a long, white object that may be a downed tree trunk. The sky is filled with large white cumulus clouds and patches of bright blue.
Prince and Princess Hunting Blackbuck
Gezicht op bolwerk Oosterbeer met molen de Gooyer
Grapevine in the Wind
A Farm in Brittany
On the Sands
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.”
The Banks of the Marne at Charenton
A view across a wide, brightly lit field scattered with broken pieces of stone is framed to the left and right by crumbling stone temples in this horizontal painting. The sunlight is infused with a soft pink glow, which warms the cream-white stone with a pale blush. The temple on our left sits on a low rise, and a row of at least nine columns topped with an entablature faces our right. Several of the columns are broken off, and part of the entablature and the entire roof is missing, from what we can see. Fragments of pediments and wheel-like sections of columns tumble down from its front steps and back along its side, cascading into and across most of the field before us. The rocky terrain is carpeted in celery-green growth speckled with sage green and areas of rust red in the lower left and right corners. Barely visible in the center of the field, are two men, barely taller than the fragments they inspect. One man wears an apricot-orange suit and bowler hat over blond hair. He kneels with his back to us as he writes or sketches on a piece of paper. A second man stands to his right, also with his back to us, dressed in a long pleated, white tunic with a red cap, jacket, and knee-high boots. To our right and farther back than the other temple, a brick-red tower stands next to another columned arcade. A third temple there, or perhaps another part of that building complex, has columns carved into the shape of six identical, robed women, facing our left. Beyond the ruins, the field slopes down to a peach-colored plain that ends at a wide, topaz-blue body of water with mountains in the far distance along the low horizon line. A petal-pink haze rises from the water and mountains and almost fills the blue-gray sky above. The artist has signed and dated the painting in the lower left, “S.R. Gifford 1880.”
Canal in Autumn (Gisors)
Sloop, Nassau
The Mower
The Sunlight
Hunting near Hartenfels Castle
Estérel Village
Youth Playing a Pipe for a Satyr
A woman stands drinking from a tall glass as two men sit at a table in a courtyard enclosed by wood paneling and brick buildings in this vertical painting. The people all have pale, peachy skin. The men, table, and woman take up the lower left quadrant of the composition. Both men wear broad-brimmed, black hats. The man closer to us, on our side of the table, faces our right in profile and holds a long white, clay pipe to his lips. He wears an ink-black jacket and tan leggings. A white stocking hangs down in a wide cuff from his knee on the leg we can see. A dove-gray cape is draped across his lap and a brown coat with gold-colored buttons is slung over a railing behind his back. Across the table, a bearded man wears a shining armor breastplate over a brown shirt. He looks up at the woman and smiles, holding a blue and white tankard with the lid flipped open in one hand. Another pipe and piece of paper sit on the narrow table between the men. The woman stands to one side of the table, facing our left in profile and the toe of her shoe touching or nearly brushing the black shoe of the man closer to us. Her brown hair is covered by a white cap, and she wears a tan-colored jacket, a long, crimson-red skirt, and an ultramarine-blue apron. Across the courtyard, in the lower right corner of the painting, a young girl also wears a white cap and blue apron but with a slate-gray shirt and laurel-green skirt. She approaches the table. A glowing ember is visible inside the ceramic brown dish she holds in both hands. The slightly uneven floor is paved with long, pale yellow bricks. A building rises to our right, a red shutter opening out from a window on the ground level. The other, closed shutter is painted with triangles of black, white, and gray. A half-wall of red brick across from us surrounds an open door, through which are stairs and a tree trunk. More trees rise above the top of that wall. Horizontal paneling encloses the courtyard to our left, behind the men. A church steeple in the distance is silhouetted against the sky over the paneling. A few wispy white clouds float across the vivid blue sky above.