Paul Sérusier sojourned in Pont-Aven during the summer of 1888, as Paul Gauguin, whose advice he followed. On his returning to Paris, he showed his young fellow painters, the future "Nabis" ("prophets" in Hebrew), what was to become their "Talisman". A close observation of the painting allows one to recognise certain elements of the landscape represented : the wood, at the top on the left, the transversal path, the row of beech trees on the river bank, and the mill, at the back, on the right. Each of these elements is a stain of colour. According to Maurice Denis, Gauguin had told Séruzier : "How do you see these trees? They are yellow. So, put in yellow; this shadow, rather blue, paint it with pure ultramarine; these red leaves? Put in vermilion". Although they were determined that visual sensation should prevail over the intellectual perception of the world, the impressionists had not given up a conception of painting implying the representation of what they observed. Here the mimeti

Jan Toorop, born in Java in 1858 when it was still a Dutch colony, soon came to Europe and studied at the Amsterdam Academy from 1881 before continuing his studies in Brussels, Paris and London. Receptive to the many aesthetic currents then running through Europe, he soon gave up Naturalism for Neo-Impressionism, before devoting a few short years to Symbolism. 1893, the year of this astonishing pastel, which was designed as a project for a stained-glass window, was the peak of his participation in the Symbolist movement. The iconography, which originally continued over the frame, is highly complex: the female face with wide-open eyes represents Desire, who is praying that the still closed lily might receive the white dew of the rain falling from the clouds above her. Behind the cross, seen from the back, which leaves only a part of Christ's crown of thorns visible, another face seen from the side with half-closed eyes is that of Satisfaction. The figure is holding a half-open lily into

After staying in the south of France, in Arles, and then at the psychiatric hospital in Saint-Rémy de Provence, Vincent Van Gogh settled in Auvers-sur-Oise, a village in the outskirts of Paris. His brother Théo, concerned with his health, incited him to see the Doctor Gachet, himself a painter and a friend of numerous artists, who accepted to treat him. During the two months separating his arrival, on May 21, 1890 and his death on July 29, the artist made about seventy paintings, over one per day, not to mention a large number of drawings. This is the only painting representing in full the church in Auvers that may sometimes be distinguished in the background of views of the whole village. This church, built in the 13th century in the early Gothic style, flanked by two Romanesque chapels, became under the painter's brush a flamboyant monument on the verge of dislocating itself from the ground and from the two paths that seem to be clasping it like torrents of lava or mud. If one compar

The London Houses of Parliament crop up regularly in Monet's work in 1900. At first the artist observed them from the terrace of St Thomas Hospital, on the opposite bank, near Westminster Bridge. Monet's London production, which includes views of Charing Cross bridge and Waterloo bridge, is in fact dominated by variations in the light and atmosphere due to the famous London fog, which enveloped the city, especially in autumn and winter. The unreal ghostly outline of Parliament buildings looms up like an apparition. The stone architecture seems to have lost its substance. Sky and water are painted in the same tones, dominated by mauve and orange. The brushstrokes are systematically broken into thousands of coloured patches to render the density of the atmosphere and the mist. Paradoxically, these impalpable elements become more tangible than the evanescent building which seems to dissolve in the shadow.

https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/artworks/londres-le-parlement-trouee-de-soleil-dans-l

A realist painter who often depicted his native NYC, Dinnerstein was a precursor to Bo Bartlett's heavy-handed symbolism in the American Realist Movement.

This painting depicts a scene from central park. The view is from under the Bethesda Terrace looking at the Bethesda Fountain.

You can read more about the statue here: https://www.centralpark.com/things-to-do/attractions/bethesda-fountain/

It was named after a passage from the Bible (John:2-5)

Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called... Bethesda... whoever then first after the troubling of the waters stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.

Dinnerstein's work often depicted spiritual subjects based on the Jewish faith. Perhaps there is some spiritual significance here, or perhaps Dinnerstein is exposing a side of NYC that is only seen by natives.

This is a view of the terrace from behind the statue:

This i

Aside

Consider listening to Chopan's Funeral March (you've heard it before, especially if you've played Castlevania). It is part of the inspiration for this work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZY5DBmgC_A&ab_channel=HDClassicalMusic

Syncretism

A fashionable way to make art at the turn of the 19th century was to combine different arts together. Here, Podkowinski mixes art, music and poetry to paint this Nocturne. Chopan's Funeral March and a poem inspired by it (not great translated to English) were the driving force behind this painting.

Nocturnes

Tone is supposed to take precidence over narrative in these works, popular at the time. The pallette, with restrictions to darker colors, takes mastery to get right.

Podkowinski

This was the artist's last piece and is mentioned alongside Munch's Scream because of its tension and carrying signals of the demise of the painter. Before it was finished Podkowinski died from Tuberculosis.

One of the 200 Japanese wood carvings Manet collected in his lifetime. The introduction of Japanese art to the west had a huge impact, it is said to be the influence of the impressionist movement in france.

Openly mocked by the audience at the first Salon des Refuses in 1863, Whistler's vision of "art for art's sake" did not go over well at that time.

You can see influences of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood (emo kids of the 19th century art world) in this painting, and it is a great example of the transition from pre-raphaelite to impressionism. In it, Whistler paints a woman standing on some sort of ferocious animal rug.

The pre-raphaelites sought honesty, drama, and dedication beyond the main characters: a woman dressed in a simple white gown (depicting innocence perhaps), contrasting with the animal baring its teeth, so low in the picture, it's often overlooked. There are also flowers on the ground - real ones at her feet, and part of the carpet under the wolf rug. These are classic hallmarks of the brotherhood, who Whistler had become friendly with in London.

Pictured below is an example of pre-raphaelite ideals, similar to Whistler's painting: Dedication to details such as the flo

Benjamin Carbonne was born in 1970 in Saint-Martin d'Hères in the Isère. A self-taught artist, he starts making art at the age of 20 and gets to express the things that bother him, sometimes his own violence, that of the others or of the world and finally to make place in himself for something else.

The artist often represents tormented beings, he focuses on the faces that are sometimes soft and sensitive, but also tortured or distorted by pain, screaming, the need for expression. In 2004 he created with poet and painter Antonio Rodriguez Yuste the contemporary art studio "Interférences", later joined by Stéphane Carbonne (sculptor, painter, singer).

Some particular works are at the origin of the Carbonne's evolution: in 2007, the completion of a 50-meter long mural at the Rivesaltes camp gives new meaning to his approach and drives him to assert his "place" as an artist in history; in 2009 he gets a commission for a "[Pieta]

MANY PROGRESSIVE mid-nineteenth-century artists, including Gustave Courbet, felt it was dishonest to paint things that could not be observed at first hand: for example, angels with wings. In fact, "Religious painting has disappeared," pronounced one critic of the Salon of 1857. Not surprisingly, Manet's The Dead Christ, with Angels provoked both surprise and anger when it was exhibited at the Salon of 1864.

In the passage from the Gospel of John referred to in an inscription on a rock in Manet's painting, Christ's disciples entered his tomb and found no trace of his body there, but instead two angels at the head and feet of the shroud. Recently scholars have suggested that Manet included the dead body of Christ in his picture because he had been impressed by Ernest Renan's best-selling book La Vie de Jésus (1863), in which the author claimed that Christ was a man, not a supernatural being.

There are other anomalies in the painting: for

Here's a summary I found online:

https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2003/19th-century-european-paintings-including-spanish-paintings-1850-1930-l03103/lot.221.html?locale=en

Charged with both exquisite grace and enormous power, La hora del baño combines some of Sorolla’s most potent images into a composition of epic proportions. The work ranks as one of his most complete and consummate compositions and is arguably the finest painting by the artist ever to be offered at auction.

Set on the beach at Valencia, the tender gesture of the young adolescent girl in the foreground and the innocence of the young boys frolicking in the surf, contrast with the tough masculinity of the oxen and riders beyond. The fresh breeze of the summer’s day is captured in the brilliant white sheet held up by the young girl and fills the sail of the ketch in the background. Shimmering on the water and glancing off the bodies of young and old, man and beast alike, light suffuses the whole. Yet La

You can be a detective with Hammershoi. Any piece can be analyzed and speculated at ad nauseum. They are massive with widely interpretable elements.

There are three technical elements that make his work interesting, despite the lack of vibrance (which I typically love): his palette, shadowing and light.

He uses an understated palette - most of his paintings almost look black and white. Critics have taken this as the expression the banality of everyday life. Personally, I don't see it as that - or at least not the defining characteristic of his work, but it is interesting.

His shadowing is incredible. Notice the shadows of the door and easel:

Notice the light coming in through the windows. It's not golden hour, and there's no drama, just semi ambient light coming in through the windows.

But the fourth element, which is my favorite, is the mystery. Each work seems like a puzzle.

Here's some other pieces:

Here's what Halevy Street looks like today:

Here's a summary I found online:

https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2019/impressionist-modern-art-evening-n10067/lot.17.html

Caillebotte’s La Rue Halévy, vue du sixième étage is the embodiment of the new Paris that emerged in the middle of the nineteenth century. Inextricably linked to the moment it depicts, the present work contains a profound originality that demonstrates Caillebotte’s development of novel modes of representation commensurate with the experience of modern life in nineteenth-century France. As one of the most remarkable in the series of his urban landscapes La Rue Halévy, vue du sixième étage exemplifies the innovative pictorial inventions for which Caillebotte was celebrated. Caillebotte made his debut with the Impressionist group during their second organized exhibition in 1876. The works he chose to exhibit were pra

You may remember him from Planers of a small apartment:

Caillebotte, like many of his contemporary impressionists, sought to depart from the rigid traditions of the Académie des Beaux-Arts (The Academy). The Academy upheld long-standing French artistic traditions of the Baroque and Renaissance including using dull colors and even finishing paintings with a gold tarnish to reduce the colors.

But in the age of industrialism, many new colors of paint were available to artists. Which lead to more vivid paintings, and the Academy largely rejected these. They could not get a spot in the yearly display of works until Napoleon saw their works and called for a Salon of the Rejected.

In this painting we see a still life of wilted roses. Believe it or not this was basically a slap in the face to traditional painters. They would never paint a still life of flowers, and expect it to be taken seriously, and even more in

Pollice Verso is latin for "with a turned thumb".

Believed to be Michelangelo's first easel painting, completed when he was 12 or 13. Based largely on an engraving by Martin Schongauer, down to the demon's whiskered asshole:

Michelangelo's Temptation is a mishmash of styles, particularly High Renaissance and Late Middle Ages. The foreground, ie St. Anthony being attacked by demons, is indicative of Late Middle Age art, whereas the intricate background is more on par with the Renaissance, which sought to improve on the classical art style (Ancient Greek and Roman) via realism. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Renaissance, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Middle_Ages)

From wikipedia:

The Torment of Saint Anthony (or The Temptation of Saint Anthony is attributed to Michelangelo, who painted a close copy of the famous engraving by Martin Schongauer when he was only 12 or 13 years old. Whether the painting is actually by Michelangelo is disputed. This p

Here's the summary from the Tate Modern Art Museum (available here https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/meireles-babel-t14041). I have modified some of it to read easier, and supply context.

Babel is a large-scale sculptural installation that takes the form of a circular tower made from hundreds of second-hand analogue radios that the artist has stacked in layers. The radios are tuned to a multitude of different stations and are adjusted to the minimum volume at which they are audible. Nevertheless, they compete with each other and create a cacophony of low, continuous sound, resulting in inaccessible information, voices or music.

In describing this work, Meireles refers to a tower of incomprehension. The installation manifests, quite literally, a Tower of Babel, relating it to the biblical story of a tower tall enough to reach the heavens, which, offending God, caused him to make the builders speak in different tongues. Their inability to communicate with one another caused them

A Polish artist and recluse, little is known about the painter. He also didn't seem to name any of his work. He died in 2013.

This painting by Goya (of Saturn Eating his Son fame) came from a group of smaller paintings that Goya executed - because the topic interested him rather than commissioned. Both as a visual narrative and as a painting per se it is influenced by Goya’s keen interest in the grim fate that befell many people during his lifetime. The painting shows monks, soldiers, and convicted prisoners in white robes, probably on their way to the site of their execution.

Summarized from: https://www.nasjonalmuseet.no/en/collection/object/NG.M.01347

Unlike his Impressionist friends, Degas was an essentially urban painter, who liked to paint the enclosed spaces of stage shows, leisure activities and pleasure spots.

In a cafe, a fashionable meeting place, a man and a woman, although sitting side-by-side, are locked in silent isolation, their eyes empty and sad, with drooping features and a general air of desolation. The painting can be seen as a denunciation of the dangers of absinthe, a violent, harmful liquor which was later prohibited. Parallels have been drawn with Zola's novel L'Assommoir written a few years later and indeed the novelist told the painter: "I quite plainly described some of your pictures in more than one place in my pages." The realistic dimension is flagrant: the cafe has been identified - it is "La Nouvelle Athènes", in place Pigalle, a meeting place for modern artists and a hotbed of intellectual bohemians. The framing gives the impression of a snapshot taken by an onlooker at a nearby table. But this impres