Nikolay Bogdanov-Belsky | At School Doors, 1897

Descending from peasant class, Nikolai Bogdanov-Belsky dedicated a significant portion of his work to rural schoolchildren.

His heroes hover indecisively at the classroom door, solve problems at the blackboard, read books or converse with the teacher.

The master's idealistic paintings upheld the notion that education was capable of improving public morality and overcoming the backwardness of the Russian countryside.

This lovingly painted and slightly sentimental canvas was possibly inspired by the personal memories of the artist, who attended Sergei Rachinsky's village school in Tatevo, Smolensk Province.

Ilya Repin | Historical / Genre painter

Ilya Yefimovich Repin / Илья́ Ефи́мович Ре́пин, (1844-1930), Russian painter of historical subjects known for the power and drama of his works.

Born to a poor family near Kharkov, Repin learned his trade from a painter of icons named Bunakov and in 1864 became a student at the Academy of Fine Arts at St. Petersburg.

Charles Hawthorne | Portrait / Genre painter

Charles Webster Hawthorne (1872-1930) was an American painter and a noted teacher who founded the Cape Cod School of Art in 1899.

He was born in Lodi, Illinois and his parents returned to Maine, raising him in the state where Charles' father was born.

At age 18, he went to New York, working as an office-boy by day in a stained-glass factory in New York, and studying at night school and with Henry Siddons Mowbray and William Merritt Chase, and abroad in both Holland and Italy.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox: "Ridi e il mondo riderà con te. Piangi, e piangerai da solo..."

Ridi e il mondo riderà con te.

Piangi, e piangerai da solo.

Poiché il vecchio mondo triste deve prendere

in prestito la sua allegria,

ma ha già abbastanza guai per conto suo.

Canta, e le colline ti risponderanno.

Rene Magritte | La vie heureuse, 1944

Hugues Merle | The Lunatic of Etretat, 1871

"The Lunatic of Etretat" is a painting by French Academic artist Hugues Merle (1822-1881).

It is part of the collection of the Chrysler Museum of Art, in Norfolk, Virginia.

The woman’s face is a mask of suffering while she cradles, not a sleeping baby, but a wooden log!

Is Merle’s "Lunatic" mourning the loss of a child, or mad with longing for one?

Vittorio Matteo Corcos | Dreams / Sogni, 1896

Vittorio Matteo Corcos returned in 1886 to Florence, where he painted the prominent and the fashionable portrait of a modern girl, Elena Vecchi, which has become the most emblematic image of the so-called Belle Epoque.

His most notorious portrait, however, was that of his mistress, Elena Vecchi, the daughter of a naval officer who carned his fame as Jack La Bolina, the author of popular adventure stories.

Ave Maria (Schubert)

"Ellens dritter Gesang" ("Ellens Gesang III", D. 839, Op. 52, No. 6, 1825), in English: "Ellen's Third Song", was composed by Franz Schubert in 1825 as part of his Op. 52, a setting of seven songs from Walter Scott's 1810 popular narrative poem The Lady of the Lake, loosely translated into German.

Giovanni Battista Salvi called Sassoferrato (1609-1685) | The Madonna in prayer | Christie's

Hugues Merle | Genre painter

From National Gallery of Art:

Born in 1823 at Saint-Marcellin (Isère), Hugues Merle studied in Paris with the history painter Léon Cogniet (1794-1880) and devoted himself to a wide range of subjects, from religious themes and historical anecdotes to incidents from contemporary life, particularly of the urban and rural poor.

His greatest popular successes, however, were won by scenes of maternal affection and childhood innocence that he sought to imbue with impish sweetness and sentimentality.

Filippo Baratti | Orientalist painter

Filippo Baratti (1849-1936) was an Italian painter; known primarily for his Orientalist scenes.

Filippo Baratti was born in Trieste, then a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Little is known of his early years, however in 1868 he was exhibiting at the Esposizione di Belle Arte in Milan.

Baratti then moved to Turin, where he exhibited at the Società Promatirice di Belle Arte 1869-1872.

Angiolo Tommasi | The Emigrants /Gli Emigranti, 1986

Angelo Tommasi is a Naturalistic painter, influenced by Courbet’s realism, and played an active role spreading the technique employed by the Macchiaioli.

The monumental painting The Emigrants shows a common situation in Italy after the unification process.

The burning and dramatic theme of overseas emigration is vividly depicted by the packed crowds at the Port of Livorno, people who have resigned themselves to their fate and the expectation of embarkation. The painting's extraordinary dimensions contribute to an illustration of the theme of Italian emigration on an almost epic scale.

Pablo Neruda | Your Laughter

Take bread away from me, if you wish,

take air away, but

do not take from me your laughter.

Do not take away the rose,

the lance flower that you pluck,

the water that suddenly

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Dance at Bougival, 1883 | Museum of Fine Arts Boston

Richard Wagner | Tristan und Isolde (Overture)

Tristan und Isolde (Tristan and Isolde), WWV 90, is a music drama in three acts by Richard Wagner set to a German libretto by the composer, loosely based on the medieval 12th-century romance Tristan and Iseult by Gottfried von Strassburg.

First conceived in 1854, the music was composed between 1857-1859 and premiered at the Königliches Hoftheater und Nationaltheater in Munich on 10 June 1865 with Hans von Bülow conducting.

Gustav Klimt | The Kiss, 1908 | Österreichische Galerie Belvedere

Johann Strauss | By the Beautiful Blue Danube

"The Blue Danube" is the common English title of "An der schönen blauen Donau", Op. 314 / German for "By the Beautiful Blue Danube", a waltz by the Austrian composer Johann Strauss II (1825-1899), composed in 1866.

Originally performed on 15 February 1867 at a concert of the Wiener Männergesang-Verein (Vienna Men's Choral Association), it has been one of the most consistently popular pieces of music in the classical repertoire.

Its initial performance was considered only a mild success, however, and Strauss is reputed to have said:

"The devil take the waltz, my only regret is for the coda - I wish that had been a success!"

Mihály Zichy | Ball in the Concert Hall of the Winter Palace during the Official Visit of Nasir al-Din Shah in May 1873-1874 | State Hermitage, St. Petersburg

Czárdás - Hungarian Dance

Inscribed in 2024 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, the Csárdás is a Hungarian dance that is performed by couples consisting of a man and a woman, or, in some regions, of two women.

Multiple couples participate in the dance at the same time, forming one large or several smaller circles.

Each region has its own themes, gestures and figures, which are improvised according to well-known, established rules and patterns.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner | Czardas dancers, 1908 | Gemeentemuseum Den Haag

Adolf von Becker | Genre painter

Adolf von Becker (1831-1909) was a Finnish genre painter and art professor of German descent.

He was one of the first Finnish artists to study in Paris, who taught many of the young artists of the Golden Age of Finnish Art.

Becker was born in Helsinki, where he began his artistic studies at the newly founded Finnish Art Society Drawing School; he also studied law.

“Il Lago dei Cigni” di Tchaikovsky

Il lago dei cigni (in russo, Лебеди́ное о́зеро) è uno dei più famosi ed acclamati balletti del XIX secolo, musicato da Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

La prima rappresentazione ebbe luogo al Teatro Bolshoi di Mosca il 20 febbraio 1877 (4 marzo secondo il calendario gregoriano), con la coreografia di Julius Wenzel Reisinger.

La trama del balletto, modellata su diverse fiabe popolari russe e tedesche, si svolge in Germania e narra la triste storia d'amore tra il Principe Siegfried e la bella Principessa Odette, trasformata in cigno da un maleficio del perfido stregone Rothbart.

Carlotta Edwards | Swan Lake

Ary Scheffer | Romantic painter

Ary Scheffer (1795-1858) was a Dutch-French Romantic painter.

Scheffer was the son of Johan Bernard Scheffer (1765-1809), a portrait painter born in Homberg upon Ohm or Kassel who had moved to the Netherlands in his youth, and Cornelia Lamme (1769-1839), a portrait miniature painter and daughter of the Dordrecht landscape painter Arie Lamme, after whom Arij (later Ary) was named.

Vincent van Gogh | A Walk at Twilight, 1889-1890

A Walk at Twilight or Landscape with Couple Walking and Crescent Moon is an intriguing composite of common themes found in works throughout Van Gogh's career, but at the same time some specific characteristics set it aside from other paintings.

Olive trees and cypresses are often portrayed in paintings from Van Gogh's Saint-Rémy period.

But the trees in Landscape with Couple Walking and Crescent Moon are less imposing and less intricately detailed.

Van Gogh's cypresses are famous, but those seen in the current work appear in the distance almost as an afterthought, lacking the majesty and turbulence that so often characterize Van Gogh's cypress trees.

Camille Corot | The Barbizon school of painters

Of Camille Corot Claude Monet exclaimed: "There is only one master here - Corot. We are nothing compared to him, nothing".

His contributions to figure painting are hardly less important; Degas preferred his figures to his landscapes, and the classical figures of Picasso pay overt homage to Corot's influence.

Donizetti: L'elisir d'amore | Act 2: "Una furtiva lagrima"

"Una furtiva lagrima" (A furtive tear) is the romanza from act 2, scene 8 of the Italian opera L'elisir d'amore by Gaetano Donizetti.

It is sung by Nemorino (tenor) when it appears that the love potion he bought to win the heart of his dream lady, Adina, is working.

He loves Adina, but she is not interested in an innocent, rustic man such as he.

Ponziano Loverini | Portrait of Gaetano Doninzetti, 1877