Paul Chabas | Figurative painter

Paul Émile Chabas (1869-1937) was a French painter and illustrator and member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts.

He was born in Nantes, and had his artistic training under William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Tony Robert-Fleury. He first exhibited at the Salon in 1890.

He was awarded a gold medal at the Exposition Universelle of 1900 and in 1912 received the Médaille d’honneur.

His preferred subject was a young girl in a natural setting.

The Marathon Boy, 340-330 B.C.

The Marathon Boy or Ephebe of Marathon is a Greek bronze sculpture found in the Aegean Sea in the bay of Marathon in 1925.

It is conserved in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens where it is dated to around 340-330 BC.

The Museum suggests that the subject is the winner of an athletic competition.

Valentin de Boulogne | The Crowning with thorns, 1620

This masterpiece of Baroque naturalism is among the first known works painted by Valentin de Boulogne, Caravaggio’s most accomplished French follower and arguably his greatest acolyte.

Painted in Rome in 1615 or shortly thereafter, it shows to what extent and how quickly the Frenchman had absorbed Caravaggio’s radical innovations.

Valentin de Boulogne | The Crowning with thorns, 1620 (detail) | Sotheby's

Antonio Canova | Paolina Borghese, 1805-1808

The reclining Paolina Borghese as Venus Victrix in the center of the room holds an apple in her hand, evoking the Venus Victrix in the judgement of Paris, who was chosen to settle a dispute between Juno (power), Minerva (arts and science) and Venus (love).

The same subject was painted on the ceiling by Domenico de Angelis (1779), framed by Giovan Battista Marchetti's tromp d'oeil architecture, and was inspired by a famous relief on the façade of the Villa Medici.

This marble statue of Pauline in a highly refined pose is considered a supreme example of the Neoclassical style.

Sleeping Hermaphroditus / L'Ermafrodito dormiente

The ambivalence and voluptuous curves of this figure of Hermaphroditus, who lies asleep on a mattress sculpted by Bernini, are still a source of fascination today.

His body merged with that of the nymph Salmacis, whose advances he had rejected, Hermaphroditus, son of Hermes and Aphrodite, is represented as a bisexed figure.

The original that inspired this figure would have dated from the 2nd century BC, reflecting the late Hellenistic taste for the theatrical.

Department of Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities: Hellenistic Art (3rd-1st centuries BC) Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities - Musée du Louvre.

Winslow Homer | Summer Night / Notte d'estate, 1890

Winslow Homer started his career as a graphic reporter during the American Civil War, before going on to paint scenes of army life and the rural world with the Naturalist precision which then prevailed in American painting.

After a stay in Paris, Homer used an Impressionist palette for a while then developed a personal style midway between Realism and Symbolism.

Summer Night perfectly expresses this synthesis and may be considered one of the first masterpieces of American art still in search of its identity.

Winslow Homer | Summer Night / Notte d'estate, 1890 | Musée d'Orsay

Lord Frederic Leighton | Cymon and Iphigenia, 1884

Cymon and Iphigenia is an oil on canvas painting by Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton PRA.

The painting does not bear a date but was first exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in 1884.

The Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, purchased it at a Christie's auction in London in 1976.

Carlo Crivelli | Santa Maria Maddalena, 1480

With Carlo Crivelli, the so-called "International Gothic" style experienced its final flowering in Italy.

This perfectly preserved panel was painted towards the end of his career.

It served as the altarpiece of a provincial church dedicated to Mary Magdalene in the sparsely populated rural area of the Marches where Crivelli lived. | Source: © Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Carlo Crivelli | Mary Magdalene, 1480 | Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Narcissus by Boltraffio and after Boltraffio, 1500-1510

Narcissus at the Fountain is a 1500-1510 oil-on-panel painting by Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio, now in the Uffizi, in Florence.

A copy is held in the National Gallery, London.

Both works show a young man in profile, interpreted as Narcissus due to his downward gaze.

Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio | Narcissus at the Fountain | Uffizi Gallery, Florence

Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio | The Virgin and Child, 1493-1499

A grave, statuesque young woman gazes down at a positively enormous child, who lies sideways across her lap.

Her deep red gown is open to reveal her breast, which she offers to her son - though he seems uninterested.

He turns his head away from his mother to look out at the viewer, while playing with the beads which dangle from her scarf.

We know from their delicate haloes that these are the Virgin Mary and infant Christ, but this is a very modern Mary, painted in a newly realistic manner.

Boltraffio (Milan, 1467-1516) was Leonardo da Vinci’s most gifted pupil, and imitated his master in style and technique.

Cappella Sistina | La Volta di Michelangelo, 1508-1512

"Senza aver visto la Cappella Sistina non è possibile formare un'idea apprezzabile di cosa un uomo solo sia in grado di ottenere" - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

La decisione di Giulio II di rifare integralmente la decorazione della volta fu probabilmente dovuta ai gravi problemi di natura statica che interessarono la Sistina fin dai primi anni del suo pontificato (1503-1513).

Essi dovettero essere la conseguenza degli scavi eseguiti sia a nord che a sud dell’edificio per la costruzione della Torre Borgia e del nuovo San Pietro.

Dopo che nel maggio del 1504, una lunga crepa si aprì nella volta, fu incaricato Bramante, allora architetto di Palazzo, di porvi rimedio, il quale mise in opera alcune catene nel locale soprastante la Cappella.

Paul Gauguin | The Siesta, 1892-94

The unaffected grace and communal ease of Tahitian women impressed Gauguin enormously.

The artist worked on this painting over an extended period, incorporating numerous changes.

The skirt of the woman in the foreground, for example, was originally bright red; there was a dog in the position now occupied by the basket at lower right; and the woman seated at the left edge of the porch was previously situated further to the left. | © The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Master of the Story of Griselda | Artemisia, 1498

"Artemisia" - Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milano (Lombardia, Italy) - attributed to an anonymous Sienese master, known conventionally as the Master of the story of Griselda.

The Master of the Griselda Story is named from set of paintings which relate the story of Patient Griselda.

Other paintings have been ascribed to him.

The style is typical of Sienese art in the late fifteenth century and reflects the manner of Luca Signorelli.

His figures are notable for their elongated limbs, almost dancing motion and great elegance.

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema | Spring / Primavera, 1894

A procession of women and children descending marble stairs carry and wear brightly colored flowers. Cheering spectators fill the windows and roof of a classical building.

Dutch-born British Classicist painter Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836-1912) here represented the Victorian custom of sending children into the country to collect flowers on the morning of May 1, or May Day, but placed the scene in ancient Rome.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | L'Estaque, 1885-1890

"L'Estaque" is an oil on canvas, 18 3/8 x 21 7/8 inches, by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), created in 1885-1890.

It is part of the collection of the Portland Museum of Art.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir passed through Provence on his return trip to France from Italy in January 1882, stopping at the fishing village of L'Estaque on the Mediterranean coast - close to Marseilles in the South of France, where Cézanne had painted regularly since the 1860s.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | L'Estaque, 1885-1890 | Portland Museum of Art

Vincent van Gogh | Sunflowers series

Sunflowers (original title, in French: Tournesols) are the subject of two series of still life paintings by the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh.

The earlier series, executed in Paris in 1887, depicts the flowers lying on the ground, while the second set, executed a year later in Arles, shows bouquets of sunflowers in a vase.

In the artist's mind both sets were linked by the name of his friend Paul Gauguin, who acquired two of the Paris versions.

Vincent van Gogh | Sunflowers, 1887 | National Gallery, London

The Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo's masterpiece, 1508-1512

Julius II's decision to completely renovate the decoration of the Ceiling was probably due to the serious problems of a static nature that affected the Sistine Chapel from the earliest years of his pontificate (1503-1513).

They must have been the result of the excavations carried out both to the north and to the south of the building for the construction of the Borgia Tower and for the new St Peter's.

After a long crack had opened in the Ceiling in May 1504, Bramante, then the Palace architect, was charged with finding a solution and he fixed some tie rods in the area above the Chapel.

However, the damage suffered by the old painting must have been such as to convince the pontiff to entrust Michelangelo with a new pictorial decoration.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1881

Luncheon of the Boating Party by Pierre-Auguste Renoir remains the best known and most popular work of art at The Phillips Collection, just as Duncan Phillips imagined it would be when he bought it in 1923.

The painting captures an idyllic atmosphere as Renoir's friends share food, wine, and conversation on a balcony overlooking the Seine at the Maison Fournaise restaurant in Chatou.

Parisians flocked to the Maison Fournaise to rent rowing skiffs, eat a good meal, or stay the night.

Guernica, 1937 by Pablo Picasso

During the war, Picasso was visited by Nazi Ambassador Otto Abetz in his Parisian studio.

The latter came upon a picture of Guernica, which had been sent to New York by the painter as soon as the Exhibition was over.

He asked: "Did you really do this?" to which Picasso answered: "No, You did".

Guernica is Pablo Picasso's monumental 1937 oil painting that stands as one of the most powerful and famous anti-war statements in history.

Painted in response to the bombing of the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War, the artwork captures the universal suffering and brutality of conflict through its chaotic imagery and stark monochrome palette.

Claude Monet | Nymphéas / Water Lilies

Water Lilies / Nymphéas is a series of approximately 250 oil paintings by French Impressionist Claude Monet (1840-1926).

The paintings depict Monet's flower garden at his home in Giverny, and were the main focus of Monet's artistic production during the last thirty years of his life.

Many of the works were painted while Monet suffered from cataracts.