Gandalf's Garden

Henri Lebasque - Saint-Tropez, Madame Lebasque and Marthe by the Fountain [1907]

2012-02-02T10:06:00.001Z

Henri Lebasque - Saint-Tropez, Madame Lebasque and Marthe by the Fountain [1907], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

[Oil on canvas, 89.5 x 79.8 cm]

Gerbrandt Jansz van den Eeckhout - Children in a Park [1671]

2012-02-01T09:25:00.001Z

Gerbrandt Jansz van den Eeckhout - Children in a Park [1671], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

[Oil on canvas, 161 x 144.5 cm]

David Bowers - The Collector

2012-01-31T08:42:00.001Z

David Bowers - The Collector, a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

David Bowers (born 1956, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania) graduated from art school in Pittsburgh in 1979. He began working as a staff artist at various studios in Pittsburgh. Two years later, David began teaching at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh where he lectured for ten years. This job was perfect for Bowers at the time due to the short hours in the classroom. These short workdays enabled a lot of free time to perfect his painting technique before he entered the illustration field. Bower’s paintings are in many private collections throughout the United States and Europe as well as The Museum of American Illustration in New York and the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.

See: www.dmbowers.com/

[Oil on canvas, 38 x 30 inches]

Pierre-Auguste Renoir - Odalisque [1870]

2012-01-30T10:28:00.001Z

Pierre-Auguste Renoir - Odalisque [1870], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

[Oil on canvas, 69.2 x 122.6 cm]

Jules Pascin - La Mélancolique [1909]

2012-01-29T10:28:00.001Z

Jules Pascin - La Mélancolique [1909], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Lucy Krohg, wife of the Norwegian artist Per Krohg, was Pascin's mistress. Upon his death in 1930, Pascin (1885 - 1930) left his entire body of work to her and to his wife, Hermine David. Lucy Krogh opened the Galerie Lucy Krohg in Paris in 1932, and exhibited Pascin's work there.

[Oil on panel, 71.1 x 58.4 cm]

Romaine Brooks - Una, Lady Troubridge [1924]

2012-01-28T09:46:00.001Z

Romaine Brooks - Una, Lady Troubridge [1924], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

British sculptor and writer Una, Lady Troubridge (1887-1963) is best remembered for her numerous translations from the French and Italian, and is credited with introducing the French novelist Colette to English readers. She also wrote a biography of her long-time partner, Marguerite "John" Radclyffe Hall, author of the 1928 classic The Well of Loneliness. In 1908, Una married Admiral Sir Ernest Thomas Troubridge, but the union ended in 1915, the same year she met Hall.

Hall introduced Troubridge to artist Romaine Brooks, who captured her in this 1924 portrait. The tailored man's morning suit conceals her feminine figure, and her pose suggests absolute control; note how Troubridge grasps one of the dog's collars. Brooks intended the portrait to be a caricature of her friend as a headstrong, demanding woman, and noted in a letter that this was "a sign of the age which may amuse future feminists."

[Oil on canvas, 127.3 x 76.4 cm]

Edgar Degas - Mademoiselle Malo [c.1877]

2012-01-27T08:48:00.001Z

Edgar Degas - Mademoiselle Malo [c.1877], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

[Oil on canvas, 81.1 x 65.1 cm]

Peter Basin - Faun Marsyas Teaches Young Olympia To Play The Flute

2012-01-26T08:49:00.001Z

Peter Basin - Faun Marsyas Teaches Young Olympia To Play The Flute, a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Peter Basin (1793 - 1877) was a Russian painter.

Richard Edward Miller - Black Mantilla [1910]

2012-01-25T09:02:00.001Z

Richard Edward Miller - Black Mantilla [1910], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

A plein-air and impressionist painter as well as illustrator, Richard Miller (born St. Louis, Missouri in 1875) was especially known for his paintings of female figures in sunlit interiors. He was part of the American art colony in Paris during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, staying from 1898 to 1914 when World War I began. His reputation in France was so distinguished that he was made a Chevalier in the Legion of Honor. He died in St. Augustine, Florida in 1943.

[Oil on canvas, 92.08 x 87 cm]

Ferdinand Bol - An Astronomer [1652]

2012-01-24T10:25:00.001Z

Ferdinand Bol - An Astronomer [1652], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

On the table is a celestial globe, and behind it a terrestrial one. The pose of the figure and his abstracted manner indicate that the painting may belong to the visual tradition of Melancholia, made famous by Durer's work, in which it was suggested that a scholar's research would inevitably lead him to an awareness of the futility of his endeavours in the face of death. The medallion in the centre of the man's belt may show a Roman emperor.

[Oil on canvas, 127 x 135 cm]

John Christen Johansen - Earl Balfour [1919]

2012-01-23T09:09:00.001Z

John Christen Johansen - Earl Balfour [1919], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

John Christen Johansen (Copenhagen, November 25, 1876 - New Canaan, Connecticut, June 23, 1964) was a Danish-American portraitist. Johansen came to America as an infant. Before focusing primarily on portraiture Johansen painted landscapes.

[Oil on canvas, 76.6 x 76.6 cm]

Sir Thomas Lawrence - Elizabeth Farren, later Countess of Derby [1790]

2012-01-22T10:35:00.001Z

Sir Thomas Lawrence - Elizabeth Farren, later Countess of Derby [1790], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

The Irish actress Elizabeth Farren made her London debut in 1777 as Kate Hardcastle in Oliver Goldsmith's ‘She Stoops to Conquer.’ She was at the height of her career when this canvas was shown at the Royal Academy in 1790. Seven years later, she married the twelfth earl of Derby. This beautiful portrait helped to secure for Lawrence the role of successor to the elderly Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792).

[Oil on canvas, 238.8 x 146.1 cm]

Laurent de La Hyre - Allegory of Grammar [1650]

2012-01-21T09:38:00.001Z

Laurent de La Hyre - Allegory of Grammar [1650], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

This is probably one of a series of half-length female figures of the seven Liberal Arts which once belonged to Gédéon Tallemant (1613-1668), apparently painted for his house in the Rue d'Angoumois, Paris. The pictures vary in size, and all are dated 1649 or 1650. Grammar is here personified as a woman. The essence of this art is explained in the inscription, which may be translated as 'A meaningful and literate word spoken in a correct manner'. A second series of the Liberal Arts, also by La Hyre or a member of his studio, may have existed in Rouen; and a total of ten paintings of these subjects survive today. An identical version, perhaps from the Rouen series, is in Baltimore (Walters Art Gallery).

[Oil on canvas, 101.9 112.2 cm]

Jean-Léon Gérôme - Bashi-Bazouk [1868-69]

2012-01-20T09:49:00.001Z

Jean-Léon Gérôme - Bashi-Bazouk [1868-69], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

[Oil on canvas, 80.6 x 66 cm]

Thomas Coutre - Daydreams [1859]

2012-01-19T08:53:00.001Z

Thomas Coutre - Daydreams [1859], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Since the 16th century, a figure blowing bubbles has served as an allegory for the vice of vanity. A schoolboy slouches on a chair beside his unopened books as bubbles drift overhead. The note tucked in the broken glass reads: "Le Parasseux indigne de vivre" (the lazy one unworthy of living). The soap bubbles and the crumbling wall suggest the fleeting nature of time, and the laurel wreath symbolizes glory ignored. Rejecting prevailing academic traditions, Thomas Couture (French, 1815 – 1879) developed a highly personal technique involving bright colours and expressive paint textures, which was based on his studies of Venetian works in the Louvre Museum. He frequently depicted contemporary subjects but filled them with moral overtones. An influential teacher, Couture trained such artists as Edouard Manet, Puvis de Chavannes, Mary Cassatt, and Eastman Johnson.

[Oil on canvas, 118 x 90.3 cm]

Anders Zorn - Girl from Mora [1904]

2012-01-18T10:43:00.001Z

Anders Zorn - Girl from Mora [1904], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

[Oil on canvas, 35.5 x 51.5 cm]

Henri Fantin-Latour - Portrait of Sonia [1890]

2012-01-17T08:57:00.001Z

Henri Fantin-Latour - Portrait of Sonia [1890], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

[Oil on canvas, 109.2 x 81 cm]

Einar Jolin - Clo in a Bathing Suit [1937]

2012-01-16T10:12:00.001Z

Einar Jolin - Clo in a Bathing Suit [1937], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Einar Jolin (Stockholm, August 7, 1890 - August 29, 1976) was a Swedish painter.

[Oil on panel, 35 x 27 cm]

Helen Schjerfbeck - School Girl II (Girl in Black) [1908]

2012-01-15T09:49:00.001Z

Helen Schjerfbeck - School Girl II (Girl in Black) [1908], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

[Oil on canvas, 71 x 40.5 cm]

Helen Schjerfbeck - Self Portrait [1884-85]

2012-01-14T10:11:00.001Z

Helen Schjerfbeck - Self Portrait [1884-85], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Helen Schjerfbeck (Helsinki, July 10, 1862 - Saltsjöbaden, Sweden, January 23, 1946) was a Finnish painter. Helene Schjerfbeck's career spanned parts of eight decades, and she moved herself from her initial, realistic history paintings to an abstract style over the course of them. Only when death intervened did she stop stretching the boundaries of her work. That is the mark of a true master artist, and for it she is to be admired.

[Oil on canvas, 50 x 40.5 cm]

Charles Louis Lucien Muller - A Portrait [1852]

2012-01-13T08:57:00.001Z

Charles Louis Lucien Muller - A Portrait [1852], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

A black-haired woman, clad in black with a red scarf, is shown shoulder-length posed against a neutral greenish-grey, shadowy ground. The lighting is from overhead, leaving the eyes in shadow. The subject's identity has not been ascertained. Charles Louis Lucien Muller (1815 - 1892) was a French artist.

[Oil on canvas, 61 x 49.8 cm]

Johannes van Bronchorst - A Lady Playing a Guitar on a Balcony

2012-01-12T09:02:00.001Z

Johannes van Bronchorst - A Lady Playing a Guitar on a Balcony, a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Johannes van Bronchorst (1648 – 1727) was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He specialised in painting plants, birds, and insects. Although he remained a pastry baker, he did very well with his watercolours, which were published in engravings and commemorated with a poem by Johannes Vollenhove.

Giovanni Ambrogio de Predis - Girl with Cherries [c.1491-95]

2012-01-11T10:04:00.001Z

Giovanni Ambrogio de Predis - Girl with Cherries [c.1491-95], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Trained in Milan, Ambrogio de Predis was associated after 1483 with Leonardo da Vinci, with whom he collaborated. The careful study of the positions of the hands and the enigmatic, slight smile both come from Leonardo's example. The painting is sometimes thought to be by another of his followers.

[Oil on wood, 48.9 x 37.5 cm]

Lawrence Alma-Tadema - Woman and Flowers [1868]

2012-01-10T08:50:00.001Z

Lawrence Alma-Tadema - Woman and Flowers [1868], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

In many paintings, Alma-Tadema (Dutch, 1836 - 1912) infused the stylistic elements of northern European scenes of daily life with the contemporary Victorian interest in classical antiquity (the artist kept 168 volumes of photographs of Greek and Roman antiquities). Here, Alma-Tadema depicted a woman in classical dress leaning on a Pompeian bronze table, the model for which is now in the archaeological museum in Naples. The artist's detailed treatment of flowers, jewelry, and textiles helps to create a sensuous and highly exotic mood.

[Oil on panel, 49.8 x 37.2 cm]

Dante Gabriel Rossetti - Beata Beatrix [c.1864-70]

2012-01-09T10:00:00.001Z

Dante Gabriel Rossetti - Beata Beatrix [c.1864-70], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

The inspiration was Dante’s Vita Nuova (New Life), which explores the Italian poet’s idealised love for Beatrice and her premature death. As an omen of death, a bird drops a white poppy between her open hands. In the background the ghostly Dante gazes towards the figure of Love. Rossetti (1828 – 1882) viewed this as a memorial to his wife and the model for Beatrice, Elizabeth Siddall, who had died in 1862. Rossetti had buried the manuscripts of his unpublished poems including On the Vita Nuova of Dante with his wife but, in a macabre twist, retrieved and published them in 1870.

[Oil on canvas, 864 x 660 mm]

Walter Sickert - Carolina del Acqua [1903-04]

2012-01-08T10:55:00.001Z

Walter Sickert - Carolina del Acqua [1903-04], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Walter Richard Sickert (31 May 1860 – 22 January 1942), born in Munich, Germany, was a painter who was a member of the Camden Town Group in London. He was an important influence on distinctively British styles of avant-garde art in the 20th century. Sickert was a cosmopolitan and eccentric who often favoured ordinary people and urban scenes as his subjects. His oeuvre also included portraits of well-known personalities and images derived from press photographs. He is considered a prominent figure in the transition from Impressionism to Modernism. Sickert took a keen interest in the crimes of Jack the Ripper and believed he had lodged in a room used by the infamous serial killer. He had been told this by his landlady, who suspected a previous lodger. Sickert did a painting of the room and titled it "Jack the Ripper's Bedroom." It shows a dark, melancholy room with most details obscured.

[Oil on canvas, 47 x 38.5 cm]

Attributed to Bernardino Loschi - Portrait of Alberto Pio [1512]

2012-01-07T09:55:00.001Z

Attributed to Bernardino Loschi - Portrait of Alberto Pio [1512], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Alberto Pio, lord of Carpi in Emilia, was born in 1475 and was an accomplished scholar. He spent most of his life outside his own domains, though he was recorded in Carpi in 1512, the year apparently inscribed on the painting. He died in exile in 1531. Loschi was from Parma, and worked as court painter to Alberto Pio.

[Oil on wood, 58.4 x 49.5 cm]

Henri Matisse - Carmelina [1903]

2012-01-06T09:30:00.001Z

Henri Matisse - Carmelina [1903], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Matisse represented the female nude many times, both in painting and in sculpture. In this striking early work, the rounded forms of Carmelina's body, strongly modeled in light and dark, stand out almost in relief against the pattern of rectangular shapes behind her. The subject of the nude, usually relaxed and seductive, here becomes a confrontation between the boldly posed model and the artist, who is visible in the mirror at the back of the studio.

[Oil on canvas, 81.3 x 59 cm]

William Sidney Mount - The Bone Player [1856]

2012-01-05T10:37:00.001Z

William Sidney Mount - The Bone Player [1856], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

William Sidney Mount's The Bone Player combines elements of portraiture and genre painting, both fields for which he was well known. Born on Long Island, he apprenticed with his brother, a portrait and sign painter, studied at the National Academy of Design, and by 1856 was well-established as one of America's leading artists. Mount (1807 - 1868) painted The Bone Player after receiving a commission from the printers Goupil and Company for two pictures of African-American musicians to be lithographed for the European market. These became the last in a series of five life-size likenesses of musicians that Mount executed between 1849 and 1856.

[Oil on canvas, 91.76 x 73.98 cm]

Rembrandt - An Oriental [1635]

2012-01-04T09:05:00.001Z

Rembrandt - An Oriental [1635], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

A man wearing an oriental turban sits bathed in a golden glow. He has an old, lived-in face and regards us with a melancholy gaze. Although this portrait was attributed to Rembrandt, in 1989 the renowned Rembrandt Research Project stated that the painting was not by him. Later research revealed, however, that the wood came from the same tree as other panels painted by the master. It was also established that Rembrandt really must have signed the painting himself. It is possible that the panel was painted in Rembrandt’s studio, but by one of his pupils, however nowadays the painting is generally regarded as an authentic Rembrandt.

In 1631 Rembrandt moved from Leiden to Amsterdam, where he started painting what are known as 'tronies' - pictures of anonymous models in imaginary costumes. Rembrandt had more freedom to experiment in a tronie than in a commissioned portrait, and he used them to practise depicting different poses and expressions. The gold chain and jewel reveal a virtuoso touch, and the turban is rendered with great precision. Rembrandt has applied a thicker stroke of paint in a light colour where the gold and the pearl catch the light, so that it seems as if the jewel really gleams.

[Oil on panel, 72 x 54.5 cm]

Joaquim Sunyer - Fisherwoman

2012-01-03T10:44:00.001Z

Joaquim Sunyer - Fisherwoman, a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Joaquim Sunyer (Sitges, December 22, 1874 - Barcelona, November 1, 1956) was a Spanish painter. In 1896 he began to publish some pictures in the newspaper La Vanguardia, just before leaving for Paris, where he worked illustrating several books and magazines. He was in contact with Pablo Picasso and Manolo Hugue, participating in the Salon d’Automne of 1903 and 1904 .

[Oil on canvas, 73.5 x 60.5 cm]

Ambrosius Benson - The Magdalen Reading [c.1525]

2012-01-02T09:59:00.001Z

Ambrosius Benson - The Magdalen Reading [c.1525], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

The Magdalen is shown with her attribute, the pot of ointment with which she anointed Christ. This is one of many versions of the composition by Benson. The design may ultimately derive from a figure such by Rogier van der Weyden. It seems to have been a popular subject in the Low Countries in the 16th century. Benson came from Lombardy. In 1519 he was a master in Bruges, where he was working as a painter.

[Oil on oak, 41 x 36.2 cm]

Hans von Marées - Self-Portrait With Yellow Hat [1874]

2012-01-01T10:03:00.001Z

Hans von Marées - Self-Portrait With Yellow Hat [1874], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Facing the viewer with scarcely disguised directness, like Dürer’s famous, Christ-like self-portrait in Munich, with an expression of almost foreboding seriousness, his stick across his lap like a riding whip, lordly, unapproachable: the thirty-seven-year-old presents himself more like a nobleman or Grand Inquisitor than like an artist. He wants to be perceived as the guardian of a higher law corresponding to the concept of art that he lived by, which rises above the contingencies of society and daily life. At the time, Marées was living with his younger friend, the sculptor Adolf Hildebrand, in the former Monastery of San Francesco near Florence, which is alluded to in the Tuscan landscape in the background. The Naples fresco was just finished, and the unapologetic assurance with which it was created still sets the mood in the Berlin portrait despite its dark, matte coloration.

[Oil on canvas, 97 x 80 cm]

Alice Pike Barney - Agnes [1903]

2011-12-31T10:37:00.001Z

Alice Pike Barney - Agnes [1903], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Alice Pike Barney (Cincinnati, Ohio, January 14, 1857 - Los Angeles, California, 1931) was an American painter. She was active in Washington, D.C. and worked to make Washington into a centre of the arts.

[Oil on canvas, 50.8 x 40.6 cm]

Judith Leyster - A Boy and a Girl with a Cat and an Eel [c.1635]

2011-12-30T09:46:00.001Z

Judith Leyster - A Boy and a Girl with a Cat and an Eel [c.1635], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

It has recently been suggested that this painting serves as a warning against foolish and mischievous behaviour. The boy has used the small eel to entice the cat into his grasp and then withholds the bait, while the girl teases the cat further by pulling its tail. Judging by its extended claws the cat is about to scratch the boy. The picture thus seems to allude to the Dutch saying: 'He who plays with cats gets scratched', meaning he who looks for trouble will get it. It was common in Dutch 17th-century painting to use children in order to point out the foolish behaviour of adults.

Judith Leyster, a painter of genre scenes, portraits and still lifes, was mainly active in Haarlem and Amsterdam. In 1636 she married the painter Jan Molenaer.

[Oil on oak, 59.4 x 48.8 cm]

Robert Reid - The White Parasol [c.1907]

2011-12-29T09:23:00.001Z

Robert Reid - The White Parasol [c.1907], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

This painting shows Robert Reid’s young wife, Elizabeth Reeves, in the year of their wedding. Reid (Stockbridge, Massachusetts, 1862- Clifton Springs, New York, 1929) painted Elizabeth in a white gown surrounded by many different coloured flowers to emphasize her flawless porcelain skin. Their marriage lasted only a few years, and here the delicate colours and idealised setting suggest the optimism of young love. Reid's many paintings of girls immersed in nature emphasise the fragility and beauty of women, as if he equated them with the flowers, trees, and clouds.

[Oil on canvas, 91.4 x 76.2 cm]

Le Nain Brothers - Three Men and a Boy [c.1647-48]

2011-12-28T10:29:00.001Z

Le Nain Brothers - Three Men and a Boy [c.1647-48], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

It has been suggested that the three main figures in the painting may be portraits of the painter brothers Antoine, Louis and Mathieu Le Nain. Cleaning in 1968 revealed that the picture is unfinished; the head of a boy emerged under the considerable repainting. It was previously called A Trio of Geometers because the overpaint included in the foreground geometrical instruments and a globe.

[Oil on canvas, 54.1 x 64.5 cm]

Bartholomeus Bruyn the Elder - The Virgin, Saints and a Holy Woman [c.1530-40]

2011-12-27T10:54:00.001Z

Bartholomeus Bruyn the Elder - The Virgin, Saints and a Holy Woman [c.1530-40], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

The Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist, Saint Mary Magdalene and a Holy Woman are shown weeping, presumably over a figure of the dead Christ who was shown on the left. This was probably painted in Cologne in the 1530s, and must have been the right wing of a diptych. The left-hand panel of this diptych has not been traced. Bruyn is recorded in the painters' guild of Cologne in 1518; he was probably at work there by 1515. There are altars documented as by Bruyn in Essen (1522-55) and Xanten (1529-34). Many portraits are attributed to him.

[Oil on oak, 67.9 x 48.3 cm]

Charles Willson Peale - Benjamin and Eleanor Ridgely Laming [1788]

2011-12-26T09:02:00.001Z

Charles Willson Peale - Benjamin and Eleanor Ridgely Laming [1788], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Charles Willson Peale (American, 1741 - 1827) was a major figure in American science and art during the revolutionary period. His faith in the educational value of art led him to establish a painting academy in Philadelphia as early as 1795. When that venture failed, Peale combined his scientific and artistic interests in a museum. In 1788, the Lamings had asked him to do this double portrait. Peale's diary records his activity from 18 September, when he "sketched out the design" after dinner, to 5 October, when he added the final touches. Besides working on the picture, Peale studied natural history at the family's estate outside Baltimore.

Peale cleverly devised a leaning posture for the husband so that his bulk would not overshadow his petite wife. Moreover, this unusual, reclining attitude binds the couple closer together, telling of their love. The setting, "view of part of Baltimore Town," is appropriate for a wealthy Maryland merchant. The spyglass indicates Laming's interest in shippage by sea, and the green parrot perched behind his leg may recall his birth in the West Indies. Mrs. Laming's fruit and flowers, although traditional emblems of innocence and fertility, could also refer to her own gardening. The detailed attention paid to the bird, plants, scenery, and telescope attests to Peale's encyclopedic knowledge.

[Oil on canvas, 106 x 152.5 cm]

Berthe Morisot - Young Woman With Dog [1892]

2011-12-25T09:45:00.001Z

Berthe Morisot - Young Woman With Dog [1892], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

This painting was sold by Sotheby's on May 7, 2008 for $577,000.

[Oil on canvas, 65 x 81 cm]

Lilly Martin Spencer - Young Husband, First Marketing [1854]

2011-12-24T09:08:00.001Z

Lilly Martin Spencer - Young Husband, First Marketing [1854], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Spencer (American, 1822 – 1902) took a comic approach to the social anxieties of her time, especially in portraying her favourite subject - the roles of men and women. This befuddled young man ineptly attempts to do the food shopping for his household. The leering, grinning gentleman and sheepish servant girl in the background redouble his embarrassment as a chicken tumbles from the basket. Although men often did the grocery shopping in Ohio, where Spencer spent her early married life, the custom was unheard of in the East. New York viewers, who could have seen this painting at the National Academy of Design in spring 1854, would have been amused and perplexed. Indeed, the press deemed Young Husband offensive because it publicly ridiculed the man's gentility and incompetence.

[Oil on canvas, 74.9 x 62.9 cm]

Bartholomeus van der Helst - Family Portrait [1652]

2011-12-23T10:51:00.001Z

Bartholomeus van der Helst - Family Portrait [1652], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Bartholomeus van der Helst (Haarlem, c.1613 - Amsterdam, December 16, 1670) was a Dutch painter. He was the son of a Haarlem inn-keeper and presumably undertook part or all of his training in Amsterdam. From 1642, when he began to receive an increasing number of commissions for individual portraits, until 1670 he was the leading portrait painter of the ruling class in Amsterdam. From 1642 his technique in portrait painting gradually became more fluent and the rendering of costume materials more detailed.

[Oil on canvas, 187.5 x 226.5 cm]

Thomas Sully - The Torn Hat [1820]

2011-12-22T09:02:00.001Z

Thomas Sully - The Torn Hat [1820] , a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Even in an era devoted to showing children as truly childlike, Thomas Sully's portrait of his nine-year old son, Thomas Wilcocks Sully, is unusually informal. The older Sully (American, 1783 - 1872) was Philadelphia's leading portraitist in the early nineteenth century. This work displays his characteristically fluid use of paint, a skill he learned in London in emulation of his mentor, the British Romantic portraitist Sir Thomas Lawrence. The young Thomas is situated off-center, creating a feeling of movement and immediacy. He wears an open shirt, rumpled jacket, and straw hat. Such less restrictive costume was becoming more usual for children as it was acknowledged that play was beneficial and healthful for young people.

The detail of the torn hat suggests some real, human mischief on the part of the subject that is not apparent in the rosy sweetness of his face. The viewer wonders how the hat got torn, suggesting an element of narrative rare in a portrait and tying the picture to genre painting. The tear in the hat brim also afforded Sully the opportunity to show off his ability to paint a face under a complex pattern of light and shadow.

[Oil on panel, 48.58 x 37.15 cm]

Giovanni Battista Moroni - Bartolommeo Bonghi [c.1553]

2011-12-21T09:58:00.001Z

Giovanni Battista Moroni - Bartolommeo Bonghi [c.1553], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

The sitter's identity is established by an inscription that was added to the picture following Bonghi's death (the inscription has since been removed but is documented in photographs). A distinguished jurist, Bonghi holds a commentary on Justinian's Pandects (the codification of Roman civil law), which was dedicated to him in 1553 by its author, Camillo Plauzio. The painting seems to date from shortly after this time. Through the window is a view of the Torre Communale of Bergamo. Moroni was the foremost North Italian portraitist of his time and this picture is one of his finest works.

[Oil on canvas, 101.6 x 81.9 cm]

Auguste Renoir - By the Seashore [1883]

2011-12-20T08:58:00.001Z

Auguste Renoir - By the Seashore [1883], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Like other artists who painted in an Impressionist style in the 1870s, Renoir eventually began to explore a different manner of painting. A trip to Italy in 1881–82 brought prolonged exposure to Renaissance art and led him to emphasize contours and modeling in his painting. He also began to abandon the notion that scenes should be painted outdoors to capture nuances of light and atmosphere. This painting is thought to have been painted in the artist's studio, where Renoir's model, Aline Charigot, whom he married in 1890, posed in a wicker chair. Although Renoir visited Guernsey the year this painting was made, the beach depicted here is probably not in the Channel Islands but near Dieppe, on the Normandy coast.

[Oil on canvas, 92.1 x 72.4 cm]

Rogier van der Weyden - Portrait of a Woman with a Winged Bonnet [c.1440]

2011-12-19T10:10:00.001Z

Rogier van der Weyden - Portrait of a Woman with a Winged Bonnet [c.1440], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

The intimate quality of this portrait and the woman's direct look at the viewer gave rise to the supposition that perhaps the subject was the painter's wife. Rogier van der Weyden (Tournai, France, 1399 - Brussels, 1464) married Elisabeth Goffaert of Brussels in 1426. The portrait was apparently painted when Rogier had taken up his office as town painter of Brussels.

[Oil on oak, 47 x 32 cm]

Gabriel Metsu - A Man and a Woman Seated by a Virginal [c.1665]

2011-12-18T09:41:00.001Z

Gabriel Metsu - A Man and a Woman Seated by a Virginal [c.1665], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

The painting is probably a relatively early work, from the mid-1660s, when Metsu had moved from Leiden to Amsterdam. On the rear wall of the room hangs a painting of a Twelfth Night Feast partially concealed by a curtain. It is based on a painting of this subject by Metsu himself now in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich. There is also a landscape in the style of Jacob van Ruisdael. Inscriptions from the Psalms decorate the virginal, which appears in other works by Metsu.

Metsu was the son of a painter of Flemish origin. He lived in Leiden (except for a short absence in 1651) until 1657, when he moved to Amsterdam, where he lived for the rest of his life.

[Oil on oak, 38.4 x 32.2 cm]

Edgar Degas - Degas’ Father Listening to Lorenzo Pagans Playing the Guitar [c.1869-72]

2011-12-17T09:48:00.001Z

Edgar Degas - Degas’ Father Listening to Lorenzo Pagans Playing the Guitar [c.1869-72], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

[Oil on canvas, 81.6 x 65.1 cm]

John Singer Sargent - Mrs Charles E. Inches (Louise Pomeroy) [1887]

2011-12-16T09:07:00.001Z

John Singer Sargent - Mrs Charles E. Inches (Louise Pomeroy) [1887], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

In 1887, Sargent made his first visit to the United States as a working artist. In New York, Newport, and Boston, Sargent painted more than twelve formal portraits, aided in his endeavors by author and friend Henry James' description of his talent and his previous success in the Parisian art world. During this trip, Sargent painted Louise Pomeroy Inches of Boston. He arrived in the city early in 1887 and stayed with his friends Mary Louisa and Edward Boit (who had returned from Paris in 1886, bringing with them Sargent's 1882 portrait of their daughters. The Boits lived around the corner from Charles and Louise Inches and it is likely that Boit, who was Charles Inches's first cousin, introduced them to Sargent and may have encouraged the idea of a portrait. Boit documented the Inches commission in his diary and noted that it was completed by Christmas Eve, when he went to their home at 88 Charles Street to see "Charley's wife's portrait by Sargent," describing it as "a beautiful picture."

[Oil on canvas, 86.36 x 60.64 cm]

Edward Hopper - Self Portrait [c.1903]

2011-12-15T08:47:00.001Z

Edward Hopper - Self Portrait [c.1903], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

[Oil on canvas, 51.43 x 41.27 cm]

Walter Langley - Breton Fisherman

2011-12-14T09:44:00.001Z

Walter Langley - Breton Fisherman, a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Walter Langley (Birmingham, June 8, 1852 - March 21, 1922) was an English painter and founder of the Newlyn School of plein air artists. Politically left wing for his era, he was noted for his social realist portrayals of working class figures, particularly fishermen and their families. Many of his paintings reflect his sympathy with the working class fisher-folk amongst whom he lived.

Although one of the first to settle in the Newlyn artists' colony Newlyn School, Langley initially benefited little from its growing fame, partly because of his working class origins and partly because until 1892 he painted largely in watercolour rather than the more prestigious medium of oils, but his early training in lithography gives his paintings a detail and texture that show his technical skills.

[Watercolour, 35.6 x 27.9 cm]

Paul Barbier - Head of a Girl in a Bluish Tunic [late 18th century]

2011-12-13T08:58:00.001Z

Paul Barbier - Head of a Girl in a Bluish Tunic [late 18th century] , a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Paul Barbier, a French painter, worked in Russia at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century. For a long time historians of art took him for another French artist, Nicola Alexander Barbier.

[Pastel on parchment, 40.3 x 32.2 cm]

Ralph Earl - Elijah Boardman [1789]

2011-12-12T10:09:00.001Z

Ralph Earl - Elijah Boardman [1789], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

For the New Milford, Connecticut, dry-goods merchant Boardman, Earl (American, 1751 – 1801) devised a tableau that would tell the story of Boardman's profession with an encyclopedia of specific objects, iridescent taffetas, pretty calicoes, expensive imported textiles, and would advertise his own skills. Both the shopkeeper and the artist operated in the burgeoning market economy that flourished after the Revolution. A decade earlier, a rural dry-goods merchant would have been an importer with a ship at sea or a huckster with a wagon, and a country portraitist would have been itinerant. The seductive salesman who cultivates consumer desire was an entirely modern notion. Boardman's elegant attire, from his perfect coiffure to his satin waistcoat to his matching jeweled knee and shoe buckles, not only befits a man who sells luxury goods but also inspires confidence that he will expertly guide customers in making the correct choices in his shop.

[Oil on canvas, 210.8 x 129.5 cm]

Philippe de Champaigne - Moses Presenting the Tablets of the Law [c.1648]

2011-12-11T09:11:00.001Z

Moses Presenting the Tablets of the Law [c.1648], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Brussels-born French artist Philippe de Champaigne (1602 - 1674) enjoyed a 40-year career painting for aristocracy that included Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu. His attraction to the strict Jansenist Catholic reform movement may have underlain the rigorous truthfulness and careful skill that he brought to his intelligent interpretation of portraits and religious themes. Champaigne’s asceticism and sincerity are evident in this portrayal of a courtly but exotic Moses presenting the Ten Commandments. With characteristic concern for accuracy, Champaigne arranged the commandments in the order recommended by contemporary theologians and on tablets whose rectangular shape was considered authentic. His powerful naturalism, depicting each wrinkle and dirty fingernail as faithfully as the texture of the velvet, eloquently conveys the humble fervor of the prophet.

[Oil on canvas, 99.06 x 76.2 cm]

Zinaida Serebriakova - Portrait of Olga Konstantinovna Lancere [1910]

2011-12-10T10:08:00.001Z

Zinaida Serebriakova - Portrait of Olga Konstantinovna Lancere [1910], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Zinaida Yevgenyevna Serebriakova (née Lanceray) (Neskuchnoye, December 10, 1884 – Paris, September 19, 1967) was among the first female Russian paintes of distinction. In the autumn of 1924, Serebriakova went to Paris, having received a commission for a large decorative mural. On finishing this work, she intended to return to the Soviet Union, where her mother and the four children remained. However, she was not able to return, and although she was able to bring her younger children, Alexandre and Catherine, to Paris in 1926 and 1928 respectively, she could not do the same for her two older children, Evgenyi and Tatiana, and did not see them again for many years.

Jean Fouquet - Etienne Chevalier with Saint Stephen [c.1454]

2011-12-09T09:10:00.001Z

Jean Fouquet - Etienne Chevalier with Saint Stephen [c.1454], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

This panel was originally the left-hand half of a diptych in the cathedral of Notre Dame de Melun, placed over the tomb of the founder's wife. The corresponding right-hand wing with a depiction of the Madonna is now in Antwerp. The founder, Étienne Chevalier, is kneeling in the foreground, accompanied by his patron saint, St. Stephen. The sharp-edged stone on the book in his hand refers to the stoning by which the martyr met his death. Étienne Chevalier was ambassador and chancellor under Charles VII and Louis XI of France and was entrusted with numerous diplomatic missions. In 1463, he was sent to Lille to redeem the cities on the Somme from fiefdom to Burgundy.

Jean Fouquet (Tours, 1420 - Tours, 1478-81) was a prominent painter of the 15th century, valued for his panel painting and illuminated manuscripts. He is also celebrated as the pioneer of the art of portrait miniature. Importantly, he was the first artist to undertake a journey to Italy, in 1437, and experienced the early Italian Renaissance at first hand. In Italy he got to know several Renaissance artists, such as Fra Angelico and Filarete, whose influence are evident in his works after this period. During his stay he executed a portrait of Pope Eugene IV. Later in life, he became the court painter to Louis XI of France.

[Oil on oak, 93 x 85 cm]

Callisto Piazza - Portrait of a Man [c.1528]

2011-12-08T09:20:00.001Z

Callisto Piazza - Portrait of a Man [c.1528], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Formerly ascribed to Romanino, this portrait, which may depict Ghirardo Averoldi, shows pronounced Brescian influence. It can be compared with portraits by Moretto da Brescia and those by Giovanni Battista Moroni. Piazza was a member of a family of artists active in Lodi. He seems to have worked in Brescia from about 1523 to 1529, when he returned to Lodi. He was a follower of Romananino and his work has sometimes been confused with his.

[Oil on wood, 76 x 58.7 cm]

Mary Titcomb - Afternoon Tea

2011-12-07T10:52:00.001Z

Mary Titcomb - Afternoon Tea, a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Mary Titcomb (Windham, New Hampshire, 1858 - Marblehead, Massachusetts, 1927) was a professional artist in the Boston area and regularly travelled and painted in the West. She was also a long-time art teacher in the Massachusetts public schools, a career she ended in 1901 when she was age forty-four to become a full-time artist.

She attended public schools and at the age of twenty eight moved to Boston where she lived at the YWCA and studied at Massachusetts Normal Art School and the Boston Museum School with Edmund Tarbell, Philip Leslie Hale, and Frank W Benson. She established herself as a highly independent woman, becoming Director of Drawing for Brockton public schools and showing regularly at the Copley Society.

[Oil on canvas, 36 x 26.6 inches]

Horace Vernet - Head of an Arab [c.1819]

2011-12-06T09:08:00.001Z

Horace Vernet - Head of an Arab [c.1819], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

This is either a preparatory study for Vernet's now lost painting Ismail and Mariam (1819) or an enlarged copy of the central figure. The subject is derived from Voyage dans le Levant by the Comte de Forbin (1819), which tells of the tragic love of the young Arab Ismail for the Christian girl Mariam. After Mariam's death, Ismail is forced to leave the place where she is buried, but comes to the grave and opens it in order to look on his beloved one last time. Suddenly a sandstorm blows up and buries Ismail alongside the girl. The theme of fateful passion, the dynamic contrasts of light and shade, the effective contrast of the dusky face and the white turban, and the artist's interest in depicting feelings and emotions (note the bowed head, the sorrowful gaze) give this painting much in common with the work of the Romantic artists.

[Oil on canvas, 55.5 x 43 cm]

Horace Vernet - Self-Portrait [1835]

2011-12-05T10:20:00.001Z

Horace Vernet - Self-Portrait [1835], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Here Vernet depicted himself in his studio in Rome after a journey through North Africa. Oriental exotica, the white baggy trousers, a red scarf at the waist, the blue fez, the long pipe, weaponry and carpet, are set against the prosaic details of the interior: the simple chair, the iron stove. Behind Vernet is a large empty canvas, suggesting that the artist is deep in thought, meditating of his next picture. Without being a particularly deep psychological study, this self-portrait provides us with an idea of Vernet's character: his sober, perceptive mind, self-confidence and tendency to show-off.

[Oil on canvas, 47 x 39 cm]

Sir Henry Raeburn - The Skating Minister [c.1795]

2011-12-04T10:10:00.001Z

Sir Henry Raeburn - The Skating Minister [c.1795], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

This serene skater is thought to be the Reverend Robert Walker, minister of the Canongate Kirk and a member of the Edinburgh Skating Society. The club, the oldest of its kind in Britain, usually met on the frozen lochs of Duddingston or Lochend on the outskirts of Edinburgh. Walker's pose, as he glides across the ice, looks effortless, but would have been recognised by fellow skaters as a difficult and sophisticated manoeuvre. This small picture, showing a figure in action, is quite unlike other known portraits by Raeburn.

Originally apprenticed to a goldsmith, Henry Raeburn (Scottish, 1756 - 1823) showed enormous artistic talent as a young man. In 1784 he moved to London where he met the important portrait painter Joshua Reynolds. He spent some time in Italy but returned to Edinburgh in 1787 where he began painting portraits of the rich, famous and important people of his day. He was in constant demand and received many honours: in 1822 he was knighted when the King visited Edinburgh. Sir Henry Raeburn died a year later.

[Oil on canvas, 76.2 x 63.5 cm]

Lord Frederick Leighton - Gulnihal [c.1886]

2011-12-03T09:49:00.001Z

Lord Frederick Leighton - Gulnihal [c.1886], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

[Oil on canvas, 36.5 x 43.8 cm]

Rembrandt - A Bearded Man in a Cap [late 1650s]

2011-12-02T08:44:00.001Z

Rembrandt - A Bearded Man in a Cap [late 1650s], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

This is one of a group of studies from life made by Rembrandt in the late 1650s. The last digit of the date is almost illegible, but may be a 7. The painting falls into the category of 'tronies' (literally, heads). Although the artist most certainly used a model, the identity of the sitter is irrelevant. These works were intended as character studies, or as representations of a person in a particular role. In the 17th century, collectors appreciated them for the portrayal of particular facial expressions and for the illusionistic rendering of different surface textures.

[Oil on canvas, 78 x 66.7 cm]

Robert Reid - Fleur de Lis [c.1895-1900]

2011-12-01T18:01:00.001Z

Robert Reid - Fleur de Lis [c.1895-1900], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

[Oil on canvas, 112.1 x 108.6 cm]

Rogier van der Weyden - The Magdalen Reading [before 1438]

2011-11-09T09:56:00.001Z

Rogier van der Weyden - The Magdalen Reading [before 1438], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

This is a fragment cut from a larger painting, evidently an altarpiece of the Virgin and Child with Saints. It shows Mary Magdalene, with Saint Joseph behind, and the bare feet and red robe of Saint John the Evangelist on the left. The jar in the foreground contains the ointment which Mary Magdalene used to anoint Jesus' feet as she wept over them, repenting of her sins. She subsequently devoted her life to holy works, and is represented reading a holy book. Her clothes are sumptuous: her fur-lined dress is turned back to reveal a bejewelled underdress. The wooden cupboard suggests that the scene was set in a rich domestic interior. The background includes a detailed landscape view.

[Oil on mahogany, transferred from another panel. 62.2 x 54.4 cm]

Dietz Edzard - Spanish Dancer [1943]

2011-11-08T08:43:00.001Z

Dietz Edzard - Spanish Dancer [1943], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Dietz Edzard (Bremen, 1893 - 1963) was a German painter. He travelled extensively through Germany, Holland and France. Edzard, a colourful artist who has carried on the traditions of the masters of French Impressionism, studied painting with Max Beckmann. In 1929, Edzard’s work was included in an exhibition of Contemporary Painting at the Jeu de Paume, Paris, a museum dedicated to the Impressionist masters. In 1938, Edzard married Suzanne Eisendieck (1908-1998), a well-regarded artist in her own right who worked in an impressionistic style.

[Oil on canvas, 25.75 x 19.375 inches]

Giovanni Boldini - Count Robert de Montesquiou [1897]

2011-11-07T08:44:00.001Z

Giovanni Boldini - Count Robert de Montesquiou [1897], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Giovanni Boldini (December 31, 1842 – July 11, 1931) was an Italian genre and portrait painter, belonging to the School Of Paris. According to a 1933 article in Time magazine, he was known as the "Master of Swish" because of his flowing style of painting.

[Oil on canvas, 115.5 x 82.5 cm]

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot - Young Girl Reading [c.1868]

2011-11-06T09:45:00.000Z

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot - Young Girl Reading [c.1868], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

[Oil on paperboard on wood, 32.5 x 41.3 cm]

Kenyon Cox - Augustus Saint-Gaudens [1908]

2011-11-05T09:12:00.001Z

Kenyon Cox - Augustus Saint-Gaudens [1908], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

The original painting of sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens was completed in 1887 and burned in 1904. This replica was painted in 1908.

[Oil on canvas, 85.1 x 119.7 cm]

Paul Cézanne - The Artist’s Father, Reading L'Evénement [1866]

2011-11-04T09:20:00.001Z

Paul Cézanne - The Artist’s Father, Reading L'Evénement [1866], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

In this painting Cézanne explored his emotionally charged relationship with his banker father. Tension is particularly evident in the energetic, expressive paint handling, an exaggeration of Courbet's palette knife technique. The unyielding figure of Louis-Auguste Cézanne, the newspaper he is reading, his chair, and the room are described with obtrusively thick slabs of pigment.

In this calculated composition, he seated his father precariously near the edge of the chair and tilted the perspectival slope of the floor as though trying to tip his father out of the picture, an effect heightened by the contrast between his father's heavy legs and shoes and the delicate feet of the chair supporting him. The framed painting displayed on the back wall is a still life that Cézanne painted shortly before The Artist's Father, a statement of his artistic accomplishment. The newspaper L'Evénement refers to novelist Emile Zola, the childhood friend who championed Cézanne's bid to study art in Paris and who became art critic for the paper in 1866. Cézanne's father customarily read another journal.

[Oil on canvas, 198.5 x 119.3 cm]

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres - Joséphine-Éléonore-Marie-Pauline de Galard de Brassac de Béarn, Princesse de Broglie [1851-53]

2011-11-03T09:21:00.001Z

Joséphine-Éléonore-Marie-Pauline de Galard de Brassac de Béarn, Princesse de Broglie [1851-53], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Although portraiture was a genre he increasingly came to dislike, Ingres depicted many of the leading personalities of his day. This splendid painting of Joséphine-Eléonore-Marie-Pauline de Galard de Brassace de Béarn, Princesse de Broglie, is his last commissioned portrait of a female sitter. The Princesse, a member of the most cultivated circles of the Second Empire, was renowned for her great beauty as well as her reserve, both qualities captured in this portrait. Ingres's facility for brilliantly transcribing the material quality of objects is seen in the rich satin and lace of the sitter's gown, the silk damask upholstery, and the richly embroidered evening scarf draped across the chair. Also rendered in exquisite detail are the princesse's sumptuous jewels, which include the fashionable antique-inspired pendant around her neck.

The Princesse de Broglie died of consumption at the age of thirty-five. Her bereaved husband kept this portrait behind draperies in perpetual tribute to her memory. It remained in the family until shortly before it was acquired by Robert Lehman and retains the original, ornately carved frame that Ingres himself selected.

[Oil on canvas, 121.3 x 90.8 cm]

William Bouguereau - Les Oranges

2011-11-02T10:40:00.001Z

William Bouguereau - Les Oranges, a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

[Oil on canvas, 46.125 x 35.625 inches]

Francesco Melzi - Flora [1510-15]

2011-11-01T08:58:00.001Z

Francesco Melzi - Flora [1510-15], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Francesco Melzi (c.1491 – 1570) was Leonardo da Vinci's favourite pupil who followed the master to France, remaining with him to the end of his life. Melzi's paintings are rarely found in the world museums. In style Flora recalls the works of Leonardo, with the same soft sfumato (one of the four canonical painting modes of the Renaissance) used to model forms, the same elegant restraint to the colour, that soft half-smile on the lips of the sitter.

In Classical mythology Flora was the wife of Zephyr, the west wind of springtime, and mother of all the plants. It is she who feeds and brings life, and thus is shown with naked breasts. The stones of the mysterious grotto in which Flora is placed are covered with various grasses and flowers. With a gracious turn of the head she is looking at a columbine or aquilegia, symbol of fertility.

[Oil on canvas, 76 x 63 cm]

Anders Zorn - Frieda Schiff [1894]

2011-10-31T10:04:00.001Z

Anders Zorn - Frieda Schiff [1894], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Anders Zorn made his reputation as a portrait painter. Fashionable people of wealth on both sides of the Atlantic vied for sittings, knowing that the result would be a picture less theatrical than a portrait by Boldini but more vivid than one by Sargent. Zorn often gave his portraits a sense of immediacy by depicting the subject as if he or she were just entering the room, thus directly addressing the viewer. This portrait was painted in 1894 on Zorn's first trip to America.

[Oil on canvas, 101 x 76.2 cm]

Bronzino - Saint Sebastian [c.1533]

2011-10-30T09:21:00.001Z

Bronzino - Saint Sebastian [c.1533], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Agnolo di Cosimo di Mariano was born in 1503 in Monticelli, a small town near Florence. From the outset of his career he was known as Bronzino, a nickname whose origins are unknown. He first trained as a painter with Raffaellino del Garbo and then with Pontormo, who became not only his teacher and most important artistic reference but also a close friend for life. During the early years of his career Bronzino collaborated with Pontormo on easel paintings and decorative fresco cycles such as the one for the church of Santa Felicità in Florence. In 1539 Bronzino was involved in the decorations to celebrate the marriage of Duke Cosimo I de'Medici and Eleonora of Toledo, and at that point was appointed court painter to the Duke.

Bronzino produced religious and mythological paintings but was particularly outstanding as a portraitist. Rather than depicting every detail of the sitter's appearance, Bronzino focused on aspects such as social position, the elegance of the pose and the restraint and bearing of his models. In his portraits, elements such as the rich, brightly coloured materials, jewels, gleaming armour and complex hairstyles all acquire great importance through their decorative merit and ability to suggest power and wealth.

[Oil on panel, 87 x 76.5 cm]

Rosalba Giovanna Carriera - Portrait of a Man

2011-10-29T10:04:00.001+01:00

Rosalba Giovanna Carriera - Portrait of a Man, a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Rosalba Carriera was one of the most successful women artists of her generation. Her pastel portraits in delicate and subtly blended colours attracted an international clientele and were particularly popular among British, French and German travellers. This portrait was probably executed in Venice, but the sitter may have been a foreign visitor to the city.

Carriera was born in Venice, and was an internationally celebrated portrait pastellist, often portraying foreign visitors. In 1705 she was elected a member of the Accademia di San Luca, Rome. In 1720-21 she was in Paris, where her work was received with great admiration. Her more sentimental pictures, especially of young girls, seem to anticipate Greuze.

[Pastel on paper, 57.8 x 47 cm]

Kenyon Cox - The Silver Hand Glass [1907]

2011-10-28T09:27:00.001+01:00

Kenyon Cox - The Silver Hand Glass [1907], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Kenyon Cox (October 27, 1856 – March 17, 1919) was an American painter, illustrator, muralist, writer, and teacher. Cox’s art was very different from the cubist, neo-impressionist, fauvist, expressionist and modernist styles that emerged during his lifetime. He advocated careful drawing and modulated colour, and he frequently used allegory and symbolism to present his ideas. Kenyon Cox painted in the realistic manner and earned a reputation for landscapes, portraits and genre studies. His idealised nudes and traditional treatment of classical themes had little in common with the popular avant-garde art of the day.

[Oil on canvas, 61.2 x 50.8 cm]

Jerome Blum - Portrait of John Masefield [1918]

2011-10-27T10:05:00.001+01:00

Jerome Blum - Portrait of John Masefield [1918], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Jerome Blum (Chicago, Illinois, 1884 - Poughkeepsie, New York, 1956) was an American artist.

John Masefield (Ledbury, Herefordshire, June 1, 1878 - May 12, 1967) was an English poet and writer, and Poet Laureate from 1930 until his death.

[Oil on paper mounted on paperboard, 54.6 x 45.7 cm]

Guido Reni - Saint Cecilia [1606]

2011-10-26T08:41:00.001+01:00

Guido Reni - Saint Cecilia [1606], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Guido Reni (November 4, 1575 – August 18, 1642) was a prominent Italian painter of high-Baroque style. Born in Bologna into a family of musicians, Guido Reni was the son of Daniele Reni and Ginevra de’ Pozzi. As a child of nine, he was apprenticed under the Bolognese studio of Denis Calvaert. Soon after, he was joined in that studio by Albani and Domenichino. Reni died in Bologna in 1642. He is buried with Elisabetta Sirani in the Rosary Chapel of the Basilica of San Domenico in Bologna.

Mats Mason - Travailleur Italien [1923]

2011-10-25T08:57:00.001+01:00

Mats Mason - Travailleur Italien [1923], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

[Oil on canvas, 59.5 x 50 cm]

James Abbot McNeill Whistler - Arrangement in Grey: Portrait of the Painter [c.1872]

2011-10-24T10:10:00.001+01:00

James Abbot McNeill Whistler - Arrangement in Grey: Portrait of the Painter [c.1872], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

[Oil on canvas, 74.9 x 53.3 cm]

Franz von Lenbach - Girl with a Fan [1880s]

2011-10-23T09:49:00.001+01:00

Franz von Lenbach - Girl with a Fan [1880s], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

[Italian pencil and pastel on grey cardboard, partially tinted with white, 72 x 57 cm]

Rembrandt Peale - Portrait of Rosalba Peale [c.1820]

2011-10-22T09:27:00.001+01:00

Rembrandt Peale - Portrait of Rosalba Peale [c.1820], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Rembrandt Peale (Philadelphia, 1778 - Philadelphia, 1860) tutored his daughter Rosalba (1799-1874) in art and raised her as an independent and strong-minded woman. Author and critic John Neal wrote that "Her mind is excellent. Her father has always taught her to think for herself, to reason, and to be firm, without wrangling or argument, in the expression of her opinions." Although Rosa had many suitors, she refused to wed "the everyday man" and did not marry until she was sixty-two years old. In this portrait, made when she was in her early twenties, Rosalba's pensive expression conveys the alert mind and thoughtful conversation that won the admiration of others.

[Oil on canvas, 50.8 x 37 cm]

John Everett Millais - Portia (Kate Dolan) [1886]

2011-10-21T09:16:00.001+01:00

John Everett Millais - Portia (Kate Dolan) [1886], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

This picture was long incorrectly identified as a portrait of the actress Ellen Terry (1847–1928) in one of her most famous roles, Portia in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. In fact, it shows actress Kate Dolan dressed in the costume that Miss Terry wore in Act IV of the play. When the picture was exhibited at McLean's Gallery, London, in 1886, Shylock's line describing Portia was quoted in the catalogue: "A Daniel come to judgement! Yea, a Daniel!"

X-rays and pentimenti indicate that Portia is painted over a study of the same figure in Greek costume. An early photograph documenting the original image was published in 1899.

[Oil on canvas, 125.1 x 83.8 cm]

Albrecht Dürer - Portrait of the Artist’s Father [1490]

2011-10-20T08:58:00.001+01:00

Albrecht Dürer - Portrait of the Artist’s Father [1490], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

This portrait of the artist's father was most likely part of a diptych with the portrait of his mother, Barbara Holper, since the coat of arms of both families are present on the back. It was acquired by Cardinal Leopoldo de' Medici before 1675, inventoried that year in his collection. It came to the Uffizi Gallery in 1773. Even in this early portrait the characteristics of his work are evident- both the representation of minute detail typical of northern art and the plasticity typical of the Italian Renaissance.

[Oil on panel, 47.5 x 39.5 cm]

Anton Raphael Mengs - Johann Joachim Winckelmann [c.1777]

2011-10-19T09:33:00.001+01:00

Anton Raphael Mengs - Johann Joachim Winckelmann [c.1777], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Johann Joachim Winckelmann was one of the most influential writers on art and archeology - his History of Ancient Art was published in German in 1764. He was also a close friend and admirer of Mengs. Both were leading exponents of the nascent Neoclassical movement in Rome. In this idealised posthumous portrait Winkelmann is shown holding a Greek edition of Homer's Iliad.

[Oil on canvas, 63.5 x 49.2 cm]

Andrea Solario - Salome with the Head of Saint John the Baptist

2011-10-18T09:08:00.001+01:00

Andrea Solario - Salome with the Heat of Saint John the Baptist, a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Solario (c.1465 - 1524) worked in Milan after 1493, and in 1507 was invited to France, where he decorated a chapel at Château Gaillon for Cardinal Georges d'Amboise, Archbishop of Rouen. Between his return from France in 1510 and his death fourteen years later, he painted a number of variants on the present composition, of which this is one of the most notable. The descriptive naturalism of the picture is indebted to Netherlandish painting. Rather than recreate a narrative of Saint John's execution, Solario paints a closeup contrasting the girlish beauty of Salome with the decapitated head of her victim.

[Oil on wood, 57.2 x 47 cm]

Pierre Auguste Renoir - Madame Georges Charpentier and Her Children [1878]

2011-10-17T09:40:00.001+01:00

Madame Georges Charpentier and Her Children [1878], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Renoir had participated in the first three Impressionist exhibitions, but in 1879, he declined the fourth and returned to the more traditional annual Salon. This painting was one of the paintings he exhibited there, to great acclaim. It had been commissioned by the publisher Georges Charpentier, whose stable of authors included Gustave Flaubert, the Goncourt brothers, and Émile Zola.

Wearing an elegant Worth gown, Marguérite Charpentier sits beside her three-year-old son, Paul. Following the fashion of the time, his hair has not yet been cut and his clothes match those of his sister, Georgette, who perches on the family dog. Pleased with the painting, Madame Charpentier used her influence to ensure that it was hung in a choice spot at the Salon and introduced Renoir to her friends, several of whom commissioned work from him.

[Oil on canvas, 153.7 x 190.2 cm]

Alexis Grimou - Young Woman in a Theatrical Costume [1730s]

2011-10-16T09:45:00.001+01:00

Young Woman in a Theatrical Costume [1730s], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

[Oil on canvas, 74 x 59 cm]

Marie-Denise Villers - Young Woman Drawing [1801]

2011-10-15T10:59:00.001+01:00

Marie-Denise Villers - Young Woman Drawing [1801], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

At one time ascribed to Jacques-Louis David, this alluring portrait has now been recognised as the work of Marie-Denise Villers. Although little known today, Villers was a gifted pupil of Girodet and exhibited in the Salons, where her portraits attracted attention. This work, which may be a self-portrait, was exhibited in the Salon of 1801.

[Oil on canvas, 161.3 x 128.6 cm]

Richard Bergh - Editor Fredrik Vult von Steijern with his wife Gerda [1891-93]

2011-10-14T08:45:00.001+01:00

Richard Bergh - Editor Fredrik Vult von Steijern with his wife Gerda [1891-93], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Sven Richard Bergh (Stockholm, December 28, 1858 – Stockholm, January 29, 1919) was a well-known Swedish painter. His paintings often depicted Swedish landscapes and portraits. In 1915, Bergh became the director of the Swedish National Museum. Bergh's portraits of his friends have become his most enduring paintings. In the 1890s, Bergh established an art school at his atelier in Stockholm.

[Oil on canvas, 109 x 91 and 115 x 93.5 cm]

Petrus Christus - Portrait of a Young Woman [c.1470]

2011-10-13T08:49:00.001+01:00

Petrus Christus - Portrait of a Young Woman [c.1470], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Petrus Christus's portraits are the first in Netherlandish painting to show the subject in concrete spatial surroundings, which adds a great deal to the immediacy of their appearance. Neither Robert Campin nor Jan van Eyck took the opportunity of presenting the subject in appropriate surroundings.

The Flemish painter Petrus Christus (Baarle-Hertog, 1420 - Bruges, 1473) was an apprentice of Jan van Eyck, whose workshop he assumed after his death. He combined the influences of his master with the styles of Rogier van der Weyden and Robert Campin. He drew religious paintings but excelled especially at portraits. They are characterised by their static soberness and their concentration on a few mimic details. The background of the paintings is reduced but remains specific in its spatiality.

[Oil on oak, 29 x 22.5 cm]

Unknown Artist - Nicholas Lanier [1613]

2011-10-12T09:54:00.001+01:00

Unknown Artist - Nicholas Lanier [1613], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Nicholas Lanier, a true Renaissance polymath, one of the most influential court musicians of the seventeenth century, was Master of the King’s Musick, as well as an accomplished artist and collector, given free reign to shape the Royal collection for Charles I, and given ear to the social élite, rumoured to be involved in political and ambassadorial espionage.

This extraordinary portrait of an extraordinary man at the beginning of his career, is unprecedented in its virtuosity within the context of English painting at this time, and opens a window upon the culture and connoisseurship of an individual at the vanguard of artistic expression in Jacobean England. As yet the attribution remains an enigma, however this intriguing portrait was clearly painted by a highly accomplished artist, who moved in the same artistic circle as his sitter, and with whom Lanier closely collaborated in fashioning this important image.

[Oil on panel transferred to canvas, 90.5 x 72 cm]

Gustav Klimt - Portrait of Hermine Gallia [1904]

2011-10-11T08:40:00.001+01:00

Gustav Klimt - Portrait of Hermine Gallia [1904], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

The sitter is Hermine Gallia, née Hamburger (1870 - 1936). In 1893 she married her uncle, Moritz Gallia, a government adviser who became a leading patron of the arts. In this painting she wears a dress designed by Klimt. Numerous drawings exist for the composition of this work, and several alterations are visible to the naked eye, much of the figure's contour having been altered. In 1903 the painting was shown in an unfinished state in the Klimt-Kollective exhibition.

[Oil on canvas, 170.5 x 96.5 cm]

William Hoare - Portrait of Ayuba Suleiman Diallo

2011-10-10T09:37:00.001+01:00

William Hoare - Portrait of Ayuba Suleiman Diallo, a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

William Hoare RA (c1707 – December 12, 1792) was an English painter and printmaker, co-founder of the Royal Academy noted for his pastels. Born near Eye, Suffolk, Hoare received a gentleman’s education in Farringdon. He showed a marked aptitude for drawing and was sent to London to study under Giuseppe Grisoni, who had left Florence for London in 1715. When Grisoni returned to Italy in 1728, Hoare went with him, travelling to Rome and continuing his studies under the direction of Francesco Imperiali. He remained in Rome for nine years, returning to London in 1737/8. Failing to establish himself in London, Hoare settled in Bath, an expanding spa town popular with the wealthier classes. Hoare was closely involved with the running of the Royal Mineral Water Hospital in Bath from 1742. He served as a governor of the hospital and became acquainted with Bath's notable visitors and the neighbouring landed families. He died at Bath on December 12, 1792.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - Aristide Bruant, dans son Cabaret [1893]

2011-10-09T09:45:00.001+01:00

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - Aristide Bruant, dans son Cabaret [1893], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

[Colour lithograph, 128 x 95.3 cm]

Hildegard Throrell - Portrait of Fanny Brate [1918]

2011-10-08T09:43:00.001+01:00

Hildegard Throrell - Portrait of Fanny Brate [1918], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

[Oil on canvas, 54.5 x 43 cm]

Fanny Brate - Nätbindare [1932]

2011-10-07T09:07:00.001+01:00

Fanny Brate - Nätbindare [1932], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Fanny Ingeborg Matilda Brate, nee Ekbom, (Stockholm, February 26, 1862 – April 24, 1940) was a Swedish painter. She influenced Carl Larsson, and her work is seen as the inspiration for his watercolors of idyllic family life. The National Museum held a memorial exhibition of her collected works in 1943, where 126 works were displayed. She painted both in oil and watercolour. Her work has significant cultural heritage value in its depiction of Swedish nineteenth century Bourgeoisie life.

[Oil on canvas, 52 x 42 cm]

Andy Warhol - Self-Portrait [1978]

2011-10-06T08:50:00.001+01:00

Andy Warhol - Self-Portrait [1978], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

[Colour silkscreen print, published by Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 106 x 74.5 cm]

Nikolai Petrovich Bogdanov-Belsky - Portrait of Maria Abamelek-Lazareva

2011-10-05T10:09:00.001+01:00

Nikolai Petrovich Bogdanov-Belsky - Portrait of Maria Abamelek-Lazareva, a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Nikolai Petrovich Bogdanov-Belsky (Shitki, 1868 – Berlin, 1945) was a Russian painter. He painted mostly genre paintings, especially of the education of peasant children, portraits, and impressionistic landscapes studies. He became pedagogue and academician in 1903. He was an active Member of the Academy of Arts in 1914. He died in 1945 in Berlin.

[Oil on canvas, 142.5 x 82.5 cm]