“Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.”
Edgar Degas
Allegory of Peace and War by Pompeo Girolamo Batoni, 1776 Regarded in his maturity as Rome’s greatest living painter, perhaps even the most famous in Europe, Batoni gained such stature through numerous grand portraits and prestigious commissions for religious and historical subjects from popes, emperors, and kings. Yet he painted ‘Peace and War’ without a commission, during a rare interval of peace in Europe. Oil on canvas, Art Institute of Chicago.

Allegory of Peace and War by Pompeo Girolamo Batoni, 1776

Regarded in his maturity as Rome’s greatest living painter, perhaps even the most famous in Europe, Batoni gained such stature through numerous grand portraits and prestigious commissions for religious and historical subjects from popes, emperors, and kings. Yet he painted ‘Peace and War’ without a commission, during a rare interval of peace in Europe.

Oil on canvas, Art Institute of Chicago.

Psyche Opening the Door into Cupid’s Garden by John William Waterhouse, 1904

Psyche Opening the Door into Cupid’s Garden by John William Waterhouse, 1904

“I hope with all my heart there will be painting in heaven.”
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
The Woman with a Pearl by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, 1868-70 Oil on canvas, Musée du Louvre

The Woman with a Pearl by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, 1868-70

Oil on canvas, Musée du Louvre

Premier Deuil by William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1888 The dead body of Abel lies across Adam’s lap in the same manner as Christ is often depicted lying across Mary’s (such as in Michaelangelo’s Pieta). Adam clutches his heart out of grief fearing it will break and Eve kneels by his side crying uncontrollably, her face buried in her hands. The image is truly heart wrenching, causing the viewer to feel a great sense of compassion for the grieving couple. Bouguereau can capture the look of death with almost frightening directness. He was no stranger to death or to grief. He had five sons, four of whom died before him. Premier Deuil, or “The First Mourning,” was painted directly after the death of his second son.- Kara Kross Oil on canvas, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

Premier Deuil by William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1888

The dead body of Abel lies across Adam’s lap in the same manner as Christ is often depicted lying across Mary’s (such as in Michaelangelo’s Pieta). Adam clutches his heart out of grief fearing it will break and Eve kneels by his side crying uncontrollably, her face buried in her hands. The image is truly heart wrenching, causing the viewer to feel a great sense of compassion for the grieving couple. Bouguereau can capture the look of death with almost frightening directness. He was no stranger to death or to grief. He had five sons, four of whom died before him. Premier Deuil, or “The First Mourning,” was painted directly after the death of his second son.
- Kara Kross

Oil on canvas, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix, 1830 Probably Delacroix’s best known painting, it is an unforgettable image of Parisians, having taken up arms, marching forward under the banner of the tricolor representing liberty, equality, and fraternity. The French government bought the painting but officials deemed its glorification of liberty too inflammatory and removed it from public view. Nonetheless, Delacroix still received many government commissions for murals and ceiling paintings. At the end of the reign of King Louis Philippe, Delacroix’ painting was finally put on display by the newly elected President, Louis Napoleon (Napoleon III.) The boy holding a gun up on the right is sometimes thought to be an inspiration of the character Gavroche in Victor Hugo’s 1862 novel, Les Misérables. Oil on canvas; resides in the Musée du Louvre.

Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix, 1830

Probably Delacroix’s best known painting, it is an unforgettable image of Parisians, having taken up arms, marching forward under the banner of the tricolor representing liberty, equality, and fraternity. The French government bought the painting but officials deemed its glorification of liberty too inflammatory and removed it from public view. Nonetheless, Delacroix still received many government commissions for murals and ceiling paintings. At the end of the reign of King Louis Philippe, Delacroix’ painting was finally put on display by the newly elected President, Louis Napoleon (Napoleon III.)

The boy holding a gun up on the right is sometimes thought to be an inspiration of the character Gavroche in Victor Hugo’s 1862 novel, Les Misérables.

Oil on canvas; resides in the Musée du Louvre.

Roger Freeing Angelica by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, 1819 Ingres’s style was formed early in life and changed comparatively little. From the first, his paintings are characterized by a firmness of outline reflecting his often-quoted conviction that “drawing is the probity of art”.He believed colour to be no more than an accessory to drawing, explaining: “Drawing is not just reproducing contours, it is not just the line; drawing is also the expression, the inner form, the composition, the modelling. See what is left after that. Drawing is seven eighths of what makes up painting.”He abhorred the visible brushstroke and made no recourse to the shifting effects of color and light on which the Romantic school depended; he preferred local colors only faintly modelled in light by half tones. “Ce que l’on sait,” he would repeat, “il faut le savoir l’épée à la main.” (“Whatever you know, you must know it with sword in hand.”) Oil on canvas; resides in the Musée du Louvre.

Roger Freeing Angelica by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, 1819

Ingres’s style was formed early in life and changed comparatively little. From the first, his paintings are characterized by a firmness of outline reflecting his often-quoted conviction that “drawing is the probity of art”.He believed colour to be no more than an accessory to drawing, explaining: “Drawing is not just reproducing contours, it is not just the line; drawing is also the expression, the inner form, the composition, the modelling. See what is left after that. Drawing is seven eighths of what makes up painting.”He abhorred the visible brushstroke and made no recourse to the shifting effects of color and light on which the Romantic school depended; he preferred local colors only faintly modelled in light by half tones. “Ce que l’on sait,” he would repeat, “il faut le savoir l’épée à la main.” (“Whatever you know, you must know it with sword in hand.”)

Oil on canvas; resides in the Musée du Louvre.

Woman in the Bath by Edgar Degas, 1886 By the later 1870s Degas had mastered not only the traditional medium of oil on canvas, but pastel as well. The dry medium, which he applied in complex layers and textures, enabled him more easily to reconcile his facility for line with a growing interest in expressive color.These changes in media engendered the paintings that Degas would produce in later life. Degas began to draw and paint women drying themselves with towels, combing their hair, and bathing. The strokes that model the form are scribbled more freely than before, and backgrounds are simplified. Pastel; located at the Hill-Stead Museum, Farmington, Connecticut.

Woman in the Bath by Edgar Degas, 1886

By the later 1870s Degas had mastered not only the traditional medium of oil on canvas, but pastel as well. The dry medium, which he applied in complex layers and textures, enabled him more easily to reconcile his facility for line with a growing interest in expressive color.
These changes in media engendered the paintings that Degas would produce in later life. Degas began to draw and paint women drying themselves with towels, combing their hair, and bathing. The strokes that model the form are scribbled more freely than before, and backgrounds are simplified.

Pastel; located at the Hill-Stead Museum, Farmington, Connecticut.

Flowering Garden at Sainte-Adresse by Claude Monet, 1866 When Monet traveled to Paris to visit the Louvre, he witnessed painters copying from the old masters. Having brought his paints and other tools with him, he would instead go and sit by a window and paint what he saw. Located at the Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

Flowering Garden at Sainte-Adresse by Claude Monet, 1866

When Monet traveled to Paris to visit the Louvre, he witnessed painters copying from the old masters. Having brought his paints and other tools with him, he would instead go and sit by a window and paint what he saw.

Located at the Musée d’Orsay, Paris.