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A Lilac Year, 1951 by Gustav Baumann, color woodblock print, assorted collections.
Baumann arrived from Germany to the US in 1891 when he was 10 and eventually did his art training at the Art institute of Chicago. He eventually settled in New Mexico and worked primarily in woodblock prints which show a strong Japanese influence.
Nonchaloir ,1911 by John Singer Sargent, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
After 1907 Sargent grew tired of painting so many society portraits for money. he chose to concentrate instead on outdoor scenes and more casual poses like this one of his niece.
Dis me.
Habitat Group for a Shooting Gallery by Joseph Cornell, Des Moines Art Center
Cornell assembled fascinating groups of found objects. He liked to juxtapose different objects and his love of surrealism comes through in these groupings.
Hummingbirds and Orchids, c. 1880 by Martin Johnson Heade, The Detroit Institute of Art.
Heade's renderings of orchids and hummingbirds (he did quite a few) make the flowers and the birds look more like jewels then natural living things. His colors jump off the canvas and demand your attention.
The Descent from the Cross c.1435/8 by Rogier van der Weyden, Museo del Prado, Madrid.
The sadness and suffering on the faces of the figures in this scene show that van der Weyden was a close observer of people. He achieved great success during his lifetime but in spite of this, very little is known about him personally and attributing work directly to him is problematic.
Tea Party, c. 1880 by Kate Greenaway.
Kate Greenaway was one of the most popular children's book illustrators of the 19th century. Her idealized children were just what her Victorian audience wanted.
Gee's Bend Quilters Collective, Gee's Bend Alabama
The ladies of Gee's Bend have been making quilts for more than six generations. Largely using scraps of old material, they have created some of the most original and beautiful piecework ever done.
Winter Landscape with Skaters, c. 1608 by Hendrick Avercamp, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
A winter scene in a town with people playing on the ice and working. He liked to paint lively scenes with people all different types of things.
Starry Night, c. 1893, by Edvard Munch, The J. Paul Getty Museum.
Munch is the Symbolist painter best known for The Scream. He was from Norway but traveled and studied in Paris and admired van Gogh.
Starry Night, 1899 by Vincent van Gogh, MOMA, NYNY
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Nighthawks, 1942 by Edward Hopper, The Art Institute of Chicago.
One of the most popular paintings in the AIC's collection people are intrigued by the familiar scene and the loneliness Hopper captures.
Roseate Spoonbill by John James Audubon from Birds of America.
Audubon was trained with famous Neo-Classicist Jacques-Louis David and used his skills to capture the and document the birds of America a scientific and artistic masterpiece. It remains one of the most important works on ornithology.
Chateaubriand, 1809 by Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson.
Chateaubriand was an important French historical figure and writer whose English chef would make him more famous than his exploits.
Mr. Hulings' Picture Rack, 1888 by William Harnett, Private Collection.
Harnett was a master of the Trompe L'Oeil (trick the eye) painting. The Greeks and Romans painted in this style but the term was coined in the Baroque period.
Kitaj was born in Cleveland, but lives and works mostly in England. This chaotic piece portrays the gates at Auschwitz and references T.S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land.
Self-portrait with Model, c. 1910 by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Kunsthalle, Hamburg.
Kirchner's self-portrait is the main focus of this work (who could ignore that robe). His work was branded "degenerate" by the Nazi's.
October, 1877 by James Tissot, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
Another example of a Tissot model Kathleen Newton, the same one (I believe) as here. Often artists used the same models, even the same costumes as similar garments turn-up again and again.
Kathleen Newton (model)
Louise de Broglie, The Countesse d'Haussonville by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, The Frick Collection
Ingres was a French 19th Century painter known for his realism. I am particularly fond of his fabrics - so realistic and so lush.
Detail
Still Life with Three Puppies, 1888 by Paul Gauguin, the Museum of Modern Art, NYC.
This was painted by Gauguin the same year he lived with van Gogh.
Landscape: A Man Looking at a Waterfall, Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), Freer and Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian.
The first time someone told me to look at Chinese paintings up and down instead of across, it made seeing the whole image so much easier.