Cézanne left graphite lines visible and ground open on this canvas, granting us access to his working process.
A-Level: 19th-century painting + sculpture of female figures
Manet turns the tables—or in this case, the bar—on how we view painting.
Édouard Manet, A Bar at the Folies-Bergère
Lacking access to the cafes and bars male Impressionists painted, Morisot mastered intimate domestic interiors.
Berthe Morisot, The Cradle
In this tragic painting, Rossetti draws a comparison between himself and the medieval poet who shared his name.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Beata Beatrix
The subject matter of this painting couldn’t be more traditional, but its formal characteristics make it modern.
Paul Cézanne, Bathers (Les Grandes Baigneuses)
Manet decided to replace the idealized female nude with the image of a known prostitute. It didn’t go so well.
Édouard Manet, Olympia
The subject looks through opera glasses, but she herself is the object of another man’s gaze—not to mention ours.
Mary Cassatt, In the Loge
One of the leaders of Impressionism turns his back on the movement and attempts to reclaim the classical nude.
Auguste Renoir, The Large Bathers
Mary Cassatt, an artist and close friend Degas, is the subject of this painting about the act of seeing.
Edgar Degas, Visit to a Museum
The subject of this painting is breaking almost as many taboos as the artist who painted it.
Édouard Manet, Plum Brandy
Cassatt’s unusual angle in this intimate moment between mother and daughter shows the pair as we might see them.
Mary Cassatt, The Child’s Bath
The greenery surrounding this couple is lush and exotic, but it’s clear that there’s trouble in paradise.
Édouard Manet, In the Conservatory
Cassatt’s subject, perhaps her sister Lydia, participates in the voyeurism of the Paris opera during intermission.
Mary Cassatt, Woman with a Pearl Necklace ...
Cézanne takes classical forms and makes them subservient to the canvas—paving the way for Matisse and Picasso.
Paul Cézanne, The Large Bathers
The Paris Opera was a who’s who of society, and the attendees were as much on display as the performers.
Auguste Renoir, La Loge
The elegance of the performance has been stripped away for an intimate look at off-duty ballerinas.
Edgar Degas, The Dance Class
This domestic scene portrays Degas’ family with all the warmth and intimacy of a walk-in freezer.
Edgar Degas, The Bellelli Family
Realism’s original bad boy put a naked woman in a picnic scene, and the critics were not happy about it.
Édouard Manet, Le déjeuner sur l’herbe (Luncheon ...
The wild dancing nymphs on the exterior of the Opéra had little in common with the ballerinas performing there.
Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, Dance
This work celebrates the leisurely lifestyle of the urban bourgeoisie, but it also shows its more somber aspects.