Lack of an American sculptural tradition compelled Jefferson to look to France for this portrait of Washington.
Essay refreshed December 2021
When Rodin received the commission for this monument in Calais, he was expected to produce one figure—not six.
A-Level: Auguste Rodin, The Burghers of Calais
Hazy with smoke, the architecture of the train station and technology of the iron engine dissolve before our eyes.
Monet, The Gare Saint-Lazare
This scene resembles a religious conversion, yet the central planetary model is only miraculous in its mechanics.
Joseph Wright of Derby, A Philosopher Giving ...
In style and story, this rigorously organized canvas looked back to antiquity; it soon became an icon of Revolution.
Jacques-Louis David, Oath of the Horatii
She fled France in disguise, but Vigée Le Brun does little to conceal her face—or her sympathy to Marie Antoinette.
Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, Self-Portrait
Manet decided to replace the idealized female nude with the image of a known prostitute. It didn’t go so well.
Édouard Manet, Olympia
Bare-breasted with a bayonet? Liberty leads a revolution that won’t be televised but will be seen in the Paris Salon.
Eugène Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People
Known for her emotionally laden prints, here Kollwitz memorializes a lost Communist leader.
Käthe Kollwitz, In Memoriam Karl Liebknecht
What does this painting by Braque have to do with a cup of coffee?
Georges Braque, The Portuguese
Picasso loved the magic of illusionism—but here, he shatters it.
Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon
Kirchner is rendered unable to create or destroy in this nightmarish wartime painting.
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Self-Portrait As a Soldier
To say that Matisse “had a thing for goldfish” would be kind of an understatement.
Henri Matisse, Goldfish
Velasco shows us the history of the land, both the natural and the built environments.
José María Velasco, The Valley of Mexico ...
Not content to merely paint the land, Cole elevated the landscape to approach the status of historical painting.
Thomas Cole, The Oxbow
In addition to being a politician, Jefferson was an ardent supporter and practitioner of classical architecture.
Thomas Jefferson, Monticello
Casta paintings were colonial Mexico’s version of 23andMe—but come from a place of social and racial anxiety.
Spaniard and Indian Produce a Mestizo, attributed ...
Sor Juana is seated in front of books from her own library, and with implements alluding to her status as a writer.
Miguel Cabrera, Portrait of Sor Juana Inés ...
Munch sought to express internal emotions, providing a visual equivalent for a universal human experience.
Edvard Munch, The Scream
Cézanne’s lifelong love affair with the landscape of Aix-en-Provence reaches its peak in his mountain images.
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