“Women in the Garden” is a painting with which [[artist:282|Claude Monet]] took a great risk. In 1866, in the garden of a house in Ville-d'Avray near Paris, he decided to paint life-size figures entirely outdoors, in the sun. Until then such large paintings were made in the stud…
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“Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window” was painted around 1658 and is one of the first paintings in which [[artist:1786|Johannes Vermeer]] discovered his own world: a quiet room, a window on the left and a person lost in thought. In “Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window” …
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“The Little Street” was painted around 1658 in Delft. It is one of only two townscapes by [[artist:1786|Johannes Vermeer]] that have survived. It shows a few old brick houses and the people who live in them, on a perfectly ordinary day. In “The Little Street” a tall house of re…
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“The Milkmaid” was painted around 1658 in Delft and is one of the best-loved paintings by [[artist:1786|Johannes Vermeer]]. It shows an ordinary maid in the kitchen, busy with an ordinary task. But Vermeer painted her with such attention that the simple moment becomes solemn. I…
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“Water Lilies, Clear Morning with Willows” is part of the last and greatest work of [[artist:282|Claude Monet]]. After 1914, already old and with failing eyesight, he began huge panels of the pond from his garden in Giverny. To paint them he built a new studio, so large that the…
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“The Poppy Field near Argenteuil” was painted in the summer of 1873. [[artist:282|Claude Monet]] was living then in Argenteuil, a small town on the Seine near Paris, where he spent some of the happiest years of his life. Around him were fields, the river, boats and summer light,…
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“Grainstack (Sunset)” was painted in 1890–1891 in Giverny, in the field not far from the home of [[artist:282|Claude Monet]]. After the harvest the farmers piled the sheaves into large stacks as tall as a house. Monet saw them every day and decided to paint them again and again …
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“Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies” was painted in 1899 in the garden of [[artist:282|Claude Monet]] in Giverny. In 1893 he bought a plot of land across the road and the railway in front of his house, dug a pond and diverted into it the water of a small stream. The neighbours f…
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“Venus of Urbino” was painted in 1538. It was bought by the young Guidobaldo della Rovere, the future Duke of Urbino. That is why the painting bears this name. [[artist:2590|Titian]] paints the goddess as a real woman in her bedroom. In “Venus of Urbino” a young woman lies nake…
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“Portrait of Charles V with a Dog” was painted in 1533. Emperor Charles V was the most powerful ruler of the time. [[artist:2590|Titian]] painted him full length, using as a model a portrait by another painter. In “Portrait of Charles V with a Dog” the emperor stands dressed in…
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