This brilliant and free evocation of an unknown young woman in evening dress is at the antipodes of the worldly or official portrait practiced by the painters accustomed to the Salon.

The work is situated at the confluence of Impressionism and the art of Manet, Berthe Morisot's brother-in-law. However, despite the modernity of its style, the latter has always been supported by critics.

Thus, when she presented about fifteen paintings at the fifth Impressionist exhibition in 1880, including this one, Charles Ephrussi published in the Gazette des Beaux-Artsa poetic description and a sensitive analysis of the whole: "Mme Berthe Morisot is French by distinction, elegance, cheerfulness, carelessness; she loves joyful and stirring painting; she grinds flower petals on her palette , to then spread them on the canvas in witty, breathy touches, thrown a little at random, which agree, combine and end up producing something fine, lively and charming".

These considerations, however general, agree perfectly with this table. In fact, we observe a model immersed in a vegetal environment that resonates, both in form and in treatment, with the trim of her neckline.

https://www.musee-orsay.fr/fr/oeuvres/jeune-femme-en-toilette-de-bal-306

This painting is one of the first representations of urban proletariat. Whereas peasants (Gleaners by Millet) or country workers (Stone Breakers by Courbet) had often been shown, city workers had seldom been painted. Unlike Courbet or Millet, Caillebotte does not incorporate any social, moralising or political message in his work. His thorough documentary study (gestures, tools, accessories) justifies his position among the most accomplished realists.

Caillebotte had undergone a completely academic training, studying with Bonnat. The perspective, accentuated by the high angle shot and the alignment of floorboards complies with tradition. The artist drew one by one all the parts of his painting, according to the academic method, before reporting them using the square method on the canvas. The nude torsos of the planers are those of heroes of Antiquity, it would be unimaginable for Parisian workers of those times. But far from closeting himself in academic exercises, Caillebotte exploited their rigour in order to explore the contemporary universe in a completely new way.

Caillebotte presented his painting at the 1875 Salon. The Jury, no doubt shocked by its crude realism, rejected it (some critics talked of "vulgar subject matter"). The young painter then decided to join the impressionists and presented his painting at the second exhibition of the group in 1876, where Degas exhibited his first Ironers. Critics were struck by this great modern tableau, Zola, in particular, although he condemned this "painting that is so accurate that it makes it bourgeois".

https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/artworks/raboteurs-de-parquet-105

From the moment of his arrival in Arles, on 8 February 1888, Van Gogh was constantly preoccupied with the representation of "night effects". In April 1888, he wrote to his brother Theo: "I need a starry night with cypresses or maybe above a field of ripe wheat." In June, he confided to the painter Emile Bernard: "But when shall I ever paint the Starry Sky, this painting that keeps haunting me" and, in September, in a letter to his sister, he evoked the same subject: "Often it seems to me night is even more richly coloured than day". During the same month of September, he finally realised his obsessive project.

He first painted a corner of nocturnal sky in Cafe Terrace on the Place du Forum, Arles (Otterlo, Rijksmuseum Kröller-Muller). Next came this view of the Rhône in which he marvellously transcribed the colours he perceived in the dark. Blues prevail: Prussian blue, ultramarine and cobalt. The city gas lights glimmer an intense orange and are reflected in the water. The stars sparkle like gemstones.

A few months later, just after being confined to a mental institution, Van Gogh painted another version of the same subject: Starry Night (New York, MoMA), in which the violence of his troubled psyche is fully expressed. Trees are shaped like flames while the sky and stars whirl in a cosmic vision. The Musée d'Orsay’s Starry Night is more serene, an atmosphere reinforced by the presence of a couple of lovers at the bottom of the canvas.

https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/artworks/la-nuit-etoilee-78696

When he painted The Saint-Lazare Station, Monet had just left Argenteuil to settle in Paris. After several years of painting in the countryside, he turned to urban landscapes. At a time when the critics Duranty and Zola exhorted artists to paint their own times, Monet tried to diversify his sources of inspiration and longed to be considered, like Manet, Degas and Caillebotte, a painter of modern life.

In 1877, settling in the Nouvelle Athènes area, Claude Monet asked for permission to work in the Gare Saint-Lazare that marked its boundary on one side. Indeed, this was an ideal setting for someone who sought the changing effects of light, movement, clouds of steam and a radically modern motif. From there followed a series of paintings with different viewpoints including views of the vast hall. In spite of the apparent geometry of the metallic frame, what prevails here is really the effects of colour and light rather than a concern for describing machines or travellers in detail. Certain zones, true pieces of pure painting, achieve an almost abstract vision. This painting was praised by another painter of modern life, Gustave Caillebotte, whose painting was often the opposite of Monet's.

https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/artworks/la-gare-saint-lazare-10897

At the 1905 Salon d'automne, Derain shared the same gallery as Matisse, Vlaminck and Van Dongen. A critic, noticing a sculpture by Albert Marque in the middle of these vividly coloured paintings, remarked : "Mais c'est Donatello parmi les fauves!" ("Look, it's Donatello among wild beasts!"). The phrase caught on and gave origin to the word "Fauvism".

Rather than being a structured movement, Fauvism was a point of agreement between young painters for whom pure colour was to serve as the expressive and emotional transcription of the world rather than a means to create the illusion of reality.

A few months later, encouraged by the art dealer Ambroise Vollard, Derain went twice to London where he produced some thirty paintings. Charing

Cross Bridge is recognised as one of the finest Fauvist compositions. The street and buildings are painted in large flat tones while the changing sky and water are treated in small, fragmented touches reminiscent of the Neo-impressionist style.

The forms of the vehicles are distorted, their silhouettes echoing the curb of the Victoria embankment to give a sensation of speed.

Fauvism was short-lived but provided the transition between figurative painting and the main movements in 20th-century painting which were to move further and further into abstraction. Derain thus declared: "Painting is too beautiful to be reduced to images which may be compared with those of a dog or horse. It is imperative that we escape the circle in which the realists have trapped us."

https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/artworks/pont-de-charing-cross-10872

This painting is doubtless Renoir's most important work of the mid 1870's and was shown at the Impressionist exhibition in 1877. Though some of his friends appear in the picture, Renoir's main aim was to convey the vivacious and joyful atmosphere of this popular dance garden on the Butte Montmartre. The study of the moving crowd, bathed in natural and artificial light, is handled using vibrant, brightly coloured brushstrokes. The somewhat blurred impression of the scene prompted negative reactions from contemporary critics.

This portrayal of popular Parisian life, with its innovative style and imposing format, a sign of Renoir's artistic ambition, is one of the masterpieces of early Impressionism

https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/artworks/bal-du-moulin-de-la-galette-497

This painting exemplifies Caillebotte's desire to produce truly modern art, expressing a new outlook on the world.

The artist chooses as his subject the new hobbies of the urban bourgeoisie, of which he is a part. A man, whose identity we do not know, is boating on the Yerres, the river that flows near the Caillebotte vacation property in the south-east of Paris. The painter proposes an original “immersive” framing which places the spectator in the boat and seeks to abolish the distance between the space of the painting and that of the viewer.

The composition – centered on this man who faces us but looks away – emerges from an energy, a feeling of assurance, but also of loneliness, characteristics of Caillebotte's work. The sketched touch and the range of bluish tones evoke plein air painting, which increasingly appealed to the artist at this time.

Boat Party was one of the paintings sent by Caillebotte to the 4th exhibition of the impressionist group in 1879. The novelty of the point of view, combined with the banality of the subject, shocked even the most advanced critics, and led some to say that the young painter is a provocateur, that his paintings are not high art but a simple "photograph of reality" (Emile Zola). At this date, Caillebotte appears as the most radical artist of the movement.

https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/artworks/partie-de-bateau-265643

This impressionist portrait of the artist in an apocalyptic Germany of 1946 is filled with sadness, anger, bewilderment and fear. The devastation to life, culture and environment brought by the Nazis left everything Huther saw in tatters. Probably painted earlier, and only released after the Nazi's were out of power for fear of being sent to a death camp.

Nazis are known to burn books, but they also set fire to 1,004 paintings and sculptures and 3,825 watercolors, drawings, and prints in 1939 alone because no one would buy the art they stole from the walls of art museums and Jewish homes. They did it to simply demonstrate their willingness. Later over the next month Swiss representatives arrived with 50,000 Franks to save what they could. Unfortunately, their burning accomplished exactly its intent, and the Nazi war machine began producing unprecedented numbers of instruments of death.

Over the next 7 years, as Nazi Germany invaded more of Europe, they would take art at their leisure. Many French masterpieces were removed and sent back to Germany, some were set to be shown in Hitler's idealized art museum, some given to other high-ranking officials for their private collections.

Since 1946 a huge effort has been underway to return stolen Nazi art, but there are still many pieces unaccounted for.

Bernard Frize is a French painter who works in a variety of materials and utilizes a multitude of techniques. As an artist he explores the bare minimal essence of painting, devoid of conception and aesthetic, instead focusing on an industrial approach to making art. His work is highly process-oriented, often requiring unconventional tools, materials, and the assistance of others to complete a painting.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Frize

This painting is part of the Regency Girls series. For this series Paul looks back at artists such as Thomas Gainsborough and tries to create a different take on classical pieces. Paul uses his signature brush marks and rich palette to give these traditional pieces a modern edge.

"Artist Statement I have spent the last 15 years developing a painterly language through which I seek to capture a vitality beyond the establishment of a mere ‘likeness’ to the subject. Whilst I appreciate the importance of the subject being recognisable, they are glimpsed rather than exposed, their inner selves hinted at but ultimately inscrutable.

Though I often work on a large, potentially imposing scale, the work remains immediate through fluency of brush mark and a rich palette. The spaces the subjects inhabit are often indeterminate, providing an atmosphere that allows for ambiguity of psychological state. The subjects retain their integrity and yet a sense of intimacy is evoked"

https://www.saatchiart.com/art/Painting-Regency-Girl-2/756464/8854331/view

Even though each panel is smaller than two pieces of paper, one above the other (22.25 x 7.75), the level of detail is incredible - as is the source image (if you have the time to navigate there and zoom in, prepare for amazement).

The left panel shows the crucifixion with Jerusalem in the distant background. The right shows the Final Judgement. The frame contains bible verses from Isaiah (Predicts a messiah coming to Earth to redeem the nations of israel), Deuteronomy (Sermons by Moses before the Israelites enter the promised land), and Revelation (Prophetic visions of the day of Judgement).

Oil painting was still in its infancy when this was painted as part of the Northern Renaissance. This is also believed to be the first painting to feature a detailed, realistic moon.

The part that stands out the most to me is the lower-right side - the meditation on damnation. All the beasts - ranging from comical to legitimately terrifying, the various disembodied human remains, and the level of detail - all that fit on less than a piece of paper. It is a wonder from a time when paintings like this were basically movies. This would draw people into the church like an ad. And it would keep them there, engaged unpacking all the details.

Darker than most of Matisse's works - usually vibrant with color and movement. The piece was affected by a depression because he couldn't support his family. His wife had to get a job. Like many painters, Matisse would only find success posthumously.

My favorite part about this piece is how the strokes hint at structure. For instance, the river water is steady and smooth whereas the shadows seem to be coming from all angles - suggesting them coming from something and interacting with the water.

This piece is currently on display in Buffalo, NY at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. It is considered the most famous Matisse work on display in the United States. If you go see it, also be sure to check out the Monet, Pissaro, Picasso, a ton of Marisol, Degas, Serat, Van Gogh, Frida, Dali, This amazing and disgusting sculpture, Pollock, Warholl, and a lot more.