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Painting story
The Card Players by Paul Cezanne
Two farmworkers play cards in silence, a bottle between them: the most concentrated of Cézanne’s five Card Players.
Painting Stories
The meaning and history of famous paintings: what they show, where the originals hang, and how each one is recreated by hand in oil on canvas.
Painting Analysis articles
Painting story
The Supper at Emmaus
Discover Caravaggio’s 1601 Supper at Emmaus: startled disciples, the blessing hand, fruit basket and how the London painting differs from the…
Painting story
The Baptism of Christ by Leonardo da Vinci
Verrocchio’s Baptism of Christ, where the young Leonardo painted an angel so fine that, Vasari claimed, his master gave up painting.
Painting story
La Belle Ferronniere by Leonardo da Vinci
A woman from the Milanese court, wrongly named La Belle Ferronnière, looks past us from behind a stone parapet in Leonardo’s Louvre portrait.
Painting story
Annunciation by Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo’s early Annunciation from Verrocchio’s workshop: Gabriel with a lily, Mary at a carved lectern and a landscape fading into blue haze.
Painting story
Saint John the Baptist
Explore Leonardo’s Saint John the Baptist: the smile, upward-pointing finger, darkness, late working process and the Louvre’s interpretation.
Painting story
Portrait of a Musician by Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo’s only surviving portrait of a man: a young musician with a red cap, a finely lit face and a sheet of music revealed in 1905.
Painting story
Lady with an Ermine by Leonardo da Vinci
Cecilia Gallerani turns towards an unseen light, holding an ermine that points to Ludovico Sforza and plays on her own name.
Painting story
Virgin of the Rocks by Leonardo da Vinci
The London version of Leonardo’s Virgin of the Rocks: Mary, John, Christ and an angel in a grotto, with halos and a cross added to the first design.
Painting story
The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne by Leonardo da Vinci
Grandmother, mother and child in one pyramid: Leonardo’s Saint Anne, worked on for sixteen years and never quite finished.
Painting story
Ginevra de Benci by Leonardo da Vinci
A young Florentine woman framed by a juniper bush that plays on her name: the only painting by Leonardo in the Americas.
Painting story
Salvator Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci
Salvator Mundi shows Christ facing the viewer, one hand raised in blessing and the other holding a crystal orb, in a blue robe with embroidered…
Painting story
Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci
A man in a circle and a square: Leonardo’s pen-and-ink study of human proportion after the Roman architect Vitruvius, about 1490.
Painting story
Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci
The Mona Lisa is Leonardo da Vinci's portrait of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a Florentine silk merchant, begun in 1503 and kept and reworked by…
Painting story
The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci painted The Last Supper directly onto the refectory wall of a Dominican convent in Milan, creating a scene of psychological…
Painting story
The Madonna of Chancellor Rolin by Jan van Eyck
Chancellor Rolin kneels face to face with the Virgin, a vast landscape opening behind them: Van Eyck’s masterpiece in the Louvre.
Painting story
The Church at Auvers by Vincent van Gogh
Van Gogh’s June 1890 view of the village church at Auvers, seen from behind under a deep cobalt sky, with a path that divides in front.
Painting story
Self-Portrait by Vincent van Gogh
Painted at Saint-Rémy in September 1889 after weeks of illness: a watchful face set against a moving background of blue and green.
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Curated collectionsOdyssey, Magic and Witchcraft, Famous Women, Landscapes and more.Artists A to ZEvery painter in the catalogue, with an archive of their works.Art movementsRenaissance to Expressionism: what defines each and who led it.Top 100 most famous paintingsThe ranked list, with the story behind every entry.
