Loading cart…
No products in the cart.
Painting story
Saturn Devouring His Son by Goya
Saturn Devouring His Son shows the old god crouched in darkness, eyes wide with terror, tearing at the headless body of one of his children. Goya…
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 Third of May 1808 by Goya
The Third of May 1808 shows French soldiers executing Madrid's rebels by lantern light on the hill of Príncipe Pío, the night after the Dos de…
Painting story
Napoleon Crossing the Alps by Jacques-Louis David
Napoleon Crossing the Alps shows Bonaparte, First Consul of France, calm on a rearing horse as he points his army up the Great St Bernard Pass in…
Painting story
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by Bruegel
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus shows a ploughman, a shepherd and a ship going about their business on a bright coast while Icarus, who has just…
Painting story
Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix
Liberty Leading the People shows the allegorical figure of Liberty, in a red Phrygian cap and carrying the tricolour, leading a crowd of Parisians…
Painting story
The Raft of the Medusa by Théodore Géricault
The Raft of the Medusa shows the survivors of the 1816 wreck of the French frigate Méduse, adrift for thirteen days, at the moment they sight a…
Painting story
Wanderer above the Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich
Wanderer above the Sea of Fog shows a lone man in a dark coat standing on a rocky summit with his back to us, looking out over a valley filled…
Painting story
Compulsory Education by Briton Rivière
A little girl tries to teach a patient bloodhound to read: Briton Rivière’s gentle joke about compulsory schooling.
Painting story
An Anxious Moment by Briton Rivière
A flock of geese crowds in alarm at a small dark object: Rivière’s gently comic An Anxious Moment, 1878.
Painting story
The Long Sleep by Briton Rivière
Two dogs try to wake their old master, slumped in his chair by the hearth: Rivière’s The Long Sleep, 1868.
Painting story
Apollo by Briton Rivière
Apollo plays his lyre while lions, leopards and goats lie calmly around him: Rivière’s Apollo, 1895.
Painting story
In Manus Tuas, Domine by Briton Rivière
A knight raises his sword hilt like a cross as he rides into a dark forest: Rivière’s In Manus Tuas, Domine, 1879.
Painting story
The King Drinks by Briton Rivière
A great lion stoops to drink at a mountain stream: Rivière’s The King Drinks, 1881.
Painting story
The Last of the Garrison by Briton Rivière
A wounded bloodhound lies before a studded door amid the debris of a siege: Rivière’s Last of the Garrison, 1875.
Painting story
Pallas Athena and the Herdsman's Dogs by Briton Rivière
From Homer’s Odyssey: Athena appears, unseen by people, and only the herdsman’s dogs sense the goddess and back away in fear.
Painting story
Prometheus by Briton Rivière
Prometheus chained high on a cliff, the eagle waiting above: Rivière’s 1889 painting in the Ashmolean.
Painting story
Una by Briton Rivière
Una from Spenser’s Faerie Queene, guarded by a tamed lion as a lamb leaps beside her: Rivière, 1882.
Top 10 artists
All artists A to Z
Top paintings
See the Top 100
Keep exploring
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.
