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Painting story
The Temptation in the Wilderness by Briton Rivière
Christ sits alone and bowed in a vast desert at sunset: Rivière’s Temptation in the Wilderness, 1898.
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
St George and the Dragon by Briton Rivière
After the fight: the dragon lies dead, and Saint George lies exhausted beside it. Rivière’s quiet reversal of a heroic legend.
Painting story
Dead Hector by Briton Rivière
Hector’s body lies abandoned on the shore as wolves approach: Rivière’s scene from Homer’s Iliad, 1892.
Painting story
Daniel in the Lions' Den by Briton Rivière
Daniel stands with bound hands, his back to a crowd of lions: the 1872 painting that made Rivière’s name.
Painting story
Daniel's Answer to the King by Briton Rivière
At dawn Daniel answers the king from the lions’ den, unharmed, as the lions pace around him: Rivière, 1890.
Painting story
Fidelity by Briton Rivière
A young prisoner weeps in a bare cell while his dog pushes its nose against him: Rivière’s Fidelity of 1869.
Painting story
Requiescat by Briton Rivière
A bloodhound keeps watch beside its dead master, a knight in armour laid on a blue-draped bier: Briton Rivière’s Requiescat.
Painting story
Aphrodite
Explore Briton Rivière’s Aphrodite (1902), the wild animals around the goddess, and the Homeric hymn behind this painting in the Dahesh Museum…
Painting story
Beyond Man's Footsteps by Briton Rivière
A lone polar bear surveys a frozen wilderness at sunset: Rivière’s Beyond Man’s Footsteps, 1894, at Tate.
Painting story
Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses
Why does Circe offer the cup directly to us? Explore Waterhouse’s mirror, Ulysses, wand, transformed crew, throne, herbs and Odyssey story.
Painting story
The Great Wave off Kanagawa
A clawed wave towers over three fishing boats while Mount Fuji sits small in the distance: Hokusai’s woodblock print from about 1831.
Painting story
Death of an Artist
Death sits by a dying painter’s bed and plays the violin: Zygmunt Andrychiewicz’s Death of an Artist: The Last Friend, painted in 1901.
Painting story
The Lunatic of Étretat
A young woman with windswept hair clutches a bundle like a baby in Hugues Merle’s The Lunatic of Étretat, painted in 1871.
Painting story
Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks
Cossacks roar with laughter as they dictate an insulting reply to the Ottoman Sultan: Repin’s eleven-year study of every kind of laughter.
Painting story
The Royal Nursery
Henry VIII bends toward Edward while Elizabeth watches from the side. Look closer at Marcus Stone’s Tudor family scene, its royal children, toys…
Painting story
King Edward VII
Explore Fildes’ Edward VII state portrait through a historical Parliamentary copy: the sceptre, crown, robes, seated sittings and official replicas.
Painting story
The Departure of the Gondola
Discover Domenico Tiepolo’s Departure of the Gondola: masked passengers, attendants, a covered boat and the public theatre of Venetian Carnival.
Painting story
The Conjurer by Bosch
A conjurer fools a woman with cups and balls while a pickpocket steals her purse: the Bosch composition about gullibility.
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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.
