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Painting story
The Kiss by Gustav Klimt
A close reading of Klimt’s The Kiss, with its lovers’ gestures, contrasting patterns, flowered edge, real metal surface and documented Belvedere…
Famous Paintings, Explained
The stories behind famous paintings, the painters who made them, and the movements that shaped them. Every work here can be recreated by hand in oil on canvas.
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Artist guide
Edvard Munch Paintings
Expressionism · Norwegian · 1863 to 1944
Painting story
By the Seashore by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
A young woman crochets in a wicker chair above the sea: a smooth, careful face against waves painted in quick, feathery strokes.
Painting story
Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
A Sunday afternoon dance in Montmartre, Renoir’s friends at the tables and sunlight falling through the trees in patches of colour.
Painting story
The Gulf of Marseille Seen from LEstaque by Paul Cezanne
Red roofs, a flat blue sea and mountains beyond: Cézanne’s view of the Gulf of Marseille from the hills of L’Estaque.
Painting story
Still Life with Plaster Cupid by Paul Cezanne
A plaster cupid leans among apples and onions while painted canvases blur into the real room: Cézanne’s still life of about 1894.
Painting story
Self-Portrait with a Bowler Hat by Paul Cezanne
Cézanne looks over his shoulder in a bowler hat, his face built from blocks of colour: a guarded self-portrait from about 1885.
Painting story
House in Provence by Paul Cezanne
A pale farmhouse below a long blue ridge in Cézanne’s House in Provence, painted near Aix around 1886 to 1890, now in Indianapolis.
Painting story
The Large Bathers by Paul Cezanne
Bathers under an arch of leaning trees: the largest of Cézanne’s late bather paintings, worked on until his death in 1906.
Painting story
The Bather by Paul Cezanne
A young man in white trunks walks towards us along a riverbank: Cézanne’s The Bather (Le Grand Baigneur), about 1885, at MoMA.
Painting story
Mont Sainte-Victoire by Paul Cezanne
The mountain above Aix, built from planes of blue, violet and green: one of Cézanne’s late views of Mont Sainte-Victoire, now in Philadelphia.
Painting story
The Basket of Apples by Paul Cezanne
A tipping basket, a leaning bottle and a table whose edges do not meet: Cézanne’s still life built from several viewpoints at once.
Painting story
Boy in a Red Waistcoat by Paul Cezanne
An Italian model in a red waistcoat, hand on hip, painted by Cézanne in patches of colour with deliberately long arms.
Painting story
Still Life with Apples and Oranges by Cézanne
Why does Cézanne’s table seem to tilt? Explore the fruit, floral jug, folded cloth, shifting viewpoints and history of Still Life with Apples and…
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.
Artist guide
Paul Cezanne Paintings
Post-Impressionism · French · 1839 to 1906
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
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.
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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.
