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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…
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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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.
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 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.
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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.
