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The Young Ladies of Avignon by Pablo Picasso is the first cubist painting
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon or The Young Ladies of Avignon, originally titled The Brothel of Avignon is a revolutionary large oil painting created in 1907 by Pablo Picasso. Picasso prepared this painting in his Paris studio over six months by making hundreds of sketches, drawings, and paintings of revision. He named the painting The Young Ladies of Avignon after a brothel in Avignon Street in Barcelona. This painting is considered to be the first cubist, avant-garde, and municipal modern painting of the XX century and the most famous example of cubism painting. It is housed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Matisse's The Joy of life and Cézanne's The Large Bathers
The Joy of Life by Henri Matisse is perhaps the first canvas to clearly understand the great formal challenge of Paul Cézanne and to further the elder master's ideas. This painting is simultaneously seen as inspired by and breaking free of Paul Cézanne's, last great painting, The Large Bathers in its marked symmetry and the adaptation of the nude forms to the triangular pattern of the trees and river.
The Large Bathers by Paul Cézanne is a masterpiece of modern art
Three large paintings of bathers in the landscape were the main preoccupation of the French painter Paul Cézanne in the last years of his life. The most famous is the painting The Large Bathers, which he painted for an incredible seven years, and considered unfinished until he died in 1906. The painting is considered a masterpiece of modern art and one of the greatest compositions of all time. It became an inspiration for Cubism and influenced many generations of modern artists. In form and date, The Joy of Life by Henri Matisse is closest to Cézanne's last great image of bathers and the nude figures in the painting were later compared to Pablo Picasso's painting of The Young Ladies of Avignon. The painting The Large Bathers is housed in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Greatest Fauve painting The Joy of Life by Henri Matisse
During his Fauve years, Henri Matisse often painted landscapes in the south of France during the summer and worked up ideas developed there into larger compositions upon his return to Paris. In 1906, he finished the oil on canvas Le Bonheur de Vivre, or The Joy of Life, his typical important imaginary composition which gives in a concise form the spirit of Fauvism better than his any other Fauve painting. Today, this painting is in the collection of the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Raphael's fresco The School of Athens is a symbol of the Renaissance
A fresco The School of Athens Italian Renaissance artist Raphael painted between 1509 and 1511 as a part of his commission Pope Julius II to decorate the rooms now known as the Stanze di Raffaello, in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. It is located in the first of the four rooms designed by Raphael, the Stanza della Segnatura which was set to be Julius' library. In particular, this fresco has come to symbolize the marriage of art, philosophy, and science that was a hallmark of the Italian Renaissance.
The Apotheosis of Homer by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres is a manifesto of classicism
The painting The Apotheosis of Homer was expressly commissioned by Charles X for the ceiling at the Louvre which is now the ancient Egyptian galleries. Upon receiving the commission, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres conceived the idea for his painting quickly and he had required only an hour to establish the broad outlines of his composition in a sketch. He developed his idea in more than 100 drawings and numerous painted sketches for it that survive. His grandest expression of the classical ideal, this nearly seventeen-foot long canvas reworks Raphael's Vatican fresco, The School of Athens from 1509-1511. Apotheosis of Homer was exhibited in 1827 in the annual Salon and is now exhibited at the Louvre.
The Return of Persephone by Frederic Leighton
The Greek myth of Persephone, the daughter of the highest god Zeus and the goddess Demeter who in Greek myth rendered the earth fruitful, before being abducted by the god of the underworld, has great emotional power and because of that was a frequent motif in art. In 1891, the English painter and sculptor Frederic Leighton painted The Return of Persephone, which, as its name suggests, depicts Hermes helping Persephone to return to her mother Demeter after Zeus forced Hades to return Persephone. This painting is now in the Leeds Art Gallery.
Social caricature Gargantua by Honoré Daumier
The French painter, graphic artist, sculptor, and caricaturist Honoré Daumier began to create his satirical works in 1830, at the time when lithographer, caricaturist, and journalist Charles Philipon founded the satirical political journal La Caricature, in which he combined journalism and the art of caricature. In 1831, he drew a caricature of King of the French Louis Philippe as Gargantua, the namesake from Rabelais' 16th century series of novels, which tells of the adventures of two giants, Gargantua and his son Pantagruel. The caricature appeared in the December 15th, 1831 edition of La Caricature and was displayed in the window of La Caricature office in the Gallery Vero. The lithograph of this caricature is housed in the National Library in Paris.
Honoré Daumier was partial to the theme of travel and public transportation
A French painter, sculptor, printmaker, newspaper caricaturist, and political satirist Honoré Daumier lived in Paris during troubled political times (the revolutions of 1830 and 1848) and during a time of rapid industrialization and much social unrest. His interest in the French railroad system was based on the fact that this new means of transportation changed the way to move around Paris and the surrounding cities in a dramatic way. Daumier, who also struggled with unemployment at some point in his life, sympathized with the working class and saw them as fellow passengers.
Honoré Daumier's The Third-Class Carriage show a strange modern human condition - a "lonely crowd"
Honoré Daumier's paintings were influenced by rail traveling themes and painted many images on a similar theme since the 1840s. The painting The Third-Class Carriage from 1862 is a depiction of the everyday life of the poor. This painting is one part of a three-part series of paintings by Daumier, including The First-Class Carriage and The Second-Class Carriage. The work can be viewed now at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
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