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This intimate portrayal of Joseph demonstrates Reni’s skill through his rendering of the foster father of Christ as a simple man tenderly holding his infant son. The fruit held by infant Jesus reminds us of the fall of man in Eden and the fruitfulness of redemption through the advent of Christianity.
He was the most famous Italian painter of his day, revered for the grace and naturalness of his serenely balanced compositions. Even referred to as “the divine Guido.”
Working during the Catholic Counter-Reformation in the seventeenth century, Reni depicted images of saints and holy figures in the humanized and accessible form Catholic leaders required. This intimate portrayal of Joseph demonstrates Reni’s skill through his rendering of the foster father of Christ as a simple man tenderly holding his infant son.
The Mona Lisa is a half-length portrait by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. Considered an archetypal masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, viewed as “the best known, most visited, most written about, most sung about, and most parodied work of art in the world.” Its novel qualities include the subject’s enigmatic expression, the subtle modeling of forms, and atmospheric illusionism.
Identified to depict Italian noblewoman Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo. He painted it in oil on a white Lombardy poplar panel. Leonardo never gave the painting to the Giocondo family, and later it is believed he left it in his will to his favored apprentice Salaì. Acquired by King Francis of France and is permanently displayed at the Louvre in Paris in 1797.
This painting by German-American artist Emanuel Leutze commemorates General George Washington’s crossing of the Delaware River with the Continental Army on December 25–26, 1776, during the American Revolutionary War. That action was the first move in a surprise attack and victory against Hessian forces at the Battle of Trenton in New Jersey on 26 December.
The flag depicted is an early version of the flag of the United States (the “Stars and Stripes”), the design of which did not exist at the time of Washington’s crossing. The flag’s design was first specified on the 14 June 1777, Flag Resolution of the Second Continental Congress. It flew for the first time on 3 September 1777, well after Washington’s crossing in 1776.
The original was part of the collection at the Kunsthalle in Bremen, Germany, and was destroyed in a bombing raid in 1942 during World War II. Leutze painted two more versions, with the smaller version of the two, which was auctioned this year and sold for $43 million.
Appraised at $650 million dollars, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (French: Un dimanche après-midi à l'Île de la Grande Jatte) is Georges Seurat's most famous work. Executed on a large canvas, it is a founding work of the neo-impressionist movement. Seurat’s composition includes several Parisians at a park on the banks of the River Seine. It is in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Seurat’s painting was a mirror impression of his painting, Bathers at Asnières, completed shortly before, in 1884. Whereas it is doused in light, almost every figure on La Grande Jatte appears to be cast in shadow, under trees, an umbrella, or another person.
In 1923, Frederic Bartlett was appointed trustee of the Art Institute of Chicago. He and his second wife, Helen Birch Bartlett, loaned their collection of French Post-Impressionist and Modernist art to the museum.
The Kiss (in German Der Kuss) is an oil-on-canvas painting with added gold leaf, silver, and platinum by the Austrian Symbolist painter Gustav Klimt. It was painted between 1907 and 1908, during the height of what scholars call his “Golden Period.” It was exhibited in 1908 under Liebespaar (the lovers), as stated in the exhibition catalog. Love, intimacy, and sexuality are common themes in Gustav Klimt’s works.
The painting depicts a couple embracing each other, their bodies entwined in elaborate, beautiful robes that were decorated in style influenced by the contemporary Art Nouveau style and the organic forms of the earlier Arts and Crafts movement. The painting now hangs in the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere museum in the Belvedere.
This symbolistic painting is a self-portrait executed in 1872 by the Swiss symbolist artist Arnold Böcklin. He first exhibited at the Kunstverein München in the same year, establishing his reputation in Munich’s artistic community. It is now in the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin.
Painted in Munich, the painting depicts a bearded Böcklin stalked by a personification of death playing a single-stringed violin in an intimation of his mortality. Death and mortality are a repeating theme in several of Böcklin’s works, including Plague, two versions of War, and five versions of Isle of the Dead.
According to Alma Mahler, the wife of the composer Gustav Mahler, her husband was “under the spell” of Böcklin’s self-portrait when writing the scherzo movement of his Fourth Symphony.
Judith Beheading Holofernes is a baroque-style painting of the biblical episode by Caravaggio, in which the widow Judith stayed with the Assyrian general Holofernes in his tent after a banquet and then decapitated him after he passed out drunk. The exhibition catalog (Skira, 2018, p88) also cites biographer artist Giovanni Baglione’s account that Genoa banker Ottavio Costa commissioned the work.
The deuterocanonical Book of Judith tells how Judith served her people by seducing and pleasuring Holofernes, the Syrian General. Judith gets Holofernes drunk, then seizes her sword and slays him: “Approaching to his bed, she took hold of the hair of his head” (Judith 13:7–8).
Currently located at the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica at Palazzo Barberini, Rome, the artwork is the most pivotal part of the Book of Judith. It depicts a socially liberated woman who punishes masculine wrongdoing.”
Oil Paintings for Sale – An Indelible Piece of Art History
Oil painting is a technique that has been used for centuries to create captivating pieces of art. The origins of oil painting date back to the 7th, but in the 15th century in the Netherlands, where painters used linseed oils to bind pigments together in paint, it grew in popularity. Their method allowed for a progressive yet subtle layering of colours, creating a depth and luminosity that was previously impossible. The technique quickly spread throughout Europe, and by the 16th century, it became the most prominent method of painting.
Oil Painting – A Versatile Medium That Stands the Test of Time
Oil painting is renowned for its ability to create an array of textures and effects. Its slow-drying properties give it a unique capacity for blending and layering colours, producing luminosity and great depth. Furthermore, oil paints can be used in thick or thin layers, creating several different textures from soft to impasto.
Through the centuries, artists have adopted and developed the technique to create some of the most acclaimed works of art in history. These famous oil paintings include Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, Vincent van Gogh's The Starry Night, and Rembrandt van Rijn's The Night Watch.
Because oil painting is a slow process that requires the artist to wait for a layer to dry before moving on to the next, artists can work and rework their canvas until it is complete. This meticulous process gives an oil painting its archival stability, ensuring the vibrancy and beauty of the piece lasts for generations.
For a deeper look into our gallery, visit our canvas painting collection.
