Jean-Francois Millet | Rest after work, 1866

During the harvest, a peasant's workday could last from the early hours of the morning until well into the evening, punctuated only by meal times and a rest from the sun at midday.

Here, a man and woman lay in the shade of a haystack.

The wheat sheaves to their right mirror their pose, while the pairs of sickles, shoes, and distant cows all reinforce the theme of companionship.

Jean-Francois Millet | Rest after work, 1866 | Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Emile Auguste Hublin | Genre painter

Emile Auguste Hublin (1830-1891) was born and raised in Angers, the historic capital of the northwestern French province of Anjou.

In the late 1840s or early 1850s, he moved to Paris, where he trained with François Edouard Picot, a student of Jacques-Louis David.

Hublin depicted his rural subjects in regional attire often revealing signs of wear.

Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374) | Quotes

Marie Alexandre Valentin Sellier (French, 19th/20th Century) | La farandole de Pétrarque, 1900

• "Love is the crowning grace of humanity, the holiest right of the soul, the golden link which binds us to duty and truth, the redeeming principle that chiefly reconciles the heart to life, and is prophetic of eternal good".

• "L'amore è la grazia incoronante dell'umanità, il diritto più santo dell'anima, il legame d'oro che ci lega al dovere e alla verità, il principio redentrice che principalmente riconcilia il cuore con la vita ed è profetico del bene eterno".

Aloysius O'Kelly | Breton girls on a beach

Aloysius O'Kelly (1853-1936) was an Irish painter.

Early life

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Aloysius was the youngest of four boys and one girl to the Kelly family of Dublin. His grandparents on his father's side were natives of County Roscommon and his father ran a blacksmith's shop and dray making business in Peterson's Lane. It was his mother who directed him towards a career in the arts.

Cecile Walton (1891-1956) Symbolist painter

From an artistic family, Scottish painter Cecile Walton was the daughter of Glasgow Boys artist Edward Arthur Walton.

She studied in London, Edinburgh, Paris and Florence and became a member of the Edinburgh Group, practising in the capital as a painter, sculptor and illustrator.

Influenced by the Symbolist style, her book illustrations for the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen perfectly capture the fanciful characters and stories of the Danish author. | © National Galleries of Scotland

Jules-Élie Delaunay (1828-1891) Academic painter

Jules-Élie Delaunay was a French🎨 academic painter.

He was born at Nantes in the Loire-Atlantique département of France. Delaunay studied under Flandrin, and at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris under Lamothe.

He worked in the classicist manner of Ingres🎨 until, after winning🎨 the Prix de Rome, he went to Italy; in 1856, and abandoned the ideal of Raphaelesque perfection for the sincerity and severity of the quattrocentists.

William W. Churchill (1858-1926)

William Worcester Churchill was born in Jamaica Plains, Massachusetts, in 1858 and died in Washington, DC in 1926. He was a painter of figure studies, portraits and landscapes in oil and pastel, and entered the Boston Museum School in 1877.

He then trained in Paris in the late 1870s with the French Salon artist Léon Bonnat for two years.

While still in Paris, Churchill also took lessons from his fellow-Bostonian Tarbell, who was himself in France studying at the Académie Julian.

Frederic Payet, 1960 | Impressionist painter

Born on the French Island of Madagascar where the sunny, colorful and exotic atmosphere and a quality of light found nowhere else, has influenced his art to this day; Frederic was reared in Paris and moved to the United States, in 1989.

His defining style is impressionism which he uses to encapsulate his perceptions of the world. Frederic’s work conveys the long-lost environments of a calm countryside and cityscape whether French or North American.

Metropolitan Museum of Art: Why Study Art from the Past?

Art from the past holds clues to life in the past.

By looking at a work of art's symbolism, colors, and materials, we can learn about the culture that produced it.

For example, the two portraits above are full of symbolism referring to virtues of an ideal marriage during the fifteenth century.

Maestro delle Storie del Pane (Italian (Emilian), active late 15th century) | Portrait of a Man, possibly Matteo di Sebastiano di Bernardino Gozzadini and Portrait of a Woman, possibly Ginevra d'Antonio Lupari Gozzadini, 1494

Sir Thomas Lawrence | Julia, Lady Peel, 1827 | Frick Collection

Julia Floyd (1795-1859) was married in 1820 to the British statesman Sir Robert Peel, who twice served as Prime Minister and was an avid patron of Lawrence.

The Frick portrait apparently was inspired by Rubens’ painting of Susanna Fourment🎨 known as the "Chapeau de paille", which Peel had acquired in 1823.

Maurice Cullen | The pioneer of the Canadian Impressionism

Maurice Galbraith Cullen (1866-1934) was a pioneer of impressionism in Canadian art and is particularly noted for his winter landscapes.

Cullen moved to Montréal with his family in 1870.

There he began his art training as a sculptor at the Conseil des arts et manufactures and with sculptor Louis-Philippe Hébert.

Like other artists of his generation, he went to Paris for additional training.

Daniel Sannier, 1944 | Impressionist painter

Contemporary French artist🎨 Daniel Sannier lives and works in his home town, an ancient city on the bay of the Somme River.

Most of the inspirations for his beautiful landscape paintings come from this area in Northern France known as "Picardie".

The orchards in bloom, the quiet side waters of the Somme River covered with Water lilies and the wide fields of "Colza" - these are his subjects and for that he has become well known throughout Europe as well in the United States.

Edmond Marie Petitjean (1844-1925)

Edmond Marie Petitjean was a self-taught French painter🎨, known for landscapes and seascapes.

His father was a lawyer and wanted him to follow suit; forcing him to study law despite his artistic talent and sending him to Paris, where he was apprenticed to a notary.

While there, he visited the museums and became determined to be an artist.

His parents cut off his financial support, but he was able to find employment managing a small factory in Nancy.

Alexei Harlamoff | The Arrangement, 1880

"The Arrangement" was painted in the mid-1880s, during the best period of Harlamoff's life, when he was popular and admired.

'Straightforward of subject, superlative of execution, and true to beauty... All is simple, there is no mendacious elegance'

- these are the words of Emile Zola describing another of Harlamoff's works and which can also be applied with perfection to "The Arrangement".

Gustave Madelain | Post-Impressionist painter

French artist Gustave Madelain (1867-1944) was born at Charly (Aisne) and quickly developed his own interpretation of French post Impressionism.

His specialized in painting landscapes of all types and these he usually did in oil paint.

He regularly showed his work in Paris and regularly submitted his work to the "Salon of Independents" from 1907.

Guillaume Seignac | No cherries for you!

French academic painter Guillaume Seignac was born in Rennes in 1870, and died in Paris in 1924.

He started training at the Académie Julian in Paris, where he spent 1889 through 1895.

He had many teachers there, including Gabriel Ferrier, William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Tony Robert-Fleury.

Jean-Charles Decoudun, 1962 | Paris painter

Fascinated by pedestrian streets and squares, churches and covered markets, in fact, with everyday life, the French painter🎨 Jean-Charles Decoudun uses watercolors to paint these scenes of life.

The artist observes and notes that people are attracted to these places of daily scenes and enjoys painting their squares, cafés and streets. The subjects of his paintings are, in his eyes, the true creators.

Vladimir Babich / Владимир Бабич, 1953

Vladimir Babich is a contemporary Russian artist🎨.

He works in the style of Post-impressionism following the traditions of Van Gogh🎨, Monet🎨.

Vladimir N. Babich graduated from the Moscow University of Art (Stroganovskoye uchilishye).

He is a member of Moscow Artists Association since 1986.

Arthur Hughes | April Love, 1856 | Tate Gallery

"April Love" is a painting by the British Pre-Raphaelite painter Arthur Hughes (1832-1915) which was created between 1855-1856.

It was first exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1856.

Originally acquired by William Morris, the painting was purchased by the Tate Gallery, London (now Tate Britain) in 1909 and has remained in the Tate collection to the present day.

Vincent van Gogh | Seascape near Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Me, 1888

We can tell that Van Gogh painted this view of the sea from the beach, as grains of sand have been found in the paint layers. It was done at the fishing village of Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, during a trip he took from Arles in the south of France.

In addition to the blue and white that he brushed onto the canvas with bold strokes, he used green and yellow for the waves.

He applied these colours with a palette knife, neatly capturing the effect of the light through the waves.

Van Gogh was enthusiastic about the colours of the Mediterranean Sea.

Claude Monet | Summer, 1874

In April and May of 1874, for the first time Monet and his artist friends exhibited their own works rejected by the official "Salon" in rooms belonging to the photographer Nadar on the boulevard des Capucines.

A newspaper critic, referring to Monet’s Impression - Sunrise of 1872 mockingly coined the term "Impressionists".

Arthur Hughes | Fair Rosamund, 1854

Legend has it that in 1176 Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife of Henry II of England, poisoned ‘Fair’ Rosamund Clifford, the king’s beautiful mistress and true love.

Henry had created a secret garden for Rosamund at Woodstock, a Royal estate in Oxfordshire, accessible only via a maze.

Arthur Hughes (British Pre-Raphaelite painter, 1832-1915) has painted the moment when Eleanor, seen lurking in the background, discovers the entrance to the garden, gaining the opportunity to commit murder.

Claude Monet | A bouquet of gladioli, lilies and daisies, 1878

Painted in 1878, Monet’s "Bouquet of gladioli, lilies and daisies" / "Bouquet de glaïeuls, lis et marguerites" - beautifully demonstrates the artist’s ability to evoke the lavishness and vitality of flowers, rendering them with extraordinary freshness and spontaneity.

Claude Monet | La terrasse à Sainte-Adresse, 1867

"The Garden at Sainte-Adresse" is a painting by the French impressionist painter Claude Monet.

The painting was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art after an auction sale at Christie's in December 1967, under the French title "La terrasse à Sainte-Adresse".

The painting was exhibited at the 4th Impressionist exhibition, Paris, April 10-May 11, 1879, as no. 157 under the title Jardin à Sainte-Adresse.

Piotr Stoliarenko (1925-2018) | Post-impressionist painter

Piotr Kuzmich Stoliarenko / Петр Кузьмич Столяренко - a landscape, seascape and dreamy garden painter, a master of still-life and genre paintings, is considered as one of the most fascinating of the Crimean artists🎨.

He is called the Soviet post-impressionist, and his art - a crucial classic of Soviet and post-Soviet painting.

The artist was born in the picturesque village of Kertch, a delightful fishing village in the Crimea, on the edge of the Azov Sea.

Piotr Stoliarenko attended the Aivazovsky academy of fine arts and was a pupil of Nikolai Barsamov.

Jim Daley, 1951 | Genre painter

Born in Holdenville, Oklahoma, Jim Daly studied at the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, California.

His paintings of American genre are represented in many private and corporate collections and have received numerous awards🎨.

His paintings also appear in the permanent collections of the Favell Museum in Klamath Falls, Oregon, the U.S. Marshall Historical Society, Fort Lauderdale, Florida and The Old West Museum in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Gustaf Theodor Wallen (1860-1948)

Gustaf Theodor Wallén (14 dicembre 1860, Stoccolma - 15 gennaio 1948, Leksand) è stato un pittore, grafico, disegnatore e scultore Svedese.

Ha iniziato a studiare all'Artigianato di Stoccolma ed alla Scuola professionale nel 1878, ma nel 1879 si è iscritto alla Scuola dell'Accademia delle Arti, dove ha studiato per Georg von Rosen.

Durante l'accademia divenne stretto amico di Bruno Liljefors, Gottfrid Kallstenius ed Anshelm Schultzberg, la sua interazione con Schultzberg prese vita.

Gli fu conferita la medaglia reale nel 1887 per la pittura ad olio "Havsstrand a Kivik".

Carl Wilhelmson (Swedish, 1866-1928)

Carl Wilhelm Wilhelmson🎨 was born in the little fishing village of Fiskebäcksil on the west coast of Sweden.

He began working in a print works in Gothenburg as a lithography apprentice.

Wilhelmson trained first as a commercial lithographer in Göteborg.

In 1886 he enrolled as a student of decorative painting at Valand College of Art where his teacher was Carl Larsson🎨.