Edgar Degas | Combing the Hair, 1896

Women combing their hair, or having it combed, often appear in Degas’s work - for example, in his early Beach Scene, also in the National Gallery.

This late painting is one of his boldest treatments of the subject.

Here, a maid, wearing her servant’s uniform, combs the hair of her seated mistress, who is not yet fully dressed and who may also be pregnant.

Artemisia Gentileschi | Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy, 1620-25

Until its appearance on the art market in Paris in 2014, this picture was only known from a black-and-white photograph.

It has been hailed as one of the most significant rediscoveries of a work by Artemisia in recent years.

It depicts Mary Magdalene, a follower of Christ, who withdrew to a life of solitary penitence and prayer following his death.

Here the Magdalene, alone in a cave and bathed in light, is in the throes of an ecstatic vision.

Artemisia paints her in a way that suggests a real, physical presence.

Artemisia Gentileschi | Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy, 1620-25 (detail) | The National Gallery, London

Pablo Picasso | Family of Saltimbanques, 1905

Measuring 7 by 7.5 feet, "Family of Saltimbanques" is the most important painting Picasso made during his early career. Immediately obvious is the isolation and stillness of its figures. Shouldn’t these acrobats, dancers, and jesters suggest the frolic or at least the forced gaiety of circus performance?

That was not what Picasso had in mind.

For him, these wandering saltimbanques stood for the melancholy of the neglected underclass of artistes, a kind of extended family with whom he identified.

Claude Monet | Snow Scene at Argenteuil, 1875

Snow at Argenteuil / Rue sous la neige, Argenteuil - is an oil-on-canvas landscape painting from the Impressionist artist Claude Monet.

It is the largest of no fewer than eighteen works Monet painted of his home commune of Argenteuil while it was under a blanket of snow during the winter of 1874-1875.

This painting - number 352 in Wildenstein's catalogue of the works of Monet - is the largest of the eighteen.

The attention to detail evident in the smaller paintings is less evident in this larger picture. Instead, Monet has rendered large areas of the canvas in closely like tones and colours of blue and grey.

Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714-1789)

Claude-Joseph Vernet was the leading French🎨 landscape painter (with Hubert Robert🎨) of the later 18th century🎨.

He achieved great celebrity with his topographical paintings and serene landscapes.

He was also one of the century's most accomplished painters of tempests and moonlight scenes.

Vernet was born at Avignon and trained there with his father, Antoine, and with the history painter Philippe Sauvan.

Rubens | Portrait of Susanna Lunden, 1622

This painting is one of the most famous by Peter Paul Rubens🎨 (Flemish Baroque Era painter, 1577-1640) in the Collection of the National Gallery, London.

The title 'Le Chapeau de Paille' (meaning The Straw Hat) was first used in the 18th century. In fact the hat is not straw; 'paille' may be an error for 'poil', which is the French word for felt.

The hat, which shades the face of the sitter, is the most prominent feature of the painting.

The portrait is probably of Susanna Lunden, born Susanna Fourment, third daughter of Daniel Fourment, an Antwerp tapestry and silk merchant. Her younger sister Helena became Rubens's second wife in 1630.

Vincent van Gogh | Vase with Fourteen Sunflowers, 1888

Vincent wanted to be known as the Painter of Sunflowers.

Just like other painters working at the time, Vincent made flower still lifes.

But he did things a little differently.

After practising with different flowers, he chose a specific variety: the Sunflower.

Paul Gauguin | A Vase of Flowers, 1896

Gauguin painted this still life soon after he had arrived in Tahiti for his second and final stay in 1895.

Exotic red bougainvillea and hibiscus, white and yellow frangipani, white tiare and large blue leaves burst out of a dark clay pot.

They look as though they are slightly past their best, and some blossoms have fallen onto the table top.

Claude Monet | Iris (1914-1917)

By the late nineteenth century hybridisation had created almost 200 different varieties of iris.

The flowers had originated in Japan and featured in the Japanese prints Monet so admired - we know that he owned a print of Irises by the Japanese artist Hokusai.

He would also have been familiar with the paintings of irises that Van Gogh made in the year before his death in 1890.

Edgar Degas | Miss LaLa at the Cirque Fernando Paris, 1879

Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando is an oil on canvas painting by the French Impressionist artist Edgar Degas.

Painted in 1879 and exhibited at the Fourth Impressionist Exhibition in Paris that same year, it is now in the collection of the National Gallery in London.

It is Degas's only circus painting, and Miss La La is the only identifiable person of color in Degas's works.

The special identity of Miss La La and the great skills Degas used in painting her performance in the circus made this piece of art important, widely appreciated but, at the same time, controversial.

Jean-Baptiste Greuze | A Child with an Apple, 1779

A young child leans on a cushion holding an apple.

It is not clear if it is a girl or a boy.

The longish hair, delicate rosy cheeks and full, red lips suggest it might be a girl and the white cloth around the shoulders resembles a fichu - the shawl worn by little girls.

However, fichus were usually made of lighter, transparent material while this one is opaque.

Jean-Baptiste Greuze | A Child with an Apple, 1779 | The National Gallery, London

Sandro Botticelli | The Virgin and Child with a Pomegranate, 1480-1500

The Virgin Mary stands with her infant son, Christ, in the corner of a large but sparsely decorated room.

He is balanced on a small table, the only piece of furniture, but is dangerously close to its edge; a closed book further restricts the space available to him.

The Virgin uses both hands to support his left leg as he leans forward. His translucent robe hardly provides protection.

The grey colour of the walls evokes a sandstone known as pietra serena, a common building material in Renaissance Florence.

Sandro Botticelli | The Virgin and Child with a Pomegranate, 1480-1500 | National Gallery, London

Albrecht Dürer | The Madonna with the Iris, 1500-10

The Virgin Mary breastfeeds the infant Christ in a walled garden surrounded by flowers.

God the Father, a small figure radiating light, appears in the sky above.

The image of the Virgin and Christ Child in a garden was derived from the poetic imagery of the Song of Solomon, a book of the Old Testament.

In it, a woman is described as a lily and a rose as well as an enclosed garden (which, when associated with Mary, came to symbolise her virginity).