James McNeill Whistler | Nocturne: Blue and Gold, St Mark's, Venice, 1880

Nocturne: Blue and Gold, St Mark's, Venice is an 1880 painting by James Abbot McNeill Whistler (American Tonalist painter, 1834-1903), now in the National Museum of Wale.

Following his bankruptcy in 1879, Whistler spent a year in Venice where he concentrated on etchings and pastels.

Only three oil paintings, produced largely from memory in the evenings, survive from this visit.

Gustave Courbet | Jo, La Belle Irlandaise, 1866

Gustave Courbet | Jo, the Beautiful Irishwoman | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The "beautiful Irishwoman" depicted in this painting is Joanna Hiffernan (born 1842/43), mistress and model of the artist James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)🎨, and perhaps subsequently Courbet’s lover.

Although dated 1866, the picture was likely undertaken in 1865, when the two men painted together at the French seaside resort of Trouville; Courbet wrote of "the beauty of a superb redhead whose portrait I have begun".

He would paint three repetitions with minor variations. | © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Pierre Auguste Renoir | Woman playing a guitar, 1897

Woman Playing a Guitar / "Femme jouant de la guitare"/"Joueuse de guitare ou La Guitariste" is an 1897 painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, now in the Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon, which bought it in 1901.

The work was one of the first paintings acquired by Paul Durand-Ruel.

Renoir painted several paintings of guitar-players and borrowing classical motifs - here, he is influenced by Camille Corot, Titian and Rubens.

Marc Chagall (1887-1985) | Flowers and lovers

• "You could wonder for hours what flowers mean, but for me, they're life itself, in all its happy brilliance. We couldn't do with out flowers".
• "Potresti chiederti per ore cosa significano i fiori, ma per me sono la vita stessa, in tutto il suo felice splendore. Non potevamo fare a meno dei fiori".
• "Art is the increasing effort to compete with the beauty of flowers - and never succeeding".
• "L'arte è lo sforzo incessante di competere con la bellezza dei fiori - e non riuscirci mai".

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | L'Église à Essoyes, 1890

The great impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir🎨 lived in the charming little village of Essoyes, in the Aube department of Champagne-Ardennes (in north-central France) from 1896-1907.

The village, hometown of his wife Aline and model and governess of his children Gabrielle Renard, is represented in many of his paintings.

Marc Chagall | Music and Colour

• "Mozart never composed anything, ever! He copied what was written on his soul".
• "Mozart non ha mai composto nulla, mai! Ha copiato ciò che è stato scritto sulla sua anima".
• "Color is all. When color is right, form is right. Color is everything, color is vibration like music; everything is vibration".
• "Il colore è tutto. Quando il colore è giusto, anche la forma è giusta. Il colore è tutto, il colore è vibrazione come la musica; tutto è vibrazione".

Francis Picabia | Paysages

Francis Picabia, born Francis-Marie Martinez de Picabia (1879-1953), was a French avant-garde painter, poet and typographist.

After experimenting with Impressionism and Pointillism, Picabia became associated with Cubism.

His highly abstract planar compositions were colourful and rich in contrasts.

He was one of the early major figures of the Dada movement in the United States and in France.

He was later briefly associated with Surrealism, but would soon turn his back on the art establishment.