Sandro Botticelli
(1445 - 1510)

Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, better known as Sandro Botticelli or simply Botticelli, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th century, when he was rediscovered by the Pre-Raphaelites who stimulated a reappraisal of his work. Since then, his paintings have been seen to represent the linear grace of late Italian Gothic and some Early Renaissance painting, even though they date from the latter half of the Italian Renaissance period.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandro_Botticelli

The Birth of Venus
Ca. 1485
Tempera on canvas
172,5 x 278,5
The Uffizi
https://www.uffizi.it/en/artworks/birth-of-venus

 Known as the “Birth of Venus”, the composition actually shows the goddess of love and beauty arriving on land, on the island of Cyprus, born of the sea spray and blown there by the winds, Zephyr and, perhaps, Aura. The goddess is standing on a giant scallop shell, as pure and as perfect as a pearl. She is met by a young woman, who is sometimes identified as one of the Graces or as the Hora of spring, and who holds out a cloak covered in flowers. Even the roses, blown in by the wind are a reminder of spring. The subject of the painting, which celebrates Venus as symbol of love and beauty, was perhaps suggested by the poet Agnolo Poliziano.

Gustav Wertheimer
(1847 - 1902)

Gustav Wertheimer was an Austrian painter, active mainly in Paris. He produced history paintings, portraits, and genre scenes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Wertheimer

The Kiss of the Siren
1882
Oil on Canvas
85 x 112 cm
Indianapolis Museum of Art
https://collections.discovernewfields.org/art/artwork/54276

 Titian
(1488/90 - 1576) 

Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio ( Latinized as Titianus, hence known in English as Titian), was an Italian (Venetian) Renaissance painter of Lombard origin, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno. During his lifetime he was often called da Cadore, 'from Cadore', taken from his native region.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titian

Perseus and Andromeda
1554 - 1556
Oil on Canvas
183 x 199,3 cm
The Wallace Collection
https://wallacelive.wallacecollection.org:443/eMP/eMuseumPlus?service=ExternalInterface&module=collection&objectId=64901&viewType=detailView

 

Perseus and Andromeda was one of a series of six large-scale mythological paintings commissioned from Titian by King Philip II of Spain, that were each to represent a scene from The Metamorphoses, an immensely popular epic poem by the Roman poet Ovid. Philip II did not however prescribe which subjects should be chosen, leaving the choice to Titian. The commission was a milestone in Titian’s career, and he was conscious that he was creating something unprecedented. He referred to the paintings as his Poesie, or poetry, because he wanted them to be the visual equivalent of poetry.

 Alexandre Cabanel
(1823 - 1889)
 

Alexandre Cabanel was a French painter. He painted historical, classical and religious subjects in the academic style. He was also well known as a portrait painter. According to Diccionario Enciclopedico Salvat, Cabanel is the best representative of L'art pompier, and was Napoleon III's preferred painter.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandre_Cabanel

The Birth of Venus
1863 - 1875
Oil on Canvas
106 x 182,6 cm
Musée d'Orsay
Dahesh Museum of Art
The MET
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/435831

The Birth of Venus (French: Naissance de Venus) is a painting by the French artist Alexandre Cabanel. It was painted in 1863, and is now in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. A second and smaller version (85 x 135.9 cm) from ca. 1864 is in Dahesh Museum of Art. A third (106 x 182.6 cm) version dates from 1875; it is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

Ernst Stückelberg
(1831 - 1903)
 

Ernst Stückelberg was a Swiss painter native to Basel, born to a family that traced its connection to the city back to the 14th century.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Stückelberg_(painter)

Les Sirènes (The Sirens)
1899
Oil on Canvas
100 x 150 cm
Kunstmuseum Basel

Joseph Anton Koch
(1768-1839)
 

Joseph Anton Koch was an Austrian painter of Neoclassicism and later the German Romantic movement; he is perhaps the most significant neoclassical landscape painter.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Anton_Koch

Macbeth and the Witches
1829/1830
Oil on canvas
114 × 155,2 cm
Kunstmuseum, Basel

 

 Auguste Alexandre Hirsch
(1833 - 1912)

Auguste Alexandre Hirsch was a French Academic painter and lithographer. He was born in Lyon and died in Paris. He painted portraits, history and genre paintings, as well works inspired by classical mythology.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_Alexandre_Hirsch

Night
1875
Oil on Canvas
105 x 168 cm
Private collection
Sold by Sotheby’s, Apr. 18, 2008
https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2008/19th-century-european-art-including-the-orientalist-sale-n08431/lot.71.html

Arthur Hopkins
(1848 - 1930)

Arthur Hopkins was a London-born landscape and genre painter in water-colour and oil, and also an illustrator.

https://modjourn.org/biography/hopkins-arthur-1848-1930/

A FANTASY OF THE DEEP
1903
watercolor with bodycolor
97 x 66 cm
Private collection
Sale Date: July 13, 2017

Elihu Vedder
(1836 - 1923)
 

Elihu Vedder  was an American symbolist painter, book illustrator and poet from New York City. He is best known for his fifty-five illustrations for Edward FitzGerald's translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (deluxe edition, published by Houghton Mifflin).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elihu_Vedder

Memory
1870
Oil on mahogany panel
51.59 × 37.47
LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art)
https://collections.lacma.org/node/225580

According to the artist’s annotation of the 1866 drawing The Face in the Clouds, he was inspired to create such a meditative image by Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem, "Break, Break, Break" (published 1842), in which the poet contemplates the sea and broods over the memory of lost ones.

William-Adolphe Bouguereau
(1825-1905)
 

William-Adolphe Bouguereau was a French academic painter. In his realistic genre paintings, he used mythological themes, making modern interpretations of classical subjects, with an emphasis on the female human body. During his life, he enjoyed significant popularity in France and the United States, was given numerous official honors, and received top prices for his work. As the quintessential salon painter of his generation, he was reviled by the Impressionist avant-garde. By the early twentieth century, Bouguereau and his art fell out of favor with the public, due in part to changing tastes. In the 1980s, a revival of interest in figure painting led to a rediscovery of Bouguereau and his work. He finished 822 known paintings, but the whereabouts of many are still unknown.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William-Adolphe_Bouguereau

Evening Mood
1882
Oil on Canvas
207,5 x 108 cm
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de La Habana (National Museum of Fine Arts of Havana)
https://www.bellasartes.co.cu/obra/wiliam-adolphe-bouguereau-atardecer-1882

Edouard Bernard Debat-Ponsan
(1847 - 1913)
 

Édouard Debat-Ponsan was a French academic painter noted for his allegorical works, scenes of peasant life and Orientalist works.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89douard_Debat-Ponsan

Love Dies in Time
1878
Oil on Canvas
114.3 x 146.05 cm
MiA -Minneapolis Institute of Art

https://collections.artsmia.org/art/2280/love-dies-in-time-edouard-bernard-debat-ponsan

This painting was one of a pair illustrating the vicissitudes of love through time, which the artist exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1878, and which subsequently belonged to the author Emile Zola. The lost pendant, Love Passes the Time, depicted the happy young couple in a sun-drenched glade. Here, however, all has gone awry: Cupid mourns the death of the young woman, while her lover grasps at the arm of winged Time in a futile attempt to alter the course of events.

Jean-Baptiste Bertrand
(1823 - 1887)
 

Jean-Baptiste Bertrand was a French painter and lithographer. At first he was a student of Étienne Rey (1789–1867) and later of Jean-Claude Bonnefond (1796–1860) at the École des Beaux-Arts in Lyon from 1840 to 1843.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Bertrand

Ophelia
1871
Oil on canvas
89.5 x 181.5 cm
Private collection
Sold by Christiesy’s in 2017
https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6089748

Constantin Émile Meunier
(1831 - 1905)
 

Constantin Meunier was a Belgian painter and sculptor. He made an important contribution to the development of modern art by elevating the image of the industrial worker, docker and miner to an icon of modernity. His work is a reflection of the industrial, social and political developments of his day and represents a compassionate and committed view of man and the world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantin_Meunier

Ophelia
1851-1905
Oil on canvas
61 x 100,5 cm
Private collection
Sold at Sotheby's London sale of 24 November 2009 lot 54

Benjamin West
(1738 - 1820)
 

Benjamin West, PRA  was a British-American artist who painted famous historical scenes such as The Death of Nelson, The Death of General Wolfe, the Treaty of Paris, and Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_West

Telemachus and Calypso
c. 1809
Oil on Canvas
104,1 x 149,2 cm
NGA National Gallery of Art, Washington
https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.177101.html

Telemachus, Odysseus's son, and Mentor, Odysseus's long-time friend, go on a journey to find out news about Odysseus' whereabouts after he has been missing for twenty years. For seven of those years, he was imprisoned on the nymph Calypso's island, until the gods intervened and forced her to let him go. When Telemachus and Mentor shipwreck on her island, Calypso is still mourning the loss of her beloved Odysseus. She immediately recognizes the similarity between Odysseus and Telemachus, and knows that he is the son of the hero. She pretends not to know who he is, and tells him that no one is to enter her island. Telemachus tells her who his father is, and asks for her mercy. Calypso is so impressed by the youth, she offers him a warm greeting and shows him the natural beauty of her island. She reveals to him that his father Odysseus had in fact been to her island, and she laments his having left her broken-hearted. Telemachus regales her with stories of his adventures prior to his landing at her island.

Mihael Stroy
(1803 - 1871)

Michael Stroy (Mihael Stroj) was an Austro-Hungarian painter of Slovenian origin. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Stroy

Angelika und Medor,  (Orlando furioso by Ludovico Ariosto)
1833
Oil on Canvas
53 x 69 cm
Private collection

Angelica and Medoro are two characters from the 16th-century Italian epic Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto. Angelica was an Asian princess at the court of Charlemagne who fell in love with the Saracen knight Medoro, and eloped with him to China. 

 John William Waterhouse
(1849 - 1917)
 

John William Waterhouse RA was an English painter known for working first in the Academic style and for then embracing the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood's style and subject matter. His paintings are known for their depictions of women from both ancient Greek mythology and Arthurian legend. A high proportion depict a single young and beautiful woman in a historical costume and setting, though there are some ventures into Orientalist painting and genre painting, still mostly featuring women.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_William_Waterhouse

Miranda - The Tempest
1916
Oil on Canvas
100,4 x 137.8 cm
Private collection
Sold, by Christie’s London, October 25, 1991

"Against my very heart. Poor souls, they perish'd.
Had I been any god of power, I would
Have sunk the sea within the earth or ere.
It should the good ship so have swallow'd"
(The Tempest Act I:11, 8;12)

Eugène Delacroix
(1798–1863)
 

Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugène_Delacroix

Demosthenes on the Seashore
1859
Oil on paper, laid on wood panel
49 x 60 cm
National Gallery of Ireland
http://onlinecollection.nationalgallery.ie/objects/11780/demosthenes-on-the-seashore

Demosthenes was a statesman and orator who lived in Athens during the fourth century BC. To overcome a speech impediment he is said to have practised speaking with pebbles in his mouth. He also gave speeches on the seashore, projecting his voice over the sound of the waves in preparation for tumultuous crowds. Delacroix depicts him barefoot on a beach with one arm outstretched towards the water.

Henri Gervex
(1852 - 1929)
 

Henri Gervex was a French painter who studied painting under Alexandre Cabanel, Pierre-Nicolas Brisset, and Eugène Fromentin. His early work belonged almost exclusively to the mythological genre, which served as an excuse for the painting of the nude, but not always in the best of taste.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Gervex

La Naissance de Vénus (The birth of Venus)
1907
Oil on canvas
200 x 160 cm
Petit Palais, Paris
https://www.parismuseescollections.paris.fr/en/node/226796

 Jean-Léon Gérôme
(1824 - 1904)

 

Jean-Léon Gérôme was a French painter and sculptor in the style now known as academicism. His paintings were so widely reproduced that he was "arguably the world's most famous living artist by 1880." The range of his oeuvre included historical painting, Greek mythology, Orientalism, portraits, and other subjects, bringing the academic painting tradition to an artistic climax. He is considered one of the most important painters from this academic period. He was also a teacher with a long list of students.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Léon_Gérôme

Venus Rising
1890
Oil on Canvas
129,5 x 79,5 cm
Private collection

 Henri Fantin-Latour
(1836 - 1904)
 

Henri Fantin-Latour was a French painter and lithographer best known for his flower paintings and group portraits of Parisian artists and writers.

In addition to his realistic paintings, Fantin-Latour created imaginative lithographs inspired by the music of some of the great classical composers. In 1876, Fantin-Latour attended a performance of the Ring cycle at Bayreuth, which he found particularly moving. He would later publish lithographs inspired by Richard Wagner in La revue wagnérienne, which helped solidify his reputation among Paris' avant-garde as an anti-naturalist painter.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Fantin-Latour

Tannhäuser

1886
Oil on Canvas
86.4 x 103.3 cm
The Cleveland Museum of Art
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1916.1038

 

Tannhäuser, the male figure seated on the left, does not seem fully engaged in this merry scene. Among pale bodies and pastel hues, he alone is cast in shadow. The Wagner opera that inspired the painting centers on a struggle between profane and sacred love, and the tension between them appears embodied in the brooding Tannhäuser.

 Alfred Philippe Rol
(1846 - 1919)

Alfred Philippe Roll was a French painter. He studied at École des Beaux-Arts, where he was taught by Jean-Léon Gérôme, Henri-Joseph Harpignies, Charles-François Daubigny and Léon Bonnat. He painted his first landscape in 1869, and in 1870 exhibited "Environs of Baccarat" and "Evening" at Salon-de-Provence. During the Franco-Prussian war, he was a lieutenant of militia.

His 1875 painting of "The Flood at Toulouse" attracted huge attention, and it is now in the Musée Malraux (Le Havre). All of his early work was romantic style, but was influenced by other styles including Bolognese and Gustave Courbet. In 1877 he exhibited Fete of Silenus at Salon, which is now at the Ghent Museum. It was at this point Roll decided to devote his work to painting everyday life, and his style changed as well to a more realist one.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Philippe_Roll

Don Juan and Haïdee
1874
oil on canvas
Calvet Museum, Avignon

Paul Albert Steck
(1866-1924)

Paul Albert Steck was a French painter of landscapes, historical scenes, and several portraits from life.
Paul Albert Steck was born in Troyes, France. He began his career studying under Jean-Léon Gérôme. In 1896 he was made a member of the Société des Artistes Français. He also exhibited works in the fifth Salon de la Rose-Croix. In 1900, he won a bronze medal at the Exposition Universelle. Museums in Dieppe, Montauban, and Rouen display his work. He died in Paris.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Albert_Steck

Ophélie
Ca 1894
Oil on canvas
162 x 98,5 cm
Petite Palais, Paris
https://www.parismuseescollections.paris.fr/fr/petit-palais/oeuvres/ophelie#infos-principales

 

Paul Swan
(1883 - 1972)
 

Paul Spencer Swan was an American painter, sculptor, dancer, poet and actor. Once billed as "the most beautiful man in the world," Swan has come to be looked on as a "gay camp icon."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Swan_(dancer)

Water nymph
1907
Oil on board,
68.6 x 38.1 cm.
Private collection.
Sold by Heritage Auctions on Aug 17, 2010
https://fineart.ha.com/itm/paintings/paul-swan-american-1884-1972-water-nymph-1907oil-on-board27-x-15-insigned-lower-left/a/5054-78300.s

Herbert James Draper
(1864 - 1920)

Herbert James Draper was an English Neoclassicist painter whose career began in the Victorian era and extended through the first two decades of the 20th century.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_James_Draper

Sea Melodies
1904
Oil on Canvasboard
34.9 x 24.8 cm
Private collection
Sold by Christie’s London, 14 Dec 2023
https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6462298

Rupert Bunny
(1864 - 1947)

 

Rupert Charles Wulsten Bunny  was an Australian painter. Born and raised in Melbourne, Victoria, he achieved success and critical acclaim as an expatriate in fin-de-siècle Paris. He gained an honourable mention at the Paris Salon of 1890 with his painting Tritons and a bronze medal at the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1900 with his Burial of St Catherine of Alexandria. The French state acquired 13 of his works for the Musée du Luxembourg and regional collections. He was a "sumptuous colourist and splendidly erudite painter of ideal themes, and the creator of the most ambitious Salon paintings produced by an Australian."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Bunny

 

Sea idyll
C. 1891
oil on canvas
100.5 × 161.5 cm
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/4205/

Knut Ekwall
(1843 - 1912)

Knut Alfred Ekwall was a Swedish painter and illustrator. He is best known for his genre works, many of which have women and children for their subjects.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knut_Ekwall

The Fisherman and the Siren
Oil on canvas
194.3 x 149.9 cm
Private collection (sold on Dec 8, 2022)
https://fineart.ha.com/itm/paintings/knut-ekwall-swedish-1843-1912-a-fisherman-engulfed-by-a-sirenoil-on-canvas76-1-2-x-59-inches-1943-x-1499/a/8103-69051.s

 Elihu Vedder
(1836 - 1923)

Elihu Vedder was an American symbolist painter, book illustrator and poet from New York City. He is best known for his fifty-five illustrations for Edward FitzGerald's translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (deluxe edition, published by Houghton Mifflin).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elihu_Vedder

Fisherman and Mermaid
1888-1889
Oil on canvas
41 x 71.8
Harvard Art Museums
https://harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/227917

The mermaid was a popular figure during the nineteenth century. Hans Christian Andersen first published “The Little Mermaid” in 1837, and other writers, from Alfred, Lord Tennyson, to Oscar Wilde, also treated the theme. Whether depicted as a destructive temptress or helpless victim, the mermaid embodied the sacrifices associated with living in two worlds. It is not surprising that this creature captivated contemporary observers, who were living through unprecedented cultural, political, and social changes. This canvas is the last of five paintings Vedder made of this subject, which all depict a fisherman hauling a frightened mermaid from the sea in his net. The narrative may be based on a specific, as yet unidentified, source.

 William Huggins
(1820 – 1884)

 

William Huggins  was an English artist, from Liverpool, who specialised in drawing animals.

 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Huggins_(animal_artist)

The Poet’s Vision, Canto I, Laon And Cythna (1852)
1852
oil on cardboard
34.9 by 22.2 cm
Private collection
Sold by Sotheby’s, London 15 December 2016

For in the air do I behold indeed
An eagle and a serpent wreathed in flight...
There was a woman, beautiful as morning,
Sitting beneath the rocks, upon the sand
Of the waste sea-fair as one flower adorning
An icy wilderness...
Upon the sea-mark a small boat did wait,
Fair as herself, like Love by Hope left desolate.' 

Percy Bysse Shelley, 'The Poet's Vision' from Laon and Cythna

Arnold Böcklin
(1827 - 1901)
 

Arnold Böcklin was a Swiss Symbolist painter. He is best known for his six versions of the Isle of the Dead, which inspired works by several late-Romantic composers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Böcklin

Odysseus and Polyphemus
1896
Oil and tempera on panel
66 x 150 cm
MFA Boston
https://collections.mfa.org/objects/564102/odysseus-and-polyphemus?ctx=b1d1e96b-6f98-4416-bced-24c9b6c5eead&idx=7