Create your own bespoke print of Telemaco Signorini’s Sketch for ' Straw Weavers at Settignano' from our collection. About this painting Sketch for ' Straw Weavers at Settignano', about 1880 © The National Gallery, London This painting joined our collection in 2008 With our custom print service, you can order your own fully customised reproduction from the National Gallery Collection & exhibitions. Choose your own size, print material & frames & have your masterpiece delivered straight to your door. ...

Tradition states that the figure is wearing bridal attire, but it has also been noted that she may be dressed for a ball. The picture can be linked with Corot's numerous images of solitary women in pensive attitudes. The sombre tonality & modelling of the face are reminiscent of Rembrandt. The oval edge is perhaps intended to suggest the frame of a mirror. ...

Visiting country inns to eat, drink & play skittles & bowls became a popular pastime for the increasing urban population of the Dutch Republic. Here, Steen captures the carefree mood of time spent away from the burdens & obligations of everyday work ...

A number of vessels are gently run aground in an inlet on a sandy shore, & in the background other vessels are at anchor. Men can be seen walking on the sandbanks. This work is probably a production of the van de Velde studio, & only partly by Willem v ...

On the left is a 'kaag' (a Dutch vessel with a straight raking stem & clincker-built) with a Dutch vane. On the right is a small sprit-rigged vessel, probably a 'weyschuit'. A ship in the background flies the flag of vice-admiral of a fleet, & a plain red ensign. This seascape is probably a studio work painted after an original of the late 1650s by Willem van de Velde the Younger. ...

Monet spent most of the 1870s in the town of Argenteuil, which is on the Seine just to the north-west of Paris. During this period, leisure activities such as boating made the town increasingly popular with day-trippers from the capital. The exceptionally snowy winter of 1874-5 inspired Monet to paint 18 views of Argenteuil under the snow. Many of them, like this work, focus on the boulevard Saint-Denis where Monet was living. The scene shows the boulevard running towards the Seine, looking away from the railway station. It is a relatively large work, which sacrifices details in favour of atmosphere. Its predominantly monochrome palette of blues & greys conveys to perfection the bleakness of an overcast winter's afternoon. ...

Duyster's treatment of the subject is meant to be satirical. These soldiers, who are fighting over the distribution of booty, are dressed in elaborate finery entirely unsuited to the battle field. Willem Duyster was a painter from Amsterdam who specialised in small-scale portraits & genre paintings. Duyster is an adopted surname, a pun on the name of his house ' De Duystere Wereld' (the dark world). ...

Once called ' The Fisherman's Hut', this painting was identified by Robaut as a view of Coubron (close to Paris, on the east, near Le Raincy). According to Robaut it was based on a sketch made early in 1873 at Coubron. In May of that year Corot painted this picture in his studio at Ville-d' Avray. ...

In 1871 Corot left Paris & the upheaval of Commune life to stay with his biographer & friend Alfred Robaut at Douai in north-east France. This is a view of the marshy landscape around Douai. Four other pictures that Corot started on this trip to the Artois are in the National Gallery: ' The Marsh at Arleux', 'A Wagon in the Plains of Artois', ' The Oak in the Valley' & ' Landscape at Arleux-du-Nord'. The present sketch is a copy after a nature study by Alfred Robaut painted in May 1871. It is a close copy except for the cottage which is a detail added by Corot. ...

This picture was formerly attributed to the school of Nicolaes Maes. It has certain similarities with his portraiture but is not by Maes & may not even be Dutch. Instead, it could be the work of a south German or Polish artist working in the Netherlands ...