The traditional identification of the sitters, Lords John & Bernard Stuart, as sons of Esme Stuart, 3rd Duke of Lennox, made from the inscription, is incorrect. The original Van Dyck double portrait of the brothers ' Lord John & Bernard Stuart' is also ...

A man is shown at prayer; he has tentatively been identified as a member of the Averoldi family on the basis of the picture's provenance from this important Brescian family. The function of the picture remains unclear. It may be a memorial for a family bur ...

The altarpiece represents the Virgin & Child enthroned with Saint Jerome & Saint Sebastian, but it is named after the swallow ('rondine' in Italian) perched above, which may be intended as a symbol of the Resurrection. It comes from San Francesco in M ...

The subject of Esther before Ahasuerus is told in the apocryphal addition to the Book of Esther (15: 2ff.); the three episodes from the life of Saint Jerome are related in the ' Divoto Transito del Glorioso Sancto Hieronymo' (1490, chapters 22, 26 & 27). ...

One of several portraits of the Prince Consort painted by Ross, who was Queen Victoria's Miniature Painter in Ordinary. This image was apparently produced in 1840, the year of the Queen's marriage to Prince Albert. Prince Albert had a keen appreciation of ...

Prince Charles Louis (1617
- 1680), later Duke of Bavaria, was the eldest surviving son of Frederick V, Elector Palatine & Elizabeth
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Prince Rupert (1619
- 1682) was the third son of Frederick V, Elector Palatine & Elizabeth Stuart, the ' Winter Queen', sister
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The sitter was the wife of the Austro-Hungarian ambassador at the court of Napoleon III. The portrait is based on a photograph of 1860 which the Prince & Princess used as a visiting card. The floral backdrop was the artist's own invention. ...

Each Van Gogh Sunflowers print is produced on demand on paper or canvas using the highest quality images produced at the National Gallery. You can also choose to have your Sunflowers print framed ready to hang. About Van Gogh Sunflowers This is one of four Van Gogh Sunflowers dating from August & September 1888. Van Gogh intended to decorate Gauguin's room with these Sunflowers paintings in the so-called Yellow House that he rented in Arles in the South of France. He & Gauguin worked there together between October & December 1888. The dying sunflowers are built up with thick brushstrokes to evokes the texture of the seed-heads. Van Gogh produced a replica of this painting in January 1889, & perhaps another one later in the year. The various versions & replicas remain much debated among Van Gogh scholars. More information about framed prints. ...

This painting illustrates an episode from the classical myth of Cupid & Psyche, which was originally told by Apuleius in his ' Golden Ass'. It is an early work by Fragonard, executed in 1753, the year after he had won the Prix de Rome & before his first Italian visit. An immediate success, it was exhibited with other paintings at Versailles in 1754, but later passed into obscurity with an attribution to Carle van Loo. At some date it was cut down along the top & left sides. Fragonard's work is probably based on La Fontaine's version of the fable. After falling in love with Psyche, Cupid had visited her only at night, forbidding her to look upon him. In the painting, Psyche shows her two sisters the gifts she has received from her lover, & moved by jealousy
- a Fury appears in the sky above the sisters
- they persuade her to uncover Cupid's identity & thus wreck her happiness. The painting shows the emergence of Fragonard's more elegant style from the manner established by Boucher, whose pupil he had been. In many details it derives from sketches made by Boucher in 1737 for a series of tapestries illustrating this story, but there is more movement in Fragonard's painting & his colours are sharper. Painting of the Month, February 2005

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