Middle class collectors came to like paintings of interiors, sometimes without any figures at all. Others were Orientalist, or told open-ended narrative.
history of painting
A prolific painter of everything from landscapes to mythology, he trained in Karlsruhe, travelled widely, but struggled to establish his art in the years to 1885.
Human in their upper body, and fish from the waist down, these aren’t sirens at all, but have their own mythology in many traditions.
When the centaur Nessus tried to abduct Hercules’ wife, he was impaled by an arrow. He set up the later death of the hero, who was destroyed by poison in his own arrow.
Examples of interiors by Gerard ter Borch, who liked open-ended narrative, Gabriël Metsu, Pieter de Hooch, and Jan Vermeer.
Wedding paintings by Rubens, Watteau, Delacroix, Frith, and Naturalists from the time that photography was creating a new market.
Pitched battles at the weddings of Hippodame and Pirithous, and Andromeda and Perseus. The Trojan War resulting from the wedding of Thetis and Peleus, and turning water into wine with Veronese.
How Hercules and Achelous came to fight one another over the hand of Deianira, resulting in one of the river god’s horns being wrenched off to become the Horn of Plenty.
Pointillisme in the city, with Henri-Edmond Cross and Paul Signac, with more by John Singer Sargent, in the early years of the 20th century.
Maurice Prendergast,Henri-Edmond Cross, Martín Rico, Walter Sickert, John Singer Sargent, and others paint the canals.
The Eclectic Light Company 