Many of our lives start and end in them, and between we spend at least a third of our life in bed. Paintings from Delacroix to Ravilious.
Krohg
Long popular in Germany, Christmas trees spread across Europe and North America in the 19th century. Some seasonal paintings.
How William Merritt Chase’s beard changed, beards in literature such as ‘Faust’, Bluebeard, Redbeard, and beware of the moustache.
Exhausted and destitute figures asleep, by Christian Krohg, Ferdinand Hodler, Sorolla, Waterhouse, and others.
Features paintings by Carl Larsson, Renoir, Mary Cassatt, Vincent van Gogh, Pierre Bonnard, Lovis Corinth, and others.
In the late 19th century painters turned attention to depicting rainy conditions, with Caillebotte’s closely observed views, and effects on colour.
New genres in literature gave the public a taste for different forms of narrative. Here’s a short account of the response in ‘problem pictures’ from Hunt to Collier.
Besieged with inquiries from people who couldn’t sleep, Yeames judged a contest to explain his painting. It was clear that even he didn’t know the answer.
Fine naturalist paintings from this Spanish master, showing the hard lives of fishermen, a young woman arrested for killing her child, religious ceremony, and prostitution.
Views from a balcony, notably developed by Gustave Caillebotte in 1880, but continued in paintings by Lovis Corinth, and Pierre Bonnard.
The Eclectic Light Company 