A bloke leans over the back of a seat in a railway carriage, trying to chat up a young woman who is just returning from a funeral. Is this an early Prussian problem picture?
narrative
The depiction of Pandora opening her box and unleashing all its ills on the world remained popular, with paintings by Alma-Tadema, Bouguereau, Waterhouse, Rackham, Redon, and others.
This story remained almost unknown and unpainted until it suddenly became popular after 1850. Paintings by Etty, Rossetti, Cabanel and others.
A painter who specialised in depicting surprise, and works by John Collier, Lovis Corinth, and Stuart Pearson Wright complete this account.
More paintings of surprise, by Gericault, Gérôme, Regnault, Bastien-Lepage, Morelli, and others.
We love surprise twists in the plot of novels and movies. How can painters achieve the effect of surprise in their narrative images? Masaccio, Rembrandt, Poussin, and more.
He specialised in history paintings of the Tudor and Stuart period, and later painted problem pictures to puzzle the viewer. He died 100 years ago today.
Another six of the best, from the battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs to the assassination of Julius Caesar, from Rubens to Turner.
Six of the best, from Nessus, Deianira and Hercules to the sacrifice of Iphigeia, painted by Tiepolo, Rubens, and others.
The final article in this series looks at Augustus and Cleopatra, the emperor’s patronage of Virgil, and how Ovid’s own legacy has been transformed in paintings.
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