As a primary colour, blue is essential in painting. The quest for the right blues has spanned the world and resulted in a succession of synthetic pigments which have influenced art.
van Gogh
Technically very challenging, most are painted in the studio, but some are quite unreal, and others suffer from the moon illusion.
How trees came to invade Impressionist landscape paintings, in direct contravention to established principles.
Come leaf-peeping with painters from Samuel Palmer in the Weald of Kent, to Julian Alden Weir’s autumn rain.
Probably the original still life theme, and always a popular one, examples from Fantin-Latour, Bazille, van Gogh, and poignant paintings by Lovis Corinth and Charles Demuth.
A parrot, coral, snuffed-out candles, human skulls, worn-out boots, a bottle of poison and a syringe: all objects in still life paintings.
There were few good reasons to blur what should be sharp edges in paintings. Aerial perspective and Vermeer’s unusual optical effects explored in paintings.
In myth and legend, apples have determined the future of civilisation twice. They’re also some of the most enduring objects to be seen in still life paintings.
Between 1884 and his death in 1890, he painted a great many still lifes, some of which are not only among his most famous, but the most popular in Western art.
In the last quarter of the 19th century, steam trains and ships moved artists around, playing an important role in introducing masters to the south of France.
The Eclectic Light Company 