Paintings

Han Gan. This horse has a recorded name and a place at court. Night-Shining White belonged to the Tang emperor Xuanzong, who ruled from 712 to 756.

Unidentified Bikaner painter. Mahadevi has twenty arms, bearing weapons and attributes associated with different gods, yet they belong to a single Great Goddess.

Attributed to Painting attributed to Qasim ibn 'Ali. To rescue his sisters from captivity in Turan, Isfandiyar must undergo seven trials. The third is defeating a dragon.

Luis Meléndez. Fruit, bread, wine, and tableware are arranged for a meal outdoors.

Sandro Botticelli. The aged Jerome kneels to receive his final communion. Brothers support his weakened body as a priest offers the host.

Joseph Mallord William Turner. On the evening of 16 October 1834, fire broke out in the old Palace of Westminster, home of the British Parliament.

Piet Mondrian. Piet Mondrian painted this composition in 1935, when his language of straight lines and restricted colour was well established.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir. A child and a young woman sit on the terrace of the Restaurant Fournaise at Chatou, beside the Seine. Renoir painted them in spring 1881.

Frederic Remington. A cavalry scout slumps in the saddle while his companions turn and escape the gunfire. Frederic Remington painted The Advance-Guard in 1890.

Suzuki Kiitsu. Autumn flowers gather at the centre of this golden screen, while winter plants stand on the left.

Guo Xi. Guo Xi painted this landscape around 1080. Old trees close to the viewer coexist with an almost dissolved distance.

Unidentified Indian painters. Hiranyaksha leaves the palace to attack Mother Earth. While Vishnu is in cosmic sleep, the world lacks protection.

Bartolomé Estebán Murillo. The child in Mary’s arms turns toward the viewer, as though briefly distracted from nursing.

Bronzino. A young man stands beside a table, holding a book. His identity is unknown.

Hans Holbein the Younger. In 1533, French ambassador Jean de Dinteville was in London observing Henry VIII’s marriage to Anne Boleyn and the king’s conflict with Rome.

Hans Memling. Mary offers an apple to a child in what looks like a domestic chamber. Around 1485 Hans Memling painted this small panel for a hinged devotional image.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The oranges in the younger girl’s arms long misled viewers. Renoir’s painting was described as a scene of jugglers.

Martin Johnson Heade. Cut magnolias lie on blue velvet like precious objects arranged for display. Martin Johnson Heade painted this still life late in his career, after settling in Florida.

Katsukawa Shunsho. A dancer holds a maple branch and turns within long sleeves. She performs Momijigari, a dance associated with viewing autumn leaves.

Attributed to Qu Ding. A high mountain dominates a valley containing trees, dwellings, water, and human routes. The scroll dates to about 1050 and is attributed to Qu Ding.

Stipple Master. Maharana Sangram Singh sits on a rearing horse, flanked by attendants. The portrait, made around 1712, is associated with the artist conventionally called the Stipple Master.

Diego Velázquez. Velázquez painted Juan de Pareja in Rome in 1650. Pareja, a man of African descent born in southern Spain, had been enslaved by him for about two decades.

Canaletto. Canaletto’s Piazza San Marco appears open and clearly legible. The painting dates to the late 1720s, when Venice attracted travelers through architecture, festivals, and art, even…

Joseph Mallord William Turner. In September 1838, the old warship Temeraire was towed up the Thames to be dismantled.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Some peasants cut wheat while others eat and rest beneath a tree.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. The Moulin Rouge opened in 1889 and quickly became a centre of Parisian entertainment.

John Henry Twachtman. Water remains open between snow-covered banks. This small patch of nature occupied John Henry Twachtman for many years.

Ogata Kōrin. Ogata Kōrin turned moving water into an image for a two-panel folding screen. Made around 1704–1709, when he lived in Edo, it contains no ship, shore, or people.

Emperor Huizong. Two small birds perch on bamboo. This early twelfth-century scroll is associated with Emperor Huizong, who ruled from 1100 to 1125.

Mahavihara Master. This small image belonged among the lines of a substantial Buddhist book. On an early twelfth-century palm leaf, Avalokiteshvara teaches a woman.

Francisco Goya. The portrait was probably connected with the marchioness's first marriage.

Caravaggio. The musicians are still preparing. The lute is being tuned, a score is being read, and a violin lies before the viewer.

John Constable. A wagon crosses shallow water at Flatford on the River Stour. Haymakers work in the distance, and tenant farmer Willy Lott’s house stands on the left.

Hendrick ter Brugghen. Ter Brugghen painted this Crucifixion around 1624–25 while deliberately giving it features of much older painting.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. A rider prepares to rise on a moving horse and leap through a paper hoop. Toulouse-Lautrec chose the pause before the feat.

Raphaelle Peale. Strawberries, nuts and grapes stand beside an orange, a sugar bowl and a cream jug. Raphaelle Peale painted this dessert still life in 1822.