oil painting

Fourteen men and women gather on a terrace shaded by a striped awning overlooking a river. The terrace is surrounded by leafy trees and they wear 19th-century clothing as they seem to converse.

The Luncheon of the Boating Party by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

March 22, 2025March 22, 2025

So much better than Instagram! Pierre-Auguste Renoir invited 14 friends to lunch one summer–several lunches actually–and ended up creating this spectacular work of art. In… Read More »The Luncheon of the Boating Party by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

A young pale-skinned woman wearing a short blue jacket and mustard yellow skirt stands in front of a table holding a balance. She stands at a table scattered with jewels bathed in light coming from a window to our left.

Encore: Woman Holding a Balance by Johannes Vermeer

January 11, 2025January 11, 2025

While I’m taking a break, I thought you might enjoy this encore presentation of a popular episode from 2019—the gorgeous Woman Holding a Balance at… Read More »Encore: Woman Holding a Balance by Johannes Vermeer

Portrait of a slender, pale-skinned young woman with blue eyes. She has shoulder-length copper-red hair and wears a white gown with grey and white striped sleeves belted at the waist. She stands before a brocaded ivory curtain.

Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl by James McNeill Whistler

October 19, 2024November 29, 2024

Welcome back! I hope you all had a great summer. We’ll be spending the rest of 2024 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington… Read More »Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl by James McNeill Whistler

Oil painting of puffy clouds floating over the grey-green rooftops of three buildings spread across the bottom of the canvas and angled to our left. Only their upper walls, roofs, and chimneys are visible and they are bathed with warm light from that direction.

Floating Clouds by Hisako Hibi

June 22, 2024June 22, 2024

In today’s episode we look at “Floating Clouds” by Hisako Hibi, one of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans incarcerated in prison camps on the West… Read More »Floating Clouds by Hisako Hibi

A young woman in a white dress belted with a pale pink sash sits on craggy white boulders overlooking a shimmering blue-green sea on a bright sunny day. Her back is to us and she raises her gloved right hand to touch the brim of her ivory white hat.

The South Ledges, Appledore by Childe Hassam

April 20, 2024April 20, 2024

It’s starting to get warm out so the seaside’s on my mind! In the latest episode we visit Appledore on the Isles of Shoals with… Read More »The South Ledges, Appledore by Childe Hassam

Painting of a pale-skinned thin man in a white suit and petal pink shirt who sits facing us with an orange and white cat lying on his lap. His short black hair is grey at the temples and a grey moustache spreads into billowing sideburns on his cheeks.

Man with the Cat by Cecilia Beaux

March 16, 2024April 19, 2024

Henry Sturgis Drinker and Cecilia Beaux had a complicated history but that didn’t get in the way of Cecilia making him the subject of one… Read More »Man with the Cat by Cecilia Beaux

Two young teenage girls with pale skin and dark hair stand among tall poles draped with fluttering pink and green ribbons in a desolate landscape. Beyond them is a crumbling brick wall with a narrow body of water and distant hills visible behind it and a hazy blue sky overhead.

Confrontation by Hughie Lee-Smith

February 17, 2024March 2, 2024

Putting ordinary people in odd, unsettling surroundings was the specialty of Hughie Lee-Smith. In today’s episode we look at his “Confrontation” from the Smithsonian American… Read More »Confrontation by Hughie Lee-Smith

A group of people and angels look down at a baby lying on the floor of an open-sided wooden structure.

The Nativity by Petrus Christus

December 16, 2023April 19, 2024

Merry Christmas! For this year’s holiday episode we’re looking at this kind of unusual Nativity scene jammed packed with the detail those Northern European Renaissance… Read More »The Nativity by Petrus Christus

Bowls of fruit, drinking goblets, and pewter platters of food spread across a long table. In the upper right is a peacock sitting in a caramel-brown pie.

Still Life with Peacock Pie by Pieter Claesz

November 18, 2023November 21, 2023

Just in time for Thanksgiving, we take a look at this sumptuous feast by one of the stars of still-life painting, Pieter Claesz. We’ll find… Read More »Still Life with Peacock Pie by Pieter Claesz

Horizontal oil painting of a sunny landscape with a pale blue lake before a ghostly white town in the distance surrounded by mountains. Close to us, a rowboat with three passengers in stylish historic clothing floats on a river, steered by a boatman standing in the stern.

River Landscape by Annibale Carracci

May 6, 2023May 6, 2023

In today’s episode, we get to picture ourselves in a dreamy landscape on a sunny afternoon courtesy of Annibale Carracci and the National Gallery of… Read More »River Landscape by Annibale Carracci