Objets, images, descriptions et audioguide.
Like modern-day bulletin boards, card racks were used to gather newspaper clippings, scraps of paper, and other ephemera in one place. Although it is unclear if the item…
This work reinterprets the most common subject in Renaissance art—the Madonna and Child. The tender relationship of mother and son spoke to Mary’s role as intercessor fo…
A category of painting invented in France in the early 1700s is the fête galante (gallant party), with subject matter that hovers between fantasy and reality. The figure…
Zhou Chen from Suzhou provides rare depictions of impoverished people that once filled the city’s markets and streets. Despite Suzhou’s prosperity, its rapid growth pola…
Although born and trained in Holland, Jongkind spent much of his life painting outdoors in France. In this depiction of Bas-Meudon near Paris, the artist applied paint i…
This small altarpiece, intended for a domestic interior or private chapel, consists of three panels, allowing it to be folded and easily transported. Surrounding the Vir…
Every night for 52 nights the sly domesticated parrot encourages his master’s wife Khujasta to meet her lover under cover of darkness. Just before she leaves, the parrot…
In 1739 a pair of monumental altarpieces by two Venetian painters (Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and Giambattista Pittoni) were installed in a church in southern Germany, pa…
Like many French portraitists active during the ancien régime, François-Hubert Drouais was skilled at veiling the physical imperfections of his subjects. This portrait c…
Poem and painting, once mounted together as one fan, exemplify the collaboration between imperial patron and court painter. Emperor Lizong’s calligraphy cites a verse fr…
Prized horses in stables may be the main theme of this pair of screens, but a lot of action is happening on the verandas. Falconry is the focus of one of the screens, wh…
This double portrait depicts two brothers dressed in the height of fashion for the 1850s, clearly asserting their social status. Jean-Baptiste (left, age 23) carries glo…
The triptych shows an exact representation of Jerusalem. The model is a woodcut by Erhard Reuwich for the publication Pilgrimage to the Holy Land, by Bernhard von Breyde…
The quest of capturing one’s spirit through imagery held a special place in the tradition of portrait making in East Asia. A portrait’s resemblance to the subject was co…
The landscape in deep green tones offers a view into a secluded mountain valley, populated by ancient figures surrounded by deer and cranes, all under high pine trees. A…
This portrait shows the Qianlong emperor at 26, in the first year of his reign. His likeness is followed by portraits of the empress and eleven consorts. Their portraits…
Transforming the spirit—not beautifying the mortal body—may have been the purpose of adding golden lips and jewelry to this painting. Egyptian-style burial customs and a…
Although ten-year-old Louis XIII was king of France, his mother Marie de’ Medici remained in power until the boy officially came of age. Pourbus inscribed the sitter’s a…
Segantini painted this view of a pine tree in the Swiss Alps with his distinctive combination of brilliant colors applied in small, broken strokes. Rather than a direct …
Streams and Mountains without End was a landmark acquisition of 1953, made just a year after Sherman Lee had returned to Cleveland as curator of Oriental art. He acquire…
Hubert Robert studied and worked in Italy from 1754–65. Upon returning to Paris, he entered the Royal Academy as an architectural painter and full member in 1766. His ti…
In 1810, Gros exhibited a massive painting of Napoleon at the 1798 Battle of the Pyramids, one of the rare French triumphs in the failed campaign to conquer Egypt (1789-…
Van de Velde and his father picked up their lives in Amsterdam in 1672 and moved to England to paint for the king. Their paintings of the Royal Navy’s massive ships cele…
A woman identified as the favorite wife of the Mughal emperor Jahangir (reigned 1605–27) holds a formal portrait of her husband. He appears aged with graying facial hair…