Behind the Frame – Painting of the Day

Behind the Frame
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One famous painting a day and the story behind it, in a few minutes: who painted it, what it shows and why it matters. From Behind the Frame, the free guide to 1,000 famous paintings. Narrated with a synthetic voice.

  1. 12h ago

    The Boulevard Montmartre on a Winter Morning – Camille Pissarro

    This painting shows the same Paris boulevard as seen from Pissarro's hotel window, this time on a grey winter morning, with bare trees, a pale sky and the street busy with carriages, omnibuses and pedestrians. Read the story and see the painting Books about Camille Pissarro

  2. 1d ago

    Fish Magic – Paul Klee

    Colourful fish, flowers, human figures and a clock tower float in an inky darkness. In Fish Magic of 1925 Paul Klee creates a magical realm where, as the Philadelphia Museum of Art puts it, the aquatic, the celestial and the earthly intermingle. In the middle of the canvas a square of fine muslin is glued on like a small curtain. Read the story and see the painting Books about Paul Klee

  3. 2d ago

    The Joy of Life (Le Bonheur de vivre) – Henri Matisse

    In an imaginary landscape of yellow, pink and green, naked figures relax, embrace, play music and dance in a circle under arching trees. It is a vision of a golden age, a paradise of pleasure and harmony painted in brilliant, unnatural colours. Read the story and see the painting Books about Henri Matisse

  4. 3d ago

    Religious Procession in Kursk Province – Ilya Repin

    A huge procession winds along a dusty country road under a hot summer sky. At the front, peasants carry a gilded, ribboned shrine and banners; behind them follow a landowner's wife holding a holy icon, priests, officials and wealthy merchants, while village constables on horseback beat back the crowd, and a hunchbacked beggar boy on crutches struggles to keep up. Read the story and see the painting Books about Ilya Repin

  5. 4d ago

    An Old Man and his Grandson – Domenico Ghirlandaio

    This tender double portrait shows an elderly man in a red robe holding a small boy, who reaches up to touch his chest and gazes adoringly into his face. Through a window behind them stretches a winding landscape. Read the story and see the painting Books about Domenico Ghirlandaio

  6. 5d ago

    The Elevation of the Cross – Peter Paul Rubens

    The Elevation of the Cross is a huge triptych painted by Rubens soon after his return from Italy to Antwerp. Its central panel shows a team of muscular men straining to haul upright the cross on which Christ has just been nailed. Read the story and see the painting Books about Peter Paul Rubens

  7. 6d ago

    Shepherd Boy – Franz von Lenbach

    A shepherd boy lies stretched out in the blazing midday sun, lazing in what his first owner called divine idleness. Franz Lenbach painted him in 1860, at the start of a career that later made him the portraitist of Germany's leading figures. The Bavarian State Painting Collections call it the most important of his early realistic nature studies and genre pictures. It hangs in the Schack Collection in Munich. Read the story and see the painting Books about Franz von Lenbach

  8. Oct 19

    Exhibition of a Rhinoceros at Venice – Pietro Longhi

    This painting shows a live rhinoceros in a wooden pen, calmly eating hay, while a group of Venetians in carnival costume watch it from a little balcony. Some wear the white bauta masks and black tricorn hats of the Venetian carnival, and a keeper holds up the animal's horn and a whip. Read the story and see the painting Books about Pietro Longhi

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One famous painting a day and the story behind it, in a few minutes: who painted it, what it shows and why it matters. From Behind the Frame, the free guide to 1,000 famous paintings. Narrated with a synthetic voice.

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