Pietro Longhi | Rococò painter

Pietro Longhi (1701-1785) was a Venetian painter of contemporary genre scenes of life.

Pietro Longhi was born in Venice in the parish of Saint Maria, first child of the silversmith Alessandro Falca and his wife, Antonia. He adopted the Longhi last name when he began to paint.

He was initially taught by the Veronese painter Antonio Balestra, who then recommended the young painter to apprentice with the Bolognese Giuseppe Maria Crespi, who was highly regarded in his day for both religious and genre painting and was influenced by the work of Dutch painters.

Longhi returned to Venice before 1732.

Massimo D'Azeglio | A vendetta, 1834-1835

"A Vendetta" is an oil on canvas by Massimo D'Azeglio, created in 1834-1835.

The painting, measuring 179 x 225 cm, is part of the collection of the GAM - Galleria d'Arte Moderna di Milano.

Massimo Taparelli, Marquess of Azeglio (24 October 1798 - 15 January 1866), commonly called Massimo d'Azeglio, was an artist, writer and minister during the Italian Risorgimento.

A vendetta belongs to the historical landscape genre - this refers to landscape paintings drawn "from life" or in a realistic fashion, but populated with figures from history or literature.

Massimo D'Azeglio | Una vendetta, 1834-1835 | GAM - Galleria d'Arte Moderna di Milano

William Blake | A Poison Tree / Un albero avvelenato

I was angry with my friend;

I told my wrath, my wrath did end.

I was angry with my foe:

I told it not, my wrath did grow.

And I waterd it in fears,

Night and morning with my tears:

And I sunned it with smiles,

And with soft deceitful wiles.

William Blake | Songs of Experience: A Poison Tree, 1794 | Metropolitan Museum of Art

Jean-Baptiste Greuze | Le uova rotte, 1756

Anche se questo dipinto venne eseguito a Roma e presenta ambiente e costumi italiani, la fonte del soggetto ritratto è un quadro olandese del Seicento dell’artista Frans van Mieris il Vecchio (1635-1681), Le uova rotte (Museo dell’Ermitage, San Pietroburgo), che l'artista francese Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805) conosceva attraverso un’ incisione.

Le uova rotte simboleggiano la perdita della verginità.

Il bambino che cerca di ricomporre le uova rappresenta l’ignara innocenza dell’infanzia.

Il quadro suscitò una reazione favorevole quando fu esibito al Salon di Parigi nel 1757. | © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Jean Baptiste Greuze | Broken Eggs, 1756 (detail) | Metropolitan Museum of Art

Louis Rolland Trinquesse | After the Soirée, 1774

Louis Rolland Trinquesse (1746-1800) was a French Rococo painter.

He was a student at the Académie Royale from 1758 to at least 1770 and worked both as a portrait painter and a Genre painter.

His portraits are usually gentle and uncomplicated likenesses painted in pastel colours, for example the Young Girl (1777; Paris, Louvre).

Constance Marie Charpentier | Melancholy, 1801

Constance Marie Charpentier (1767-1849) was a French painter.

She specialized in genre scenes and portraits, mainly of children and women.

She was also known as Constance Marie Bondelu.

Constance-Marie Charpentier | Melancholy, 1801 | Musée de Picardie, Amiens

Joseph Wright of Derby | A view of Vesuvius from Posillipo, Naples

From: Art Gallery of South Australia

Joseph Wright (1734-1797) began his career as one of Britain foremost portrait painters, but, following a visit to Italy between 1773 and 1775, he turned his gaze to landscape painting, becoming recognised for his deep understanding and exploration of light.

Wright visited the Bay of Naples in 1774, finding its awe-inspiring view of Mount Vesuvius particularly moving.

Édouard Manet | Young Lady in 1866, 1866

Manet’s model, Victorine Meurent, had recently posed as the brazen nudes in Olympia and Luncheon on the Grass (both Musée d’Orsay, Paris).

Here, appearing relatively demure, she flaunts an intimate silk dressing gown.

Critics eyed the painting as a rejoinder to Courbet’s Woman with a Parrot and as indicative of Manet’s "current vice" of failing to "value a head more than a slipper".