Gustave Courbet | Jo, La Belle Irlandaise, 1866

Gustave Courbet | Jo, the Beautiful Irishwoman | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The "beautiful Irishwoman" depicted in this painting is Joanna Hiffernan (born 1842/43), mistress and model of the artist James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)🎨, and perhaps subsequently Courbet’s lover.

Although dated 1866, the picture was likely undertaken in 1865, when the two men painted together at the French seaside resort of Trouville; Courbet wrote of "the beauty of a superb redhead whose portrait I have begun".

He would paint three repetitions with minor variations. | © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Henri Fantin-Latour | Self-Portrait, 1858

Henri Fantin-Latour | Self-Portrait, 1858 | Metropolitan Museum of Art

At the beginning of his career, between 1854 and 1861, Fantin-Latour executed a large number of self-portraits in chalk, charcoal, and oil.

This example reveals his fascination with the work of Rembrandt and Courbet, who both used broad, rich strokes of paint and depicted forms as if they were emerging from an enveloping darkness. | Metropolitan Museum of Art

Peter Paul Rubens | Study of Two Heads, 1609

Artist: Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish Baroque Era painter, 1577-1640)

Title: Study of Two Heads

Date: ca. 1609

Medium: oil on panel

Dimensions: Height: 69.9 cm (27.5 in); Width: 52.1 cm (20.5 in)

Current location: Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Rubens painted studies of heads after live models and artistic sources, creating a cast of characters that served in turn as models for figures in religious and mythological works.

Claude Monet | Palm trees at Bordighera, 1884 | Metropolitan Museum of Art

Monet first visited Italy’s southern coast with Renoir in December 1883. Shortly thereafter, he returned alone to paint, writing his dealer that working "à deux" was constraining.

This scene and The Valley of the Nervia reflect Monet’s excitement at the new motifs offered by the region’s palm trees and mountains. For this view, he ventured from his hotel in Bordighera and looked across the Bay of Ventimiglia toward the Alps on the French border.

The dazzling colors challenged him to "dare to use all the tones of pink and blue", although what he truly needed was a "palette of diamonds and jewels". | © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Edgar Degas | Mademoiselle Marie Dihau, 1867-68

Mademoiselle Marie Dihau (1843-1935)

Artist: Edgar Degas (French painter, Paris 1834-1917)

Date: 1867-68

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 8 3/4 x 10 3/4 in. (22.2 x 27.3 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929

Accession Number: 29.100.182

Current location: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Léon Cogniet | Strage degli innocenti, 1824

La "Strage degli innocenti", attualmente presso il Museo delle Belle Arti di Rennes, è il primo successo del pittore Francese Léon Cogniet (Parigi, 1794-1880), presentato al Salon di Parigi del 1824.

La "Strage degli innocenti" è un episodio presente nel Vangelo secondo Matteo (2,1-16), in cui Erode il Grande, re della Giudea, ordinò un massacro di bambini allo scopo di uccidere Gesù, della cui nascita a Betlemme era stato informato dai Magi.

Léon Cogniet | Strage degli innocenti, 1824 | Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rennes

Guido Reni | The Immaculate Conception, 1627

Guido Reni (Bologna, 1575-1642), the most celebrated painter of seventeenth-century Italy, was particularly famous for the elegance of his compositions and the beauty and grace of his female heads, earning him the epithet “Divine".

This altarpiece, with its otherworldly space shaped by clouds and putti in a high-keyed palette, was commissioned in about 1627 by the Spanish ambassador in Rome for the Infanta of Spain.

Guido Reni | The Immaculate Conception, 1627 | Metropolitan Museum of Art

Alfred Stevens | In the Studio, 1888

The beautiful sitters, art along the walls, open portfolio, and prominent mirror symbolize the artistic practice of Stevens, who was celebrated for his portrayals of chic and charming women.

On the easel is his painting of the biblical temptress Salomé (Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels).

The female protagonists of In the Studio pose a counterpoint to the male-dominated French art world, which presented many barriers to women artists, and particularly those undertaking ambitious figural subjects.

Stevens encouraged the careers of a number of women pupils and colleagues, most notably the sculptor and actress Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923).| © The Metropolitan Museum of Art.