Edgar Degas | Portrait of Estelle Musson Degas, 1872

Edgar Degas arrived in New Orleans in 1872 for an extended stay, two years after he had enlisted in the National Guard during the Franco-Prussian War, and two years before he would join a group of painters back in Paris for the first of what would become known as the Impressionist Exhibitions.

It was a pivotal time in his career, one that brought to the fore many important familial, artistic, and personal connections.

Claude Monet | The Japanese Bridge, 1900

In 1883, Claude Monet moved to Giverny, about forty miles northwest of Paris.

For the rest of his life, he devoted himself to painting and tending his gardens, which included the Japanese footbridge in this picture.

His style became more expressive as he piled thick pigments layer upon layer in ever more intense colors that often didn’t correspond to reality (possibly because his eyesight was failing).

Giving up any desire to record minute details, he wove tangled skeins of paint with bold strokes, seeming more concerned with nature’s mysteries than with mere appearance.

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".

Carolus-Duran | Portrait of Édouard Manet, 1880

Carolus-Duran (1837-1917), a successful society portraitist, painted this informal view of his friend Édouard Manet (1832-1883) at a villa outside of Paris.

Manet was known for his impeccable grooming, but Carolus-Duran portrays him in a moment of ease, flushed by the effects of a warm afternoon, wearing a straw boater pushed back on his forehead.

Carolus Duran | Portrait of Édouard Manet, 1880 | Paris, Musée d'Orsay

Working quickly, he captures Manet’s appearance and mood with broad, summary strokes, painting him “à la Manet”-employing his friend’s loose brushwork rather than his own tighter style. | Source: © RISD Museum of Art

Claude Monet | The Artist's Garden at Giverny, 1900

The Artist's Garden at Giverny (French: Le Jardin de l'artiste à Giverny) is an oil on canvas painting by Claude Monet done in 1900, now in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

It is one of many works by the artist of his garden at Giverny over the last thirty years of his life.

The painting shows rows of irises in various shades of purple and pink set diagonally across the picture plane.

John Gulich | A Violin Concerto, 1898

John Percival Gülich (also Gulich) (1864-1898) was a British illustrator, engraver and artist.

Gülich was born in Wimbledon in 1864, the son of Hermann Gülich, a London merchant of German origin, and Eleanor. He was educated at Charterhouse School.

He lived in Bremen for five years, working in his father's office.

He became Art Editor of the illustrated newspapers The Pictorial World and The Graphic, and also contributed to Harper's Magazine.

John Gulich | A Violin Concerto, 1898 | Tate

Meteyard / Tennyson | The Lady of Shalott

Sidney Harold Meteyard RBSA (1868-1947) was an English art teacher, painter and stained-glass designer.

A member of the Birmingham Group, he worked in a late Pre-Raphaelite style heavily influenced by Edward Burne-Jones and the Arts and Crafts Movement.

His best-known painting - I am half sick of shadows, said the Lady of Shalott (1913), based on the poem The Lady of Shalott (1832) by Lord Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892) - is in the collection of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.

In this piece The Lady of Shalott is at her tapestry with a wedding couple reflected in her mirror.

Sidney Harold Meteyard (1868-1947) | I am Half-Sick of Shadows - Said the Lady of Shalott, 1913

Richard Westall | The Reconciliation of Helen and Paris.., 1805

Richard Westall RA (1765-1836) was an English painter and illustrator of portraits, historical and literary events, best known for his portraits of Byron.

He was also Queen Victoria's drawing master.

Westall was the more successful of two half-brothers (both sons of a Benjamin Westall, from Norwich) who both became painters.

His younger half-brother was William Westall (1781-1850), a much-travelled landscape painter.

Richard Westall | The Reconciliation of Helen and Paris after his Defeat by Menelaus, 1805