Artist: Richard Estes

Year: 1971

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Richard Estes describes himself as a realist painter although he is more often described as a Photorealist. In fact, he is regarded as one of the founders of the Photorealist movement which emerged in America in the late 1960s. His paintings, in reproduction at least, may remind us of photography, and Estes has always used the camera to collect and record information from which he can paint, but he has never been concerned with copying the appearance of a photograph. Unlike many Photorealists, Estes is not interested in making paintings which show how the camera records information. He avoids painting areas of photographic focus and blur. Photography enables him to capture a moment in all its complexities and has resulted in a remarkably intricate representation of refracted light. However, because a photograph is limited by mechanics of exposure, focus and a single fixed lens, Estes compensates by painting from an assemblage of many photographs. Taken by himself, on location, what Estes' paintings share with photography is an authenticity. As with photography, we regard Estes' paintings to be a truthful representation of reality. But, on examination, it is clear that the means by which Estes represents the world is very different from photography. Estes, for example, introduces directional mark making to reveal form, in contrast to the homogenous flatness of the photograph, and makes substantial alterations to the construction of illusionistic space. The truth in an Estes painting is very different from that of the truth of a photograph. Ultimately, it is authentic not to the reality of our world, but the world created by the individual painter. As a realist, Estes utilises the particularities of the world around him to extend and develop his own artistic vision, and in so doing, orientates himself within a long tradition of painters such as Vermeer, Bellotto, Eakins, Hopper and Sheeler, all of whom he admires.

People's Flowers is early, pivotal, well known and one of Richard Estes' very best and most important paintings. The clarity, colour, subject matter and composition indicate a totally mature and fully developed Estes, leader of the Photorealist Movement at a point in time when all but a few of the other artists were still struggling to perfect their visions and styles.

First, it is interesting to note that there are only five major Estes paintings with a vertical format (over four feet, or 125 cm, high). This was not a favoured format for the artist. However, the composition is innovative and flawlessly conceived. The concentric rectangles of the buildings and window frame bring the eye to the central focus point, the neon sign People' s Flowers. The line of trucks and the outdoor plants point to the sign as well. The sky in the reflection on the window also does the same thing. The descending width of the mirrored sign and the awning sign also bring the eye to the centre of the painting. The clarity of the reflection and the contrast of the primary-coloured red brick above the secondary-coloured green below are striking visual effects. Artists try forever to create this kind of eye-arresting imagery. It is the domain of the Photorealist, however, to discover and recognise this vision in the world around him, and then to capture it with the camera and recreate it with brush and paint.

You who view this painting can and will begin to realise how to "look" and "see" and will be aware of the world you exist in in a new way.

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Artist: René Magritte

Year: 1965

Medium: Oil on canvas

The Blank Signature (Le blanc-Seing) is a 1965 painting by the Belgian surrealist painter René Magritte. The work is part of the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. It was one of Magritte’s last works before his death in 1967. The painting depicts a woman on horseback riding through a forest. Due to an optical illusion employed by the artist, the image is partially fragmented, although at first glance the viewer may perceive it as a coherent whole. The woman and the horse are simultaneously in front of, between, and behind the trees. Her right arm is partially hidden behind a tree that, upon closer inspection, is located in the background. One possible interpretation is that the merging of the forest with the horsewoman suggests a unity of humanity and nature. But as is usually the case with Magritte, the work primarily raises questions, a sense further heightened by the enigmatic title. The painter himself believed that his works required no specific interpretation; every viewer can interpret the work in their own way. He also noted that art critics sometimes saw more—or something entirely different—in his works than he himself had consciously intended.

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Artist: John Sharman

Year: ca. 1918

Medium: Oil on canvas

This composition is an intricate network of trellis, railing, and awning. Upon this framework Sharman lavished broad strokes of brilliant color, applied with the sensitivity to light and shade that he acquired from the Impressionist practice of painting outdoors. This technique created a portrait of summer sun that casts deep shadows on the porch and transforms vines into a wave of white blossoms. Although not well known today, Sharman received many excellent reviews in his day, especially in his native Boston. A critic for the Boston Transcript described At the End of the Porch as “a beautiful, luminous and joyous picture of a place where one would like to be.”

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Artist: Akseli Gallen-Kallela

Year: 1886

Medium: Oil on canvas

Painted in 1886, View from Eläintarha at Sunset by Akseli Gallen-Kallela captures a quiet landscape at the end of the day. The water mirrors the soft pink and orange hues of the sky, while the surrounding trees and land appear in deeper shades of green and brown. Loose, noticeable brushwork gives the scene a textured surface and adds to its calm, reflective mood. The painting is held by the Ateneum art museum in Helsinki, Finland, and measures 31 cm (12.2 in) by 24.5 cm (9.6 in).

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Artist: Caspar David Friedrich

Year: 1809–10

Medium: Oil on canvas

The Abbey in the Oakwood (German: Abtei im Eichwald) is an oil painting by the German Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich. It was painted between 1809 and 1810 in Dresden and was first shown together with the painting The Monk by the Sea in the Prussian Academy of Arts exhibition of 1810. On Friedrich's request The Abbey in the Oakwood was hung beneath The Monk by the Sea. This painting is one of over two dozen of Friedrich's works that include cemeteries or graves. After the exhibition both pictures were bought by King Frederick William III for his collection. Today the paintings hang side by side in the Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin.

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Artist: Gustave Caillebotte

Year: 1875

Medium: Oil on canvas

Les raboteurs de parquet (English title: The Floor Scrapers) is an oil painting by French Impressionist Gustave Caillebotte. The canvas measures 102 by 146.5 centimetres (40.2 in × 57.7 in). It was originally given by Caillebotte's family in 1894 to the Musée du Luxembourg, then transferred to the Musée du Louvre in 1929. In 1947, it was moved to the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume, and in 1986, it was transferred again to the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, where it is currently displayed.

(...) Despite the effort Caillebotte put into the painting, it was rejected by France's most prestigious art exhibition, the Salon, for the Salon of 1875. The depiction of working-class people in their trade, not fully clothed, shocked the jurors and was deemed a "vulgar subject matter". He was hurt by this rejection, and instead showed it at the second exhibition of the Impressionists, with whom he had already associated himself, in 1876. He presented it alongside some of his other works, including a second, different version of Raboteurs from 1876, and his earlier work Jeune homme à sa fenêtre (Young Man at His Window). The images of the floor scrapers came to be associated with Degas's paintings of washerwomen, also presented at the same exhibition and similarly scorned as "vulgar".

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Artist: Umberto Boccioni

Year: 1902

Medium: Gouache, charcoal, and pastel on paper

Created by Umberto Boccioni in 1902 in Rome, Italy, the artwork titled “Young Man on a Riverbank” is an embodiment of the Impressionism and Realism art movements. As a genre painting, it offers a snapshot of everyday life, capturing a moment that conveys a broader cultural or social understanding.

The artwork presents a contemplative scene featuring a solitary young man standing on a riverbank. He is portrayed in profile, gazing out over the water. His attire, notably a hat and a long coat, harmonizes with the formality of the early 20th century. The background is dominated by a warm, golden palette, suggesting the presence of either a sunrise or sunset sky filled with soft, billowing clouds. Below, the river reflects the luminous sky, with white streaks of light dancing on the water’s surface to create a serene and reflective atmosphere.

The shore on the opposite side of the riverbank is lined with dense foliage, and a pier or dock structure extends into the water, where a small boat is moored. These elements give the scene a sense of place and tranquility, characteristic of the Impressionist movement’s pursuit to capture the fleeting effects of light and the Realist movement’s focus on the authentic depiction of ordinary life. The brushwork appears loose and expressive, contributing to the overall impressionistic quality of the painting. The composition invites the viewer to join the young man in his introspection, offering a moment of calm and reflection.

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Artist: Edward Hopper

Year: 1925

Medium: Oil on canvas

The Bootleggers is a 1925 painting by American realist Edward Hopper. The work generally marks the end of his early period before painting the House by the Railroad that same year, the start of his mature or classic period. The painting depicts a nautical scene in a subdued blue and gray palette, showing three men on board a motorboat staring at the shore where another man, standing besides a large house, stares back at them. It has been described and interpreted as Hopper's most overt, political, and even contrarian work.

Art historians and critics believe that the painting is loosely based on the history of rum-running during Prohibition (1920–1933). The scene is thought to depict the smuggling of alcohol along the coast of Gloucester, Massachusetts, but Hopper's art dealer made it known that the painting was not based on an actual location but on several different scenes blended together. The Bootleggers was first exhibited in November at the Brooklyn Museum, followed by several other showings. Hopper held on to the painting for almost three decades until the Currier Museum of Art acquired it for their collection in 1956.

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Artist: Juan Gris

Year: 1917

Medium: Oil on panel

Like many European artists before them, Cubists often depicted Harlequin, a stock character in the Italian commedia dell’arte, a form of masked theater dating back to the sixteenth century. Easily recognized in his checkered costume, Harlequin is a trickster with a tendency to act on whim and passion. For this reason, several modern artists adopted the character as an alter ego. Gris was particularly fond of the subject; he portrayed Harlequin in approximately forty works made between 1917 and 1925. In this painting, caricature softens the Cubist fracturing of the figure, while bands of light illuminate Harlequin’s costume.

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