Historic paintings

Jacques-Louis David, celebrated French painter and a principal exponent of the late 18th-century Neoclassical style. David won wide acclaim for his huge canvases on classical themes, events from the French Revolution, and the achievements of Napoleon.

An architectural capriccio with an apostle preaching

Paintings can be far more complicated than they appear at first glance. The stories told by works of art are the stuff of novels. Here are a few of the stories behind famous masterpieces.

Art Gallery on Instagram: “The Lunatic of Étretat, 1871 by Hugues Merle (1822-1881) O Lunático de Étretat, 1871 de Hugues Merle…”

Russian Painter: Konstantin Flavitsky, (1830-1866) 'Princess Tarakanova', 1862 Oil on Canvas

“❝He remembered the way love had burned through him like a flame under glass, grasping outward, devouring what air it had left before it choked. How he hated it; desperately he had tried to keep it burning.❞ ──𝐌𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐡 𝐍𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫, These Violent Delights.”

Antonietta Brandeis - Marco Gozzi - Carlo Bossoli - Giovanni Grubas - Carlo Grubas - Jacques François Carabain - Carlo Grubas

Battle of Trafalgar

The Unequal Marriage (detail) Vasili Pukirev

"A Cavatina" {1888} By ~ Briton Riviere

A bacchanal in a wooded landscape, a temple with an offer to Bacchus beyond, in a trompe l'oeil frame