Images

An 1880 oil on canvas, A Woman in Black at the Opera, by Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), the American impressionist painter. Female impressionists like Cassatt had a different choice of subject than their male counterparts, often focussing on feminine...

A c. 1874 oil on canvas, The Arceuil Aqueduct at Sceaux Railroad Crossing, by Armand Guillaumin (1841-1927), the French impressionist painter. The impressionists were eager to show the new industrial architecture of the age, such as railway...

An 1871 oil on wood, Nocturne in Blue and Green: Chelsea, by James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), the American painter.

An 1885-6 oil on canvas, The Two Milliners, by Paul Signac (1863-1935), the French impressionist painter. This austere depiction of two milliners in a highly-organised composition was another challenge to the more traditional impressionist...

An 1874 oil on canvas, The Regatta at Molesey, by Alfred Sisley (1839-1899), the Franco-British impressionist painter. Painted at Molesey near Hampton Court, Sisley here captures the impression of flags caught in a breeze. The artist wrote...

An 1869 oil on canvas, Summer Scene (aka Bathers), by Frédéric Bazille (1841-1870), the French impressionist painter. Bazille's innovation here is to take the traditional study of the male nude and make it into a contemporary scene of weekend...

An 1894 oil on canvas, The Church at Moret, Evening, by Alfred Sisley (1839-1899), the Franco-British impressionist painter. Sisley painted this work at Moret-sur-Loing as part of a series to show the changing effects of light and colour...

An 1879 oil on canvas, Woman with a Pearl Necklace in a Loge, by Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), the American impressionist painter. In the 19th century, society still generally frowned upon women becoming artists, and so Cassatt, along with Berthe...

An 1884-6 oil on canvas, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, by Georges Seurat (1859-1891), the French pointillist painter. The Grande Jatte is a narrow island in the Seine near Paris, then a popular destination for day-trippers...

Louise-Antoine, Compte de Bougainville (1729-1811) was a French explorer and former army colonel, who was also a brilliant mathematician. He was a contemporary of Captain James Cook (1728-1779) and a protegée of Madame de Pompadour (1721-1764...