Artisaurus

“Blue Dress,” 1866 Artist: Alfred Stevens Oil on panel; 31.4 × 26 cm Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, USA Artisaurus

The State Russian Museum is now on Telegram! It’s more than a collection of paintings—it reflects the soul of a people and the story of their past. We Russians are not a people without history. Our artistic heritage spans the ages, and the spirit of ancient masters still lives on across our ancient land. Artisaurus

“View of Venice: San Giorgio Maggiore” — Ivan Aivazovsky Artisaurus

“In the Stable,” 1846 Artist: Benno Adam Oil on canvas; 42 × 34.5 cm National Museum in Warsaw Artisaurus

“Reading by the Window,” 1885 Austrian artist Raimund Ritter von Wichera (1862–1925) Oil on canvas; 34 × 28.5 cm Private collection Artisaurus

“Julie Le Brun Looking in a Mirror,” 1787 French artist: Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (1755–1842) Oil on canvas; 73 × 59.4 cm The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Artisaurus

“Lilacs,” 1872 French artist Henri Fantin-Latour (1836–1904) Oil on canvas; 47 × 56.5 cm Private collection Artisaurus

“An Ugly Duchess” — Quentin Massys Artisaurus

“The Light of the World” — William Holman Hunt Hunt called the painting a “divine commission.” Christ stands before an ivy-covered door, recalling Revelation: “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock.” The door has no outside handle: it can open only from within, symbolising the human mind’s choice to let in the light. Hunt painted the night scene by moonlight in a farm hut in Surrey, pursuing the Pre-Raphaelite ideal of meticulous detail. After struggling to settle on Christ’s likeness, he used a cast made from a clay model. His father, Millais and others posed for it; Christina Rossetti ultimately finished the head. Hunt made three versions: the earliest is at Keble College, Oxford; the second at Manchester Art Gallery. In his eighties, he completed the enormous, nearly life-size third, now in St Paul’s Cathedral. It toured much of the British Empire, drawing vast crowds. Artisaurus

“Time clips Cupid’s wings.” — Pierre Mignard Artisaurus

“Madonna of the Pomegranate” — Sandro Botticelli Price: $210,000 The pomegranate symbolises Christ’s coming suffering: its seeds represent the drops of blood he would shed. Mary and the child’s sadness hints that they know what lies ahead. Records show the Florentine magistracy commissioned the painting for a Palazzo Vecchio meeting room. In the 20th century, art historian Herbert Horne linked this tondo to those records. In 2019, conservators at Greenwich’s Ranger’s House re-examined an almost identical painting, long considered a later copy. Removing yellowed varnish and using X-rays and infrared imaging revealed sketches and compositional changes. Experts from the National Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum identified it as an authentic work from Botticelli’s Florentine workshop—another original version of a popular subject, revisited for different patrons. Artisaurus

“View of Emmerich” — Jan van Goyen Van Goyen’s landscapes capture weather and distance through the shifting interplay of land, water, light, and air. He painted in quick strokes and a restrained palette of greys, browns, cool blues, and earthy greens—a style that helped shape 17th-century Dutch landscape painting. He often travelled along the Rhine, sketching towns such as Arnhem and Emmerich before developing his studies in the studio. Here, a small ferry carries passengers and loaded carts across the river, reflecting his focus on everyday life over spectacle. Van Goyen produced around 1,200 paintings and 800 drawings, yet struggled with debt. He speculated in tulip shares during “tulip mania” and died owing 18,000 guilders. Artisaurus

“Birth of Venus” — after François Boucher Price: $72,000 The painting at London’s Wallace Collection is not Boucher’s original 1743 oval composition, now in a private New York collection, but a later variation made by the artist or his studio on commission. Boucher repeatedly painted Venus’s birth; major versions are now in museums in Stockholm, Washington and Tokyo. An avid shell collector, he made the shell central to the story: Venus traditionally comes ashore in a giant shell. Boucher’s wife, Marie-Jeanne, often modeled for Venus’s face. Her beauty was said to resemble Madame de Pompadour, Louis XV’s favourite and a frequent subject of Boucher’s portraits and mythological scenes. The Wallace Collection grew from the passion of Richard Seymour-Conway, 4th Marquess of Hertford, who amassed works by Boucher and his contemporaries. Today, the London museum holds one of the world’s richest collections of Boucher’s Rococo art. Artisaurus

**“Crab on Its Back” — Vincent van Gogh** Price: $145,000 When Van Gogh painted this work remains uncertain. The Van Gogh Museum dates it either to autumn 1887 in Paris or January 1889 in Arles, after his hospital stay. That month, he told his brother Theo he would return to painting with a few still lifes—this crab may have been one of them. Crabs were rare in European still lifes but common in Japanese prints, which Van Gogh and Theo collected. Hokusai often depicted crabs from unusual angles, and one theory suggests this painting was inspired by a print Theo sent Vincent. The vivid red crab against green reflects Eugène Delacroix’s complementary-color theory, which Van Gogh studied in books by critic Charles Blanc. A related painting, *Two Crabs*, shows one crab on its back and another upright. Researchers suspect both may depict the same dead crab, turned over. Artisaurus

“Portrait of Fritza Riedler” — Gustav Klimt Price: $52,000 Little is known about Klimt’s subject, and no photograph survives. Born Friederike Langer in Berlin in 1860, she married engineer Alois Riedler, who commissioned the portrait. Klimt painted it in his Vienna studio, refining the composition for months. A defining work of Klimt’s geometric phase, the portrait transforms the realistic chair in early sketches into flat gold and silver shapes resembling eyes or almonds. Art historians often interpret the oval motif as a veiled symbol of femininity; it became a Klimt signature. A mosaic-like semicircle frames Fritza’s head, evoking stained glass or a halo. It may draw on Velázquez’s Spanish Baroque portraits, visible to Klimt at Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum. After the Riedlers’ deaths, Fritza’s sister sold the portrait. It eventually entered Vienna’s Belvedere, where it remains alongside Klimt’s portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, painted a year later. Artisaurus

“Wounded Poacher” — Henry Jones Thaddeus Artisaurus

“Interior with a Young Woman Standing by a Window” Danish artist Carl Vilhelm Holsøe (1863–1935) Oil on canvas Private collection Artisaurus

“Elegant at the Market,” 1903 French artist Léon Carré (1878–1942) Oil on canvas; 100 × 63.5 cm Private collection Artisaurus

“Moon Magic” — Daniel Merriam Artisaurus

“Fatal Debut” — Mikhail Ivanovich Ignatiev Artisaurus