Chestnut Trees at the Jas de Bouffan in Winter ~ Paul Cezanne

Location : Institute of Arts, Minneapolis
Year : 1885-86 Oil on Canvas
Jas de Bouffan in Aix-en-Provence is Cezanne's family property. Mount Sainte-Victoire can be seen from the house and he put it as a decorative pattern of chestnut trees. The trees provide depth as we look through to the mountain, but they also act as a patterned screen. He painted the distant sky using lighter colour to define the darker edges of the brances and twigs and it brings the sky forward, making the viewer more aware of the surface of the canvas.

Street in Paris in the Rain ~ Gustave Caillebotte

Location : Chicago Arts Institute
Year : 1877 Oil on Canvas
This painting is one of the few Impressionist works that depicts Paris in the rain, when the light becomes uniform without any direct sunlight. It is a geometric design with an emphasis on the vertical. Horizon movement is created by the people crossing the street. The remarkable thing besides the geometric design of vertical and horizontal is that he made full use of the wet cobbles and pavement to create reflections and effects of glistening light.

Blue Dancers ~ Degas

Location : The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, Russia
Year: 1897 Pastel on Paper
This pastel painting, which was painted in his late careers, shows 'mirror images' of 4 dancers viewed form above.Two dancers on the right practically identical except for the direction of their heads. Degas often created 'mirror images' simply by tracing over and pressing paper over a charcoal sketch and reworking the reversed image. In this painting, he had begun to view his subject from close-up.