Bonaparte Crossing the St. Bernard Pass ~ Jacques-Louis David

Year: 1800 Oil on canvas 260x221 cm
Location : Musée National de Malmaison, Rueil-Malmaison, France
This has been my favorite since the first time I saw its puzzle. It echoes the spirit of patriotism, and indeed, the painter David in 1789 adopted a realistic rather than neoclassical style in order to record contemporary scenes of the French Revolution (1789-1799). Born into a prosperous middle-class family in Paris on August 30, 1748, studied at the Académie Royale and won the Prix de Rome in 1774, he was strongly influenced by classical art. He was a painter who introduced the neoclassical style in France. His famous Oath of the Horatii (1784-1785, Louvre, Paris) which became the principal model for noble and heroic historical painting of the next two decades, was consciously intended as a proclamation of the new neoclassical style in which dramatic lighting, ideal forms, and gestures clarity are emphasized. His paintings often presents a lofty moralistic (and by implication patriotic) theme, and his patriotic and heroic themes paved the way for the romantics. Throughout his career, he was also a prolific portraitist whose career represented the transition from the Rococo of the 18th century to the realism of the 19th. From 1799 to 1815 he was Napoleon's official painter, chronicling the reign of Napoleon I in huge works such as Coronation of Napoleon and Josephine (1805-1807, Louvre). Following Napoleon's downfall, David was exiled to Brussel, where he stayed until his death on December 29, 1825. Larger image.

Love Letters ~ Jean Honore Fragonard

I bought this painting for my sister cos she wants a romantic one and I think this one is romantic enough, don’t you think so? Soft pastel colours, lovers and their love letters. Jean-Honore Fragonard was a French painter born 1732 in Paris, whose scenes of frivolity and gallantry are among the most complete embodiments of the Rococo spirit. A prolific painter who rarely dated his works so it is not easy to chart his stylistic development. His paintings seem to sum up an era with his delicate coloring, witty characterization, and spontaneous brushwork ensured that even his most erotic subjects are never vulgar, and his finest work has an irresistible verve and joyfulness. His famous paintings and artwork include The Swing (circa.1767), which I first saw in Harper’s Bazaar June issue and The Reader. A member of the Academy who painted for private patrons including for Madame du Barry, Louis XV’s mistress, The Progress of Love (Frick Collection, New York, 1771-73) but later were returned by her. And it seems that taste was already turning against Fragonard's lighthearted style. He tried to adapt himself to the new Neoclasical vogue but it was unsuccessful, he was ruined by the Revolution and died in poverty in 1806. click for larger image

The Birth of Venus ~ Botticelli

Location : Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence
Year : 1484-90 Tempera on Canvas 172.5 x 278.5 cm
Botticelli was born as Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi in Florence in 1445. The Birth of Venus was painted for the villa of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici at Castello and is documented at the half of the 16th century, as well as two other masterworks by Botticelli, the Primavera and Pallas and the Centaur (both at the Uffizi). The scene represents Venus, born of the sea, being sped by Zephir towards land, where an Hour is ready to cover her with a beautiful cloack. This mythological subject was very important in Renaissance literature and philosopy, so the scene can hint different allegorical means. Botticelli's Venus is so beautiful that we do not notice the unnatural length of her neck, the steep fall of her shoulders and the queer way her left arm is hinged to the body. Or, rather, we should say that these liberties which Botticelli took with nature in order to achieve a graceful outline add to the beauty and harmony of the design because they enhance the impression of an infinitely tender and delicate being, wafted to our shores as a gift from Heaven. The canvas, dating around 1485, certainly reflects the presence of Botticelli among the Florentine humanistic circle and his study on classical sculpture, since this celebrated Venus recalls many ancient statues of the goddess. It was restored in 1987. Larger view

Two Girls with Oleander ~ Klimt

German Title : Zwei Mädchen mit Oleader
Location : Private Collection, New York
Year : 1890-92 Oil on Canvas 55 x 128
This youthful work is one of Klimt’s rare paintings in which the figures are in a real and recognizable natural outdoor setting, a setting that has not yet been transfigured into a precious ornamental arabesque as in his mature works. In Two Girls with Oleander, although not yet 30, Klimt demonstrated his total mastery of painting. During these years his interest focused on English art from the Victorian era and mainly pre-Raphaelite painting. This was the moment in which Klimt went beyond the narrow confines of painting as a historical reconstruction or 'photographic' realism and embarked on the path of stylistic decoration that would, within a few short years, lead him to the full poetics of symbolism. Larger view

10 Most Expensive Paintings

1. Pablo Picasso, Garcon a la Pipe, $104m (£58m), May 2004
2. Vincent van Gogh, Portrait of Dr Gachet, $82.5m (£47.1m) May 1990
3. Pierre Auguste Renoir, Au Moulin de la Galette (shown at left), $78m (£44.5m), May 1990
4. Peter Paul Rubens, Massacre of the Innocents, $76.7m (£43.8m), July 2002
5. Vincent Van Gogh, Portrait de l'artiste sans barbe, $65m (£37.1m), November 1998
6. Paul Cezanne, Rideau, Cruchon et Compotier, $55m (£31.4m), May 1999
7. Pablo Picasso, Les Noces de Pierrette, $51.67m (£28m), November 1989
8. Pablo Picasso, Woman with Crossed Arms, $50m (£28.5m), November 2000
9. Vincent Van Gogh, Irises, $49m (£28m), November 1989
10. Pablo Picasso, La Reve, $48m (£27.4m), November 1997

Boy with a Pipe ~ Picasso

French Title : Garçon à la pipe
Year : 1905 Oil on Canvas
Say HELLO! to the most expensive painting in the auction history! Yup, the painting beats the price of Van Gogh's Potrait of Dr. Gatchet (which was as sold to a Japanese billionaire in 1990 for $82.5m at Christie's) as the most expensive painting sold to an annoymous bidder for $104m. Sotheby's doesn't even want to reveal the bidder's nationality. I saw the painting on Sotheby's website before the auction day and couldn't even believe that this painting could be so expensive! That made Picasso has four of the top 10 most expensive paintings sold at auction, ahead of Van Gogh with three. It was painted by Picasso at age 24 soon after his settling in Montmartre, showing a young Parisian working boy crowned with a garland of roses, holding a pipe in his left hand. It was bought by John Whitney in 1950 for $30,000 and it was among all the 30 collection that was auction on May 5 2004 and all the preceeds will go to the Greentree Foundation which was founded by Betsey Whitney, a philanthropist. Charles Moffet, co-director of Impressionist and modern art at Sotheby's praised it as one of Picasso's most celebrated images of adolescent beauty.

The Kiss ~ Gustav Klimt

German Title : Der Kuss
Location :Osterreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna, Austria
Year : 1907 Size : 72"x72" (180 cmx180 cm)
My ultimate favorite and Klimt's most popular work. I think it's a romantic painting and I would never forget the first time I saw it in Jogja, the hotel I was staying held an art exhibition and they were displaying this painting (it was a repro though) and I thought it was so beautiful and romantic and I fell for it. When I got back from my holiday I kept on searching for this painting, I'd like to have it! But I couldn't find it until one day I got a package from Rondy, I thought he sent me a calendar and to my surprise it was THE KISS poster!!! I framed it and hung it on my wall and everybody who sees it goes,"Oh wow...." Thanks to Rondy for this!! He made it come true! For me, the romantic side shows in the way the life-sizes figueres posed. Just look at the way they embrace each other, don't you think it's romantic? Love really shows from the way the embrace each other. Man leaning over and kissing woman. Both figures are kneeling and shrouded in symbolically patterned gold with a bed of flowers below them. It shows both the masculinity of the guy and the feminity of the woman. The masculine side is shown by the guy's coat pattern of black, gray and white blocks and the laurel on his head while the feminine side is shown by the spinning circles of bright floral motifs and upward-flowing wavy lines on the woman's dress and the garlands on her head. Although many of Klimt's paintings were of women in intensely erotic poses, the title The Kiss may sound erotic for someone who haven't seen it, you may imagine it as a painting of two sexes locking lips but obviously, this painting is not erotic at all. Instead, it shows the intense love shared by both figures by the way he hold her face with her hands while kissing her cheek, the way she tilts her head to give her cheek to be kissed by him, the way she puts her arm around him and hold his hand. Utterly romantic. Click here for larger image and enjoy the fascination I have on this painting.

Woman in Black at the Opera ~ Mary Cassatt

Location : Museum of Fine Arts, USA
Year : 1880 Oil on Canvas
One popular Parisian past time was going to the theatre where the fashionable audiences' interest in viewing people was bigger than the peformances on the stage. Like scientist studying human behaviour, Cassatt recorded what she saw at the opera and turned it into a painting. The colour black that makes she looks elegant, really draws the attention to the woman who focusses her attention using her opera glasses on someone out of the frame, without knowing that she herself is veiwed by a man at other box, while we - the viewer - watches the two of them. In this painting, I see that there's a sense of feminism in it, a girl power that shows in the way she poses. Holding her fan and opera glasses she seems to have this power and charisma on her, and it looks like she's determined to have what she wants. For more details, click this for full image