The Rebuke of Adam and Eve
1626 · National Gallery of Art, Washington, District of Columbia
Adam points at Eve, Eve points at the serpent, and the first sin turns into an ordinary comedy of passing the blame.
★ 4.4
The Art canon
Sourced and hung.
Every work chosen by hand and annotated for why it matters.
Browse all 704 works or filter by movement, subject, place, and artist.
Browse all 704 works or filter by movement, subject, place, and artist.
Leda and the Swan
1882 · The Barnes Foundation (Philadelphia), Philadelphia
The swan nips her hand and Leda barely reacts. Cézanne cared about the planes of the body, not the story.
★ 4.8
The Birth and Triumph of Venus
1740 · Nationalmuseum, Stockholm
Venus in a pearly sea with nymphs, tritons and putti all around, made entirely to delight and not at all to instruct.
★ 5.2
Le Sommeil
1866 · Petit Palais, Paris
Two women asleep and entwined, painted on private commission and therefore out of reach of the Salon and its proprieties.
★ 5.4
Jealousy
1907 · The Munch Museum, Oslo
A sallow green face fills the front of the picture while behind him a woman in red picks fruit beside another man. He is imagining it.
★ 5.4
Leda Atomica
1949 · Teatro-Museo Dali, Figueres
Nothing in the picture touches anything else. Dalí built it on the physics of the atom, where matter is mostly empty space.
★ 5.6
The Judgment of Paris
1527 · Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen
Paris turns up as a German knight in plate armor and the three goddesses wear nothing but jewels and improbable hats.
★ 5.7
Woman with a Parrot
1866 · Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
Courbet took the nude to the Salon with her hair loose, her body relaxed, and a parrot on her hand instead of a myth.
★ 5.7
Circe and Her Lovers in a Landscape
1525 · National Gallery of Art, Washington, District of Columbia
An enchantress sits in a wood ringed by deer, dogs, owls and a stork, which may be men she has transformed. Dossi leaves it unresolved.
★ 5.7
Leda and the Swan (Correggio)
1532 · Gemaldegalerie, Berlin
The story runs across the canvas in stages, arrival to departure. A later owner cut Leda's head out in disgust and it was repainted.
★ 5.7
La Belle Rafaela
1927 · Location unknown
The odalisque rebuilt in the machine age, all gleaming curves against deep red, sensual and cold at exactly the same time.
★ 6.1
Nude in a Black Armchair
1932 · Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Georgia
The dark chair throws the body forward, all lilac and rose curves, a plant arching over the sleeper from behind.
★ 6.1
Three Ages of Woman and Death
1510 · Kunstmuseum, Basel
A single thread of gauze links the baby, the beauty, the crone and Death holding an hourglass. Baldung was Dürer's pupil, with darker interests.
★ 6.1
Mademoiselle O'Murphy
1751 · Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne
Louise O'Murphy was a teenage favorite of Louis XV, and Boucher painted her face-down across the cushions for private consumption.
★ 6.1
Parnassus
1497 · Louvre, Paris
The Muses dance to Apollo's lyre while Venus's cuckolded husband fumes at his forge off to the left. Painted for Isabella d'Este's study.
★ 6.1
The Menaced Assassin
1927 · Museum of Modern Art, New York City
A murdered woman on a divan, a calm man listening to a gramophone, and two men with a club and a net waiting outside the door.
★ 6.3
Danae
1907 · Private collection
Zeus arrives as a stream of gold coins and ornament between her thighs, and Klimt makes no attempt to be subtle about it.
★ 6.3
Reclining Nude
1917 · Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
African masks, Cycladic figures and Renaissance Venuses, folded into one long golden diagonal. Among the most expensive paintings ever sold.
★ 6.3
Danae
1531 · Galleria Borghese, Rome
Cupid pulls back the sheet while two putti sharpen their arrows on a whetstone at the foot of the bed. Painted for the Duke of Mantua.
★ 6.6
Nude with Calla Lilies
1944 · Location unknown
An armful of calla lilies is nearly bigger than the woman kneeling behind it. Rivera came back to the flower and its sellers constantly.
★ 6.6