8 Notable artworks at the Cleveland Museum of Art

The Cleveland Museum of Art is renowned for the quality and breadth of its collection, which includes more than 63,000 artworks and spans 6,000 years of achievement in the arts.

The museum is a significant international forum for exhibitions, scholarship, and performing arts and is a leader in digital innovations.

One of the top comprehensive art museums in the nation, recognized for its award-winning Open Access program and free of charge to all, the Cleveland Museum of Art is located in the University Circle neighborhood.

John French Sloan | A woman's work, 1912 | Cleveland Museum of Art

Trained as a journalist, the young John French Sloan (1871-1951) explored social issues more vigorously than most of the painters of his time, portraying working-class urbanites engaged in ordinary activities.

He observed this particular scene through a rear window of his Manhattan apartment.

Perched on a narrow fire escape, a woman hangs fresh laundry to dry on clotheslines strung between tenements.

As evidenced by the painting, the labors of American women at the turn of the 1900s were most often confined to the domestic realm. | Source: © Cleveland Museum of Art

John French Sloan (American, 1871-1951) | A woman's work, 1912 | Cleveland Museum of Art

Igor Levashov [Игорь Левашов] 1964 | Flower painter

Born near Moscow, Russian painter Игорь Левашов entered the School for Young Painters in 1997 and the world-famed Sourykoff Institute in Moscow in 1984.

He finished his formal training at the Royal Academy of Modern Art in the Hague in 1996.

In this age he discovered his love and passion for flowers.

His detailed paintings are done in oil in a one-time-session.

Rembrandt | The Night Watch, 1642

Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq, also known as The Shooting Company of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch, but commonly referred to as The Night Watch (Dutch: De Nachtwacht), is a 1642 painting by Rembrandt van Rijn.

It is in the collection of the Amsterdam Museum but is prominently displayed in the Rijksmuseum as the best-known painting in its collection.

The Night Wahtc is one of the most famous Dutch Golden Age paintings.

Rembrandt's large painting (363x437 cm (12 by 14+1⁄2 feet)) is famed for transforming a group portrait of a civic guard company into a compelling drama energized by light and shadow (tenebrism).

The title is a misnomer; the painting does not depict a nocturnal scene.

Vincent van Gogh | The Factory at Asnières, 1887

In the late nineteenth century, the French landscape was becoming increasingly marked by signs of industry.

Van Gogh depicts a glass factory in Asnières, a suburb northwest of Paris where the artist painted frequently in the summer of 1887.

The round objects stacked along the sides of the pathway are balls of glass awaiting melting inside the buildings.

They would have been formed into lantern globes for gas streetlights and interior fixtures. | Source: © The Barnes Foundation

Vincent van Gogh | The Factory at Asnières, Summer, 1887 | The Barnes Foundation

Pieter Bruegel il Vecchio | Il viaggio in Italia

Pieter Bruegel o Brueghel (1525/1530-1569) fu tra gli artisti più significativi della pittura rinascimentale Olandese e Fiamminga, pittore ed incisore, noto per i suoi paesaggi e scene contadine (la cosiddetta pittura di genere); fu un pioniere nel presentare entrambi i tipi di soggetti come dipinti di grandi dimensioni.

È generalmente indicato come il Vecchio per distinguerlo dal figlio primogenito, Pieter Bruegel il Giovane.

Anche il secondogenito Jan Brueghel il Vecchio, seguì le orme paterne e così pure il nipote Jan Brueghel il Giovane.

Pieter Bruegel il Vecchio | Naval Battle in the Gulf of Naples, 1560

Vincent van Gogh | The Poor and Money, 1882

'Drawing For National Lottery Today' - says the sign on the wall.

Many people have showed up for the event. Vincent wrote to his brother Theo that he saw this scene on a rainy day in The Hague.

He was moved by the vain hope of these shabbily dressed 'poor souls'.

Would the hard-earned money they spent on lottery tickets gain them anything at all?

Vincent van Gogh | The Poor and Money, 1882 (chalk, watercolour, pen and ink, on paper) | Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Vincent van Gogh | Pietà (after Delacroix), 1889

Van Gogh based his Pietà on a lithograph of a painting by Eugène Delacroix.

This image of the Virgin Mary mourning the dead Christ is, however, more a variation on the original work than a copy.

Van Gogh has taken Delacroix’s theme and composition and added his own colour and personal signature.

Vincent Van Gogh | The sowers series

Peasant imagery and especially that of the 'Sower' was something that Van Gogh turned to numerous times throughout his career.

His affiliation with this subject was partly as a response to the work of the romantic Realists such as Millet, and a reflection of his own socialist ideals.

The sower in particular was a figure that Van Gogh saw in terms of representing the eternal cycle of agricultural life, of honorable endeavor and tradition, and symbolized these qualities to the artist.

Vincent van Gogh | Mountains at Saint-Rémy, 1889

"Always continue walking a lot and loving nature, for that's the real way to learn to understand art better and better.

Painters understand nature and love it, and teach us to see" 

- Vincent van Gogh's letter to his brother Theo, 1874.

Vincent van Gogh | Mountains at Saint-Rémy, 1889 | Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

During the years preceding his suicide in 1890, Vincent van Gogh suffered increasingly frequent attacks of mental distress, the cause of which remains unclear.

"Mountains at Saint-Rémy" was painted in July 1889, when Van Gogh was recovering from just such an episode at the hospital of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole in the southern French town of Saint-Rémy.

Lizzy Ansingh | The Amsterdamse Joffers group

Maria Elisabeth Georgina Ansingh (13 March 1875 - 14 December 1959) was a Dutch painter.

Ansingh belonged to a group of female post-impressionist painters influenced by the Amsterdam Impressionism movement called the Amsterdamse Joffers.

She was also a member of the (still existing) Amsterdam art circles Arti et Amicitiae and Sint Lucas.

She died in Amsterdam on 14 December 1959.

Betsy Westendorp-Osieck | The Amsterdamse Joffers group

Betsy Westendorp-Osieck (1880-1968) was a Dutch painter, watercolorist, etcher, pastelist and draftsman who was part of the Amsterdamse Joffers painting group.

Johanna Elisabeth ("Betsy" or "Betsie") Osieck was born in Amsterdam 29 December 1880 to the merchant Philip Willem Osieck and Catharina Agnes Briel.

She was one of a family of five, but one of them died as a child. Westendorp-Osieck attended a French secondary school before going to a German boarding school.

She intended becoming a pianist but when that proved improbable she took up art.

Van Gogh, Rembrandt and the Rijksmuseum

Vincent van Gogh travelled to Amsterdam in 1885 to visit the Rijksmuseum, which had recently opened.

On the day of his visit he painted his "View of Amsterdam from Central Station".

The paint still wet, he took the new work with him to the Rijksmuseum.

Vincent van Gogh | Wheat field, 1888 | Rijksmuseum

Simon Maris | Neo-Impressionist painter

Simon Willem Maris (1873-1935) was a Dutch painter best known as a portrait artist.

He was the son of Dutch landscape painter Willem Maris of the Hague School.

He was born in The Hague. Simon Maris was a student of his father Willem Maris and subsequently studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague and at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Arts of Antwerp.

Isabella, also known as Young Woman with a Fan, is a 1906 painting by Simon Maris.

It is currently in the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Marius van Dokkum, 1957

Many of Marius van Dokkum’s paintings contain mild social criticism.

Marius van Dokkum is averse to cynicism, he wants to give the audience a (laugh) mirror.

As a child, Van Dokkum already knew that he would become an artist.

Pieter Pourbus | Renaissance painter

Pieter Jansz. Pourbus (1523-1584) was a Flemish Renaissance painter, draftsman, engineer and cartographer who was active in Bruges during the 16th century.

He is known primarily for his religious and portrait paintings.

Pourbus was the leading figure of his generation in Bruges, often pioneering techniques.

Stylistically speaking, he is part of the generation of Frans Floris.

Jantina Peperkamp, 1968

As a self-taught artist, Peperkamp has developed her own unique style.

Jantina Peperkamp's paintings show us a parallel reality, a glimps into her personal perception.

As a self-taught artist, Peperkamp has developed her own unique style.

Her paintings are painstakingly created with many thin layers of paint that reveal an incredible amount of detail.

Frans van Straaten, 1963 | Figurative sculptor

Born in Hague, Frans van Straaten is a Dutch artist and known for his bronze sculptures.

He is a figurative artist and sculptor, who creates bronze sculptures in which he unites force and movement.

In 1985 Van Straaten obtained his second-level teaching certificate in Drawing and Handicrafts.

He continued his education in Rotterdam at the Willem de Kooning Academy.

Carolien van Olphen, 1971 | Figurative painter

Carolien van Olphen is a Dutch painter, born in Rotterdam.

She received her education at the Classical Art Academy in Groningen.

Carolien is a realistic portrait painter, a technical skilled artist.

She likes to dress-up her models in bright patterned dresses, silk ropes, fur coats etc.

Hans Versfelt, 1968 | Impressionist painter

Dutch painter Hans Versfelt is an Impressionist.

He goes out almost every day with a painting box. He records what he finds.

Versfelt was born in 1968 and currently resides in Breda.

Hans Versfelt started his studies at the Minerva Academy in Groningen but stopped after a year.

After a few years he studied again at the Academy for Art and Design St. Joost in Breda and then at the Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp.

René Jansen (1956-2022)

René Jansen was an Impressionist painter of portraits, still lifes and landscapes.

A great draftsman and painter, who shows stilled moments in an intense manner with a skilful and passionate play of light, color and form.

René Jansen has already established his name as a painter for a long time.

His famous still lifes are characterized by 'coincidentally setups'.

He prefers his compositions to emerge spontaneously and randomly.