Winslow Homer | Summer Night / Notte d'estate, 1890

Winslow Homer started his career as a graphic reporter during the American Civil War, before going on to paint scenes of army life and the rural world with the Naturalist precision which then prevailed in American painting.

After a stay in Paris, Homer used an Impressionist palette for a while then developed a personal style midway between Realism and Symbolism.

Summer Night perfectly expresses this synthesis and may be considered one of the first masterpieces of American art still in search of its identity.

Michelangelo | The Last Judgment, 1535-1541

The mighty composition, painted by Michelangelo between 1536-1541, is centred around the dominant figure of Christ, captured in the moment preceding that when the verdict of the Last Judgement is uttered (Matthew 25:31-46). His calm imperious gesture seems to both command attention and placate the surrounding agitation. It starts a wide slow rotary movement in which all the figures are involved.

Oscar Pardo, 1967 | Abstract Figurative painter

Spanish self-taught artist and painter Oscar Álvarez Pardo was born, living and working in Zaragoza, Spain.

In my watercolors, after years of dedication and learning to master this so difficult medium, there is an initial stage devoted to a hard work essentially realistic... mainly portraits and seascapes become a constant in my work. In what could be a second stage I begin to introducer the fantasy in my paintings, realistic work alternating with others of fantástco court.

Paul Gauguin | Post-Impressionist painter

Paul Gauguin, in full Eugène-Henri-Paul Gauguin (born June 7, 1848, Paris, France-died May 8, 1903, Atuona, Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia) French painter, printmaker and sculptor who sought to achieve a "primitive” expression of spiritual and emotional states in his work.

The artist, whose work has been categorized as Post-Impressionist, Synthetist and Symbolist, is particularly well known for his creative relationship with Vincent van Gogh as well as for his self-imposed exile in Tahiti, French Polynesia.

His artistic experiments influenced many avant-garde developments in the early 20th century.

Paul Gauguin | Barbarian poems, 1896 | Art in Detail

Original Title: Poèmes Barbares

Painter: Paul Gauguin (1848-1903)

Date: 1896; French Polynesia

Style: Cloisonnism

Period: 2nd Tahiti period

Genre: Portrait

Media: Oil, canvas

Dimensions: 47 x 63 cm

Location: Fogg Museum (Harvard Art Museums), Cambridge, MA, US