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Perseus With the Head of Medusa by Antonio Canova
This Perseus is a replica of Canova's famed marble of Perseus in the Vatican, conceived about 1790 and first shown in 1801. Based freely on the Apollo Belvedere, which had been carried off to Paris under Napoleon, it was bought by Pope Pius VII and placed upon the pedestal where the Apollo had formerly stood. -
Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in C Minor
This is one of the most popular and best known compositions in classical music. It premiered at a marathon concert at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna consisting entirely of Beethoven premieres, and directed by Beethoven himself. The concert lasted for more than four hours. -
Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility
This classic romance novel is set in southwest England between 1792 and 1797, It tells the story of the life and loves of the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne. The novel follows the young ladies to their new home, a meagre cottage on a distant relative's property, where they experience love, romance and heartbreak. It is Austen's first published work. -
The Dying Hercules by Samuel Morse
Morse was an American painter and inventor who is best known for his invention of the Morse code & the single-wire telegraph system. Morse modeled a plaster statuette of The Dying Hercules, which won a gold medal at the Adelphi Society of Arts exhibition in London. His subsequent 6' x 8' painting of The Dying Hercules is exhibited at the Royal Academy and receives critical acclaim. -
The Third of May 1808 by Francisco Goya
Goya sought to commemorate Spanish resistance to Napoleon's armies during the occupation of 1808 in the Peninsula War. It was commissioned by the Spanish government (at Goya's suggestion). Diverging from the traditions of Christian art and traditional depictions of war, it has no distinct precedent and is acknowledged as one of the first paintings of the modern era. -
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
Frankenstein, originally titled The Modern Prometheus, is a novel about an eccentric scientist, Dr. Victor Frankenstein, who creates a montrous man-like creature in a scientific experiment. Shelley started writing the story when she was nineteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty-one. The first edition was published anonymously in London in 1818. -
Surrender of Lord Cornwallis by John Trumbull
The Surrender of Lord Cornwallis is an oil painting by John Trumbull. The painting was completed in 1820, and hangs in the rotunda of the United States Capitol in Washington, D. C.
Trumbull's oil painting depicts the surrender of British Major General Charles, Earl Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia on October 19, 1781, ending the Siege of Yorktown, and virtually guaranteeing American independence. -
The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai
The Great Wave Off Kanagawa’ (painted around 1831) was one painting in a series of 36 paintings of Mount Fuji. It was in the 1920s and early 1930s that Hokusai reached the peak of his career, and this painting which arguably he is most well-known for.
This particular woodblock is one of the most recognized works of Japanese art in the world. It depicts an enormous wave threatening boats near the Japanese prefecture of Kanagawa. -
Peace - Burial At Sea by J.M.W. Turner
The scene shows the burial of Turner's friend Sir David Wilkie who died suddenly at sea off Gibraltar. It is tribute to the memory of his friend, whose body is depicted being lowered into the deep in a blaze of torchlight. -
The Massacre at Chios by Eugene Delacroix
This is Delacroix's 2nd major oil painting. The Chios Massacre refers to the slaughter of tens of thousands of Greeks on the island of Chios by Ottoman troops during the Greek War of Independence in 1822. The massacre provoked international outrage, and led to an increasing support for the Greek cause worldwide. Some critics have charged that Delacroix might have tried to show some sympathy with the brutal occupiers. -
Big Ben by Augustus Pugin
Big Ben is the nickname for the great bell of the clock at the north end of the Palace of Westminster in London . The name often references the clock and the clock tower., which is now officially called the Elizabeth Tower. The tower holds the largest four-faced chiming clock in the world and is the third-tallest free-standing clock tower. -
Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities
A Tale of Two Cities (1859) is a novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The 45-chapter novel was published in 31 weekly installments in Dickens' new literary periodical titled All the Year Round. With well over 200 million copies sold, it ranks among the most famous works in the history of fictional literature. -
Palais Garnier (Paris Opera House) – Charles Garnier, Architect
The 1,979-seat opera house was built from 1861 to 1875 for the Paris Opera. It was the primary home of the Paris Opera and its associated Paris Opera Ballet until 1989. It is commonly categorized as Baroque Revival architecture. -
The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone by Thomas Moran
Thomas Moran's vision of the Western landscape was critical to the creation of Yellowstone National Park. Dr. Ferdinand Hayden, director of the United States Geological Survey, invited Moran, to join him and his expedition team on an exploration into the unknown Yellowstone region. One year later, Moran captured the imagination of the American public with his first enormous painting of The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, which the government purchased in 1872 for $10,000. -
Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 1 (Whistler’s Mother) by James Whistler
This painting is now one of the most famous works by an American artist outside the United States. Anna McNeill Whistler posed for the painting while living in London with her son. Several stories surround the making of the painting itself; one is that Anna Whistler was a replacement for another model who couldn't make the appointment. It is also said that Whistler originally envisioned painting the model standing up, but that his mother was unable to stand for an extended period of time. -
Soleil Levant (Impression Sunrise) by Claude Monet
It was this painting that gave rise to the name of the Impressionist movement. Its subject is the harbour of Le Havre in France. -
L’Absinthe by Edgar Degas
The painting is a representation of the increasing social isolation in Paris during its stage of rapid growth.
In its first showing it was panned by critics, who called it ugly and disgusting. It was put into storage until an 1892 exhibit where it was booed off the easel. It was shown again in England in 1893 where it sparked controversy. The persons represented in the painting were considered by English critics to be shockingly degraded and uncouth. -
Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture
This muscial masterpiece was written to commemorate Russia's defense of its motherland against Napoleon's invading Grande Armée in 1812. It has also become a common accompaniment to fireworks displays, including those which occur in the United States in association with its Fourth of July celebrations. The piece has no connection to the War of 1812 between the U.S. and Britain, but was personally conducted by Tchaikovsky in 1891 at the opening of Carnegie Hall. -
Little Dancer of Fourteen Years by Edgar Degas
This is sculpture of a young student of the Paris Opera Ballet dance school named Marie van Goethem. It is two-thirds life size and was originally sculpted in wax, an unusual choice of medium for the time. -
A Sunday on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat
This is one of Seurat's most famous works and is an example of pointillism, which is is a technique of painting wherein small, distinct dots of pure color are applied in patterns to form an image. Seurat spent over two years painting it, focusing on the landscape of the park. He reworked the original as well as completed numerous preliminary drawings and oil sketches. -
Bal de Moulin de la Galette by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Commonly known as "Dance at Le moulin de la Galette", this 1876 painting is housed at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris and is one of Impressionism's most celebrated masterpieces. The painting depicts a typical Sunday afternoon at Moulin de la Galette in the district of Montmartre in Paris. It is a typically Impressionist snapshot of real life & shows a richness of form, a fluidity of brush stroke, and a flickering light. -
Still Life: Vase With Fifteen Sunflowers by Vincent Van Gpgh
Van Gogh began painting the Sunflower series in late summer 1888 and continued into the following year. One went to decorate his friend Paul Gauguin's bedroom. The paintings show sunflowers in all stages of life, from full bloom to withering. The paintings were considered innovative for their use of the yellow spectrum, partly because newly invented pigments made new colours possible. -
Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh
This painting depicts the view outside of Van Gogh's sanitarium room window at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. The painting is among his most well known works and marks a decisive turn towards greater imaginative freedom in his art. -
Wheatstacks by Claude Monet
This oil on canvas painting is part of series of Monet's impressionist series titled "Haystacks". The series is among Monet's most notable works and is known for its thematic use of repetition to show differences in perception of light across various times of day, seasons, and types of weather. The subjects were painted in fields near Monet's home in Giverny, France. -
Der Schrei der Natur (The Scream) by Edvard Munch
The Scream is the popular name given to each of four versions of a composition, created as both paintings and pastels, by the Expressionist artist Edvard Munch between 1893 and 1910. All of the paintings show a figure with an agonized expression against a landscape with a tumultuous orange sky.
