The subject of this painting has been identified as a girl from Brittany, France’s northwestern-most region. Beaux spent the summer of 1888 at the artists’ colony of Concarneau in Brittany, where she was intrigued by her encounters with local people, later writing about their customs, clothing, and appearance. Breton peasant subjects were common among American artists, and Beaux gifted this portrait to her friend Anne D. Blake, a Boston-born painter who later became Beaux’s travel companion.

Anguiano was deeply influenced by the Mexican Muralists and their art of protest. The monumentalized subject of this painting holds an apple in her lap, symbolizing not only the fruits of the Mexican soil and its workers, but also the bountiful future promised to the Mexican people by populist politicians.

Henri’s studies of New York sometimes feel quiet and distant. An influential teacher, he distilled some of his ideas about landscape in his important book, The Art Spirit (1923): “the various details in a landscape painting mean nothing to us if they do not express some mood of nature as felt by the artist. It isn’t sufficient that the spacing and arrangement of the composition be correct in formula. The true artist, in viewing the landscape, renders it upon his canvas as a living thing.”

Glackens often found his subjects near the sea. In this vivid painting of rocks and a distant lighthouse, he portrayed the rocks and ocean like living organisms. The artist’s brushstrokes show the sky as a series of individual gusts of breeze. The water sparkles with colored reflections, and the rough rocks are made to feel heavy by the darkened shadows beneath them. Each object depicted features a rainbow of color, making all elements of this seascape feel intimately intertwined.

This painting shows a young Bacchus-like figure hand-pressing grapes to make wine. This celebration of winemaking can be read as a symbol of California’s agricultural heritage. It perhaps also refers to the resurgence of California’s vineyards following the disastrous phylloxera aphid epidemic of the 1870s and 1880s, which affected the wine industry in Europe and the United States. The artist’s agricultural theme is complemented by the frame motif, which features California poppies.

The Wild Swan was owned for many years by the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. In the early 20th century it came to be known as The Trumpeter Swan, perhaps in response to the suggestion that the painting brought attention to the threatened status of trumpeter swans, who were then close to extinction.

Inspired by the Celtic Revival movement, which embraced Irish history, mythology, and folklore, this painting would have resonated with Americans of Irish heritage, including the artist. The subject’s flowing auburn hair and low-cut buckskin dress—combined with her role as a hunter, traditionally a male occupation—reflects the period’s fascination with women, preferably from the past, who challenged traditional gender roles.

When Raphael began painting in a more impressionistic style, he used a heavy impasto, thickly applying layers of paint so that it stands out from the surface of the canvas. In Child Sewing, Raphael’s impasto brings to life the bright colors, sparkling light, and countless blossoms of a spring garden. The child sewing at the table was likely one of Raphael’s children, who regularly served as models for their father.

In the nineteenth century, many American painters turned to rural themes as a reaction against increasing industrialization and technological progress. In this portrait of an American farmer at rest, Thomas Waterman Wood offers viewers an idealized image of a model citizen. Hardworking and happy, Wood's figure embodies the nostalgia of the era — leaning on his pitchfork with his jacket slung casually over his shoulder, he appears worlds removed from the rapid mechanization of the time.

Here, a triangular arrow surrounded by cloudlike forms suggests mountains and dramatic weather phenomena, while the doubled silhouettes may serve as a metaphor for biological reproduction. Pelton joined these forms, linking the forces of physical creation with the broader theme of cosmic creation. The arrow, S-curves, and snakelike lines connect the earthly and heavenly realms, conveying a sense of ascension and aspiration toward a higher state of spiritual rebirth and enlightenment.