From 1889 To 1895

The 19th century was a period of great change in the world of art. The traditional hierarchy of the art world was challenged, and new styles and movements emerged. The Industrial Revolution led to new technologies and materials that artists could use, and the rise of the middle class created a new market for art.

Tabernacle House Altar with the Adoration of the Shepherds, the Adoration of the Magi, and the Annunciation.

    This tabernacle house altar contains reverse-painted glass panels depicting the Adoration of the Shepherds, the Adoration of the Magi, and the Annunciation, which were probably painted in Lombardy in the second half of the sixteenth century.
    The wooden frame, however, was made in the nineteenth century, probably by Reinhold Vasters (1827-1909) or someone in his workshop.
    Vasters was a highly skilled German silversmith and goldsmith who for a time served as restorer at the Aachen Cathedral treasury.
   There, in the spirit of nineteenth-century historicism, he not only restored but also replaced worn or damaged liturgical objects
   It is likely that the Lehman tabernacle house altar was made expressly to house a set of sixteenth-century reverse-painted panels

Still Life with Apples and a Pot of Primroses

    Cezanne rarely painted flowering plants or fresh-cut bouquets, which were susceptible to wilting under his protracted gaze.
    He included potted plants only in three still lifes, two views of the conservatory at Jas de Bouffan, his family's estate, and about a dozen exquisite watercolors made over the course of two decades (from about 1878 to 1906).
    Cézanne seems to have reserved this particular table, with its scalloped apron and distinctive bowed legs, for three of his finest still lifes of the 1890s.

Diana

    The Diana statue was originally on top of Madison Square Garden's tower.
    Saint-Gaudens made three different versions of the statue.
    The second version of the statue is on display in the Charles Engelhard Court of the American Wing.

The Shepherd's Song

    This painting is based on a mural that Puvis made for the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyons.
    The pipe-playing shepherd and draped figures pay homage to the poetry and grace of classical antiquity, which Puvis revered as the epitome of beauty.
    Their rhythmic poses and absorbed demeanor impart a mood of dreamlike serenity to the scene.
    Pale colors, minimal modeling, and limited detail create an effect of great simplicity and restraint.

Irises

    In May 1890, just before he checked himself out of the asylum at Saint-Remy, Van Gogh painted four exuberant bouquets of spring flowers, the only still lifes of any ambition he had undertaken during his year long stay:two of irises, two of roses, in contrasting color schemes and formats.
    In the Museum's Irises he sought a "harmonious and soft" effect by placing the "violet" flowers against a "pink background," which have since faded due to his use of fugitive red pigments.
    Another work from this series, Roses (1993.400.5), hangs in the adjacent gallery.

Madame Cézanne (Hortense Fiquet, 1850–1922) in a Red Dress

    This is the only one of the four portraits of Madame Cezanne to show her in an elaborately furnished interior.
    Seated in a high-backed yellow chair and wedged between well-placed props that seem to bend to her form and shift to her weight, Madame Cezanne is the lynchpin of a tilting, spatially complex composition.

Chrysanthemums in the Garden at Petit-Gennevilliers

    Caillebotte's interest in floral subjects did not develop until the 1880s.
    This work of 1893 depicts flowers that he cultivated on his property at Petit-Gennevilliers.
    Chrysanthemums were hugely popular in France, celebrated for their resplendent colors and associations with East Asia.

Sahurs Meadows in Morning Sun