Art

Look closely at E9: English Drawing Room of the Georgian Period, 1770–1800. Miniature room with cream-colored walls with inset columns on the side walls and two columns at the back framing a dark wooden bookshelf.

Look closely at New England Headlands. A seascape painted in pastel tones, light-colored houses with red chimneys and light-green shutters in the foreground.

Look closely at Stemless Kylix (Drinking Cup). Shallow terracotta pan-like cup with black glaze, incised floral decoration at bottom, and handles on either side.

Look closely at A10: Massachusetts Dining Room, 1795. Miniature dining room with mint-green walls and two large windows on the back wall, between which hangs a portrait of a Revolutionary-era man flanked by two vases.

Look closely at Landscape with Saint John on Patmos. Painting of Greek landscape, classical architecture, yellow, red robed man reading.

Look closely at The Shower. Etching of a herd of sheep on a bank approaching water in the foreground as rain begins to fall, a man and dog behind them.

Look closely at Old Man with a Gold Chain. Portrait of man wearing voluminous black cloak, feathered hat, and gold medallion.

Look closely at Head of Guanyin. A large marble head with eyes closed and a serene expression, a large incised crown of figures upon her head.

Look closely at Oinochoe (Pitcher). Terracotta pitcher with a black glaze, faint stripes incised around its bulbous body.

Look closely at Portrait Vessel. Sculpted head of a medium-skinned man in a beige headdress with geometric pattern and distinctive stirrup-shaped top piece.

Look closely at Kesa. Rectangular, mostly brown textile made up of many small fabric squares of the same pattern, featuring flora and fauna in green, blue, and cream.

Benjamin West made this oil sketch while developing a monumental scene for King George III’s planned chapel at Windsor Castle. Adam and Eve move from radiant cloud into a harsher landscape while animals, light, and wind enlarge the biblical expulsion into a collapse of natural harmony.

Claude Monet painted Waterloo Bridge through the industrial haze above the Thames. The bridge stays recognizable while blue, green, and violet atmosphere loosens its stone, traffic, water, and smoke into one shifting field.

Look closely at The Advance-Guard, or The Military Sacrifice (The Ambush). Three cavalry scouts—light-skinned men mounted on gleaming brown horses—among light-beige, arid mountains.

Look closely at The Artist's House at Argenteuil. Among potted flowers and lush foliage, a tiny child in a white dress plays with a hoop.

Look closely at Waterloo Bridge, Sunlight Effect. Horizontal oil painting in shades of pale purple, pink, and light blue of a bridge composed of multiple linked archways over water, engulfed in hazy fog.

Look closely at Scenes from the Life of Saint John the Baptist. Outdoors, distinct groupings of adult men and women, some with halos, gather near a building.

Look closely at Bust of a Youth (Saint John the Baptist). Bust of young boy with large eyes and long curly hair, looking to his side.

Raphaelle Peale arranged fruit beside imported porcelain in this 1822 still life. Chicago connects the tableware with trade and prosperity, while treating the possible greenhouse origin of the strawberries as a qualified interpretation.

More than 2,500 pigment samples at Harvard preserve the physical ingredients of color for conservation research, teaching, and the study of how artworks were made.

This billon antoninianus presents Mariniana in profile and a flying peacock on its reverse. The inscriptions call her divine and frame the coin around consecration after death.

Pierre Biard the Younger put a double self-portrait into this 1629 etching, alongside French and Italian text. The museum reads its reference to a lost ancient painting as a possible contribution to the debate over the arts.

Look closely at Hercules and the Lernaean Hydra. Painting depicting the god Hercules confronting the Hydra, a mythical creature.

Monet used related strokes and colors across the grass and the walkers’ clothing in this Normandy scene. Museum X-radiographs also reveal a change to the rocky outcrop, giving the composition a documented history of revision.