Henri Rousseau

Tiger in a Tropical Storm. Surprised!

This is one of my favourite works of Rousseau. He achieves a good balance between warm and cool colours, and the energy of the storm is wonderfully expressed. The variety of green shades look vibrant but natural (in this reproduction at least). As in Eastern painting, this work has a near total absence of shading and atmospheric perspective (desaturation of colours with distance), techniques used to create the illusion of three dimensions. The result is a unified flat design, almost like a textile, in which colour and line are celebrated.

Avner Moriah - Israeli

The simplicity of this work - just olive trees, red earth and white walls - gives it strength .

Marjorie Moskowitz

Lavender Field

William Trost Richards

The South Shore, Newport, 1903, 30 x 25 inches

Richards was influenced by the British art theorist John Ruskin and his idea of faithfulness to nature.

There is an almost photographic faithfulness in this work but also a transcendent, poetic mood.