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Melons and Morning Glories, 1813 Raphaelle Peale (1774-1825)

Raphaelle Peale's father, Charles Willson Peale, urged his son to paint portraits instead of still lifes, which brought an artist less prestige and fewer commissions. But still lifes suited Raphaelle, who also worked as a taxidermist. He painted this melon as if it were a body opened up for examination, detailing its fluids and flesh so that the painting suggests life, fertility, and death, all at once.

--Exhibition Label, Smithsonian American Art Museum

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Tenement Flats, c. 1933/4 Millard Sheets (1907-1989) Including my own image of this piece since I feel like the the SAAM image doesn't adequately capture how vibrant and three-dimensional this piece felt.

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Cape Cod Morning, 1950 Edward Hopper (1882-1967)

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la Orana Maria (Ave Maria), 1891 Paul Gauguin (1848-1903)

I think Gauguin inspires complicated feelings in anyone even remotely mindful of colonialism and racist narratives concerning "primitive" peoples. I'm not sure this art blog is the place to unpack those feelings. I can say, having seen this piece in person at the met, it positively glows. The official public domain image truly doesn't do it justice. I've included my own photograph for comparison.

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Bat Against Full Moon, c. 1910/30 Crows in Flight, in Snow, c. 1890/9 Rooster [and Hen], c. 1925 Night Cherry [or Moon and Plum Blossoms], c. 1904/5 Biho Takahashi [Yoshikuni Nomura] (1873-?)

The Smithsonian, which is the source for 3 of 4 of the above woodblock prints, credits these prints to a Yoshikuni Nomura [野村美邦] who lived from 1855-1903, but every other site that has one of these prints seems certain they should be credited to a different Yoshikuni Nomura (cf. the ukiyo-e database, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Smart Museum of Art, &c.). I'm still not sure I've credited these correctly (and they might not all be the same artist) but I've done my best.

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Dinner at the Casino [Le Dîner au Casino], c. 1906 Gaston La Touche (1854-1913)

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The Fox Hunt, 1893 Winslow Homer (1836-1910)

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Hunters in the Snow (Winter) [Jagers in de Sneeuw], 1565 Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525/30-1569)

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In the Omnibus, c. 1890/1 Woman Bathing, c. 1890/1 Mary Cassatt (1844-1926)

Cassatt is best-known for her paintings, but I find her prints to be more charming, personally. These two are a couple of my favorites, but it's worth checking out this article by the National Gallery of the United States on some of her other color prints.

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Savannah Harbor at Twilight, c. 1924/5 Eliot Candee Clark (1883-1980)

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Roses, 1890 Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)

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The Magpie [La Pie], c. 1868/9 Claude Monet (1840-1926)

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Girl in a Red Kimono, c. 1893/5 George Hendrik Breitner (1857-1923)

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Polyphemus Discovers Acis and Galatea Vase, c. 1925/30 Nicolas Constantin Platon-Argyaridès (1888-1968)

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High Noon, 1949 Edward Hopper (1882-1967)

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Cat and Girl, c. 1952 Saitō Kiyoshi (1907-1997)

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Skating In Central Park, 1934 Agnes Tait (1894-1981)