Mary Cassatt’s painting Mother About to Wash Her Sleepy Child dwells in motherhood. Its careful composition combines with a smudgy Impressionist technique. This painting captures a moment of messy mothering.

This painting, Young Woman Drawing by Marie-Denise Villers meditates on love versus art. Art wins the contest here. This piece works as a rumination on the self and identity too.

When we think of Georgia O’Keeffe paintings like White Rose with Larkspur No 2 pop to mind. They rouse realistic flora with a fantasy feel. O’Keeffe zooms in tight. So, it’s like the flower took a selfie.

Obsessed with nostalgia, Cézanne painted The Bathers from memory. It’s one of his many works that dance between reality and invention. Cézanne creates a tension here that reveres the very past it can’t quite enumerate.

When looking at A Bigger Splash today, we have art history to serve the story for us. Hockney sparked the Pop Art movement then dove in a new direction soon after. This 1967 painting represents his more naturalistic move. Swimming pools and California skies look through his lens into a deeper artistry.

Picasso painted Girl Before a Mirror as a doubled abstract portrait. It portrays his beloved Marie-Thérèse Walter. She was young and it shows in the left side of this work. Her face glows like a radiant sun. Her belly swells in pregnancy.

Hans Holbein’s painting Portrait of the Artist’s Wife with Katherine and Philipp reeks of reality. He used all his artistic magic as Henry VIII’s court painter. That work elevated his status. But it also made him a neglectful father and husband.

Caravaggio tells a compelling story in The Cardsharps painting. Our newbie in the green sleeves at front plays the leading man. He cares the most and this intensity makes us feel for him. This shows Caravaggio’s hand. He’s pulling for the kid.

The painting Head Surrounded by Sides of Beef features one of Bacon’s infamous screaming Popes. This masterpiece explores many dualities, especially Bacon’s obsession with horror. Here he plays with the two sides of terror; power and vulnerability.

Frederic Leighton fared as an underestimated salon painter up till 1895. Then he painted this masterpiece – Flaming June. It sings to us with radiant color and elemental symbols.

Francisco de Goya painted The Colossus during Napoleon’s siege of Spain. So, many think El Gigante is the incompetent Fernando VII of Spain or Napolean. These were the major players wreaking devastation on Spain at the time of this work. Also Fernando and Napolean both had colossal egos.

America teetered on the edge of revolution in 1768. Paul Revere was an intense and articulate Son of Liberty. But the painter, John Singleton Copley, engaged to a hardcore Tory, wished to abstain from political discourse.

A memorial to Nellie Bly awaits construction on Roosevelt Island, NYC. This was the site of her first journalistic adventure. Back then called Blackwell’s Island, this was where she spent her Ten Days in a Mad-House. It remains the most familiar and historic Nellie Bly story.

The iconic Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez gives us an intimate perspective on a secret world. This portrait of Spain’s King Philip IV reveals the inner court with resonant details.

Sisters dwell in distinct developmental stages for The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit. This famous John Singer Sargent painting holds viewers rapt in a sisterhood spell.

Now the High Line NYC hood means primo rents. That’s thanks to its new life as an outdoor artwalk. Celebrated artists clamor for spots in this splendorous garden gallery. It’s also the coolest outdoor date in Manhattan.

Mute painter Henrick Avercamp sings an icy opera with Frozen River. In fact, his expressions range from delight to death here. Without a word spoken, Avercamp tells us a complex emotional story.

Nature versus Man whips like wind through the painting Approaching Storm. Eugène Boudin often painted the moneyed and middle class. Their fancy finery struck a wry contrast with Mother Nature.

A complex woman with a vision, Louise Bourgeois turned anxiety into art. Her work provoked audiences with disruptive work. She channeled emotions into her pieces to jolt audiences awake. Good or bad, Bourgeois makes us feel things.

Charisma and extemporaneous insight earned Sojourner Truth a spotlight. She didn’t only grab attention in the mid 1800’s. Her impact remains today. This is even more impressive given that Sojourner was born a slave.

Waves crash The Undercliff painting with foreboding. This makes sense. After all, Richard Parkes Bonington painted it one month before dying.