Masterpiece Makers

His mother was born a slave, but escaped to Pennsylvania via the Underground Railroad and was a free woman by the time he was born.

And although he wanted to establish himself in the art world, the legacy of slavery overshadowed him. In painting African-American subjects, he wanted to give them a better legacy.

In this episode, we'll talk about Henry Ossawa Tanner, and one of his most famous works, The Banjo Lesson.

Born a peasant, he proudly proclaimed that he would die a peasant. All he had ever known was rural country life, hard-working farmers toiling over the earth.

These scenes would influence his art like nothing else could. And he, in turn, would influence two of the best-known artists of all time.

In this episode, we'll talk about Jean-Francois Millet, as well as his most famous work, The Gleaners.

As an artist he brought luminosity, expression, atmosphere, and turbulence to his landscape and seascape paintings. His abstract brushstrokes and palette knife paintings baffled many viewers in his day, but inspired the Impressionist masters.

He is the original "Painter of Light."

In this episode, we'll talk about Romanticist painter, JMW (William) Turner, and one of his most famous works, Rain, Steam and Speed – The Great Western Railway.

Described as one of the old masters by some, and the first modern painter by others, this artist is truly in a class all by himself. Though he began during the Rococo period, despised the Neoclassical style, and was labeled as a Romanticist, he created in a style that was his alone.

In this episode, we talk about Francisco de Goya and one of his most famous works, The Third of May, 1808.

In the 1770s, a London engraver remarked, "The whole world is Angelicamad," about a Swiss artist. This was a woman who followed her passion and was so good at what she did that she practically became a celebrity in her day.

She was a woman in a man's world, but she didn't let that stop her from following her dreams and fulfilling them.

In this episode, we're going to talk about Angelica Kauffman, and one of her most famous paintings, Cornelia, Mother of the Gracci.

Referred to as a "political chameleon," he painted whatever the man in power at the time wanted.

Whether it was in the frivolous Rococo style for Louis XVI, propaganda for the French Revolution, or commissioned portraits for the self-appointed Emperor of France, Napoleon Bonaparte, he didn't care as long as he kept his head!

In this episode, we'll talk about Jacques-Louis David, the most famous artist of the Neoclassical period, as well as one of his most famous works, The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries.

He was a painter during the Rococo period, and one of the most decadent eras in history – the reign of Louis XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette.

His paintings exuded the beauty, playfulness, frivolity and wealth of the French Aristocracy. But this era would come to an abrupt end. In this episode, we will talk about Jean-Honoré Fragonard, and one of his most famous works, Young Girl Reading.

In her lifetime, she painted 200 landscapes and 660 portraits. In fact, Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun was considered one of the most prominent French portrait painters of the late 18th century.

She quickly found favor, friendship, and loyal support in one of the most controversial figures in history: Marie Antoinette, Queen of France.

In this episode, we'll discuss one of her most famous portraits, Marie Antoinette with a Rose.

Although today he is known as the "Master of Light," Johannes Vermeer is also referred to as the "Sphinx of Delft" because there is so little we truly know about him.

In fact, he and his paintings remained in relative obscurity for almost 200 years until an art critic discovered his works in 1866.

In this episode, we'll learn a bit about Johannes (or Jan) Vermeer. We'll also discuss his most famous work, the Girl with a Pearl Earring.

When you really love yourself and you think you're incredibly beautiful, why not paint yourself over and over and over? That's exactly what Rembrandt did. In fact, he painted almost 100 self-portraits in his lifetime!

In this episode, we'll talk about Rembrandt van Rijn, the greatest artist of the Dutch Golden Age, and the original "selfie-taker," as well as one of his most famous works, The Night Watch.