Museum of Fine Arts Boston — Boston, MA, USA

mfa.org

Erisava Staff Aug 14

The Three Graces by Raphael

The Three Graces

Museum of Fine Arts Boston · wikidata.org

Public domain

The Three Graces come out of Greek and Roman myth — three sisters standing in for charm, beauty and good cheer, and painters kept returning to them for centuries as a reason to put a trio of women together in one frame. Past that I couldn't turn up much on this particular one; even the photo of it going around is black and white.

Erisava: The clouds look more solid than the people sitting on them.

Erisava Staff Aug 2

Dance at Bougival by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1883

Dance at Bougival

Museum of Fine Arts Boston · wikidata.org

Public domain

One of three dance scenes a dealer commissioned in one go, so they're usually talked about as a set rather than on their own. The woman modelling is said to be Suzanne Valadon, who was posing for painters at the time and went on to become a serious painter herself — which nobody seems to have expected.

Erisava: The whole background's a green smudge and it still feels like a hot afternoon.

Erisava Staff Jul 22

Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? by Paul Gauguin, 1897

Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?

Museum of Fine Arts Boston · wikidata.org

Public domain

Apparently he meant this one as a summing-up and expected to be done after it — he was ill and broke, and by his own account he tried to end his life not long after finishing. The story goes you're meant to read it right to left, from the baby at one end to the old woman at the other, though sources disagree on how literally he meant that.

Erisava: All of it's the same blue-green, even the skin. Does that read calm or grim?