John Ruskin (1819-1900), the 19th-century English critic and artist, owned this painting for a time, hence its popular title “The Ruskin Madonna.” The work is distinguished by its depiction of the Virgin adoring the Christ Child in front of a magnificent ancient building—a highly unusual setting for this subject in 15th-century Florence. The ruined architecture probably represents the ancient Roman Tempio della Pace (Temple of Peace) which, according to legend, collapsed the moment Christ was born. The ruins metaphorically express the victory of a new religion (Christianity) over the old.

Velázquez stands out among the great masters for his bold, dazzling brushwork, so much so he was called “a painter among painters.” This remarkable work, painted when Velázquez was 18 or 19, is a type of painting, called a “bodegon” in Spanish, portraying a scene in a kitchen or tavern with a significant still-life aspect. The kitchen vessels and commonplace foods in the foreground are beautifully rendered with exquisite attention to their textures. The depiction of the egg whites the old woman is cooking, growing firm in the hot oil, is beyond excellence.

Reynolds was a leading English portrait painter of the 18th century and the first president of the Royal Academy. His aim was to enhance the status of portraiture by painting it in the history painting style. This painting, one of Reynolds' signature works, depicts three sisters of the Waldegrave family absorbed in decorative needlework. Despite their fashionable costumes and hairstyles, the sisters evoke a timeless beauty. Its composition displaying three graceful women alludes to the classical subject, "The Three Graces.”

Born to an aristocratic family, Grant spent all his fortune on fox hunting and collecting paintings, and became a professional painter to earn money. Nearly self-taught at oil painting, he used his aristocratic origins to become a well-paid portrait painter with many clients from the upper classes. In 1866, he became the only Scot in history to be elected president of the Royal Academy. This work, showing his second daughter just before her marriage, is a masterpiece of feminine portraiture by Grant showing him at the height of his powers. He kept this deeply personal painting with him for the rest of his life.

Millais, the youngest student ever admitted to the Royal Academy Schools, took part in establishing the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848. He nevertheless moved away from the founding philosophy of the Pre-Raphaelites and diversified his painting activities. Particularly popular was his ‘fancy pictures’, a sentimental depiction of an idealized child. Initially titled A Girl with Violets, the artist himself changed the name to the current title, a quote from Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem Catarina to Camoens.

Monet, the most famous Impressionist artist, spent late spring to autumn 1891 working on a series of 23 paintings of poplar trees in Limetz, a village about two kilometers from his Giverny studio. Erecting an easel in the studio boat, he selected this view, seen in many paintings of the series, of a row of poplar trees following an S-curve. The work with its lush trees and blue sky with fleecy clouds is thought to have been painted in late spring. When a plan arose to cut and auction the trees for timber, Monet bought the trees in partnership with a timber merchant so he could continue painting them.