Artnap

Vermeer was broke after 1672 and still painted with ultramarine. It was said to cost about as much as gold. Gold. You won't even see it in The Girl with the Wine Glass, because it's underneath the other colours. artnap.com/artwork/wd-Q166937 #arthistory #art

Jan van Eyck wrote on the wall: "Jan van Eyck was here, 1434." Up above the round mirror. Curly Latin letters. See it up close: artnap.com/artwork/wd-Q220859 #arthistory #art

Jan Asselijn painted a swan chasing off a dog. Someone else made it about politics. That's it. A dog is swimming toward her nest, and she's up on her feet with her wings spread as wide as Asselijn could paint them. artnap.com/artwork/wd-Q17319634 #arthistory #art

A widow asked Arnold Böcklin to paint her a coffin. Marie Berna saw his first island picture on the easel in his Florence studio in 1880. She wanted one. See it up close: artnap.com/artwork/met-435683 #arthistory #art

There may be a skull on that table. Look at the glass by the candle. Some people think it holds a skull, the old sign that everyone dies, and in paintings it often sits next to a burning candle like this one. artnap.com/halloween #arthistory #art

Look behind the pillar. Someone's been painted out. Branwell Brontë painted his three sisters around 1834. Then in 1957 someone spotted an outline under the pillar, and when they took infra-red photos there was a man standing there. See it up close: artnap.com/artwork/wd-Q28049229 #arthistory #art

One farthing. That's all Whistler won in court over this painting. John Ruskin saw it at a London show in 1877 and couldn't stand it. Whistler, he wrote, wanted two hundred guineas "for flinging a pot of paint in the public's face." artnap.com/artwork/wd-Q646337 #arthistory #art

On March 18, 1990, two men dressed as police officers cut this Rembrandt out of its frame. It was early in the morning at the Gardner Museum in Boston, and the guard broke the rules and let them in. They left with 13 works. See it up close: artnap.com/artwork/wd-Q2246489 #arthistory #art

It rained the whole time, so Monet painted this from his hotel window. artnap.com/artwork/aic-81540 #arthistory #art

Toulouse-Lautrec gave the singer May Milton a green face. She's peering in from the right edge, lit from below, and the Art Institute of Chicago calls the colour a shocking acid green. Blame the lights. See it up close: artnap.com/artwork/aic-61128 #arthistory #art

Bradford kept going back to Labrador for eight years. artnap.com/artwork/aic-100489 #arthistory #art

There's a hare in this Turner. You just can't see it anymore. He brushed it onto the track, right in front of the train, and over the years the paint went transparent. See it up close: artnap.com/artwork/wd-Q2339059 #arthistory #art

Find your birth month. That's your cat. We couldn't agree on a favourite, and honestly we still can't. October came close: Zhu Ling's black cat, sitting next to a narcissus. Which one did you get? artnap.com/ #arthistory #art

The craziest thing about this portrait is Goethe's feet. Look at his shoes. Both of them look like left shoes. We didn't make this up. The Städel Museum in Frankfurt points it out on its own page. Nobody knows why. See it up close: artnap.com/artwork/wd-Q481447 #arthistory #art

Aynı Yer, Farklı Gözler · Rialto Bridge (6 tablo, post), Aynı Yer, Farklı Gözler · Rialto Bridge (6 tablo, post) artnap.com/artwork/wd-Q19660368 #arthistory #art

In 1715, someone cut this Rembrandt to fit a wall. The pieces were never found. We only know what was there thanks to a smaller copy. See it up close: artnap.com/artwork/wd-Q219831 #arthistory #art

The City Rises, Umberto Boccioni, 1910 · Museum of Modern Art artnap.com/artwork/wd-Q587514 #arthistory #art

Venice: The Grand Canal with S. Simeone Piccolo, Giovanni Antonio Canal, 1740 · National Gallery artnap.com/artwork/wd-Q19660455 #arthistory #art

Artnap New Tab is now on the Chrome Web Store. Each new tab shows a painting from a museum collection, with its title, artist, year and museum. It collects no personal data. chromewebstore.google.com/detail/artnap-new-tab

Friends gathered at a New York restaurant Glackens portrayed members of his circle at their favorite meeting place, the New York restaurant Mouquin's. At Mouquin's, William Glackens, 1905 · Art Institute of Chicago artnap.com/artwork/aic-15401 #arthistory #art

A Pompeii novel's blind servant Blind servant Nydia weaves a rose garland for her beloved master Glaucus, in a scene from the hugely popular novel The Last Days of Pompeii. Glaucus and Nydia, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1867 · Cleveland Museum of Art artnap.com/artwork/cma-148971 #arthistory #art