Robert Wiedemann Browning: Before A Mirror

Public Domain Image: Before a Mirror (Devant un miroir), oil on canvas painting painted before 1912 by the English painter Robert Wiedeman Barrett Browning, also known as Pen Browning (1849-1912).

John Collier: The Sleeping Beauty

Public Domain Photo: The Sleeping Beauty(1921), oil on canvas painting by the pre-Raphaelite English writer and painter John Maler Collier (1850-1934), dimension 91 cm x 112 cm.

Young women posing in swimsuits, 1940s

Public Domain Photo: Young women posing in swimsuits on sand dune, 1940s, physical description: glass transparency: applied color ; 8 x 10 in, DER glass lantern slides, found at State Library and Archives of Florida, 500 S. Bronough St., Tallahassee, FL 32399-0250 USA.

Source for this public domain photo: http://ibistro.dos.state.fl.us/uhtbin/cgisirsi/x/x/0/5?library=PHOTO&item_type=PHOTOGRAPH&searchdata1=Ep05

La Première Pose by Pierre Carrier-Belleuse

PD Image: La Première Pose (1900), oil on canvas painting by French artist Pierre Carrier-Belleuse (1851-1932), dimensions 99.7 cm x 64.8 cm, located in private collection.

Theo Molkenboer: La Toilette

PD Image: La Toilette (The Toilet), 1903 oil painting by Theo Molkenboer (1871-1920), located at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir: Junge Frau beim Frisieren

PD Image: Junge Frau beim Frisieren (Young woman's hair), a 1909 oil on canvas painting by French painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), dimensions 49.5 cm x 44 cm, private collection.

Johannes Vermeer: The Girl with a Pearl Earring

PD Image: Girl with a Pearl Earring (Dutch: Het Meisje met de Parel, old title: Head of a girl), a 1665 oil on canvas painting by Dutch painter and art dealer Johannes Vermeer (aka Jan Vermeer or Jan Vermeer van Delft), size 46.5 cm x 40 cm (18.31 in x 15.75 in), located at Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, The Hague, Netherlands. This image shows ‘The Girl with a Pearl Earring’ by Johannes Vermeer some time before it was restored.

PD Image: a restored version of Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer.

The painting Girl with a Pearl Earring, sometimes referred to as The Mona Lisa of the North or The Dutch Mona Lisa, is one of Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer's masterpieces and as the name implies, uses a pearl earring for a focal point.

Though not much is known about Vermeer and his works, this painting is signed ‘IVMeer’, but not dated. Recent studies on Vermeer suggest the image being a ‘head’, it was not meant to be a portrait, though it is not known who commissioned it, or who the subject is. A recent restoration in 1994 has greatly increased the effect of the subtle colour scheme and the intimacy of the girl’s gaze on the spectator. A.A. des Tombe purchased the work at an auction in The Hague in 1881 for only two guilders and thirty cents. Des Tombe had no heirs and donated this painting and other collections to the Mauritshuis in 1902.

Johannes Vermeer was a Dutch Baroque painter who specialized in depicting scenes of middle class life of his times. He seems never to have been wealthy as he left his wife and children in debt on his death. Vermeer worked slowly but with great care using bright colors and expensive pigments, and was renowned for his masterly treatment and use of light in his works.

Johannes Vermeer’s modest celebrity gave way to obscurity after his death for over two centuries. In 19th century Vermeer was rediscovered by Gustav Friedrich Waagen and Théophile Thoré-Bürger, who attributed 66 paintings to him but only 34 paintings are universally attributed to him now. However, Vermeer's reputation found new heights so that now Johannes Vermeer is recognized as one of the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age.

The White Slave by Jean Lecomte du Nouy

PD Image: The White Slave (L’Esclave blanche), a 1888 oil on canvas painting by French painter Jean Lecomte du Noüy (1842-1923), size 146 cm x 118 cm (57.48 in x 46.46 in), located at Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nantes, France.

Jean Lecomte du Nouy

Jean Lecomte du Nouy (alternatively known as Jean-Jules-Antoine Lecomte du Nouy, Lecomte du Noüy, and Jules Jean Antoine, born in Paris on June 10, 1842 and died in Paris on February 19, 1923) was an Orientalist French painter and sculptor. He was Charles Gleyre's and Jean-Léon Gérôme's pupil. In 1875 Jean Lecomte du Nouy traveled widely between Greece and Turkey and then again in Egypt and Romania.

He was born as the son of Jacques Théodore Jules Lecomte du Nouy (1885-1961), who was an architect, and archaeologist and Michel Lecomte du Nouy Alexandrine Félicité. He was a pupil of Charles Gleyre (1806-1874), Émile Signol (1804-1892) and Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904). He debuted at the Paris Salon of 1863, where he exhibited regularly every year.

Raised as a Catholic, in 1876 he married the granddaughter of Senator Adolphe Cremieux, Valentine Peigné-Cremieux, a Jewish woman who died a few months later. Afterwards, late in life he married the young Marie Térésa Fisanne.

The Pantene Girls

Photo: The Pantene Girls: Some of the beautiful women found all over Planet Earth, photo dated 8 January 2010.

Statue of Lady Godiva by William Reid Dick

Statue of Lady Godiva on a horse, by Scottish sculptor William Reid Dick (1879-1961) in Broadgate, Coventry, England, unveiled on 22 October 1949.

Young woman on a settee by Guillaume Seignac

‘Young woman on a settee’ by French painter Guillaume Seignac (1870-1924), private collection.

Woman on the beach by Guillaume Seignac

Woman on the beach (alternate names: ‘Nu sur la plage’ or ‘Naga na plaży’), oil painting by French painter Guillaume Seignac (1870-1924).

L'Abandon by Guillaume Seignac

Image: L'Abandon (before 1924) by French painter Guillaume Seignac (1870-1924).

Lady Godiva by John Collier

Image: Lady Godiva (1898) by British artist John Maler Collier (1850-1934).

The Anglo-Saxon noblewoman Lady Godiva (1040-1080) rode naked on horseback through the streets of Coventry in England in order to gain a remission of the oppressive taxation imposed by her husband on his tenants, according to legends. Her legend, ever since, has inspired several hundreds of paintings, sculptures, books, films and other cultural aspects.