Everframe Gallery

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The stories behind the paintings — how they were made, why they mattered at the time, and what is still argued over. Every claim is sourced, and where the record runs out we say so.

Starry Night Over the Rhône by Vincent van Gogh How van Gogh painted a night sky outdoors, in the dark Vincent van Gogh Impression, Sunrise by Claude Monet Impressionism is named after an insult, and the painting is of an industrial port Claude Monet Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez In Las Meninas you are standing where the king and queen stood Diego Velázquez The Scream by Edvard Munch In The Scream, the figure is not screaming — nature is Edvard Munch The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli The Birth of Venus is not a birth, and the gold in her hair is real Sandro Botticelli American Gothic by Grant Wood The couple in American Gothic are not a couple, and the house is real Grant Wood The Kiss by Gustav Klimt The gold in Klimt's The Kiss is not all gold, and nobody is kissing Gustav Klimt The Night Watch by Rembrandt The Night Watch was cut down to fit a wall, and the pieces were never found Rembrandt Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci The theft that made the Mona Lisa the most famous painting in the world Leonardo da Vinci Cut Sunflowers by Vincent van Gogh These are not the famous Sunflowers, and Gauguin slept beneath two of them Vincent van Gogh Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer Why Girl with a Pearl Earring is not a portrait, and the pearl is not a pearl Johannes Vermeer Under the Wave off Kanagawa (The Great Wave) by Katsushika Hokusai Why The Great Wave is not a tsunami Katsushika Hokusai