In this episode David and Harry look at 2 paintings: Vincent Van Gough’s Self Portrait (with bandaged ear), 1882, and Paul Cézanne’s The Card Players, 1895.

We invite you to look at the image while listening. Please click on the artist name to view the image.

Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter whose intensely emotional work and bold use of colour made him one of the most influential figures in the history of Western art. Born in Groot-Zundert in the Netherlands, Van Gogh struggled from an early age to find direction, working variously as an art dealer, teacher, and lay preacher before committing himself fully to art in his late twenties. Van Gogh was largely self-taught, developing his skills through persistent drawing and close study of other artists. In 1886 he moved to Paris, where he encountered Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painters. Exposure to brighter palettes, broken brushwork, and Japanese prints transformed his style, leading him to experiment with vivid colour and expressive line. In 1888 Van Gogh relocated to Arles in southern France, hoping to establish an artists’ community. However, his mental health deteriorated, culminating in a breakdown during which he famously mutilated his ear following an argument with Paul Gauguin. Despite producing over 2,000 artworks in just a decade, Van Gogh sold very little during his lifetime and relied heavily on financial and emotional support from his brother Theo. In 1890, aged 37, Van Gogh died from a gunshot wound, widely believed to be self-inflicted. His reputation grew rapidly after his death, and today his work is celebrated for its raw honesty, emotional depth, and lasting impact on modern art.

Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) was a French painter whose radical approach to form and structure laid the foundations for modern art. Often described as the bridge between Impressionism and Cubism, Cézanne transformed traditional ways of representing space, influencing generations of artists in the twentieth century. His early works were dark, thickly painted, and emotionally intense, reflecting the influence of Romanticism and Realism. In the 1870s, Cézanne worked alongside Impressionist painters such as Camille Pissarro and adopted brighter colours and outdoor painting. However, he soon diverged from Impressionism’s focus on fleeting effects of light. Cézanne sought something more enduring, famously aiming to “make of Impressionism something solid and lasting.” He developed a methodical approach, constructing forms through repeated brushstrokes and reducing nature to cylinders, spheres, and cones. His still lifes, particularly those featuring apples, challenge conventional perspective, subtly shifting viewpoints to emphasise the act of perception. After his death in 1906, Cézanne’s influence became profound, shaping the development of Cubism through artists such as Picasso and Braque. Today, Cézanne is regarded as one of the most significant figures in Western art, revered for redefining how painting could represent the world.

Podcast content and founders: David Johnson and Harry Baxter

Producer: Ian Rattray

Audio production: Clear Voice Enterprises.org

Our thanks to the Courtauld Gallery and their staff for their co-opperation and access to the described art works.

Welcome back to the Reading Paintings podcast.

In this second episode from the Courtauld Gallery in Central London David and Harry look at Édouard Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, 1882.

We invite you to look at the painting while listening. Please click on the artists name to go to an external webpage of the image.

Édouard Manet (1832–1883) was a pivotal French painter whose work bridged the gap between Realism and Impressionism, fundamentally reshaping the course of modern art. He painted scenes of contemporary life—cafés, music halls, city streets—using bold contrasts, flattened forms, and visible brushwork. Despite frequent rejection by the official Paris Salon, Manet became a central figure in avant-garde circles. He was friendly with Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, and other emerging Impressionists, and while he influenced their approach to light and subject matter, he never fully adopted their outdoor, spontaneous techniques. Manet preferred studio work and sought recognition from official institutions, believing in reform rather than rejection of tradition. In his later years, declining health limited his mobility, yet he produced some of his most subtle and complex works, including A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882), a masterful exploration of modern urban experience and visual ambiguity. Manet died in Paris at the age of 51, but his fearless challenge to artistic conventions secured his legacy as one of the founders of modern painting.

Podcast content and founders: David Johnson and Harry Baxter

Producer: Ian Rattray

Audio production: Clear Voice Enterprises.org

Our thanks to the Courtauld Gallery and their staff for their co-opperation and access to the described art works.

In this series David and Harry visit the Courtauld Gallery in Central London where they look at 3 paintings. In this first episode they look at Edgar Degas’s Jockeys Before the Race c.1879 which is on lone from the Barber Institute of Fine Art in Birmingham.

We invite you to look at the painting while listening. Please click on the artist name to open a link to an external webpage of the painting.

Edgar Degas was a French painter, draftsman, sculptor, and printmaker, born in Paris in 1834. Degas received formal training at the École des Beaux-Arts, where he absorbed the classical tradition, studying the old masters with particular admiration for Ingres, whose emphasis on line and structure left a lasting mark on his work. Although often associated with Impressionism, Degas always considered himself a realist. He was fascinated by modern urban life and devoted much of his career to observing people at work or rehearsal. His most famous subjects include ballet dancers, laundresses, milliners, café performers, and racehorses—figures captured in moments of movement, concentration, or fatigue rather than idealised beauty. Degas was an innovator in composition, frequently using unexpected viewpoints, cropped figures, and asymmetrical arrangements inspired partly by photography and Japanese prints. He worked across many media, including oil paint, pastel, charcoal, wax, and bronze. In later years, as his eyesight deteriorated, he increasingly turned to pastel and sculpture, modelling expressive, tactile forms. Degas died in Paris in 1917, leaving behind a body of work that bridged classical discipline and modern experimentation, and permanently reshaped how artists depict movement, space, and everyday life.

Podcast content and founders: David Johnson and Harry Baxter

Producer: Ian Rattray

Audio production: Clear Voice Enterprises.org

Our thanks to the Courtauld Gallery and their staff for their co-opperation and access to the described art works.