Do you think you can guess the painting? As you scroll, the slides will zoom out, revealing more details. But see if you can guess before the big reveal. Prepare yourself for a shocking conclusion!
It's only a guess, but it looks like two boats far out at sea. Maybe that's a mountain or a cloud in the distance. But where exactly are they? Let's take another look.
Some people on the shore? They may be wearing top hats, but with those vivid colours and expressive brushstrokes it's definitely a modern painting. Who might make such a thing?
What's this? A twisted body, streaks of red? Definitely a tormented soul. Let's zoom out and see which painting we have here.
It's all so clear now. It's The Scream by Edvard Munch!
Munch said he based The Scream on a real experience he had when walking on the outskirts of Oslo. "I was out walking with two friends - the sun was setting - suddenly the sky turned blood red - I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence…
…there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city - my friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with angst - and I sensed an endless scream passing through nature."
Munch painted several versions of The Scream, and this one was involved in a real-life mystery. In 2004 it was stolen in broad daylight from the Munch Museum in Oslo. It was missing for two years, and spent another two being repaired. It went back on exhibition in 2008.
Now, why not put your detective skills to work, and learn more about The Scream. But something to ponder as you go: was he screaming, or was he hearing a scream?
Van Gogh's night sky is a field of roiling energy.
Below the exploding stars, the village is a place of quiet order.
Connecting earth and sky is the flamelike cypress...
...a tree traditionally associated with graveyards and mourning.
But death was not ominous for van Gogh. "Looking at the stars always makes me dream," he said, "Why, I ask myself, shouldn't the shining dots of the sky be as accessible as the black dots on the map of France?"
Just as we take the train to get to Tarascon or Rouen, we take death to reach a star."
The artist wrote of his experience to his brother Theo: "This morning I saw the country from my window a long time before sunrise, with nothing but the morning star, which looked very big." This morning star, or Venus, may be the large white star just left of center in The Starry Night.
The hamlet, on the other hand, is invented, and the church spire evokes van Gogh's native land, the Netherlands. The painting, like its daytime companion, The Olive Trees, is rooted in imagination and memory.
Leaving behind the Impressionist doctrine of truth to nature in favor of restless feeling and intense color, as in this highly charged picture, van Gogh made his work a touchstone for all subsequent Expressionist painting.