Emma and the Van Gogh Paintings

Follow Emma Scully through time as she encounters Van Gogh.

Female figure with long, dark hair and blue skin stands assertively, eyes wide and tongue out. Her multiple arms hold a sword and severed head, and she wears a necklace and belt of body parts.
Wrathful images of the divine in South Asia are meant to protect and nurture, not to be feared.
Vaishnavi Patil
March 9
A small wooden carved box featuring figures and a tree in relief.
The author of After Sappho offers a queer feminist reading of Eve and the serpent, reimagining sin as likeness, desire, and bodies transcending gender and species.
Selby Wynn Schwartz
January 9
A close-up detail of a painted face rendered in muted green, blue, and gray tones.
Author Leena Krohn reflects on Helene Schjerfbeck’s portrait of Sigrid Nyberg.
Leena Krohn
December 18, 2025
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The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer, Edgar Degas  French, Partially tinted bronze, cotton tarlatan, silk satin, and wood, French, Paris
Edgar Degas
Founder Cast by A. A. Hébrard
1922 (cast), 2018 (tutu)
First Steps, after Millet, Vincent van Gogh  Dutch, Oil on canvas
Vincent van Gogh
1890
Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat (obverse: The Potato Peeler), Vincent van Gogh  Dutch, Oil on canvas
Vincent van Gogh
1887