Daily Art archive
A closer look at the art behind the game.
Each Daily Art page begins with something worth noticing, then follows it into the artwork’s history, materials and small surprises.
November 6, 2026Listening to the Sound of Autumn in a Misty Grove
Zhang Feng, 1657
The quietest color in the scroll makes a political claim.
November 5, 2026Portrait of Dora Wheeler
William Merritt Chase, 1882-83
The textile behind the sitter refers to her own work.
November 4, 2026One Hundred Children at Play
Tradition of Su Hanchen and Wang Juzhen, 1100s-1200s
The title's hundred is a wish, not a headcount.
November 3, 2026Twilight in the Wilderness
Frederic Edwin Church, 1860
This wilderness sunset was painted in a New York studio.
November 2, 2026Portrait of the Jester Calabazas
Diego Velázquez, c. 1631-32
A court portrait gives no easy answer about its sitter.
November 1, 2026The Holy Family with Saint John and Saint Margaret
Filippino Lippi, c. 1488-93
A Roman Venus became a Christian saint.
October 31, 2026Abbey in the Oakwood
Caspar David Friedrich, 1809-10
The ruined window frames the last light instead of shutting it out.
October 30, 2026Scenes of Witchcraft: Night
Salvator Rosa, c. 1645-49
The magician is also an image of the artist.
October 29, 2026Midnight
Jean-Charles Cazin, 1891
This silent canal was rebuilt from memory.
October 28, 2026Saint Peter Repentant
Georges de La Tour, 1645
The rooster makes the silence audible.
October 27, 2026Still Life with Meat, Fish, Vegetables, and Fruit
Jacob van Hulsdonck, c. 1615-20
The feast is full, but the diners have vanished.
October 26, 2026The Biglin Brothers Turning the Stake
Thomas Eakins, 1873
The race is decided by a turn, not a straight sprint.
October 25, 2026Birds and Flowers
Kano Shōei, late 1500s
The calm gold landscape contains a hunt.
October 24, 2026Reading
Berthe Morisot, 1873
Her eyes once looked directly at us.
October 23, 2026Starry Night Over the Rhone
Vincent van Gogh, 1888
The brightest stars in the water were made by gas lamps.
October 22, 2026Red and White Plum Blossoms
Ogata Korin, c. 1715
The river was silver before time turned it dark.
October 21, 2026Cattleya Orchid and Three Hummingbirds
Martin Johnson Heade, 1871
The orchid is nearly as airborne as the birds.
October 20, 2026Aurora Borealis
Frederic Edwin Church, 1865
The green sky came from someone else's expedition sketches.
October 19, 2026Among the Sierra Nevada
Albert Bierstadt, 1868
This famous California view is not one place you can visit.
October 18, 2026Irises
Ogata Korin, c. 1701
There is no painted river, yet these flowers describe a famous crossing.
October 17, 2026Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows
John Constable, 1831
The rainbow ends exactly at the house of Constable's closest friend.
October 16, 2026Norham Castle, Sunrise
J. M. W. Turner, c. 1845
A castle famous for war is almost erased by morning light.
October 15, 2026The Sea of Ice
Caspar David Friedrich, 1823-24
The shipwreck is almost hidden beneath the landscape that destroyed it.
October 14, 2026Amida Falls
Katsushika Hokusai, c. 1832
The waterfall begins inside a circle.
October 13, 2026The Sleeping Gypsy
Henri Rousseau, 1897
The lion sniffs the sleeper and chooses not to wake her.
October 12, 2026Tahitian Women on the Beach
Paul Gauguin, 1891
The two women share a shore, not a conversation.
October 11, 2026Olive Trees
Vincent van Gogh, 1889
The trees seem to move even though there is almost no wind.
October 10, 2026Night at Saruwaka-machi
Utagawa Hiroshige, 1856
The actors are absent, but the street has become a stage.
October 9, 2026The Bedroom
Vincent van Gogh, 1889
Van Gogh painted the same small bedroom three times.
October 8, 2026Garden at Sainte-Adresse
Claude Monet, 1867
The garden is calm, but nearly every line beyond it is moving.
October 7, 2026The Dance Class
Edgar Degas, 1874
Most of the dancers are not dancing.
October 6, 2026Mannen Bridge, Fukagawa
Utagawa Hiroshige, 1857
The turtle and Mount Fuji occupy the same small opening.
October 5, 2026The Child's Bath
Mary Cassatt, 1893
Two pairs of hands hold the whole composition together.
October 4, 2026The Gleaners
Jean-François Millet, 1857
The smallest part of the harvest fills the largest part of the painting.
October 3, 2026Summer's Day
Berthe Morisot, 1879
The boat is steady, but almost nothing else holds still.
October 2, 2026Asakusa Rice Fields
Utagawa Hiroshige, 1857
A cat has the best view in the room.
October 1, 2026The Roses of Heliogabalus
Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1888
The rose petals are beautiful because the danger is not visible at first.
September 30, 2026Love Among the Ruins
Edward Burne-Jones, 1873
The ruin is imaginary, but every surface feels remembered.
September 29, 2026Flaming June
Frederic Leighton, 1895
A sleeping body becomes almost a perfect circle.
September 28, 2026The Lady of Shalott
John William Waterhouse, 1888
One loose chain begins the final journey.
September 27, 2026Kirifuri Waterfall
Katsushika Hokusai, c. 1832
The waterfall behaves like a living diagram.
September 26, 2026Ophelia
John Everett Millais, 1851-52
Almost every flower around Ophelia has something to say.
September 25, 2026The Birth of Venus
Sandro Botticelli, c. 1485
Venus arrives, but this is not quite the moment of her birth.
September 24, 2026Kameido Tenjin Shrine
Utagawa Hiroshige, 1856
The flowers hang like a curtain before the bridge.
September 23, 2026Grainstack, Sunset
Claude Monet, 1891
The stack stays still while the whole painting changes.
September 22, 2026Las Meninas
Diego Velázquez, 1656
The king and queen are present only as a reflection.
September 21, 2026The Night Watch
Rembrandt van Rijn, 1642
Its famous title gets both the time and the activity wrong.
September 20, 2026Plum Park in Kameido
Utagawa Hiroshige, 1857
The tree is so close that the landscape must be seen through it.
September 19, 2026The Milkmaid
Johannes Vermeer, c. 1658
The empty wall was not always empty.
September 18, 2026Girl with a Pearl Earring
Johannes Vermeer, c. 1665
The famous pearl has no hook and almost no painted outline.
September 17, 2026Early Spring
Guo Xi, 1072
This mountain is not seen from one fixed viewpoint.
September 16, 2026Horikiri Iris Garden
Utagawa Hiroshige, 1857
The smallest garden visitors stand behind the largest flowers.
September 15, 2026Mountain Path in Spring
Ma Yuan, c. 1190-1225
Most of this small landscape is empty, and that emptiness is active.
September 14, 2026The Oxbow
Thomas Cole, 1836
The artist is hiding in the landscape he asks us to judge.
September 13, 2026The Heart of the Andes
Frederic Edwin Church, 1859
This single landscape contains several climates at once.
September 12, 2026The Moon Pine, Ueno
Utagawa Hiroshige, 1857
A famous pine branch becomes a telescope.
September 11, 2026The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak
Albert Bierstadt, 1863
This apparently untouched landscape was painted in New York from expedition studies.
September 10, 2026Moonrise over the Sea
Caspar David Friedrich, 1822
The people on shore wait while the ships seem to carry the moon toward them.
September 9, 2026Rain, Steam and Speed
J. M. W. Turner, 1844
A tiny hare once raced the locomotive out of the rain.
September 8, 2026Fireworks at Ryogoku
Utagawa Hiroshige, 1858
One firework is enough to light an entire river festival.
September 7, 2026Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1876
This famous crowd is full of people Renoir knew.
September 6, 2026The Flood at Port-Marly
Alfred Sisley, 1876
This flood painting shows the moment when the street begins to return.
September 5, 2026Wanderer above the Sea of Fog
Caspar David Friedrich, c. 1817
The wanderer blocks the view we expect him to reveal.
September 4, 2026Sudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi
Utagawa Hiroshige, 1857
Those fine lines of rain had to survive the pressure of a printing block.
September 3, 2026Paris Street, Rainy Day
Gustave Caillebotte, 1877
It is raining, but Caillebotte never paints a single falling drop.
September 2, 2026Boulevard Montmartre at Night
Camille Pissarro, 1897
Three kinds of artificial light turn a wet Paris street into a field of blue, gold and orange.
September 1, 2026Red Fuji
Katsushika Hokusai, c. 1830-32
For a few minutes at dawn, the mountain can become the colour that gave this print its familiar name.