Everyday A Painting

The story behind the painting

Painting stories

Every day, Everyday A Painting reveals one painting and tells its story — a cinematic camera moving across the canvas, one thought at a time. These pages tell a few of those stories in full, with sources.

One detail. A whole story.

Can you recognise this painting?

A slipper suspended in a garden. Take a guess, then see what this small detail reveals.

A pink slipper flies through the air against blue-green garden foliage.
Reveal the painting

The Swing · Jean-Honoré Fragonard

The Swing: a woman in pink between an older man pulling the ropes and a younger man looking up from the bushes.
The Swing, about 1767–1768. Wallace Collection, London (P430). Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Find the slipper again, then look down to the young man in the bushes. The Wallace Collection explains how the flying shoe helps reveal the flirtation. A detail that first looks decorative changes how we read the scene.

Follow the rest of The Swing's story · Try three steps for looking closely

In Everyday A Painting, guided Stories bring details into focus each day. Complete a Story to add the painting to your personal museum. Coming to the App Store for iPhone.

Link to this challenge

The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci: Christ at the centre of a long table as twelve apostles react in four groups

The Last Supper

Leonardo da Vinci · 1495–1498

One sentence, and twelve people go in different directions.

 The Last Day of Pompeii by Karl Bryullov: crowds fleeing a collapsing street under a red volcanic sky

The Last Day of Pompeii

Karl Bryullov · 1833

A city dying under a red sky, painted at operatic scale.

 Stańczyk by Jan Matejko: a jester in red slumped in a chair while the court dances behind him

Stańczyk

Jan Matejko · 1862

The jester who saw history first, while the court kept dancing.

 The Swing by Fragonard: a young woman on a garden swing kicking off her shoe

The Swing

Jean-Honoré Fragonard · 1767

A garden, a shoe in mid-air, and Rococo's most knowing joke.

 The Nightmare by Henry Fuseli: an incubus crouched on a sleeping woman

The Nightmare

Henry Fuseli · 1781

The painting that gave the bad dream its face.
Discover one painting a day

Everyday A Painting reveals one painting every day on iPhone — uncover it with a touch, watch its story unfold, and build a personal gallery over time. Coming to the App Store.