Genre
Joyful
Joy is the picture in full sunlight: the harvest dance, the wedding feast, the garden in bloom. It is an honest difficulty for painting, which finds tragedy easier to ennoble — yet the great pictures of joy carry it without sentimentality, letting colour and movement do the work the subject demands.
Key artists
Works
A Dance in the Country
The Terrace at Vernonnet
The Cathedrals of Broadway
The Cathedrals of Wall Street
Traveling Warriors Stopping at a Farm
Menna and Family Hunting in the Marshes, Tomb of Menna
The Chariot of Aurora
Peasants Smoking in an Inn
View of the Brenta, near Dolo
Uvedale Tomkyns Price (1685–1764) and Members of His Family
The Hunt Breakfast
A Huntsman and a Peasant Woman by the Isar River with a View of Munich
Masquerade Ball at the Ritz Hotel, Paris
The Departure of the Gondola
Drawing the Eel
Shepherd's Idyll
Crowd at the Seashore
Pilgrims Travelling to Ise
Boats with Mourners and Provisions, Tomb of Neferhotep
Laden Donkeys and Ploughing, Tomb of Djar
Figures on the Beach
Street Scene, Place Clichy
The Monet Family in Their Garden at Argenteuil
Snow, Winter in Vitebsk
Soldier Playing the Theorbo
竹取物語|The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter
Women Preparing Food, Tomb of Djari
The Family of Claude Terrasse
Neptune and the Winds
Rowing Scene: Crowds Watching from the River Banks
En jagt af kongelige personer
Krishna Steals the Clothes of the Milkmaids and Expounds on the Virtue of Trees, from a Braj Bhagavata Purana
The Bistro
Blessing of a Yacht on the Belon River
Group of Figures
The Green Car
Drinking Festival of the Eight Immortals of the Wine Cup
Nebamun Receiving Wine
Festivities of the Twelve Months: “Sannō Hiyoshi Festivals Held on the Day of the Monkey in the Mid-Fourth Month”; Festivities of the Twelve Months: “Sumō Wrestling at Matsuno’o Shrine during the Hass
A Peasant with a Bird
Casting Metal, Tomb of Rekhmire
Horse Race at Kamo
Five Beauties
Place Vintimille
Luxembourg Gardens
Her Appeal to the Dauphin (Joan of Arc series: II)
The Biglin Brothers Racing
A Game of Hot Cockles
Excursionists, Nahant
Courtesan and Two Attendants on New Year's Day
Piazza San Marco, Venice
Akrura Drives Krishna and Balarama to Mathura, from the “Isarda Bhagavata Purana,”
The Drive, Central Park
Krishna Lifts Mount Govardhan, from a Bhagavata Purana
Women Play Music for Radha and Krishna: Chitrini Nayika, from a Rasikapriya
Krishna Celebrates Holi
Krishna Steals the Clothes of the Cowgirls (Gopis) (recto), from a Kalighat album
Hindu God Krishna Being Dressed in Women's Clothes for Spring Festival Holi
Krishna Exacts a Toll from the Milkmaids: Dana-Lila, from a Bhagavata Purana
The Biglin Brothers Turning the Stake
Timur distributes gifts from his grandson, the Prince of Multan, from a Zafar-nama (Book of Victories)
The Baptismal procession of Prince Juan, son of the Catholic Kings, through the streets of Seville
Viaje de Jacob a Caná
Entrada triunfal de don Juan José de Austria (?)
Scenes from the Nakamura Kabuki Theater
Playing Children, Enghave Square
Watching the Hunt in Aranjuez
Afternoon at Coney Island
The Nation Is in Danger, or the Enrollment of Volunteers at the Place du Palais-Royal in July 1792
Flora and Zephyr
“The Oak Tree” (Kashiwagi)
Cretans Bringing Gifts, Tomb of Rekhmire
Arsène Carriere
Henri Camille, Chevalier de Beringhen
The Longshoremen's Noon
Man with a Hoe
The Lavie Children
The Trotter
Fruit and Baltimore Oriole
Autumn
Concert at the Casino of Deauville
Budd Doble Driving Goldsmith Maid at Belmont Driving Park
Picnic after the Hunt
Hunting Scene with a Harbor
The Gift of the Fishermen
A Celebration
On the Terrace
The Singing Party
Peasants in a Tavern
Orchard Oriole
Women on the Beach at Berck
The Swing
Beach Scene at Trouville
Skating on the Frozen Amstel River
Election Scene, Catonsville, Baltimore County
Basket of Fruit with Parrot
Dancing Round the Maypole
The Granite Bowl at the Lustgarten, Berlin
Hulagu Khan giving a feast and dispensing favor upon the amirs and princes, from a Chingiz-nama (Book of Chingiz Khan) of the Jami al-tavarikh (Compendium of Chronicles)
The Eight Immortals of the Wine Cup
Kamsa deploys Akrura and Keshi to Braj, from a Bhagavata Purana
Singers
Mahrusa’s marriage to the prefect of the city, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Thirty-sixth Night
Radha and Hindu God Krishna Celebrating the Festival Holi
Raja Gulab Singh
Maharana Ari Singh II of Mewar (r. 1761–73) with His Consort on a Terrace
The daughter of the merchant of Mazanderan asks the gardener for the rose, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Twelfth Night
Tannhäuser
Seven men disputing possession of a woman bring her before the Tree of Justice into which she is absorbed, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Sixth Night
The king plucks fruit from the Tree of Life with his own hands and feeds it to a lady, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Ninth Night
An African Lyre Player (recto); Calligraphy (verso)
A prince celebrating Holi with palace women on a terrace at night (recto); calligraphy of a quatrain (verso)
The Sand-Carrying Festival (Sunamochi Matsuri)
Girls Spraying Each Other at Holi
Maharana Jagat Singh Attending the Raslila
A feast for Babur hosted by his half-brother Jahangir Mirza in Ghazni in May 1505, from a Babur-nama (Memoirs of Babur)
Holiday on the Hudson
An African Lyre Player (recto)
Three Musicians Perform Before a King: Shri Raga, from a Ragamala
A dancing dervish and three musicians, from a Divan (Collected Poems) of Urfi (Persian, 1555–1591)
Dancers in a Pavilion
The lover’s son makes an elephant of the pastry dough carried by the unfaithful wife and puts it in her basket, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eighth Night
Scenes from the Tales of Ise
A Group of Women in Ecstasy Before Madhava, from a Madhavanala Kamakandala
The king gives his daughter in marriage to the pious man’s son, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Fifty-second Night
A prince celebrating Holi with palace women on a terrace at night (recto)
The Apple Seller
Vintage Scene
The king of the Ocean, having assumed human form, arrives at the court of the Raja, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eleventh Night
Emperor Minghuang Teaching Yang Gueifei to Play the Flute
The young prince is crowned and the wicked handmaiden is executed, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eighth Night
Royal Women Celebrating Diwali
Scenes from the Tales of Ise
Maharaja Abhai Singh of Marwar (reigned 1724–49), Equestrian, Watching Girls Swinging at the Teej Festival
Painting Party
Officers and other Civic Guardsmen of the V District in Amsterdam under the command of Captain Cornelis de Graeff and Lieutenant Hendrick Lauwrensz
The Company of Captain Gillis Jansz Valckenier and Lieutenant Pieter Jacobsz Bas, Amsterdam, 1599
Miyako-gai|元禄歌仙貝合|Miyako Shell
Dressmaker shop
Doña Berenguela coronando a su hijo don Fernando
Merry Company
Peasants in a Tavern
View of Paris seen from the Place Dauphine
The Sourches family
Tea-Party in Mytishchi near Moscow
People Dancing
Snowfall on a village beside a frozen canal
Horse Racing at Kamo Shrine
Armistice Day, Paris
Fish Market
Dutch Troops passing through the Fortress of Dendermonde
Horse Race at the Kamo Shrine (Kamo kurabeuma zu)
Los hijos de Antonio Pérez ante Rodrigo Vázquez
Rural labours or Spring
The Crockery Vendor
V. Lunardi, Mrs Sage and G. Biggin in a Hot Air Balloon
Card Players
The Meadow of San Isidro
La gloria del pueblo
The Country Dance
Afternoon Tea at the Temple
Market in Stege Torv
A little Italian girl by a fountain
The Apotheosis of Aeneas
The Reception of Charles II and his Brothers in the Guild of Saint Barbara in Bruges
The Reception of Charles II and his Brothers
Musicerend en drinkend gezelschap in een herberg
Café Singer
Historienzyklus: Cloelia vor Porsenna
Representation in Schönbrunn by the Archduchesses of Austria of the entertainment Il Parnasso confuso, January 24, 1765
Louis XVIII Receiving the Duke of Angoulême on His Return from the Spanish Campaign
Autumn
Don Quixote at the Inn
Rustic Concert with Pipe and Violin
Charles III as a Child
View of the Albufera in Valencia
The Young Louis XV
Act of Devotion by Rudolf I of Habsburg
The soldier and the lady
Music in the kitchen
The Latin school on the Singel, Amsterdam
Design for a ceiling piece with Aeneas and the four seasons in the corners
Fête champêtre with Turkish Courtiers under a Tent
Enjoying the ice
Village at the Scheldt
Louisiana Rice Fields
Café Concert
J.G. Shaddick, the Celebrated Sportsman
Dr. John Safford and Family
The Digging Out of the Ghent-Bruges Canal
The procession of the schools in 1878
Ludvig Holberg Attending a Rehearsal of his Play Erasmus Montanus, Act IV, Scene 2
Street in Biskra, Algeria
Per Degn synger for en snaps
Hotei with Daoist Immortals: Hotei
Mahant of Tarakeshwar Rides on an Elephant
On the Beach, No. 3
Feast where Vishnu decides he will incarnate as King Dasharatha’s sons, from Chapters 14–15 of the Bala Kanda (Book of Childhood) of a Ramayana (Rama’s Journey)
Page from Tales of a Parrot (Tuti-nama): text page
The Haymaker
Frequently asked questions
What is Joyful?
Joyful is a mood in painting. Joy is the picture in full sunlight: the harvest dance, the wedding feast, the garden in bloom.
How many Joyful works does Artifact World Gallery have?
Artifact World Gallery holds 3,086 public-domain Joyful works, all free to view and download.
Who are the key Joyful artists?
Key Joyful artists in the collection include Thomas Eakins, Edgar Degas and Jean Honoré Fragonard.