In the morning, Alpes Maritimes from Antibes

Painted in 1891, this sunlit scene comes from the Australian artist John Russell, who spent much of his life in Europe soaking up the light and color of the Mediterranean. Here he looks out from Antibes toward the Alpes Maritimes, the mountains that rise gently in the distance under a soft morning haze. Russell was friends with some of the biggest names in art at the time, including Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet, and you can feel their influence in his loose brushwork and love of bright, broken color.

Notice how the foreground bursts with flowering shrubs and golden grass, dabbed on in quick little strokes that almost shimmer in the sunlight. The eye then drifts past the cool blue sea to those hazy purple peaks, giving the whole picture a sense of calm and space. Russell isn't trying to capture every detail. Instead he wants you to feel the warmth of a fresh morning by the coast, the kind of moment that slips away quickly but lingers in memory.

Though he was once a bit forgotten, Russell is now seen as one of Australia's finest Impressionists, and works like this show why his sense of light and atmosphere still draws people in today.