Moodboard: Paintings That Feel Like Hanging Out at a Friend's House

As we approach our one year pandemiversary, we enter our eleventh month of fantasizing about dinner parties and homes filled with the friends that we miss the most. For the ladies of Pretend Vacation, it is our eleventh month of not being in the same city for the first time in years. 

Fortunately, despite everything that has changed since last March, the role of art has not. If anything, it has amplified, both as an expressive outlet and a source of comfort- I highly recommend the Google Arts & Culture site if you need to feel transported for an hour or two.

Below, a stack of paintings that make me feel as though I have arrived at a friend's home for an afternoon of tea and chatting in the garden until dusk.

Hugo Grenville, "The Queen's Gambit," Oil on canvas.

Elizabeth Endres, "Cat Crossing," 2020, Oil on linen.

Joaquin Sorolla, "La Siesta," 1911.

Unknown, "Shakuntala Disclosing Her Feelings of Love For Dushyant to Her Friends Anasuya and Priyamvada," Mid-19th century.

Fanny Brate, "A Day of Celebration," 1902, Oil on canvas.

Felix Vallotton, "The Bath. Summer Evening," 1892/1893, Oil on canvas.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, "These Ladies in the Dining Room," 1893-1895, Oil on cardboard.

Hanna Hirsch-Pauli, "Breakfast-Time," 1887, Oil on canvas.

Boris Kustodiev, "Merchant's Wife at Tea," 1918, Oil on canvas.

Irving Ramsey Wiles, "Russian Tea," ca. 1896, Oil on canvas.

- Helen