Art
The art behind the trilogy
Real paintings, a Renaissance notebook, and histories that reach beyond the page. Discover the works mentioned in 201 Seconds, with their story connections tucked away until you choose to read them.
Illustrated works, arranged by their first named appearance across Volumes I–III. Select an image for a closer look. Story notes contain spoilers and stay closed until opened.
First named · Volume I · Chapter 6
The Kiss
Gustav Klimt c. 1907–1909
Belvedere collection, Vienna
An embracing couple almost dissolves into gold and intricate ornament. The painting belongs to the Belvedere collection in Vienna and is one of Klimt’s best-known images.
Belvedere collection · Image source
Google Art Project reproduction via Wikimedia Commons · public domain.
Story connections · Volume I spoilers
Volume I · Chapter 6: The Kiss is one of the artworks proposed by the predictive system. A suggested target is not the same as a completed theft.
First named · Volume I · Chapter 6
Girl with a Pearl Earring
Johannes Vermeer c. 1665
Mauritshuis, The Hague
A turned head, a blue-and-yellow turban and a glimmering earring. The Mauritshuis identifies the work as a tronie: a study of a character or type rather than a portrait of a known person.
Mauritshuis collection · Image source
Reproduction from Geheugen van Nederland via Wikimedia Commons · public domain.
Story connections · Volume I spoilers
Volume I · Chapter 6: The painting appears among the predictive system’s proposed targets. Its inclusion is a reference to a real artwork, not evidence of a real theft.
First named · Volume I · Chapter 6
Nighthawks
Edward Hopper 1942
The Art Institute of Chicago
A brightly lit diner opens onto an almost empty city street. Hopper places the viewer outside the glass, looking in at figures who share a room but seem absorbed in their own thoughts.
Art Institute of Chicago · Image source
Reproduction via Wikimedia Commons; Art Institute of Chicago collection.
Story connections · Volume I spoilers
Volume I · Chapter 6: Nighthawks appears among the predictive system’s suggested targets. The conversation focuses on visibility, ordinary people and the feeling of being watched. It is a proposed target, not an account of a completed theft.
First named · Volume I · Chapter 14
Portrait of a Young Man
Raphael Early 16th century
Czartoryski collection, Poland · wartime loss
A Renaissance portrait with a history shaped by collecting, war and disappearance. Taken from the Czartoryski collection during the Second World War, it is known today through historical reproductions.
Polish wartime-loss archive · Image source
Historical reproduction via Wikimedia Commons · public domain.
Story connections · Volumes I · II · III spoilers
Volume I: Named in Chapter 14; revisited in Chapters 29–30, 32–33 and 42–43.
Volume II: Chapters 4, 9, 19, 23 and 38–39 connect the portrait with the collection and its history.
Volume III: References return in Chapters 18 and 44. Across the trilogy, the painting connects questions of possession, evidence and inheritance.
First named · Volume I · Chapter 21
San Giorgio Maggiore at Dusk
Claude Monet 1908
Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales · National Museum Cardiff
Monet turns Venice’s church and water into silhouettes and reflected colour. Museum Wales records the work as part of his Venetian series and identifies its purchase by Gwendoline Davies in 1912.
Museum Wales collection · Image source
Image: Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales, no. 220983 · CC0.
Story connections · Volume I spoilers
Volume I · Chapter 21: This is the named Monet involved in the overnight upside-down rehanging.
First named · Volume I · Chapter 26
Codex Leicester
Leonardo da Vinci Early 16th century
Scientific manuscript · Ink and drawings on paper
Leonardo’s notes and drawings investigate water, the moon and the changing Earth. This scientific manuscript extends the page beyond paintings, showing another way an artist could observe and question the world.
Uffizi exhibition history · Image source
Historical manuscript reproduction via Wikimedia Commons.
Story connections · Volume I spoilers
Volume I · Chapter 26: The notebook is displayed in a protected case during the lakeside operation. The text explicitly identifies it as the Codex Leicester; it remains untaken and unharmed.
First named · Volume I · Chapter 29
The Concert
Johannes Vermeer c. 1663–1666
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston · stolen in 1990
Three musicians occupy a quiet Dutch interior. The painting was among the works stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990, giving this domestic scene a very different place in art history.
Gardner Museum collection · Image source
Public-domain reproduction via Wikimedia Commons.
Story connections · Volume I spoilers
Volume I · Chapter 29: The painting appears alongside the Raphael and The Just Judges in a scene where the discovery of art changes the investigation.
First named · Volume I · Chapter 29
The Just Judges
Hubert and Jan van Eyck · Ghent Altarpiece 1432
St Bavo’s Cathedral, Ghent · original panel stolen in 1934
This panel belonged to the Ghent Altarpiece. Stolen from St Bavo’s Cathedral in April 1934, the original became the subject of ransom demands and a long-running search.
Visit Gent history · Image source
Archival photograph credited to Max Friedländer; public-domain source file via Wikimedia Commons.
Story connections · Volume I spoilers
Volume I · Chapters 29 and 43: The lost panel is named among the works that become significant to the investigation. Its real theft supplies historical context for the novel’s fictional events.
First named · Volume I · Chapter 35
Dance at Bougival
Pierre-Auguste Renoir 1883
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
A dancing couple fills the canvas, their movement set against an outdoor gathering. Renoir’s full-length composition makes a fleeting social moment feel immediate and almost life-size.
Museum of Fine Arts collection · Image source
Public-domain reproduction via Wikimedia Commons.
Story connections · Volume I spoilers
Volume I · Chapter 35: The manuscript explicitly names Dance at Bougival during the Renoir operation. The scene concerns the painting’s movement during a private event. The novel’s setting and events are fictional; the collection information above describes the real work.
First named · Volume III · Chapter 4
The Calling of Saint Matthew
Caravaggio 1599–1600
Contarelli Chapel · San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome
A beam of light and an outstretched hand transform a dark room into a scene of recognition. The painting forms part of Caravaggio’s Saint Matthew cycle in the Contarelli Chapel in Rome.
Turismo Roma history · Image source
Public-domain reproduction via Wikimedia Commons.
Story connections · Volume III spoilers
Volume III · Chapter 4: The painting is at the centre of the art-history classroom discussion in the flashback where Alton meets Tatum.
First named · Volume III · Chapter 48
The Avenue in the Rain
Childe Hassam 1917
The White House Collection, Washington, D.C.
American flags hang above a rain-softened Fifth Avenue. Hassam painted this view in February 1917, using the flags and the wet city beyond them as part of his series of flag-decorated streets.
White House Historical Association · Image source
White House Collection; reproduction via Wikimedia Commons.
Story connections · Volume III spoilers
Volume III · Chapter 48: Alton shows William a painting named The Avenue in the Rain in the family’s hidden collection. The manuscript also uses the separate title Victory Flags, Fifth Avenue earlier in Volume III. The two titles are kept separate here.
More art mentioned in the trilogy
The novels also name the following works, recorded here as text references without a substituted image.
- Pablo Picasso: Nature morte aux fleurs et au compotier · Volume I, Chapter 2.
- Edgar Degas: Danseuses · Volume I, Chapter 30. The title does not establish which Degas composition is intended.
- Childe Hassam: Victory Flags, Fifth Avenue · Volume III, Chapter 35. This manuscript title is listed separately from The Avenue in the Rain.
Other references include the Amber Room, a decorative-art ensemble, and paintings identified only by artist. These include works by Rothko, John Singer Sargent, Jackson Pollock, Rembrandt, Cézanne, Turner, Delacroix, Corot, Rubens, Titian, Canaletto, Pissarro and others. The manuscripts also discuss artists such as Van Gogh, Manet, Gerhard Richter and Modigliani.
History and fiction: These are real artworks. Their movements, ownership and discoveries within 201 Seconds belong to the story. Historical information and image credits are linked separately for each illustrated work.