Pierre-Auguste Renoir, "Spring Bouquet"

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Spring Bouquet, 1866; Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum.

This is the famous and stunning still life by Renoir, shown above in an excellent photo from the museum where it's located. Sadly, thousands of revised modern copies and photos have been circulating online for years, rarely indicating that they aren't faithful to Renoir's original. Most of the modern versions, like the popular one below, add new colors, remove the subtleties of the original, and ignore much of the gorgeous, Dutch-inspired detail seen in the authentic work. The museum adds an informative note about Spring Bouquet:

For many French artists during the 1860s, the floral still life persisted as a test of pure painterly ability. This exuberant bouquet [...] attests to the artist's engagement with past art historical traditions. He addresses the ennobled Dutch practice of still life through the large scale of his canvas, while his attention to the textures and colors of the arrangement evokes the work of early eighteenth-century French painters like Antoine Watteau and François Boucher.

The painting also demonstrates Renoir's development as an artist. Instead of applying the paint with a palette knife — a technique he borrowed from artists such as Courbet — Renoir adopted a freer and thinner stroke using solely a brush.

Altered version of a painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir.