Color with Words

The paintings

Every painting here comes from the Met’s open-access collection and is in the public domain. Each one arrives as a sketch with one question.

• Under the Wave off KanagawaKatsushika Hokusai, ca. 1830–32
• Wheat Field with CypressesVincent van Gogh, 1889
• Young Woman with a Water PitcherJohannes Vermeer, ca. 1662
• WhalersJ. M. W. Turner, ca. 1845
• Circus SideshowGeorges Seurat, 1887–88
• The HarvestersPieter Bruegel the Elder, 1565