Tempo CanvasFocus timer42 works. Eight collections. A new way to look at your time. Browse the art you can discover in our iPhone focus timer, and take a moment to see something new.
Open any artwork for a closer view and a short explanation. Twenty works also have extended looking guides, with collection sources and a small observation exercise.
42 of 42 artworks
Japanese masters
A curling wave towers over three narrow boats while Mount Fuji sits small and still on the horizon. Follow the blue arcs toward the mountain, then notice how the foam repeats its pointed shape. Hokusai makes scale feel uncertain: the distant mountain seems almost fragile beside a moment of moving water.
Read the looking guide →Japanese masters
Mount Fuji rises in a red slope beneath rows of pale clouds. The mountain is a single strong shape, but the dark trees at its base and the snow near its summit give it texture. Compare this quiet composition with Hokusai’s Great Wave: the same mountain can anchor very different views.
Van Gogh
Wheat, clouds and cypress trees seem to move in different rhythms. Van Gogh uses short marks for the field and longer curves in the sky, keeping the dark trees as a vertical anchor. Let your eyes travel across the horizon before returning to the bright strip of wheat.
Read the looking guide →Van Gogh
A straw hat frames Van Gogh’s face with a bright band of yellow. Short strokes in the face, coat and background point in different directions, making a still pose feel active. Look at how the cool background sets off the warm beard without a sharp outline around every feature.
Read the looking guide →Van Gogh
Blue-violet irises spread across the foreground, interrupted by a pale flower on the left. The leaves bend like long ribbons while orange earth opens between them. Follow one stem from its base to the blossom instead of trying to take in the whole garden at once.
Read the looking guide →Van Gogh
The flowers range from open petals to heavy, rounded seed heads. Yellow fills the vase, flowers and background, yet changes in texture keep them separate. The arrangement rewards attention to difference: no two flower heads have quite the same silhouette.
Read the looking guide →Van Gogh
Pale almond flowers branch across a blue sky with very little suggestion of the ground below. The cropped limbs make the tree feel as if it continues beyond the frame. Trace the gaps between the branches: the blue spaces form shapes as deliberate as the blossoms.
Read the looking guide →Van Gogh
A bed, two chairs and small pictures turn a simple room into a study of strong edges and flat color. The tilted floor seems to move toward you. Compare the quiet subject with the lively perspective, then notice how the paired objects give the room a repeated rhythm.
Read the looking guide →Van Gogh
Dark birds cross a blue sky above a yellow field divided by paths. The paths lead the eye inward without settling on a single destination. Instead of treating the image as a code with one answer, look at the contrast between the crowded sky and the open strips of earth.
Read the looking guide →Van Gogh
Bands of blue curl around bright stars above a small village. A dark cypress reaches from the foreground into the sky, linking two very different kinds of space. Notice the difference between the angular rooftops and the curved marks overhead.
Read the looking guide →Van Gogh
Warm yellow light spills from a café into a deep blue evening. The street narrows into the distance, while the awning makes a bright corner in the foreground. Follow the diagonal edge of the terrace and notice where the blue pavement catches reflected light.
Van Gogh
Points of starlight sit above long gold reflections in the river. A couple stands near the lower edge, giving the broad night scene a small human presence. Compare the stars’ short marks with the broken vertical paths of light on the water.
Monet
The silhouette of a church emerges from bands of orange, violet and blue. Its reflection is less an exact duplicate than a softened echo. Look at how much architecture you can recognize from just a tower, a dome and a few edges against the glowing sky.
Monet
A small orange sun and its reflection interrupt a harbor painted in blue-gray tones. Boats appear as dark suggestions rather than carefully outlined objects. Try covering the sun with a fingertip, then revealing it again: that tiny warm circle reorganizes the whole scene.
Monet
A woman and child stand on a grassy rise, seen from below. Wind seems to pass through the dress, veil and grass in one continuous movement. The green parasol shades the face while bright clouds open behind it; shadows carry color rather than simply turning black.
Read the looking guide →Monet
Clouds and floating leaves share the surface of a long pond scene. There is no obvious horizon to tell you where looking at water ends and looking at reflected sky begins. This catalog image shows the painting installed in a gallery, which also reveals its panoramic scale.
Impressionism & beyond
Figures, trees and parasols form a measured arrangement beside the water. From a distance the scene feels solid; closer looking reveals a surface built from many small touches. Compare the upright figures with the curving parasols and the bright strip of river.
Read the looking guide →Impressionism & beyond
Two seated players lean into a quiet game, with a bottle marking the space between them. Their bent arms and the tabletop hold the composition together. Look for repeated browns and blues rather than a dramatic gesture: the concentration is carried by posture and spacing.
Impressionism & beyond
A striped awning gathers a lively group around a table of glasses, fruit and bottles. Faces turn in different directions, creating several conversations within one scene. Follow a single line of sight and then notice the contrasting stillness of the objects on the table.
Read the looking guide →Impressionism & beyond
Patches of light scatter across a crowd of dancers and seated friends. Hats, faces and clothing appear and disappear among repeated dark and pale marks. Look for a single couple, then widen your view to see how the scattered light holds the busy scene together.
Impressionism & beyond
A barmaid stands behind a counter of bottles and fruit, while a mirror opens a second, puzzling space behind her. Compare the direct figure with the reflected encounter to the right. The painting invites you to look carefully without making every spatial detail resolve neatly.
Impressionism & beyond
Dancers wait, stretch and turn while a teacher anchors the room. The broad floor separates small gestures that might otherwise disappear in a crowd. Trace the diagonal space between foreground and background to see how rehearsal becomes a composition of pauses.
Renaissance
A gathering of thinkers occupies a vast architectural setting. The central pair is framed by receding arches, while groups along the steps study, argue and write. Follow the floor and vaults toward the center, then choose one smaller group to explore on its own.
Renaissance
A figure stands on a shell between wind-blown companions and a waiting robe. Hair, drapery and the shoreline turn the scene into a series of flowing lines. Compare the nearly still central pose with the movement at either side of the image.
Renaissance
Figures move across a dark grove strewn with flowers. Pale skin and translucent clothing emerge against dense leaves, while repeated hands create links across the scene. Before assigning a story to every figure, follow the gestures from the right edge toward the center.
Renaissance
A long table cuts across a room whose receding lines meet near the central figure. The surrounding figures gather into expressive groups, using hands and posture to suggest a shared moment of reaction. Look at how the still center differs from the movement around it.
Renaissance
Two reaching hands almost meet across an open patch of sky. The reclining body on the left and the gathered figures on the right make contrasting masses. The empty gap between the fingertips is tiny, yet it becomes the strongest point of attention.
Renaissance
Folded hands and a turning face sit before a winding, distant landscape. Soft transitions around the eyes and mouth keep the expression from settling into a hard outline. Shift your attention between the figure’s steady pose and the paths and water behind her.
Dutch masters
A young woman holds a lute near a window, with a large map on the wall behind her. The dark foreground makes the patch of daylight feel especially quiet. Follow her gaze toward the window, then look back at the instrument and the room’s carefully placed objects.
Read the looking guide →Dutch masters
A curtain opens onto an artist seen from behind and a model beyond. The tiled floor leads your eye through the room, while a large wall map adds another kind of space. Notice how the viewer seems invited into the studio while remaining outside the painter’s task.
Dutch masters
A thin stream of milk connects a tilted jug to a bowl on a crowded table. Bread and fabric surround the small action, but the figure’s steady posture keeps it central. Look at the bright window and the changing textures of crust, cloth and painted wall.
Dutch masters
A turning face emerges from a dark background beneath a blue and yellow head covering. Small highlights on the lips and earring do much of the work. Look closely at the jewel: reflected light suggests its volume without a continuous drawn edge.
Read the looking guide →Dutch masters
A crowd gathers around two brightly lit figures, with weapons and gestures pointing in several directions. Light chooses what you see before you have understood every person. Trace one diagonal through the group and notice how a crowded scene can still have a clear center.
Romantic visions
A wagon stands in shallow water near a cottage, with a broad meadow beyond. Trees shade one side of the scene while clouds open above it. Look for the small dog at the water’s edge, then follow the wagon toward the distant working landscape.
Read the looking guide →Romantic visions
A raised flag rises above a crowd moving across fallen bodies and rubble. Smoke partly hides the distant city, making the central figure and colors stand out. Compare the upward pull of the flag with the heavy horizontal forms at the bottom of the picture.
Romantic visions
A pale sailing ship follows a small dark tug across glowing water. The sunset takes up almost as much attention as the vessels. Compare the ship’s delicate vertical masts with the tug’s dense smoke and the broad horizontal bands of reflected light.
Read the looking guide →Romantic visions
A figure faces away from us on a rocky summit above layers of mist. Because we cannot see his face, the landscape becomes the shared subject of attention. Follow the dark ridge in the foreground toward the distant peaks that fade into the sky.
Read the looking guide →Dreams & symbols
A face and folded hands emerge from a field of gold and geometric pattern. Eyes, spirals and rectangular marks make the clothing seem to merge with its surroundings. Notice where the body becomes difficult to separate from the decorative surface.
Dreams & symbols
A reclining figure on a sofa appears among dense leaves, flowers and animals. The familiar furniture feels strange in this imagined vegetation. Look for the hidden faces and the repeated edges of leaves before deciding where foreground ends and background begins.
Read the looking guide →Dreams & symbols
A pale face and raised hands echo the curves of water and sky. The straight railing cuts sharply across those flowing bands, creating a visual clash. Notice the distant figures on the path: their upright shapes make the foreground figure feel even more exposed.
Read the looking guide →Dreams & symbols
A lion stands beside a sleeping traveler beneath a clear moon. The open landscape and nearly horizontal body make the meeting feel suspended. Follow the long lines of the staff and instrument, then notice how the lion’s tail cuts a different shape against the night.
Dreams & symbols
Two figures seem wrapped in a shared field of gold above a flowered edge. Rectangles and rounded motifs distinguish the garments even as their outlines merge. Find the exposed hands and feet: those small natural details interrupt the patterned surface.
Read the looking guide →