Painting

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: The Monkey Painter by Jean-Baptiste Chardin

It’s tacky! It’s funny! It’s weird! Yes, Jean-Baptiste Chardin’s The Monkey Painter is definitely not what you would consider in good taste.

James W Singer 29 January 2024

Animals

Hieronymus Bosch’s Creepy Owls

Hieronymus Bosch was an Early Netherlandish painter. He must have lived in two worlds simultaneously – the real one and a world of his...

Zuzanna Stańska 29 January 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Vase with Flowers by Rachel Ruysch

Let’s discuss one of the greatest still-life artists: Rachel Ruysch. Still-life paintings do not draw the crowds at museums. They are often...

James W Singer 28 January 2024

Herstory

Malva Schalek: Art in the Shadow of the Holocaust

Malva Schalek, also known as Malvína Schalková, was a Czech-Jewish artist who endured the turbulent landscape of the early 20th century and was...

Andreea Iancu 27 January 2024

Women Artists

Story within a Story in Paula Rego’s World

Paula Rego was probably the most important figure in the narrative British painting. She drew her inspiration from fairytales, myths, animations and...

Magda Michalska 26 January 2024

Women Artists

Paula Rego and Other Strong Women

Paula Rego (1935-2022) was a Portuguese-British visual artist considered one of the pre-eminent woman artists of the late 20th and early 21st...

Magda Michalska 26 January 2024

Ian Francis, Petrified Archway, 2015, mixed media on canvas. Artist's website. Contemporary Art

The Violent, Abstract Art of Ian Francis

Ian Francis’ art career started with disillusionment. He weathered the selective art world of the late 1990s, carrying on with works that...

Errika Gerakiti 25 January 2024

Art State of Mind

School and Learning in the Eyes of Artists

A lot has changed since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020: not just the way we approach our health and safety, but also the way children...

Europeana 24 January 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi by Angelica Kauffman

Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi by Angelica Kauffman shows a pretty Roman woman and her three children. But it’s much more than that. It has an...

Alexandra Kiely 21 January 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: The Roses of Heliogabalus by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema

Lust, Gluttony, and Sloth. Three of the Seven Deadly Sins are depicted in Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema’s The Roses of Heliogabalus. Many other sins are...

James W Singer 21 January 2024

Art State of Mind

Taking the Perfect Selfie: Tips from Best Self-Portraits in Art History

To pout or not to pout… that is the question.  From smolders to smiles, duck faces to dog ears, in the age of front-facing phone cameras there...

Tony Heathfield 17 January 2024

Painting

8 Best Artists’ Selfies in Art History

Whoever criticizes the fashion of selfies, must have forgotten that selfies have existed for a long time in painting. Here comes a curious and less...

Magda Michalska 17 January 2024