European Art

Masterpiece Stories

The Story of Vincent van Gogh’s First Self-Portrait

Vincent van Gogh’s career lasted only about 10 years. Yet, during that time, he painted some 36 self-portraits. Only Rembrandt painted more, with...

Ledys Chemin 5 August 2024

Artist Stories

Whistler vs. Ruskin: How to Fling a Pot of Paint and Win a Trial

After paying a visit to the newly inaugurated Grosvenor Gallery in London, John Ruskin wrote a stinging review of the modernist exhibition. The...

Ruxi Rusu 5 August 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Two Sisters (On the Terrace) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

This beautiful painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir is known under two titles. The first one – Two Sisters (in French: Les Deux Sœurs) was given to...

Zuzanna Stańska 5 August 2024

Women Artists

Pre-Raphaelite Sisters: Five Female Painters to Know

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, an all-male artistic fraction active during the second half of the 19th century, has become synonymous today with...

Anastasia Tsaleza 5 August 2024

Leonardo da Vinci, Portrait of Mona Lisa del Giocondo Renaissance

Masterpiece Story: Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci

The Mona Lisa is an icon and masterpiece featured in numerous movies, television shows, and music videos. It is famous for being Leonardo da...

Anna Ingram 4 August 2024

Impressionists, Claude Monet, Water Lilies, 1906 Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Water Lilies by Claude Monet

Water Lilies is a masterpiece of Impressionism. It blends the artist’s objective world and subjective...

James W Singer 4 August 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Judith Slaying Holofernes by Artemisia Gentileschi

Artemisia Gentileschi (1593–1656) was the most accomplished female painter of the Italian Baroque. She specialized in Biblical scenes of strong...

James W Singer 4 August 2024

Johannes Vermeer, Girl With a Pearl Earring, c. 1665, Mauritshuis, Hague, The Netherlands. Wikimedia Commons (public domain). Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer

The Girl with a Pearl Earring is usually the first image that comes to mind when we think of Johannes Vermeer. It has inspired multiple references in...

Soledad Castillo Jara 4 August 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: The Ambassadors by Hans Holbein the Younger

The Ambassadors by Hans Holbein the Younger is one of those paintings that we know so well we tend to forget to look closer. It’s like the Mona...

Joanna Kaszubowska 4 August 2024

Baroque

The Art of Peter Paul Rubens in 3 Mythological Paintings

Many things could be said about Rubens, perhaps the most important and influential Flemish painter of the 17th century. Genius of the Baroque, representative of sensuality, dynamism and movement in its splendor the painter was above all a great humanist, a lover of the Greco-Roman tradition and therefore of its mythology. Today we present him and the main features of his style to you through three myths!

Andra Patricia Ritisan 1 August 2024

Art State of Mind

One with Nature: Nude Paintings in Natural Settings

Depictions of the nude figurative form is a time-honored artistic tradition dating back to antiquity. Depending on the period in question, the...

Maya M. Tola 1 August 2024

Aleksandra Waliszewska, Untitled, 1997-2022, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland. Contemporary Art

The Dark Arts of Aleksandra Waliszewska

Rather unsettling, quite macabre, and more than slightly erotic, the paintings and illustrations by Polish artist Aleksandra Waliszewska are...

Marta Wiktoria Bryll 1 August 2024