#19th Century

Love Story

Unhappily Ever After: Unequal Marriage by Vasili Pukirev

Vasili Pukirev’s painting, Unequal Marriage, has a legend surrounding it. Allegedly, after looking at it all the elderly grooms refused to marry...

Elizaveta Ermakova 19 March 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: The Major’s Marriage Proposal by Pavel Fedotov

When you think of 19th-century Russia, images of Anna Karenina with black furs and white diamonds may come to mind. The lives of the wealthy...

James W Singer 19 March 2024

Art Nouveau

Alphonse Mucha – Art Nouveau Master

Alphonse Mucha is perhaps the artist most publicly associated with Art Nouveau. Today we explore the life and work of the Czech master. Alphonse...

Europeana 18 March 2024

Constance Mayer: constance mayer Women Artists

Constance Mayer and Pierre Prud’hon: Better Together?

Constance Mayer (1775-1821) was one of a generation of women artists who took advantage of the new freedoms offered by the French Revolution. She...

Catriona Miller 18 March 2024

Museum Stories

6 Highlights from the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin

Discover the wealth of 19th-century artistic treasures housed within Berlin’s Alte Nationalgalerie, a true gem in Germany’s cultural...

Anastasia Manioudaki 16 March 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Abbey in the Oakwood by Caspar David Friedrich

Sadness and desolation fill this scene like an oppressive melancholy. The sun is dying behind the horizon as fog enshrouds the ground. Skeletal trees...

James W Singer 16 March 2024

Art State of Mind

Florence Welch — A Modern Pre-Raphaelite Muse

We all know Florence Welch, the leader of the indie-rock band Florence + The Machine. And if you don’t, I suggest you find her cosmic music right...

Elizaveta Ermakova 15 March 2024

Trouvelot: Étienne Léopold Trouvelot, Aurora Borealis: As Observed on March 1st, 1872 at 9.25pm Artist Stories

Trouvelot and His Unique Art of the Cosmos

First published in 1881, Étienne Léopold Trouvelot’s portfolio of astronomical illustrations is an exceptional collection of majestic...

Jon Kelly 14 March 2024

Carl Gustav Carus, Woman on the Balcony, 1824, oil on canvas, Galerie Neue Meister, Dresden, Germany. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Woman on the Balcony by Carl Gustav Carus

Woman on the Balcony is an intimate portrait of a person lost in thought. There is no action and no obvious story to interpret. However, its quiet...

James W Singer 11 March 2024

Emil Jakob Schindler, Forest Lane near Schärfling, 1890, Leopold Museum, Vienna, Austria. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Forest Lane near Schärfling by Emil Jakob Schindler

Forest Lane near Schärfling by Emil Jakob Schindler is a masterpiece of Austrian Impressionism. It is an enchanting place where the natural...

James W Singer 11 March 2024

European Art

Escape to the Forest: The Birth of Barbizon School

During the 19th century, the most promising artists trained at the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Paris. The Academy taught its pupils...

Gokce Dyson 11 March 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Little Girl in a Blue Armchair by Mary Cassatt

Mary Stevenson Cassatt was an American painter and printmaker. She lived much of her adult life in France, where she became friends with Edgar Degas...

Zuzanna Stańska 11 March 2024