Art Forms

Artist Stories

Pierre-Auguste Renoir: The Impressive Life of an Impressionist

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, a leading member of Impressionism, was perhaps the most vibrant painter of color and light in the famous French movement.

Sam Malone 22 February 2024

Artist Stories

Félix Vallotton: Illustrator of Fin de Siècle Paris

Félix Vallotton was a Swiss painter who left his home country to join the artistic nebula of Paris at the fin de siècle—the end of the century.

Kaena Daeppen 22 February 2024

History

Joanna of Castile: Story of a Misunderstood Queen in Portraits

Joanna of Castile, also known as Joanna the Mad, was never expected to inherit the throne of Castile and Aragon in the 16th century. Due to her...

Anna Ingram 22 February 2024

Zenobia:Harriet Goodhue Hosmer, Zenobia in Chains, ca. 1859. Ancient Rome

The Ancient Queen and the Modern Sculptress: Zenobia by Harriet Hosmer

Harriet Hosmer, the 19th-century American sculptor from Watertown, Massachusetts was the exceptional talent behind the towering sculpture of Zenobia.

Maya M. Tola 22 February 2024

Renaissance

Rebelious Princess – Ana de Mendoza y de la Cerda, Princess of Éboli

“Who is this beauty with an eyepatch?” you may ask. Is she some sort of pirate queen? No, but you are not far from the truth. Ana de Mendoza de...

Joanna Kaszubowska 22 February 2024

Music

Zdzisław Beksiński’s Passion for Music

In the history of art, so much has been written and said about the close relationship between music and painting. Numerous painters have declared...

Guest Profile 21 February 2024

History

Enslaved Black Models in European Art: Anonymous Objects?

Portraits of Black people are rare in European art history. Let’s be clear: they were there, in society, but they rarely made it into art, except...

Candy Bedworth 20 February 2024

Painting

Masterpiece Story: Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Belley by Girodet

Although representations of Black people were overlooked in European art for a long time, current social and political movements participate to...

Amélie Pascutto 20 February 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: The African King Caspar by Hendrik Heerschop

White subjects have dominated the Western art tradition for millennia, while people of color have been vastly underrepresented and misrepresented.

James W Singer 20 February 2024

Painting

Where Is the Queen? Black Women in Western Art

For centuries, Black women appeared in Western art as slaves, servants, or exotic novelties. But as regal queens and leaders? Shamefully not. We will...

Candy Bedworth 20 February 2024

Women Interior Designers: Dorothy Draper, The Greenbrier Hotel, 1946-1948, White Sulphur Springs, WV, USA. Architecture

5 Exceptional Women Interior Designers of the 20th Century

Meet the five women designers who changed the face of 20th-century interior design. Their work has been inspiring many designers and their interiors...

Joanna Kaszubowska 19 February 2024

History

Bondage and Freedom—The Protest Art of Two Abolitionists

Since the elites in power like the status quo, social reform is a grassroots movement.  How do reformers engage the masses? With art. Should protest...

Helen Jeffery 19 February 2024