Art Forms

Great Princess Mama Occollo, ca 1850-70, oil on canvas mounted on wood, Cuzco, Peru, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO, USA. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Great Princess Mama Occollo

Great Princess Mama Occollo is an amazing masterpiece of South American art from the 19th century in the collection of the Denver Art Museum. It...

James W Singer 10 August 2025

Jean-François de Troy, Declaration of Love, 1731, Sanssouci, Potsdam, Germany. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: The Declaration of Love by Jean-François de Troy

Jean-François de Troy’s The Declaration of Love is a masterpiece of Rococo genre art featuring a universal moment of anguish and...

James W Singer 10 August 2025

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Allegorical Painting of Two Ladies

Allegorical Painting of Two Ladies is an enigmatic and highly unusual imaginative portrait made in 1650s England. It reveals a fascinating story...

Nicole Ganbold 10 August 2025

Love Story

Masterpiece Story: Three Ladies Adorning a Term of Hymen by Joshua Reynolds

Three Ladies Adorning a Term of Hymen is a huge triple portrait of the Montgomery sisters by Sir Joshua Reynolds. It thematizes aristocratic marriage...

Isla Phillips-Ewen 10 August 2025

Quiz

QUIZ: Do You Know These Famous Churches?

Ania Kaczynska 9 August 2025

Quiz

QUIZ Manet vs Monet: Who Painted What?

Rachel Witte, Rachel Witte 9 August 2025

Cats

5 Women Artists Who Specialized in Cat Paintings—The Evolution of Cat Portraiture

It’s no mystery that artists loved cats. Throughout history, artists have made felines their studio companions and depicted them as they slept,...

Ela Bobek 8 August 2025

Cats

Meet Famous Artists and Their Cats (Cuteness Overload)

So many great artists have shared one very special love: the love for cats. Here you will find six modern artists who loved their felines and have...

Zuzanna Stańska 8 August 2025

Art History 101

Tonalism 101: Capturing Emotion Through Light and Tone

Have you ever heard of the phrase, “Let’s set the tone”? An art movement did exactly that. Tonalism is an American painting style...

Coleman Richards 7 August 2025

Marsden Hartley, Canuck Yankee Lumberjack at Old Orchard Beach, Maine, 1940, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, USA. Detail. North American Art

Marsden Hartley: An Overlooked Modernist

Marsden Hartley was a ground-breaking modernist, ostracized from the art world at the height of his career. Today he remains sidelined as a...

Louisa Mahoney 7 August 2025

Andrea Mantegna, Bridal Chamber, Ocluus. Mantua, Italy. Renaissance

Fooling the Eye: Illusionistic Games in Andrea Mantegna’s Bridal Chamber

A masterpiece of the early Italian Renaissance, Andrea Mantegna’s Bridal Chamber has been described as the most beautiful room in the world.

Natalia Iacobelli 7 August 2025

Renaissance

Raphael—Renaissance Prince of Painters

Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, in English known as Raphael, is famous for the harmony and clarity of form within his visually brilliant paintings. He...

Candy Bedworth 7 August 2025