Painting

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Eruption of Mount Vesuvius by Pierre-Jacques Volaire

The ground shakes and rumbles as the nearby mountain awakens with smoke emerging from its peaks. The land trembles more and a fiery blast shoots into...

James W Singer 25 January 2026

Johan Thomas Lundbye, View from Kitnæs on Roskilde Fjord, 1843, National Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: View from Kitnæs on Roskilde Fjord by Johan Thomas Lundbye

View from Kitnæs on Roskilde Fjord by Johan Thomas Lundbye is a masterpiece of 19th century Danish landscape painting. It set a new standard for the...

James W Singer 25 January 2026

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Travelers Among Mountains and Streams by Fan Kuan

The Song dynasty ruled China for over three centuries from 960 to 1279. At this time, Song China was the most technologically advanced society in the...

James W Singer 25 January 2026

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Heart of the Andes by Frederic Edwin Church

Heart of the Andes is one truly impressive landscape painting. Frederic Edwin Church’s crowning achievement depicts the scenery he saw during his...

Alexandra Kiely 25 January 2026

Quiz

Cubism QUIZ: Breaking the Picture Plane

Joanna Kaszubowska 24 January 2026

Quiz

QUIZ: The Nude in Art

Candy Bedworth 24 January 2026

Painting

From Victim to Temptress: Salome in Art

For centuries, artists interpreted the biblical story of Salome and turned it into a lasting theme in art. But where did this fascination come from?...

Edoardo Cesarino 22 January 2026

Contemporary Art

Sonya Sklaroff’s Hidden New York

Sonya Sklaroff is a contemporary American painter best known for her cityscapes of New York City. A professor at Parsons School of Design since 1999,...

Caroline Galambosova 22 January 2026

Artist Stories

10 Famous Artists You Wouldn’t Think Were Self-Taught

Think art school is the only path to greatness? Think again. These 10 artists defied convention through persistence, originality, and vision, without...

Wen Gu 22 January 2026

WTF Art History

Hitler’s Four Least Favorite Degenerate Artists

As a person who considered himself an artist, Hitler was very sensitive to aesthetics. He hated people who did not fit into his imagined world of...

Magda Michalska 22 January 2026

WTF Art History

Forbidden Art—10 Scandalous Cases of Censorship in Art

Art history is painted with shades of prohibition—works banned, artists silenced, and masterpieces under attack. From centuries past to the cutting...

Celia Leiva Otto 22 January 2026

Women Artists

5 Frida Kahlo Self-Portraits You Need to See

Frida Kahlo’s modern persona evokes images of beautiful flowers, elaborate dresses, and the artist’s famous unibrow. However, her work is much...

Theodore Carter 21 January 2026