Painting

Masterpiece Stories

Edvard Munch’s Vampire: A Scary Femme Fatale or a Tender Lover?

Like The Scream or Madonna, Vampire is one of Edvard Munch’s most famous artworks. But what if we view it as something more than a folklore...

Guest Author 12 December 2024

Expressionism

The Mysterious Street from Edvard Munch’s The Scream

The Scream by Edvard Munch is one of the most famous paintings in the world. It’s pretty obvious why – its expression and the way the pain and...

Zuzanna Stańska 12 December 2024

Gustav Klimt, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (detail), 1904-07, oil, silver, and gold on canvas, Neue Galerie New York Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer by Gustav Klimt

Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I is Gustav Klimt’s most significant work of portraiture. The famous Lady in Gold has as many eye-catching...

Emily Snow 11 December 2024

Impressionism

5 Things You Need to Know About Australian Impressionism

Australian Impressionism might not be as well known as its French counterpart, but this late 19th-century art movement was important to the country.

Kelly Hill 11 December 2024

Painting

Giovanni Boldini’s Beautiful Belles

Giovanni Boldini (1842-1931) was a popular society portrait painter in turn-of-the-century France and England. His elegant portraits are still much...

Alexandra Kiely 9 December 2024

Artist Stories

Diego Rivera’s Life in Self-Portraits

Diego Rivera is mostly famous for his controversial mural for the Rockefeller family and for being the husband of Frida Kahlo. Yet in his lifetime,...

Magda Michalska 9 December 2024

Painting

Carel Fabritius in 10 Paintings: Rembrandt’s Most Promising Pupil

Any biography of Carel Fabritius (Dutch, 1622–1654) is necessarily short; there simply is not much known about him. He was born in Beemster, a...

Tom Anderson 9 December 2024

History

Diego Rivera: The Controversial Story of Man at the Crossroads

At the suggestion of his mother, Nelson Rockefeller commissioned Diego Rivera, a passionate Mexican socialist artist, to paint the mural that was...

Ruxi Rusu 9 December 2024

Jan Havicksz Steen, Woman at her Toilet, 1655-60, oil on panel, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Woman at Her Toilet by Jan Steen

Jan Steen’s Woman at Her Toilet is a provocative masterpiece of genre paintings because of its visual complexity and seductive allure, inviting...

James W Singer 8 December 2024

Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, Conscript’s Farewell, 1854, Leopold Museum, Vienna, Austria. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Conscript’s Farewell by Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller

Conscript’s Farewell is a masterpiece by Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller. It explores a family’s reaction to the conscription of their beloved...

James W Singer 8 December 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Gallant Conversation by Gerard ter Borch

Gallant Conversation by Gerard ter Borch is a genre painting filled with a mysterious narrative. What are the three people doing? Why are they in a...

James W Singer 8 December 2024

Art History 101

Artists and Paintings: Everything You Need to Know About Impressionism

Impressionism has become one of the most significant movements of modern art. The names of Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, or Edgar Degas are...

Nataliia Pecherska 8 December 2024