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Masterpiece Stories

Isenheim Altarpiece – Polyptych About Pain and Passion

Isenheim Altarpiece by Matthias Grünewald is a polyptych about pain and passion. It’s a complex piece consisting of several parts and sections,...

Magda Michalska 21 March 2024

Jan van Eyck, Ghent Altarpiece, 1432, detail Masterpiece Stories

Ghent Altarpiece: The Charmed Life of the Mystic Lamb

Come with us to visit the Van Eyck brothers, their monumental Ghent Altarpiece, and explore 500 years of intrigue, theft and revolutionary painting techniques.

Candy Bedworth 21 March 2024

Women Artists

Minnie Pwerle: A Visionary Aboriginal Artist

Minnie Pwerle stands as a pivotal figure in the realm of contemporary art, leaving an enduring legacy through her vibrant and dynamic works. Her art...

Carlotta Mazzoli 21 March 2024

Animals

The Fantastic Jungles of Henri Rousseau

Henri Rousseau was a French artist who painted in a Naïve or Primitive manner. He was also known as Le Douanier (the customs officer), which was a...

Zuzanna Stańska 20 March 2024

Women Artists

Polina Raiko, The Self-Taught Folk Artist Who Turned Tragedy to Triumph

In 1998, for the first time ever, Polina Raiko (1928-2004), a 69-year-old woman who had spent almost her entire life as a wife, mother, and farmer,...

Adam Oestreich 20 March 2024

Hermenegildo Bustos. Hermenegildo Bustos, Self-portrait, 1891, Museo Nacional de Arte, Mexico City, Mexico. Detail. Artist Stories

Hermenegildo Bustos: Self-Taught Painter of the People

Hermenegildo Bustos was one of Mexico’s most renowned painters of the 19th century. Despite the lack of Academic training, his portraits stood out...

Jimena Escoto 20 March 2024

Artist Stories

The Story of Nikifor, Polish-Lemko Naïve Painter

“Epifaniusz Drowniak” is now a household name in Polish naïve art and, arguably, across Europe alongside painters such as Henri...

Katarzyna Waszak 20 March 2024

European Art

Queen Elizabeth I – Portraits of the Last Tudor

Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) was the only surviving child of King Henry VIII of England and his second wife Anne Boleyn. Being a girl was hard...

Sarah Mills 20 March 2024

Rococo

Masterpiece Story: Marriage A-la-Mode by William Hogarth

The 18th-century British painter William Hogarth created an insightful series of paintings about the arranged marriages of his times, entitled...

Pola Otterstein 19 March 2024

Reluctant Bride. Auguste Toulmouche, The Reluctant Bride, 1866, Private collection. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: The Reluctant Bride by Auguste Toulmouche

Have you ever seen a bride more… angry? Should this not be the happiest day of her life? The Reluctant Bride or The Hesitant Fiancée by Auguste...

Jimena Escoto 19 March 2024

Women Artists

Alexandra Exter: Multi-Talented Cubo-Futurist in Paris

Alexandra Exter was a painter and designer of the Russian and Ukrainian avant-garde. Her work isn’t limited to just one genre or movement. She was...

Errika Gerakiti 19 March 2024

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 19 March 2024