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Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Old Woman Dozing by Nicolaes Maes

Despite its lack of vitality and vibrancy, Old Woman Dozing by Nicolaes Maes is an interesting painting. What it may lack in sparkle it gains in...

James W Singer 8 September 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Malle Babbe by Frans Hals

Although Frans Hals’ Malle Babbe was always considered a tronie or a fictional character study, the portrait is based on a woman whom the Dutch...

Nicole Ganbold 8 September 2024

Art History 101

Japonisme: Western Fever for Japanese Art and Culture

During the mid-19th and 20th centuries, Western art saw the birth of Japonisme. The term was coined by Philippe Burty in 1872 and refers to the craze...

Jimena Escoto 5 September 2024

Animals

Rosa Bonheur’s Magnificent Lions and the Portrait of Wildlife

Painting animals is part of a tradition in European art dating back to the 17th century when animal-specialized painters began contributing to...

Rute Ferreira 4 September 2024

Sir Edwin Landseer, Monarch of the Glen, ca 1851, Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, UK. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Monarch of the Glen by Edwin Landseer

Monarch of the Glen by Edwin Landseer is one of the most famous British paintings of the 19th century. It is a Victorian melodrama at its most...

James W Singer 4 September 2024

European Art

Masterpiece Story: The Pineapple Picture

Known as the “pineapple picture,” this enigmatic 17th-century painting captures the royal reception of King Charles II. The British royal...

Maya M. Tola 3 September 2024

Bizarre

The Most Bizarre Building in Scotland: Pineapple House

You likely would not connect pineapples and architecture, right? Wrong! There exists a real artistic folly, and not in Las Vegas where such a...

Magda Michalska 3 September 2024

quiz women artists Georgia O'Keefe, 1939, private collection. Detail. Museum Stories

Georgia O’Keeffe in Hawaii – Voyage for Pineapples and Artistic Freedom

Georgia O’Keeffe traveled to Hawaii for three months in 1939, leaving on January and returning in April. She was not on vacation, even though she...

Howard Schwartz 3 September 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 2 September 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 2 September 2024

Utagawa Hiroshige maple trees: Utagawa Hiroshige, Maple Trees at Mama, Tekona Shrine and Tsugi Bridge, One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, 1857, ink on paper, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Maple Trees at Mama by Utagawa Hiroshige

Utagawa Hiroshige’s prints were exported to Europe and became very popular with Western artists. Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh owned...

James W Singer 1 September 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: The Courtesan Hinaaya of the Chōji House by Kikukawa Eizan

The Courtesan Hinaaya of the Chōji House by Kikukawa Eizan, is one of the woodblock prints from Vincent and Theo van Gogh’s collection in the Van...

Urvi Chheda 1 September 2024