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Artist Stories

Taras Shevchenko: Ukrainian Liberty Idol

Taras Shevchenko was an outstanding Ukrainian artist and poet. Born to a peasant family, he became a Ukrainian liberty idol and national artistic...

Kateryna Martynova 24 August 2023

Animals

Sporting Artist: Alfred Munnings

Alfred Munnings was the leading sporting artist during the first half of the 20th century. His paintings encompass a range of sporting themes: horses...

Lauren Kraut 23 August 2023

Sport

Modern Sports Played in Ancient China

The history of Chinese sports can be traced back thousands of years, revealing many achievements, innovations, and surprises. While some sports may...

Marina Kochetkova 23 August 2023

Review

Christian Dotremont: A Painter-Poet

Christian Dotremont was a Belgian artist and one of the founders of the CoBrA movement. What sets his art apart is his unique perspective on writing...

Tommy Thiange 22 August 2023

Romanticism

William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience Explained

William Blake was undoubtedly a genius. And, as it usually happens with geniuses and people ahead of their time, he was scorned and disregarded by...

Magda Michalska 22 August 2023

Women Artists

Art in the Mail: Wisława Szymborska’s Cut-and-Paste Postcards

Wisława Szymborska (1923-2012) was a Nobel Prize-winning Polish poet, but she was also an occasional artist. Her main medium was quirky...

Alexandra Kiely 22 August 2023

Literature

Luo Ping: 18th-Century Visionary Painter and Poet

Luo Ping, Freud’s godfather, proclaimed: “Kill or be killed…” But of course, Luo Ping was subtler than this; he only suggests what...

Barry Russell 22 August 2023

Medieval Art

Ravenna’s Byzantine Treasures: Mosaics in San Vitale

The early medieval church of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy, is most famous for its spectacular mosaics. In a city full of rich, Byzantine-style...

Alexandra Kiely 21 August 2023

Women Artists

Hilma af Klint: Pioneer of Abstract Art

Who invented abstract art? The advent of abstraction has historically been attributed to male artists. However, Hilma af Klint, a Swedish painter and...

Emily Snow 21 August 2023

Women Artists

Thérèse Schwartze: The Painter of the Amsterdam’s Elite

Thérèse Schwartze (1851–1918) grew up in an artistic family in Amsterdam. Her father Johann Georg Schwartze was a painter and he introduced his...

Europeana 21 August 2023

Baroque

15 Things You Didn’t Know About the Night Watch by Rembrandt

The Night Watch painted by Rembrandt van Rijn is a monumental canvas displayed today in the “Gallery of Honour” of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam,...

Zuzanna Stańska, Nicole Ganbold 21 August 2023

Johannes Vermeer, The Milkmaid, ca. 1660, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Wikimedia Commons (public domain). Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: The Milkmaid by Johannes Vermeer

Among many representations of domestic scenes of respectable Dutch middle-class households, there is one that never ceases to impress and capture the...

Giordana Goretti 21 August 2023