European Art

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Breakfast of Birds by Gabriele Münter

Gabriele Münter (1877–1962) was a German Expressionist painter born in Berlin and most known for her landscapes and use of color. She developed a...

Heidi Werber 21 September 2023

Peder Severin Krøyer, Summer Evening on Skagen Sønderstrand, 1893, Skagens Museum, Skagen, Denmark. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Summer Evening on Skagen Sønderstrand by Peder Severin Krøyer

Summer Evening on Skagen Sønderstrand by Peder Severin Krøyer is a masterpiece of Danish Impressionism. It not only captures the beauty of the...

James W Singer 21 September 2023

Kitty Kielland, Summer Night, 1886, oil on canvas, Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo, Norway. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Summer Night by Kitty Kielland

Kitty Kielland is one of the many talented female artists that have been erased from modern social consciousness. She was a brilliant painter of...

James W Singer 21 September 2023

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Rainbow at Pontoise by Camille Pissarro

Camille Pissarro has an interesting portfolio of paintings. His works are divided between cosmopolitan views of Paris and countryside views of...

James W Singer 21 September 2023

Anna Boberg, Fishing Harbour with Sunlit Mountains. Study from North Norway, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden. Women Artists

Anna Boberg – Self-Taught Painter of Lofoten Landscapes

Anna Boberg was a multidisciplinary self-taught artist active in Stockholm and Paris. She is best known for her arctic landscapes from Lofoten in...

Europeana 20 September 2023

Art State of Mind

The British Landscape in Art

The British Landscape: where do we start? From Turner to Hogan the British landscape presents a constant challenge to artists to capture its elusive...

Sarah Mills 20 September 2023

Winterfled Diptych: Mary Magdalene Raised by Angels WTF Art History

Why Is She So Hairy? Iconography of Mary Magdalene

Whenever I come across Gothic or early Renaissance representations of Mary Magdalene I always ask myself this question – why is she so hairy? Keep...

Magda Michalska 19 September 2023

Sculpture

Donatello’s Mary Magdalene: Penitence and Salvation

Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi, better known as Donatello, was a sculptor born around 1386 in Florence, which is also the city in which he died in...

Soledad Castillo Jara 19 September 2023

Nike of Samothrace, ca 200-175 BCE, Parian and Lartian marble, Paleopoli, Samothrace, Greece, Musée du Louvre, Paris, France. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Nike of Samothrace

Nike of Samothrace is the masterpiece of an unknown Hellenistic artist. While the artist’s story may be unknown, the statue’s story is as complex...

James W Singer 18 September 2023

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 18 September 2023

Ancient Art

Have You Ever Seen Ancient Sculptures’ Colors?

We admire the beauty and plasticity of ancient sculptures, how harmoniously they fit into the surrounding landscape. But we rarely ask ourselves the...

Elizaveta Ermakova 18 September 2023

Ancient Rome

How to Identify a Roman Emperor by His Beard

How many times have you walked into a museum full of statues or busts and not been able to tell one ancient sculpture from another? It can be...

Lauren Dorsey 18 September 2023