European Art

Painting

The History of Amedeo Modigliani’s Portraits

Amedeo Modigliani painted so many portraits of women – especially nude ones – that people began to see him as a reckless playboy, an image that...

Pola Otterstein 24 January 2023

Manet and Saint Francis Impressionism

What Do Édouard Manet and Saint Francis Have in Common?

Édouard Manet once remarked: “I should like to be the Saint Francis of still life.” While the comparisons between Manet and Saint Francis may...

Marta Loza 23 January 2023

Renaissance

Carlo Crivelli – Enigmatic Renaissance Trickster

We know very little about the life of Carlo Crivelli. The basics of life and death, and little else. We do have a collection of awe-inspiring works,...

Candy Bedworth 23 January 2023

Impressionism

10 Best Portraits by Édouard Manet

Édouard Manet is known as one of the most controversial artists of his time. Highly criticized for his realism and for depicting modern life scenes...

Zuzanna Stańska 23 January 2023

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: The Railway by Édouard Manet

In 1873 when this painting was created by the Realist master Édouard Manet, the Gare Saint–Lazare was the largest and busiest train station in...

Zuzanna Stańska 23 January 2023

Pieter van Aelst, Christ's Charge to Peter, from the Acts of the Apostles Renaissance

Renaissance Tapestries 101: Religious, Political, and Magical

Renaissance tapestries are the most underestimated subject in art history. As expensive and enormously large works of art, tapestries attributed to...

Anna Ingram 23 January 2023

Ice Skaters in Painting Sport

Ice Skaters in Painting

Some time ago I went to the ice rink and I realized again how fun it is to glide and feel light (or very heavy when you fall). So I thought it would...

Magda Michalska 21 January 2023

Animals

The World of Animals Created by Hans Hoffmann

Hans Hoffmann was a 16th-century German painter and draftsman. He was an artist in the court of Rudolph II (the one who loved arts and was probably...

Zuzanna Stańska 19 January 2023

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 19 January 2023

Fashion

Dressed in a Masterpiece: Sonia Delaunay and Her Wearable Art

Sonia Delaunay was a Ukrainian-born French artist and fashion designer, who spent most of her working life in Paris. Along with her husband, Robert...

Zuzanna Stańska 18 January 2023

Women Artists

A 1920s Art Party with Tamara de Lempicka

Let’s imagine a glamorous party in the 1920s – and our host is the grand Tamara de Lempicka! We can hear jazz playing in the background and see...

Marija Canjuga 18 January 2023

Surrealism

(Sur)reality in the Photography of Kati Horna

Kati Horna (1912-2000) photographed both the real world and the surreal. She was a modern photographer who used her camera to document a civil war...

Natalia Tiberio 17 January 2023