European Art

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: L.H.O.O.Q. by Marcel Duchamp

This masterpiece, L.H.O.O.Q. (La Joconde), is all about codes, reversals, play with conventions, and provocation. In other words, it’s an epitome...

Magda Michalska 13 October 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Leonidas at Thermopylae by Jacques-Louis David

Whether you are within an academic environment or at a coffee shop, when the term “Neoclassicism” and its huge influence on the visual arts...

Erol Degirmenci 13 October 2024

Remedios Varo, An unexpected visit, 1958. Women Artists

Remedios Varo: Spanish Painter of Magic

Remedios Varo (1908-1963) was a 20th-century Surrealist painter. Born in Spain, she was forced to move to France and Mexico to escape the Spanish...

Jimena Escoto 11 October 2024

Mother's Day Quiz, Leonora Carrington, Self-Portrait, 1938-1939, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, NY, USA. Surrealism

Leonora Carrington and Her Surrealist Life in Her Own Words

Leonora Carrington (1917-2011) is considered one of the greatest but most neglected British Surrealists. Her life story is a fascinating one: she...

Magda Michalska 11 October 2024

Surrealism

Leonor Fini: I’m Not a Muse, I’m an Artist

Leonor Fini didn’t agree with André Breton about the role of women in art: the father of Surrealism saw women solely as muses inspiring male...

Magda Michalska 11 October 2024

Artist Stories

Art Saved My Life! An Alternative Look at Vincent van Gogh’s Mental Health

Post-Impressionist Vincent van Gogh is as famous for his mysterious death as for his iconic and expressive use of line and color. Did unbridled...

Candy Bedworth 10 October 2024

Photography

The True Star of Early Photography: Virginia Oldoini

Virginia Elisabetta Luisa Antonietta Teresa Maria Oldoini – in short, Countess of Castiglione – was a real celebrity of her times. I imagine that...

Zuzanna Stańska 9 October 2024

Art State of Mind

Tableaux Vivants: A Long History of Recreating Art

A fanciful costume, a theatrical pose, the right light… and for a few seconds the viewer is immersed in a “living picture.” You have probably...

Guest Author 9 October 2024

Photography

Paris Through the Lens of Early Photographers

Paris is a centuries-old city which witnessed many ground-breaking moments. One of them was the first photograph of a living human being ever taken!...

Magda Michalska 9 October 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Portrait of Gabrielle d’Estrées and One of Her Sisters

To a 21st-century viewer, the portrait of Gabrielle d’Estrées might seem homo-erotic. However, pictured with her sister, the Duchess of Villars,...

Anna Ingram 8 October 2024

Caravaggio Amor, Amor Vincit Omnia, ca. 1601 Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Amor Vincit Omnia by Caravaggio

Virgil’s famous saying amor vincit omnia means “love conquers all.” Famous Baroque painter, Caravaggio, clearly inspired by the famous sentence...

Zuzanna Stańska 8 October 2024

Art Travels

Did You Know That Henri Matisse Went to Morocco?

The first things that come to one’s mind when one thinks of Henri Matisse are France, Fauvism, raw shapes, and colors. But never Morocco! Why not?...

Yahya Bensouda 7 October 2024