Special

Ten Symbols of Longevity, Joseon Dynasty, ca 1866-1910, ink and color on silk, Ewha Womans University Museum, Seoul, South Korea. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Ten Symbols of Longevity

Ten Symbols of Longevity is a landscape masterpiece of Korean art. It is a beautiful world filled with earthly perfection and cosmic energy. The...

James W Singer 20 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

Art Travels

Landscape Painters, National Parks, and the American West in Art

The US National Parks are natural and man-made monuments legally set aside for protection and public enjoyment. Yellowstone became the first National...

Alexandra Kiely 20 September 2023

Masterpiece Stories

Travel to the Heart of the Andes with Frederic Edwin Church

Heart of the Andes is one truly impressive landscape painting. Frederic Edwin Church’s crowning achievement depicts the scenery he saw during his...

Alexandra Kiely 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

indian partition Asian Art

Pritika Chowdhry: Evoking the History of the Indian Partition

The narrative of the Indian partition lingers in the secluded corners of memory and experience. The partition of India and Pakistan, and later...

Urvi Chheda 18 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

Cecilia Beaux, Twilight Confidences, 1888. Women Artists

Cecilia Beaux in 10 Paintings

American painter Cecilia Beaux (1855-1942) cannot be neatly pigeonholed into any artistic category. Rather, she sits at a curious intersection...

Natalia Iacobelli 18 September 2023

Photograph of Vinnie Ream taken between 1866 and 1876. Source. Detail. Women Artists

Vinnie Ream: Should a Teenage Girl Sculpt Abraham Lincoln?

Vinnie Ream became the first woman to win a US government commission for a statue in 1866—at the age of 18! She created a life-sized figure of...

Kathie Manthorne 18 September 2023

Ancient Greece

Timeless Beauty: Ancient Greek Athletes in Art

The idea of timeless beauty is fascinating. Also, it’s a great concern for lovers of art history. Conceptions of beauty in Western art history...

Isla Phillips-Ewen 18 September 2023