Masterpiece Story: Portrait of Virginia Woolf by Vanessa Bell
Rebellious, creative and productive. Three of the so many adjectives to depict the two very intelligent artists sisters Vanessa Bell and Virginia...
Merve Parla 21 March 2025
Masterpiece Stories
Masterpiece Story: Tamara de Lempicka’s Autoportrait (Tamara in a Green Bugatti)
Heralded as one of the greatest Polish artists of all time, Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980) painted the aristocracy in France and the United States in...
Isabella Hill 18 March 2025
Masterpiece Story: The Sentry by Carel Fabritius
Carel Fabritius (Dutch, 1622–1654) died at age 32 in a gunpowder explosion in Delft, a disaster that presumably destroyed many of his paintings. We...
Tom Anderson 17 March 2025
Masterpiece Story: Reclining Mother and Child II by Paula Modersohn-Becker
Does any image say primal love more than this powerful painting by Paula Modersohn-Becker? It is an artwork that includes not just children but also...
Candy Bedworth 16 March 2025
Masterpiece Story: Portrait of Madeleine by Marie-Guillemine Benoist
What is the message behind Marie-Guillemine Benoist’s Portrait of Madeleine? The history and tradition behind this 1800 painting might explain...
Jimena Escoto 16 March 2025
Masterpiece Story: The Game of Chess by Sofonisba Anguissola
Sofonisba Anguissola is known for her self-portraits and portraits of Spanish royalty. But her most provocative painting is perhaps The Game of...
Anna Ingram 16 March 2025
Masterpiece Story: Elisabeth of Valois by Sofonisba Anguissola
The portrait of Elisabeth of Valois by Sofonisba Anguissola depicts a beautiful young Queen of Spain. However, while the imagery is intriguing, the...
Anna Ingram 16 March 2025
Masterpiece Story: Little Girl in a Blue Armchair by Mary Cassatt
Mary Stevenson Cassatt was an American painter and printmaker. She lived much of her adult life in France, where she became friends with Edgar Degas...
Zuzanna Stańska 16 March 2025
Constructing Racism in Western Art – Hans Makart and the Case of Cleopatra
When Netflix cast Black actress Adele James as Cleopatra in a docu-series on the life of the famous Egyptian queen, the world went viral in a heated...
Kero Fichter 11 March 2025
Masterpiece Story: Cleopatra by Alexandre Cabanel
Queen Cleopatra is a popular subject today – as she was in the late 19th century. Alexandre Cabanel’s Cleopatra explores a single moment of her...
James W Singer 11 March 2025
Masterpiece Story: The Death of Cleopatra by Edmonia Lewis
As a Black and Indigenous woman, Edmonia Lewis overcame prejudice and defied societal expectations to become a successful sculptor. Her Death of...
Catriona Miller 11 March 2025
Masterpiece Story: Still Life with Flowers in an Alabaster Vase and Fruit by Anne Vallayer-Coster
Still Life with Flowers in an Alabaster Vase and Fruit by Anne Vallayer-Coster is a masterpiece of the still-life genre, 18th-century French art, and...
James W Singer, 9 March 2025
