Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Woman at Her Toilette by Berthe Morisot

Berthe Morisot was closely associated with French Impressionism and actively participated in seven out of eight group exhibitions. She maintained...

Zuzanna Stańska 14 January 2026

Berthe Morisot, Summer's Day Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Summer’s Day by Berthe Morisot

Berthe Morisot was at the centre of Impressionism during the 1870s and 1880s and works like Summer’s Day seem utterly characteristic of the...

Catriona Miller 13 January 2026

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Rainy Season in the Tropics by Frederic Edwin Church

In our Masterpiece Stories series we have something truly beautiful for you. I want to discuss Rainy Season in the Tropics by Frederic Edwin Church,...

Zuzanna Stańska 12 January 2026

Caravaggio, Cardsharps, ca 1596-1597, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX, USA. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: The Cardsharps by Caravaggio

The Cardsharps is an early masterpiece of Baroque art by Caravaggio that explores the revolutionary theme of crooked card playing. Let’s delve...

James W Singer 11 January 2026

Rembrandt van Rijn, Saskia van Uylenburgh as Flora Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Saskia as Flora by Rembrandt

Rembrandt van Rijn married Saskia van Uylenburgh in 1634. They were together for only eight years before she died after childbirth, probably from...

Catriona Miller 11 January 2026

Georges de La Tour, The Fortune Teller Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Fortune Teller by Georges de La Tour

The Fortune Teller is one of Georges de La Tour’s early masterpieces. The Baroque oil painting, once questioned by the Louvre Museum for its...

Anna Ingram 11 January 2026

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Children Eating Grapes and a Melon by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo

Children Eating Grapes and a Melon, currently located in the Alte Pinakothek, is one of the most famous paintings by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo. This...

Vithória Konzen Dill 11 January 2026

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Young Bacchus by Mary Beale

Mary Beale is a rarity: a prolific, well-documented, successful, 17th-century woman artist. Her painting of Young Bacchus perfectly illustrates how...

Catriona Miller 11 January 2026

Painting

The Fantastic Four QUIZ! Af Klint, Kandinsky, Mondrian, Malevich—Whose Work Is It?

Catherine Razafindralambo 10 January 2026

Vassily Kandinsky, Bleu de ciel, 1940, Musée National d'Art Modern, Paris, France (Detail) Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Sky Blue by Wassily Kandinsky

As Europe burned during WWII, Wassily Kandinsky, who had fled Nazi Germany in 1933, lived as a recluse in his Neuilly-sur-Seine apartment. In that...

Javier Abel Miguel 8 January 2026

Ancient Egypt

The Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut in Egypt

Hatshepsut (c. 1507-1458 B.C.E.) was the fifth pharaoh of Egypt’s 18th Dynasty and arguably the most important among ancient Egypt’s many female...

Maya M. Tola 7 January 2026

A painting showing four isolated individuals sitting in a diner on a deserted street corner in the late hours. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Nighthawks by Edward Hopper

Edward Hopper was one of America’s most celebrated artists, renowned for delving into themes of loneliness and isolation in both urban and...

Nikolina Konjevod 4 January 2026