Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Ruins of the Château de Pierrefonds by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot

Soon after Château de Pierrefonds was displayed, Emperor Napoleon III restored the actual Château de Pierrefonds in the 1850s under the direction...

James W Singer 17 November 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: The Burghers of Calais by Auguste Rodin

Auguste Rodin’s Burghers of Calais revolutionized public sculpture and changed the way heroes were represented in art. But what made it so...

Catriona Miller 12 November 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Zeuxis Selecting Models for Helen of Troy by Angelica Kauffman

We’re all Angelicamad here! To celebrate the history painter extraordinaire Angelica Kauffman, let’s discuss her take on one of antiquity’s...

Gabrielle Stecher 11 November 2024

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 10 November 2024

Love Story

Masterpiece Story: Three Ladies Adorning a Term of Hymen by Joshua Reynolds

Three Ladies Adorning a Term of Hymen is a huge triple portrait of the Montgomery sisters by Sir Joshua Reynolds. It thematizes aristocratic marriage...

Isla Phillips-Ewen 10 November 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Grace Dalrymple Elliott by Thomas Gainsborough

The Frick Collection has an amazing ensemble of European masters. For example, works by Vermeer, Fragonard, and Goya grace its walls. Every room has...

James W Singer 10 November 2024

The Statue of Liberty, Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Statue of Liberty

On a small island just out of New York City’s harbor, Lady Liberty greets anyone arriving in the United States from the Atlantic Ocean. Over the...

Anastasia Manioudaki 7 November 2024

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 7 November 2024

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 5 November 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: The Train in the Snow by Claude Monet

Claude Monet painted The Train in the Snow in 1875. The work was not shown in the Impressionist exhibition, but it reveals Monet’s attraction to...

Zuzanna Stańska 5 November 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: The Railway Station by Alf Rolfsen

Steam, breath, and sweat combine into a pulsating cloud filling the railway station with energy and anticipation. Everyone is in motion either...

James W Singer 5 November 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Wanderer above the Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich

Autumn is nipping at the leaves, and summer’s light is waning. Grab your favorite sweater and get ready to introspect like a Romantic because...

Coleman Richards 4 November 2024