Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Stories

Painting of the Week: James Barry, King Lear Weeping over the Dead Body of Cordelia

King Lear by William Shakespeare is a great tragedy that centers around ideas such as loyalty, familial bonds, and remorse. The painter of this work,...

Merve Parla 29 November 2020

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story for All Saints: A Burial at Ornans by Gustave Courbet

Who nowadays doesn’t appreciate Gustave Courbet‘s striking realism? We all do, but as happens with many geniuses, Courbet was not...

Magda Michalska 1 November 2020

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Perseus Rescuing Andromeda by Cavaliere d’Arpino

The roar of the sea monster blends with the screams of the scared princess! The chained beauty awaits her bloody death as the ugly beast lurches...

James W Singer 25 October 2020

Masterpiece Stories

Painting of the Week: Fragment of a Floor Mosaic with a Personification of Ktisis

The bejeweled woman from the mosaic, holding the measuring tool for the Roman foot, is identified by the restored Greek inscription as Ktisis. She is...

Zuzanna Stańska 18 October 2020

Masterpiece Stories

Painting of the Week: Firs Zhuravlev, A Fashionista Wife

Firs Zhuravlev’s realistic paintings show all aspects of Russian life. And we can imagine the scene from the picture A Fashionista Wife in the...

Elizaveta Ermakova 20 September 2020

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Saint Anne

To the south of Egypt is the mysterious land of Nubia. It has a complex history due to the different states and religions that have occupied the...

James W Singer 16 August 2020

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: The Death of Barbara Radziwiłł by Józef Simmler

The National Museum in Warsaw is one of the largest museums in Poland and boasts an extensive art collection. Among its body of works is The Death of...

James W Singer 2 August 2020

Masterpiece Stories

Painting of the Week: Thomas Lawrence, Julia, Lady Peel

When I saw the portrait of Julia, Lady Peel by Sir Thomas Lawrence in the Frick Collection, I was intrigued by the artwork. There is a...

Marina Kochetkova 5 July 2020

Masterpiece Stories

Painting of the Week: Jean-Léon Gérôme, Truth Coming Out of Her Well

A fair-skinned woman, nude. Mouth open in either shock, rage, or maybe even disgust, as she emerges from a well. One leg is already draped over the...

Kristin Urban 21 June 2020

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: The Red Tower by Robert Delaunay

When people speak of Paris, images of Notre-Dame, Arc de Triomphe, and Musée du Louvre flash into the imagination. And for good reason, as they are...

James W Singer 31 May 2020

Masterpiece Stories

Portrait of Sofonisba Anguissola by Anthony Van Dyck

Anthony van Dyck was a Flemish painter who was born in Antwerp (Spanish Netherlands, now Belgium) in 1599 and passed away in London in 1641. From...

Soledad Castillo Jara 26 April 2020

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: The Major’s Marriage Proposal by Pavel Fedotov

When you think of 19th-century Russia, images of Anna Karenina with black furs and white diamonds may come to mind. The lives of the wealthy...

James W Singer 5 April 2020