Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Stories

Painting of the Week: Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Landscape with the Fall of Icarus

A ploughman is plowing the lands, a shepherd is watching over his sheep, an angler is fishing. The ships are sailing to unknown lands, a partridge is...

Zuzanna Stańska 1 March 2020

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: The Monkey Painter by Jean-Baptiste Chardin

It’s tacky! It’s funny! It’s weird! Yes, Jean-Baptiste Chardin’s The Monkey Painter is definitely not what you would consider in good taste.

James W Singer 26 January 2020

Masterpiece Stories

Painting of the Week: Arthur Hughes, April Love

Today’s Painting of the Week is April Love, 1855-1856, Arthur Hughes’ most celebrated artwork that embodies Pre-Raphaelites’...

Arianna Richetti 5 January 2020

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Fowling in the Marshes

Ancient Egypt. The famous land of Tutankhamun evokes popular images of pyramids, mummies, and tombs. It left an artistic heritage that is still...

James W Singer 1 December 2019

Masterpiece Stories

Painting of the Week: Francisco Toledo, Frog

This is an unusual watercolor diptych by the late Mexican artist Francisco Toledo, who died this year. The work encompasses two totally opposite...

Alicja Gluszek 24 November 2019

Masterpiece Stories

Painting of the Week: John William Waterhouse, The Lady of Shallot

Elaine, the white lady of Shallot’s island, portrayed by John William Waterhouse is locked in a tower where she is only able to see the world...

Guest Profile 10 November 2019

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: The First Cloud by Sir William Orchardson

At first glance, Sir William Orchardson’s The First Cloud is a late Victorian domestic scene that appears to be tranquil, refined, and placid.

James W Singer 3 November 2019

Masterpiece Stories

Painting of the Week: Stanley Spencer, View from Cookham Bridge

Stanley Spencer described the village of Cookham, as a ‘village in heaven’. In his unique paintings Spencer often intertwined Cookham with his...

Hannah Demaine 22 September 2019

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Três Orixás by Djanira da Motta e Silva

Djanira da Motta e Silva pictured a very unusual Holy Trinity made of three deities from the Afro-Brazilian Pantheon. They are accompanied by...

Alicja Gluszek 25 August 2019

Masterpiece Stories

Painting of the Week: Miguel Covarrubias, The Mexican Street Scene

An ordinary, rather empty street in the Mexican countryside. Two people. In the center, a woman with closed eyes, covered by a blue shawl. Pensive.

Alicja Gluszek 14 July 2019

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: The Metlac Ravine by José María Velasco

The Metlac Ravine is like a huge postcard sent in the past that captures the monumental nature of the southern, coastal state of Mexico-Veracruz and...

Alicja Gluszek 7 July 2019

Masterpiece Stories

Painting of the Week: Eduardo Paolozzi, I was a Rich Man’s Plaything

Eduardo Paolozzi’s 1947 collage I was a Rich Man’s Plaything, which can be seen in the Tate Modern in London, was one of the first works...

Chris Dobson 16 June 2019