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

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

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: 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

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

Masterpiece Story: View from Cookham Bridge by Stanley Spencer

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

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 painting The Metlac Ravine looks just like a huge postcard from the past. It captures the monumental nature of the southern, coastal state of...

Alicja Gluszek 7 July 2019

Masterpiece Stories

Painting of the Week: Masaccio, The Tribute Money

There are many artists and paintings which I return to over and over again. Artists like Giotto, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Vermeer, van Eyck, Cassatt,...

Rachel Witte 9 June 2019

Masterpiece Stories

Painting of the Week: Tarsila do Amaral, Abaporú

Abaporú: a painting that was a birthday gift from a wife to a husband, from Tarsila do Amaral to Oswaldo de Andrade. This work was a symbol of the...

Alicja Gluszek 12 May 2019

Masterpiece Stories

Painting of the Week: Albert Eckhout, Mameluca Woman

For readers in the northern hemisphere, spring has just begun. For those of us in the southern half of the globe, it’s the fall that presents...

Rute Ferreira 28 April 2019