Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Gallant Conversation by Gerard ter Borch

Gallant Conversation by Gerard ter Borch is a genre painting filled with a mysterious narrative. What are the three people doing? Why are they in a...

James W Singer 8 December 2024

Baroque

The Veiled Christ: Art or Alchemy?

In the nave of the Sansevero Chapel in Naples there is a unique sculpture depicting Jesus after the crucifixion. His body is covered with a thin...

Rachel Istvan 5 December 2024

Hokusai Great Wave, Katsushika Hokusai, Under the Wave off Kanagawa, Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, ca. 1830-1832, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA. Asian Art

Hokusai’s Great Wave Explained

You might not know the title of Hokusai’s print, but Under the Wave off Kanagawa is almost instantly recognizable. His Great Wave reveals...

Marina Kochetkova 25 November 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Sailboats by Lyonel Feininger

Cubism – the word instantly evokes images of Picasso and his figures with multiple noses. However, there is more than just Picasso who excels in...

James W Singer 24 November 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Trouville, Jetties, High Tide by Eugène Boudin

Eugène Boudin could be considered one of the fathers of Impressionism. It was he who met and influenced a young Claude Monet in 1858 with his...

James W Singer 24 November 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Kingston Point, Hudson River by Francis A. Silva

The wind gently blows on the water of the lapping shore, and the light gently glows on the sailcloth of the floating boat. All is gentleness and...

James W Singer 24 November 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: The Treachery of Images by René Magritte

As you can see, this painting depicts a pipe. Underneath it, there is a French sentence that says “This is not a pipe”. You may ask, what...

Zuzanna Stańska 21 November 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Pilgrimage to the Isle of Cythera by Jean-Antoine Watteau

Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684–1721) was the most influential French painter of the 18th century. His painting Pilgrimage to the Isle of Cythera...

James W Singer 17 November 2024

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: 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

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: Two African Men by Rembrandt van Rijn

In the discourse on the Black presence in Western history, it is taken for granted that Africans in art represented solely enslaved people, and their...

Nicole Ganbold 3 November 2024