WTF Art History

Dine & Wine

Meet Asparagus, The King of Vegetables! Not Just for Vegetarians

The season for asparagus is very short as it starts around the 23rd of April (St George’s Day) and lasts only until June. Its special qualities and...

Magda Michalska 16 October 2024

Dine & Wine

The Best Autumn Foods in Still Life Paintings

I love everything about autumn – the cool, crisp air, the warm sweaters, the sense that the holiday season will soon arrive. But most of all, I...

Alexandra Kiely 16 October 2024

Dine & Wine

This Article Is Only About Cheese in Painting

This article is best enjoyed with blue cheese fondue, a cheesecake, toast with butter and cheese, some nice onion soup with cheddar, a cheese muffin,...

Magda Michalska 16 October 2024

Halloween costume. Left: Van Gogh and His Starry Night children costume. Left center: Ariel Adkins, Woman with a hat costume, 2017. Right center: Idigcrystals, Can’t Help Myself costume, 2022. Right: Ecce Homo costume. WTF Art History

Best Artsy Halloween Costumes

It is the time of the year to get spooky. Do you have your Halloween costume ready? The following examples used their creativity to recreate famous...

Jimena Escoto 14 October 2024

Artist Stories

Max Ernst and Birds: A Relationship Explained Through Paintings

Max Ernst (1891–1976) was a prolific German avant-garde artist. He was a pioneer in the early 20th-century movements of Dada and Surrealism and...

Anastasia Tsaleza 14 October 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: L.H.O.O.Q. by Marcel Duchamp

This masterpiece, L.H.O.O.Q. (La Joconde), is all about codes, reversals, play with conventions, and provocation. In other words, it’s an epitome...

Magda Michalska 13 October 2024

Art State of Mind

5 Positive Effects of Art on Mental Health

It is scientifically proven that art can have positive effects on our mood and can help improve our mental health. But what is it about art that...

Nina Relf 10 October 2024

Artist Stories

Art Saved My Life! An Alternative Look at Vincent van Gogh’s Mental Health

Post-Impressionist Vincent van Gogh is as famous for his mysterious death as for his iconic and expressive use of line and color. Did unbridled...

Candy Bedworth 10 October 2024

Edvard Munch, Self-Portrait with Cigarette, 1895, National Gallery of Norway, Oslo, Norway. Art State of Mind

4 Artists Who Suffered from Mental Illness (And How It Affected Their Art)

Vincent van Gogh is well-known for his iconic works, and for a particular event from his personal life: the artist spent some time in a psychiatric...

Rute Ferreira 10 October 2024

spirit victorian photography Photography

The Spectacle of Victorian Spirit Photography

Is seeing believing? In 19th-century London, this question captivated everyone who entered Frederick Hudson’s spirit photography studio—from...

Emily Snow 9 October 2024

Art State of Mind

Tableaux Vivants: A Long History of Recreating Art

A fanciful costume, a theatrical pose, the right light… and for a few seconds the viewer is immersed in a “living picture.” You have probably...

Guest Profile 9 October 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Portrait of Gabrielle d’Estrées and One of Her Sisters

To a 21st-century viewer, the portrait of Gabrielle d’Estrées might seem homo-erotic. However, pictured with her sister, the Duchess of Villars,...

Anna Ingram 8 October 2024