WTF Art History

Sculpture

10 Powerful Mother Goddess Sculptures

The fearsome Great Mother is an archetype appearing in all cultures and all times. Here are our top 10 powerful mother goddess sculptures!

Candy Bedworth 27 March 2025

Edward Weston, Cabbage Leaf, 1931, Private Collection, Wikimedia. Painting

The Cabbage Chronicles: From Still Life to Surreal Dreams

Cabbage—it’s not just for coleslaw and questionable soups. This leafy legend has been making waves in art history for centuries, captured in...

Joanna Kaszubowska 24 March 2025

Love Story

The Love of Ida Rubinstein and Romaine Brooks

Being a bisexual woman at the beginning of the 20th century was difficult. They were looked down on, they were scorned and discussed behind their...

Magda Michalska 21 March 2025

Women Artists

A 1920s Art Party with Tamara de Lempicka

Let’s imagine a glamorous party in the 1920s – and our host is the grand Tamara de Lempicka! We can hear jazz playing in the background and see...

Marija Canjuga 18 March 2025

Jane Morris Love Story

Jane Morris: A Pre-Raphaelite Artist and Muse

Jane Morris (1839-1914) was an English embroiderer and artists’ model who embodied the Pre-Raphaelite ideal of beauty. She was a model and muse to...

Marija Canjuga 12 March 2025

Alexandre Cabanel, Cleopatra, 1887, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp, Belgium. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Cleopatra by Alexandre Cabanel

Queen Cleopatra is a popular subject today – as she was in the late 19th century. Alexandre Cabanel’s Cleopatra explores a single moment of her...

James W Singer 11 March 2025

Long Read

Feminae Gravidae: Pregnancy in Art

While the imagery of women and children is greatly depicted throughout the history of art, pregnancy is much more of a rare sight. Some blame the...

Caroline Galambosova 10 March 2025

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Still Life with Mackerel by Anne Vallayer-Coster

Anne Vallayer-Coster was one of the foremost still-life painters in 18th-century France. She was enormously prolific and extremely popular. Her works...

James W Singer 9 March 2025

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: A Gentleman’s Table by Claude Raguet Hirst

A Gentleman’s Table by Claude Raguet Hirst is a mysterious painting that echoes the realism of Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins, and Henry Ossawa...

James W Singer 9 March 2025

Literature

Book Review: Sofonisba, Portraits of the Soul

Sofonisba, Portraits of the Soul is a book by Chiara Montani about the life and work of the Italian artist Sofonisba Anguissola. Sofonisba was an...

Errika Gerakiti 7 March 2025

Women Artists

Sylvia Sleigh—A Woman Who Slayed Male Nudes

Sylvia Sleigh was beautiful inside out—brave and independent, she pursued her figurative style which was regarded as outmoded in the years of Pop...

Magda Michalska 5 March 2025

Art State of Mind

The Origin of the World and the Female Gaze

It was Shakespeare who coined the phrase, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet”. The premise rests on the notion that the...

Guest Author 5 March 2025