Latest

Long Read

9 Shakespeare Paintings by John Everett Millais

Back in 1590, when Henry IV first appeared on stage, Shakespeare could not have foreseen the popularity of his creations. The appeal of characters...

Ledys Chemin, 3 November 2025

mushroom art Dine & Wine

Fantastic Fungi: The Tastiest Mushroom Art

Autumn is a real mushroom season, so let’s have a look at some tasty, quirky and trippy fungi paintings that will inspire you to go mushroom...

Magda Michalska 3 November 2025

North American Art

The True Story of Pocahontas Shown in Art History

If you ask any kid in America who Elizabeth Cady Stanton was, you’ll probably get a silent stare. Mention Pocahontas and the majority will light up...

Cecilia Dancourt 3 November 2025

Asian Art

The Beauty of Folding Screens: Namban Byōbu of Japan

Masterfully crafted into hinged leaves and enclosed within a lacquer frame, the Japanese Namban folding screens, or the Namban byōbu, contain a...

Maya M. Tola 3 November 2025

North American Art

Karl Bodmer’s Portraits of Native Americans

The 2021 Karl Bodmer: North American Portraits exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City showcased compelling 19th-century...

Alexandra Kiely 3 November 2025

Japanese woodblock prints Asian Art

How Japanese Woodcuts Were Made

Hokusai’s Great Wave from the series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji and Hiroshige’s The Plum Garden in Kameido from One Hundred Famous Views of...

Irina Diana Calu 3 November 2025

Frants Henningsen, Funeral, 1883, National Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Funeral by Frants Henningsen

Funeral by Frants Henningsen is a Danish masterpiece of emotions. It examines the different psychological reactions to love, loss, and...

James W Singer 2 November 2025

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Abbey in the Oakwood by Caspar David Friedrich

Sadness and desolation fill this scene like an oppressive melancholy. The sun is dying behind the horizon as fog enshrouds the ground. Skeletal trees...

James W Singer 1 November 2025

Henry Fuseli, The Nightmare, 1781, The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI, USA. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: The Nightmare by Henry Fuseli

What a horror spectacle! Some dark, irrational forces must be at play here. Henry Fuseli painted The Nightmare in 1781. It is probably his most...

Ruxi Rusu 31 October 2025

Bizarre

Art Only Exists Because Death Exists: Skulls in Art

Dia De Los Muertos is celebrated every year across Mexico. A far cry from the Western commercial horror-fest of Halloween, it is a glorious...

Candy Bedworth 31 October 2025

Romanticism

6 Shades of Romantic Creepiness in Caspar David Friedrich’s Paintings

Caspar David Friedrich was a master of romantic atmosphere. Gothic ruins, contemplative figures silhouetted against skies and morning mists were his...

Zuzanna Stańska 31 October 2025

WTF Art History

The Evolution of Halloween Aesthetics

When you picture Halloween, a flood of familiar images rushes in: glowing jack-o’-lanterns, fluttering bats, skeletons, and black cats. But the...

Errika Gerakiti 31 October 2025