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Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: The Merode Altarpiece by Robert Campin

The Merode Altarpiece is one of the most famous works by Robert Campin and his workshop. It serves as a link between the medieval tradition and...

Alexandra Kiely 21 March 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Isenheim Altarpiece – Polyptych About Pain and Passion

Isenheim Altarpiece by Matthias Grünewald is a polyptych about pain and passion. It’s a complex piece consisting of several parts and sections,...

Magda Michalska 21 March 2024

Jan van Eyck, Ghent Altarpiece, 1432, detail Masterpiece Stories

Ghent Altarpiece: The Charmed Life of the Mystic Lamb

Come with us to visit the Van Eyck brothers, their monumental Ghent Altarpiece, and explore 500 years of intrigue, theft and revolutionary painting techniques.

Candy Bedworth 21 March 2024

Women Artists

Polina Raiko, The Self-Taught Folk Artist Who Turned Tragedy to Triumph

In 1998, for the first time ever, Polina Raiko (1928-2004), a 69-year-old woman who had spent almost her entire life as a wife, mother, and farmer,...

Adam Oestreich 20 March 2024

Hermenegildo Bustos. Hermenegildo Bustos, Self-portrait, 1891, Museo Nacional de Arte, Mexico City, Mexico. Detail. Artist Stories

Hermenegildo Bustos: Self-Taught Painter of the People

Hermenegildo Bustos was one of Mexico’s most renowned painters of the 19th century. Despite the lack of Academic training, his portraits stood out...

Jimena Escoto 20 March 2024

Artist Stories

The Story of Nikifor, Polish-Lemko Naïve Painter

“Epifaniusz Drowniak” is now a household name in Polish naïve art and, arguably, across Europe alongside painters such as Henri...

Katarzyna Waszak 20 March 2024

Artist Stories

Morris Hirshfield and His Bizarre Animals

It is a common opinion that if you would like to start a career in arts, you should begin as early as possible. But talent knows no boundaries, and...

Zuzanna Stańska 20 March 2024

European Art

Queen Elizabeth I – Portraits of the Last Tudor

Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) was the only surviving child of King Henry VIII of England and his second wife Anne Boleyn. Being a girl was hard...

Sarah Mills 20 March 2024

Rococo

Masterpiece Story: Marriage A-la-Mode by William Hogarth

The 18th-century British painter William Hogarth created an insightful series of paintings about the arranged marriages of his times, entitled...

Pola Otterstein 19 March 2024

Reluctant Bride. Auguste Toulmouche, The Reluctant Bride, 1866, Private collection. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: The Reluctant Bride by Auguste Toulmouche

Have you ever seen a bride more… angry? Should this not be the happiest day of her life? The Reluctant Bride or The Hesitant Fiancée by Auguste...

Jimena Escoto 19 March 2024

Women Artists

Alexandra Exter: Multi-Talented Cubo-Futurist in Paris

Alexandra Exter was a painter and designer of the Russian and Ukrainian avant-garde. Her work isn’t limited to just one genre or movement. She was...

Errika Gerakiti 19 March 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: The Major’s Marriage Proposal by Pavel Fedotov

When you think of 19th-century Russia, images of Anna Karenina with black furs and white diamonds may come to mind. The lives of the wealthy...

James W Singer 19 March 2024