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Art State of Mind

Artistic Families: Does Having an Artist Parent Seal Your Fate?

Imagine growing up with an artist mother or father. Watching them create art or making work together could spark your artistic passion. And,...

Marga Patterson 22 January 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi by Angelica Kauffman

Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi by Angelica Kauffman shows a pretty Roman woman and her three children. But it’s much more than that. It has an...

Alexandra Kiely 21 January 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: The Roses of Heliogabalus by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema

Lust, Gluttony, and Sloth. Three of the Seven Deadly Sins are depicted in Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema’s The Roses of Heliogabalus. Many other sins are...

James W Singer 21 January 2024

Ancient Rome

Masterpiece Story: Mithras Slaying the Bull

Mithras Slaying the Bull is a compilation of the entire religious and symbolic images of Mithraism. It reflects promised immortality and personal...

James W Singer 21 January 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Still Life with a Golden Goblet by Pieter de Ring

Why is food such a popular image for art and culture? For millennia it has been a source of inspiration from ancient Roman mosaics through Dutch...

James W Singer 20 January 2024

Baroque

Beautiful Chinese Porcelain in Dutch Still Lifes

Chinese culture has always been an object of European fascination – in art history, we see it in paintings, ornaments, architecture, fashion, and...

Nicole Ganbold 20 January 2024

Baroque

The Best of Dutch Still Life: 6 Famous Painters

In the art world, it is commonly agreed upon that still life painting as a genre rose in the Netherlands in the last quarter of the 16th century. The...

Irina Diana Calu 20 January 2024

Artist Stories

Jean Cocteau – Prince of Parisian Bohème

Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (1889-1963) was a prince of bohème. A significant figure in the European art of the 20th century, Cocteau...

Valeria Kumekina 18 January 2024

Johannes Vermeer, View of Delft, 1660-1661, Mauritshuis, The Hage, Netherlands Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: View of Delft by Johannes Vermeer

Between 1660 and 1661, Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer created three paintings of his hometown, Delft. These are The Little Street, the now-lost...

Javier Abel Miguel 18 January 2024

Kūka’ilimoku, ca 1795-1822, ʻŌhiʻa lehua Wood, Kawaihae, Hawai’i, British Museum, London, UK. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Kūka’ilimoku

Kūka’ilimoku is a masterpiece of Hawaiian art. It is an artistic icon of Hawai’i, Polynesia, and Oceania. With so little Oceanic art displayed...

James W Singer 18 January 2024

quiz women artists Georgia O'Keefe, 1939, private collection. Detail. Museum Stories

Georgia O’Keeffe in Hawaii – Voyage for Pineapples and Artistic Freedom

Georgia O’Keeffe traveled to Hawaii for three months in 1939, leaving on January and returning in April. She was not on vacation, even though she...

Howard Schwartz 18 January 2024

Art State of Mind

Taking the Perfect Selfie: Tips from Best Self-Portraits in Art History

To pout or not to pout… that is the question.  From smolders to smiles, duck faces to dog ears, in the age of front-facing phone cameras there...

Tony Heathfield 17 January 2024