#19th Century

anna ancher Vaccination: Anna Ancher, A Vaccination, 1899. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: A Vaccination by Anna Ancher

Anna Ancher’s painting A Vaccination underlines the importance of vaccines for the community and how children are key elements in public health. It...

Camilla de Laurentis 30 March 2025

Impressionism

Slava Raškaj: The Story of a Deaf Impressionist

In the final years of the 19th century, the art scene in Zagreb, Croatia, was pretty vibrant. The various ideas that circulated among artists...

Lana Pajdas 25 March 2025

Women Artists

Olga Boznańska: The Uneasy Story of a Polish Painter

Olga Boznańska was one of the most famous Polish female painters. Her multiple portraits of fragile women and children are permeated with notes of...

Magda Michalska, Aniela Rybak-Vaganay 25 March 2025

Women Artists

The Divine Sarah: Sarah Bernhardt, The First Artist Superstar

While we are all familiar with celebrity culture and can recognize all of the Kardashians by their silhouettes, the idea of ‘celebrity’ is not a...

Wendy Gray 21 March 2025

Kiyohara Tama:Japanese Landscape, c. 1880, Gallery of Modern Art, Palermo, Italy. Women Artists

Kiyohara Tama or Eleonora Ragusa: An Amazing Story About a Japanese Female Painter in Sicily

When tracing Japanese art stories in Europe, we found out about this exquisite female painter. Kiyohara Tama or Otama (later known as Eleonora...

Magda Michalska 20 March 2025

Susie M. Barstow, Mountain Lake in Autumn, 1873, private collection via Thomas Cole National Historic Site Review

Redefining the Hudson River School: Susie Barstow’s First-Ever Biography

During her lifetime, the American landscape artist Susie Barstow (1836-1923) was nationally renowned and commercially successful. So why don’t...

Emily Snow 19 March 2025

Women Artists

12 Female Artists of the Hudson River School

The Hudson River School was a movement in American landscape painting being the first independent artistic tradition in the country. It was very...

Alexandra Kiely 19 March 2025

Portrait of Madeleine. Marie-Guillemine Benoist, Portrait of Madeleine, 1800, Musée du Louvre, Paris, France. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Portrait of Madeleine by Marie-Guillemine Benoist

What is the message behind Marie-Guillemine Benoist’s Portrait of Madeleine? The history and tradition behind this 1800 painting might explain...

Jimena Escoto 16 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

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

Women Artists

Mary Cassatt’s Feminist Mural Which Has Gone Missing

Mary Cassatt was a well-known Impressionist who often illustrated motherhood and traditional female activities in the 19th century. When she was 50,...

Magda Michalska 4 March 2025