#art patronage

Art History 101

Artist and Patron – Friend or Foe?

Since ancient times, patrons have played a vital role in art history. Patronage can be found almost everywhere – in Europe, feudal Japan, and...

Candy Bedworth 7 August 2023

Louisine Havemeyer Mary Cassatt Impressionism

Louisine Havemeyer and Her Modern Art Collection

A great pioneering art collector, Louisine Havemeyer (1855–1929), was the first American to patronize the French Impressionists. Together with her...

Alexandra Kiely 29 July 2023

Impressionism

The Dazzling Davies Sisters and Their Impressionist Art Collection

The Davies sisters grew up in a remote corner of Victorian Wales. They were religious, teetotal and never married. But these demure young women, with...

Candy Bedworth 29 July 2023

Berthe Weill European Art

Berthe Weill: The Unknown Gallerist of the Avant-Garde

Do you know the name of the first female modern art gallery owner? Berthe Weill was born in 1865 and died in 1951 in Paris but nowadays she seems to...

Maia Heguiaphal 29 July 2023

Maria de Knuijt Baroque

Meet Maria de Knuijt: Was Vermeer’s Main Patron a Woman?

We all know Girl with a Pearl Earring, but have you ever wondered to whom the piece originally belonged? In light of the recent, largest Vermeer...

Nicole Ganbold 23 July 2023

François Clouet (School), Portrait of Louise de Lorraine, ca. 1575, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX, USA. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Louise de Lorraine by François Clouet (School)

Portrait of Louise de Lorraine is a French Renaissance painting that exudes the artistic ideas of its time and captures the queen’s personal and...

James W Singer 29 June 2023

Correggio, Jupiter and Io, 1530, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Jupiter and Io by Correggio

Jupiter and Io by Correggio is a masterpiece of the Northern Italian Renaissance. It explores sensual nudity through the lens of a Roman...

James W Singer 5 June 2023

Post-Impressionism

Jo van Gogh-Bonger: The Woman Who Made Vincent van Gogh

Everyone knows Van Gogh’s Starry Night either his Sunflowers or that he cut off his ear. The name Vincent van Gogh is now a household name,...

Ledys Chemin 19 May 2023

Lily Furedi, Subway, 1934, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC, USA. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Subway by Lily Furedi

Subway by Lily Furedi is a masterpiece of New Deal art that expresses the excitement of modern transportation. It is populated with commuting workers...

James W Singer 27 March 2023

Gustav Klimt, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (detail), 1904-07, oil, silver, and gold on canvas, Neue Galerie New York Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer by Gustav Klimt

Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I is Gustav Klimt’s most significant work of portraiture. The famous Lady in Gold has as many eye-catching...

Emily Snow 6 February 2023

Renaissance

The Medici Dynasty. Rich Sinners or Saintly Rulers?

The Medici family was definitely one of the richest dynasties in Renaissance Italy and perhaps they were the most influential patrons of the arts in...

James Wray 5 December 2022

Art History 101

What Is a Wunderkammer? Best Cabinets of Curiosities

The characteristic of arousing surprise for the observer is typical for the so-called Wunderkammer or Cabinet of Curiosities. These are real rooms of...

Caroline Galambosova 31 October 2022