#france

large building of curvilinear forms covered in stainless steel beside a water front Architecture

Frank Gehry in 10 Designs (That You Can Visit)

In February 1998, Philip Johnson, the godfather of Postmodernism, stood before the shimmering Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, and declared Frank...

Julia Bourbois 7 May 2025

Artist Stories

Pablo Picasso and Women in His Life

Pablo Picasso, perhaps the most influential and recognizable painter of the 20th century, is well known for his tumultuous (or even abusive)...

Pola Otterstein 25 April 2025

Architecture

10 Gorgeous French Churches (That Aren’t Notre-Dame de Paris)

Do you still remember the Notre-Dame de Paris? It suffered a horrible fire in April 2019. Notre-Dame is by far France’s most famous church, but it...

Alexandra Kiely 18 April 2025

Édouard Manet boating: Édouard Manet, Boating, 1874. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Boating by Édouard Manet

Known as the father of modernism in art, Édouard Manet was a key figure in the shift from Realism to Impressionism. Finding the guidelines of the...

Natalia Iacobelli 17 April 2025

Rococo

François Boucher in 10 Paintings

François Boucher (1703–1770) was one of the major exponents of the Rococo style in the 18th century. His paintings showed the ostentation and...

Jimena Escoto 10 April 2025

Renaissance

Mona Lisa’s Illnesses

Everyone has heard about the Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece at the Louvre in Paris. But you have probably never heard about… her...

Camilla de Laurentis 7 April 2025

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 6 April 2025

Women Artists

Madame de Pompadour As an Artist

Madame de Pompadour was the most influential mistress of Louis XV. Even though having influence over a king was no small deal, there is more to De...

Vithória Konzen Dill 4 April 2025

Rococo

7 Things You Need to Know About Jean-Honoré Fragonard

Before reading on, you should know that Jean-Honoré Fragonard was a Rococo master. One can say that Fragonard was Rococo. The works of this French...

Zuzanna Stańska, Matthew Vazquez 4 April 2025

Rococo

The Mysterious Master of Rococo: Watteau

Who was Watteau, one of the most prominent Rococo painters? Not much is known about his life, which makes it and his art all the more mysterious. Are...

Magda Michalska 4 April 2025

Rosa Bonheur, The Horse Fair, 1852-1855, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA. Wikimedia Commons (public domain). Animals

Masterpiece Story: The Horse Fair by Rosa Bonheur

Today’s Masterpiece Story is that of The Horse Fair by French Realist painter Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899). The Horse Fair was the undisputed star of...

Alexandra Kiely 30 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