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
#history painting
Masterpiece Story: A Ride for Liberty by Eastman Johnson
The cool morning dew blew against their warm sweaty skin as the horse led them towards the free North. Stories of another life, a free life,...
James W Singer 16 February 2025
Masterpiece Story: The African King Caspar by Hendrik Heerschop
White subjects have dominated the Western art tradition for millennia, while people of color have been vastly underrepresented and misrepresented.
James W Singer 16 February 2025
Masterpiece Story: Napoleon Crossing the Alps by Jacques-Louis David
Jacques-Louis David’s Napoleon Crossing the Alps is one of the most famous and politically iconic images of European art history. However, it is a...
James W Singer 26 January 2025
Who’s the Jester on Lady Gaga’s Harlequin Cover?
Lady Gaga released an exclusive vinyl of her new album Harlequin, and fans quickly pointed out many easter eggs the artist had left on the cover. The...
Sandra Juszczyk 22 November 2024
Masterpiece Story: Leonidas at Thermopylae by Jacques-Louis David
Whether you are within an academic environment or at a coffee shop, when the term “Neoclassicism” and its huge influence on the visual arts...
Erol Degirmenci 13 October 2024
Prost! Oktoberfest in Paintings
Oktoberfest, as the name suggests, is a traditional German beer festival held annually in October (although it starts already in late September). For...
Magda Michalska 23 September 2024
Orientalism – Quick Explanation
19th-century Europeans were fascinated by the Near East and North Africa. Everything began roughly around the time of the Napoleonic invasion of...
Magda Michalska 3 July 2024
The Art of Story Telling: The Abduction of the Sabine Women
According to popular belief, there are only seven plot types in storytelling. Hence it is not surprising to find artists inspired by the same...
Wendy Gray 15 March 2024
The Troubadour Style: Fantasized Rediscovery of the Middle Ages in Painting
The rediscovery of medieval civilization is one of the most striking French intellectual curiosities of the later 18th century and early 19th...
Montaine Dumont 28 September 2021
Russian History through the Eyes of Vasily Surikov
In the 19th century Russia historical painting was freed from formality and canons. We find a good example of this in the work of Vasily Surikov...
Elizaveta Ermakova 18 January 2021
Ivan VI of Russia: The Baby Emperor
Ivan VI of Russia (Ivan Antonovich) was the youngest Russian tsar in history. He was proclaimed emperor when only two months old, and his 22-year-old...
Guest Author 3 June 2020
