If you are an art lover or just an artistic painting enthusiast, you should explore our in-depth articles about famous artists, movements, painting styles and iconic artworks. Learn about the lives of some of the most famous artists, their inspirations, influences, the record-breaking sales prices of their works, and sometimes even about a specific piece of artwork.
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Paris, Musée d’Orsay Marie-Angélique Satre, an innkeeper in Pont-Aven, Brittany, was considered a great beauty. So it was not surprising that Gauguin – noted for his love of beautiful women – asked to paint her portrait. ‘Gauguin was very sweet and very miserable… ,’ Madame Satre recalled around 1920. ‘He kept telling my husband he … Read more
New York, Museum of Modern Art In the late autumn of 1907 Picasso unveiled a huge new painting at his studio in Montmartre, but only for the eyes of a few fellow artists, friends and patrons. According to the critic André Salmon, who was member of this charmed circle, ‘It was the ugliness of the … Read more
Paris, Musée National d’Art Moderne Today considered a central figure of 20th-century art, Kandinsky spent most of his early career searching for his artistic voice. It wasn’t until 1908, when he was a 42-year-old art professor in Munich living with a former student, the artist Gabriele Münter, that Kandinsky had his first artistic break-thought. He … Read more
London, National Gallery Sunflowers is probably the most popular (and therefore the most famous) painting housed in the National Gallery — one of the most instantly recognisable images in Western art, made by the world’s favourite painter. The outline of Vincent’s life is well known and the tragic irony of the loneliness and penury endured by … Read more
London, National Gallery The Temeraire was launched in 1798, a 98-gun Second Rate ship of the line. She was the second ship to carry the name — her predecessor had been built in France, launched as Le Téméraire, but was captured in 1759, during the Seven Years War, becoming a British ship but keeping her … Read more
London, National Gallery Caravaggio has here depicted the first appearance of Christ after his Resurrection. The story is told in St Luke’s Gospel that on the same day Christ’s tomb was found to be empty, two disciples were walking to Emmaus — about seven miles from Jerusalem — when they were joined by a stranger. … Read more
London, National Gallery It is well known that Vermeer produced very few pictures. Out of a lifetime output of possibly fifty canvases (scholarly estimates vary between forty-three and sixty), perhaps only thirty-five survive. Today this scarcity enhances an inherent preciousness which is underpinned by Vermeer’s extraordinary technique, but after his death the paucity of his … Read more
London, National Gallery Much of Rubens’ output — the biblical epics or the set piece classical allegories — are perhaps not to everyone’s taste. But his landscapes are another matter. In the complete landscape canon, they are amongst the most beautiful. And Autumn Landscape with a View of Het Steen is one of his finest. The quality … Read more
Paris, Musée d’Orsay The critics and audience at the Paris Salons were used to seeing nude women in art. But these nudes were called Venus, Odalisque or some such allegorical title that cloaked their eroticism in the guise of an edifying classical image. Manet however called this painting of a nude female with her African … Read more
Paris, Musée d’Orsay With this masterpiece, Manet laid the foundations for what we now consider ‘Modern’ art. However, when first displayed it was called incompetent, obscene and a joke. ‘Manet will have talent when he learns how to draw and use perspective’ wrote one critic. Others were outraged by the naked woman – quite obviously, … Read more