Jan van Eyck: Madonna of Chancellor Rolin – c1435

Jan van Eyck: Madonna of Chancellor Rolin - c1435

Paris, Musée du Louvre Nicolas Rolin was born about 1380 in Autun, becoming chancellor to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, in 1422, a post he held for several decades. He steered the Burgundian domains through a period of sustained success, a prosperity that was rooted in the booming economy of Flanders which had become … Read more

Edgar Degas: In a Café (Absinthe) – 1876

Edgar Degas: In a Café (Absinthe) - 1876

Paris, Musée d’Orsay Absinthe, called the ‘green fairy’, was a popular drink among the working class in Degas’ day, despite its devastating effects, which Degas more than hints at in this painting. A woman slouches, sadness on all her features, her eyes glazed, staring into space, moving towards the oblivion of her next glass of … Read more

Henri Bellechose: Martyrdom of St Denis – 1415–16

Henri Bellechose Martyrdom of St Denis - 1415–16

Paris, Musée du Louvre The court of the Valois Dukes of Burgundy was the one of the most splendid in Europe in the fifteenth century. The dukes were art patrons extraordinaire, commissioning everything from tapestries to tombs to paintings, all designed to display the glory of the House of Burgundy. Among their greatest commissions was … Read more

Albrecht Dürer: Self Portrait with a Thistle – 1493

Albrecht Dürer: Self Portrait with a Thistle - 1493

Paris, Musée du Louvre A man of ambition, talent and not a little vanity over his blonde good looks, Albrecht Dürer created some of the first independent self-portraits in Western art. While artists had occasionally included themselves as secondary elements in large compositions, Dürer thought himself a worthy subject and this image is his earliest … Read more

Henri Rousseau: Tiger in a Tropical Storm (Surprised!) – 1891

Henri Rousseau: Tiger in a Tropical Storm (Surprised!)

London, National Gallery In 1908 Pablo Picasso hosted a banquet at his rooms in the Bateau Lavoir, a run-down apartment block in Montmartre. A host of ‘big names’ from the Parisian avant garde were there including Gertrude Stein, Guillaume Apollinaire and Georges Braque. But the guest of honour at the banquet was an elderly man who had … Read more

Georges de La Tour: The Cheat with the Ace of Diamonds – c1635

Georges de La Tour: The Cheat with the Ace of Diamonds

Paris, Musée du Louvre Georges de la Tour had an eye for a theatrical moment. Many of his best works are religious images set at night and dramatically illuminated by light from a single source; however, he also had a talent for contemporary scenes filled with lavish costumes, bright light and shady characters, like this … Read more

Giorgio de Chirico: The Song of Love – 1914

Giorgio de Chirico The Song of Love - 1914

New York, Museum of Modern Art M. de Chirico has recently purchased a glove of pink rubber, one of the most extraordinary objects that one can find. It is destined, once copied by the artist, to render his future works even more striking and disconcerting than his past ones. If one asks him as to … Read more

Vasily Kandinsky, Picture with an Archer 1909

Vasily Kandinsky, Picture with an Archer 1909

New York, Museum of Modern Art 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 breakthrough. … Read more

Gustav Klimt: Portrait of Hermine Gallia 1904

Gustav Klimt: Portrait of Hermine Gallia 1904

London, National Gallery Klimt is sometimes dismissed as merely a decorative artist — implying membership of some sort of sub-category operating below the exalted levels of ‘great’ art. But his landscapes and his erotic drawings speak otherwise, as do his portraits. It is true that the women (for they are nearly all women) in his … Read more