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Lowry's ordinary home and amazing gallery
Laurence Lowry (1887–1976) was born in Stretford Lancs. In 1905 the teenager was a student at the Manchester Municipal College of Art, where he studied under the French Impressionist artist Adolphe Valette. Valette also put Lowry in touch with current artistic developments in Paris. Show More Summary
Proud Judith
A proud and elegant Judith (c.1595) by the Italian painter Agostino Carracci (1557-1602).
How Photography Feeds Our Fascination With the Civil War
It is believed that the first war-related photographs were taken in 1847 by an anonymous photographer during the Mexican–American War, of which we “Remember the Alamo” and little else. But when we think of the American Civil War, especially...Show More Summary
Can an Art Exhibition Answer Germany’s Jewish Question?
The Holocaust is a touchy subject anywhere on earth, but touchiest at the capitol of the country where “The Final Solution” began. Germany and its capitol, Berlin, still struggle with the “Jewish question” not as the Nazis once did, but in terms of how to overcome the weight of all that tragic history and its lingering effect on its culture. Show More Summary
Nothing Changes
Fight between two men in the Neolithic by the French painter Georges-Antoine Rochegrosse (1859-1938). Without any doubt a nice ironic piece of work. Above the two quarreling cavemen sits a nude woman as the prize for the winner. So the painting suggests, nothings has changed, maybe only the methods a little.
Fabergé treasures in the USA
I have recently read the book Fabergé: Fantasies & Treasures, written by Geza von Habsburg and published by Universe in 1996.Carl Fabergé (1846-1920) was born into a family in St Petersburg that created jewellery. The young man, trained in Russia and Germany, was in the right place and the right time. Show More Summary
Amsterdam's golden age of art is renewed
The National Gallery in London was founded in 1824, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York was founded in 1870, the National Gallery in Berlin was opened in 1876 and Vienna’s Kunsthistorische Museum was opened in 1891. During this...Show More Summary
Is Albrecht Durer’s Last Supper Better Than da Vinci’s?
With Easter coming this Sunday and the minting of a new pope still fresh in people’s minds, considerations and reconsiderations of Christianity seem natural and unavoidable. The Renaissance art of the Italian big three—Michelangelo,Show More Summary
Is David Eustace Scotland’s Secret Weapon?
Prison does things to a man, even if he gets to go home at the end of a long day of guarding the inmates. Scotland’s HM Prison Barlinniefeatures the same overcrowded conditions and gallows past of American prisons, but it also lays claim to one famous, rather than infamous, alumnus—photographer David Eustace. Show More Summary
Portrait Painters: Anders Zorn
How is it that Anders Zorn (1860-1920), one of the most acclaimed portrait painters of his era, has been all but forgotten? That will likely be changed by a new show at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Anders Zorn: A European Artist...Show More Summary
Constructing Imperial History
Founding of an African Colony by Prussian ships by the German military painter Richard Knötel (1857-1914). Knötel was probably the most popular illustrator of Prussian military history in the late 19th century. Here he depicted a nearly...Show More Summary
John James Audubon and the Australian connection
The process of printing engravings via copperplate, with its capacity for reproducing fine line and detail, was largely superseded in books by the development of lithography, a cheaper and therefore attractive option for American publishers. Show More Summary
Has the Met Museum Been Cheating on Admission Prices?
One of the must-see destinations for any traveler to New York City is The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Skirting the eastern edge of Central Park, the Met epitomizes the encyclopedic museum bringing millennia of art from every corner of the globe under one roof. Show More Summary
Dance of the Seven Veils
Dance of the Seven Veils by the French painter Gaston Bussière (1862-1929). The painting is a simple copy of his Salomé (1914) he only added some veils and changed the back a little.
Detecting disease in 17th century portraits
Several years ago I heard a conference paper on the signs of disease and illness in famous C17th portraits. Art historians in the audience knew that the painters generally attempted to show their sitters in the best light possible, presumably because the artists hoped to have more royal or noble commissions in the future. Show More Summary
Downton Abbey, the Art Exhibition?
The appeal of the British drama/high-class soap opera Downton Abbey for American audiences has long been a subject of great speculation. Simon Schama called the show “cultural necrophilia” for bringing to life a time he saw as long dead and rightfully so for all its elitism and iron-clad class consciousness from the bottom up. Show More Summary
Historical Genre Painting
Proclamation of an Edikt in Venice (1891) by the French artist Jacques Clement Wagrez (1846-1908). Wagrez specialized in historical genre paintings mostly settled in the Italian renaissance. They are well done, but mostly without any further intention that to be a nice piece of decoration.
Has the Greatest Art Theft Ever Finally Been Solved?
On the morning of March 18, 1990, two thieves dressed as Boston police walked into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and 81 minutes later walked out with an estimated $500 million USD worth of fine art, including Rembrandt’s The Storm on the Sea of Galileeand Vermeer’s The Concert (shown above; detail). Show More Summary
Australia's amazing aerial medical service: 1928
The founder of one of Australia’s most beloved organisations was the Reverend John Flynn, a minister of the Presbyterian Church. In 1912, he established the Australian Inland Mission to minister to the spiritual, social and medical needs of people in the Outback. Show More Summary
Color Field Painting
Helen Frankenthaler not only pioneered color field painting but also enjoyed critical acclaim during her lifetime. That's phenomal for any painter, let alone a woman at a time when female artists were still rare. Clement Greenberg (1909-1994),...Show More Summary
- Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Van Gogh Museum
- Andy Warhol
- National Gallery
- Mona Lisa
- Catholic Church
- Pennsylvania Academy of Fine
- Gustav Klimt
- Frank Lloyd Wright
- Johannes Vermeer
- Pablo Picasso
- Court of Milan
- Musée d'Orsay
- Salvador Dalí
- Norman Rockwell
- Caravaggio
- Jacques-Louis David
- Gertrude Stein
- Dutch Golden Age
- Leonardo
