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Monday with Gustave Courbet

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: The Desperate Man (Self-Portrait) by Gustave Courbet

In The Desperate Man (Le Désespéré), Gustave Courbet presents a powerful self-portrait filled with psychological tension, where intense expression...

Katerina Papouliou 11 May 2026

Artist Stories

What Art Has to Do with Politics: Gustave Courbet and the Paris Commune

The painter Gustave Courbet, a central figure of Realism, is known for his paintings in which he reveals the true lives of peasants and ordinary...

Rute Ferreira 11 May 2026

Erotica

The Scandalous Nudes of Gustave Courbet

In the 19th century, French painter and rebel Gustave Courbet generated outrage with his scandalous nudes. What exactly was so scandalous about his...

Kelly Hill 11 May 2026

Realism

Gustave Courbet in 10 Paintings

Gustave Courbet was the bad boy of 19th-century French art. A political and artistic radical, he was imprisoned after the failed 1871 Commune and...

Catriona Miller 11 May 2026

Erotica

Let’s Talk about Courbet’s Origin of the World

In the 19th century, the display of the nude body underwent a revolution—and a massive critique. Gustave Courbet, one of the main scandalous...

Zuzanna Stańska 11 May 2026

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Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Whistler’s Mother by James McNeill Whistler

Whistler’s 1871 painting Arrangement in Grey and Black No 1 might not sound familiar. As Whistler’s Mother, on the other hand, it has entered...

Catriona Miller 10 May 2026

Gedovius. Germán Gedovius, La Tehuana, ca. 1917, National Museum of Art, Mexico City, Mexico. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: La Tehuana by Germán Gedovius

Around 1917, the Mexican painter Germán Gedovius created La Tehuana (Woman from Tehuantepec), a warm and intimate moment between a mother and her...

Jimena Escoto 10 May 2026

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Reclining Mother and Child II by Paula Modersohn-Becker

Does any image say primal love more than this powerful painting by Paula Modersohn-Becker? It is an artwork that includes not just children but also...

Candy Bedworth 10 May 2026

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Madonna and Child with Two Angels by Fra Filippo Lippi

On the surface, Fra Filippo Lippi’s Madonna and Child with Two Angels appears to be another typical Renaissance painting of the Virgin Mary and the...

James W Singer 10 May 2026

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Queen Mother Idia of Benin

Africa is a beautiful continent filled with sweeping landscapes and mighty rivers. Its history is filled with great kingdoms and large empires. Its...

James W Singer 10 May 2026

Quiz

QUIZ: Test Your Knowledge About Female Artists

Isla Phillips-Ewen 9 May 2026

Quiz

QUIZ: What Is Missing from These Paintings? Part 2

Szymon Jocek 9 May 2026

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QUIZ: Abstract Expressionism for Nerds

Tommy Thiange 9 May 2026

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Scandinavian Art QUIZ: Do You Know Art from the North?

Catherine Razafindralambo 9 May 2026

Quiz

QUIZ: Highlights from the Mauritshuis in the Netherlands

Guest Author 9 May 2026

Hieronymus Bosch, Death and the Miser, ca 1485-90, oil on panel, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, USA. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Death and the Miser by Hieronymus Bosch

Death and the Miser is a masterpiece of morbid curiosity. It reflects on the tension between the pursuit of wealth and the inevitability of death,...

James W Singer 8 May 2026

Symbolism

Symbolism Special: Jacek Malczewski’s Dates with Death

Jacek Malczewski is one of the most important Polish symbolist painters. Malczewski is associated with the Young Poland movement (Młoda Polska), a...

Magda Michalska 8 May 2026

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Oosterwijck Women Artists

Death Becomes Her: Women Artists and the Vanitas Tradition

Vanitas is an art genre that flourished in the 16th and 17th centuries, especially in the Netherlands. The term originates from the Latin word for...

Errika Gerakiti 8 May 2026

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: The Death of Cleopatra by Edmonia Lewis

As a Black and Indigenous woman, Edmonia Lewis overcame prejudice and defied societal expectations to become a successful sculptor. Her Death of...

Catriona Miller 8 May 2026

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: The Death of Barbara Radziwiłł by Józef Simmler

The National Museum in Warsaw is one of the largest museums in Poland and boasts an extensive art collection. Among its body of works is The Death of...

James W Singer 8 May 2026

Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Self-Portrait, c. 1635, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy. Artist Stories

Gian Lorenzo Bernini in 5 Facts and 5 Artworks

Gian Lorenzo Bernini was a multifaceted artist. He is mostly known as a sculptor and architect, but he was also a painter and a city planner. He...

Vithória Konzen Dill 7 May 2026

Photography

Best 15 Fashion Photographers of All Time

From the very first moment of the invention of photography in 1816 by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, the newly discovered medium became used in various...

Caroline Galambosova 7 May 2026

Hurvin Anderson, Maracus III, 2004 Contemporary Art

Hurvin Anderson at Tate Britain: Questioning My History and My Place

If the thought of exploring the big ideas of identity, history, longing, and belonging seems like an impossible task, you’d be right. But enter the...

Candy Bedworth 7 May 2026

Photo of Pauline Boty in front of the wall with her collages. Pop art

Pauline Boty: The Untold Story of a Pop Art Pioneer

Pauline Boty was one of the pioneers of the 1960s’ Pop Art movement in Britain, of which she was the only acknowledged female member. Her...

Nikolina Konjevod 7 May 2026

Marisol Escobar Women Artists

Marisol Escobar: Silent Icon of Pop Art

Marisol Escobar was a Venezuelan-American sculptor whose enigmatic persona and distinctive large woodblock figures caused a sensation during the...

Natalia Iacobelli 7 May 2026

Women Artists

The Polka Dot Queen: Yayoi Kusama Through 10 Artworks

Yayoi Kusama, often referred to as the Queen of Polka Dots, is a pioneering feminist artist, sculptor, performer, and much more—all embodied in one...

Katerina Papouliou 7 May 2026

Rosalyn Drexler:Rosalyn_Drexler_at_her_publisher's_office,_circa_1960 Pop art

Rosalyn Drexler: Wrestling Feminist in the Pop Art World

Rosalyn Drexler is an American artist born in the Bronx, New York, in 1926.  She began making sculptures in the 1950s and later explored painting...

Guest Author 7 May 2026

Corita Kent, come alive, 1967, Corita Art Center. Pop art

Corita Kent: Pop Art Nun and Inspiring Art Teacher

Corita Kent was an artist, an educator, and a Roman Catholic nun. She created bold, colorful pop art posters to confront social injustice. Corita...

Candy Bedworth 7 May 2026

Expressionism

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and the Tension of the Modern Times

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was one of the most prominent painters of German Expressionism. Furthermore, he was also one of the founders of Die Brücke! As...

Zuzanna Stańska 6 May 2026