Love Story

Masterpiece Stories

Two Shades of Love in Vermeer’s Paintings

Many of the paintings by Johannes Vermeer (Dutch, 1632–1675) focus on the theme of love. Some of them involve music, letters, or a glass of wine,...

Tom Anderson 16 December 2024

Quiz

QUIZ: Magnificent Muses! Can You Guess the Artists and People Who Inspired Them?

Candy Bedworth 23 November 2024

René and Georgette Magritte. Photograph. Love Story

René and Georgette Magritte: A Love Story

You’ve heard of René Magritte—the Surrealist icon behind the famous pipe and bowler hat. But who was the muse who inspired much of his oeuvre?...

Natalia Iacobelli 21 November 2024

Surrealism

Masterpiece Story: The Lovers by René Magritte

You must have already encountered René Magritte’s series of paintings on lovers marked by his unmistakable surreal style and renowned wit.

Zuzanna Stańska 21 November 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Pilgrimage to the Isle of Cythera by Jean-Antoine Watteau

Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684–1721) was the most influential French painter of the 18th century. His painting Pilgrimage to the Isle of Cythera...

James W Singer 17 November 2024

Alfred Stieglitz embracing his artistic partner and wife Georgia O'Keeffe Love Story

The Revolutionary Love Affair of Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz

The American painter Georgia O’Keeffe is best known for her abstract representations of flowers and desert landscapes. American photographer Alfred...

Mary Margaret Swets, 15 November 2024

David Hockney, Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)', 1972, private collection. British Art quiz Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) by David Hockney

David Hockney is an English artist born in 1937. He was a leading force in the 1960s Pop Art movement and a great innovator, considered, to this...

Ruxi Rusu 10 November 2024

Love Story

Masterpiece Story: Three Ladies Adorning a Term of Hymen by Joshua Reynolds

Three Ladies Adorning a Term of Hymen is a huge triple portrait of the Montgomery sisters by Sir Joshua Reynolds. It thematizes aristocratic marriage...

Isla Phillips-Ewen 10 November 2024

Love Story

Paint Me Like One of Your French Girls: The Life and Business of Agostina Segatori

Agostina Segatori’s face is most widely recognized in the works of famous artists between 1860 and 1887. Her Italian features inspired many...

Yasmin Ozkan 22 October 2024

Love Story

Flaming June or Dorothy Dene? A Muse of Frederic Leighton

In 1879, Frederic Leighton’s biographer and neighbor (that’s handy, isn’t it?), Mrs. Barrington, noticed “a young girl with a lovely white...

Magda Michalska 22 October 2024

Love Story

A Capri Romance: John Singer Sargent and Rosina Ferarra

We are all dreaming of summer holidays, long walks along beaches, toes in the sand, and the sound of the waves crashing against the shore. Perhaps...

Charlotte Stace 22 October 2024

Love Story

Lise Tréhot—The Mysterious Beauty from Renoir’s Paintings

Born into a humble French family, Lise Tréhot (1848–1922) was an artist’s model who posed exclusively for Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919).

Anuradha Sroha 22 October 2024