Why are women sometimes shown as having very pale skin? Why did they apply cosmetics to make their faces whiter? Ask the ancient Egyptians.
Alma-Tadema
Harriet Backer’s canonical masterwork, Nikolai Astrup shows his technical skill, two wonderful views by Pierre Bonnard, and from Eric Ravilious.
A banquet with a river god, a pitched battle at his friend’s wedding which turned into a full-scale war, a relationship involving incest, suicide and violent death, and the abduction of Helen – quite the career of a Greek hero.
Churchyards and graveyards in the art of William Hogarth, Caspar David Friedrich, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Louis Welden Hawkins, and others.
After his banishment from Rome, Caius Marcius co-led the Volscians and brought them almost to the city’s gates, ready to invade. He was then sent a deputation of women.
In the mid 1800s, battledore was played by young women rather than children, then gained its characteristic net.
Isn’t that a horrific example of racism: a white man standing on the head of a Black man? Not when you read the image carefully.
Exhausted and destitute figures asleep, by Christian Krohg, Ferdinand Hodler, Sorolla, Waterhouse, and others.
More slumbering people painted by Courbet, Doré, Walter Crane, and major painters of the 19th century.
Two illusions used extensively by painters for centuries before they were recognised. Glare used to accentuate brightness, and Venus for reflection in a mirror.
The Eclectic Light Company 