How Romulus carefully planned the abduction of maidens to satisfy Rome’s need for wives, and his subsequent wars. Splendid paintings by Poussin, David, Ingres, Guercino, and Nattier.
Ingres
How could I follow my 85-part account of Ovid’s Metamorphoses? With the greatest collection of biographies of classical figures, an inspiration to Charlotte Corday herself.
At the start, he was a traditional realist.
Paintings of odalisques, slave markets, and Turkish baths became popular in the nineteenth century. What was the Orientalist fantasy, and why?
A precocious artist, he went from 2 years study in Rome to Morocco, where he was a war artist. There he became an orientalist.
In the 8 years after painting the Death of Wolfe, he attempted a few more ‘modern history’ paintings, with varying success.
For his first decade as a professional artist, he painted narrative works and portraits. Here are some of his little-known narrative paintings.
A succinct summary of the biography of Degas, told with the aid of 12 of his key works, from history painting to the late landscapes.
Degas was nothing if not thoroughly sociable. Here are some of his more significant artistic friendships, with paintings.
Her image has been used by the French nation, the Catholic church, Napoleon, revanchists, romantics, feminists, and now the extreme right. Here are some of those powerful paintings.
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