The influence and inheritance of Naturalism is hard to judge even now. Given the dramatic change in painting in the 20th century, its greatest inheritance may be in photography.
Merson
Great paintings by Rubens, David, Rembrandt, Merson, Sciuti and Tiepolo telling some of the best stories from Plutarch’s ‘Lives’.
The story of ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ has become something of a modern legend. Here are some of the paintings made of its story, before it obsessed early filmmakers.
Tracing the origin of a vivid allegory in late 19th century painting, normally attributed to the Dreyfus affair. When did the naked Truth first climb out of a well, and why?
Aristides the Just, who was a general at the Battle of Marathon, but refused to line his pockets from the public purse.
A look back at some of my favourite articles on painters and painting, from Moreau and Salome, to Merson’s tame wolf.
A predatory wolf was troubling a town in the Apennine Mountains one winter. Its delightful story is the basis of a superb painting by Luc-Olivier Merson, famous for his mosaic in the Basilica of the Sacré-Cœur in Montmartre.
