In many paintings, depiction of fabrics, textiles and other clothing materials is more challenging and important than that of flesh.
Millais
This is when the year should really begin. A celebration of the real New Year from Botticelli to Pissarro, aided by Sisley, Van Gogh and others.
From 15 minutes to sketch a passing thunderstorm in oils, to more than a year for several masterworks of the 19th century.
Does analysis of literary plots offer anything to the understanding of visual narrative in painting? A journey through some of the best painted stories in quest of the answer.
Paintings of knights in armour from Raphael in c 1502, through Ingres’ rescue of Angelica, to Arthurian legends and the Pre-Raphaelite movement.
Increasingly popular during the 19th century, stories of people going from rags to riches have seldom appeared in paintings. Here are Cinderella and Robin Hood, and an explanation.
Come leaf-peeping with painters from Samuel Palmer in the Weald of Kent, to Julian Alden Weir’s autumn rain.
Many of our lives start and end in them, and between we spend at least a third of our life in bed. Paintings from Delacroix to Ravilious.
Like eyes and the rest of the face, hands are most usually seen uncovered in figurative paintings. These paintings show gloved hands which have special purposes and meaning.
One of the most frequently painted of the classical deities, this is out of all proportion to her tiny role in the pantheon. From Ricci to Waterhouse.