Rembrandt died on this day, 4th October, in 1669, aged 63. This is one of the final works he created. He’d been declared bankrupt, he’d lost his home and his wonderful collection of curiosities. His beloved wife Saskia had died, along with three of their children in infancy. Finally, Rembrandt was struck one last blow. […]

This month I was honoured to deliver my talk about Andrew Wyeth to the directors, curators and staff at the Brandywine River Museum of Art, Chadds Ford, in Pennsylvania, USA. The museum showcases the work of Andrew Wyeth and his family: his father N.C. Wyeth and his son Jamie Wyeth, a contemporary American realist painter. […]

Last week I delivered a private fundraising talk for a group in Wimbledon about the Arts and Crafts designer, William Morris. I’m so pleased to announce that it raised £1120.07 for Cancer Research UK – a charity close to my heart.

Have you heard of Gustaf Fjæstad? If you have, you’re probably Swedish. Fjæstad was a Swedish painter who lived between 1868 and 1948. He’s celebrated in Sweden but little known outside his home country. Fjæstad’s trademark was the winter scene. He painted snow-covered forests, frozen lakes, and glistening winter skies. In 1912 the Brooklyn Daily […]

Goya’s Black Paintings (1819-1823) form some of the bleakest images in Art History. When he painted the series of 14 paintings he was old, severely deaf, and dying. There was no commercial motivation in their creation. He painted them directly onto the walls of his farmhouse just outside Madrid, la Quinta del Sordo (The Deaf […]

It’s nearly Halloween so I thought I’d share some terrifying works from Art History in the lead up to 31st! Today we have Henry Fuseli’s ‘The Nightmare’ from 1781. This is a dark, titillating, and shocking painting that has become an icon of horror. It’s inspired a number of filmmakers and is most famously quoted […]

I adore Édouard Manet’s flower paintings. They are rarely talked about because his other works (Olympia, Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe, The Bar at the Folies-Bergère) are so sensational and progressive – credited with being the first ‘modern’ paintings. His large-scale masterpieces have eclipsed the quiet beauty of his still life paintings. But these little gems […]

This painting deserves to be better known and with the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, it is time to examine it once more. I first showed this painting in a lecture 8 years ago. It’s called ‘The Banjo Lesson’ (1893) and it’s by Henry Ossawa Tanner. Henry Ossawa Tanner was the first successful […]

When Norman Rockwell released ‘The Problem We All Live With’, it sent deep shock-waves throughout America. Rockwell was known for his humorous, conservative and safe images of everyday American life for the Saturday Evening Post. He was incredibly popular and a cherished artist throughout the country. In 1963 he left the Post to join Look […]

Why is St. Francis of Assisi important when studying Art History? St Francis, a friar that lived between c.1182 and 1226, changed the way people responded to the Christian message. He brought the stories of the Bible to the Italian masses in a radical and original manner – through preaching, drama, acting and storytelling. He […]