The death of the life class
‘Love of the human form’, writes the painter John Lessore, ‘must be the origin of that peculiar concept, the Life…
David Hockney interview: ‘The avant-garde have lost their authority’
David Hockney talks to Martin Gayford about 60 years of ignoring art fashion
Without a model, Moroni could be stunningly dull. With one, he was peerless...
Giovanni Battista Moroni, wrote Bernard Berenson, was ‘the only mere portrait painter that Italy has ever produced’. Indeed, Berenson continued,…
Egon Schiele at the Courtauld: a one-note samba of spindly limbs, nipples and pudenda
One day, as a student — or so the story goes — Egon Schiele called on Gustav Klimt, a celebrated…
The secret world of the artist's mannequin
A 19th-century London artists’ supplier named Charles Roberson offered imitation human beings for sale or rent, with papier-mâché heads, soft…
Rembrandt at the National Gallery: the greatest show on earth
Martin Gayford sees Rembrandt’s late works at the National Gallery – is this the greatest show on earth?
Why everyone loves Rembrandt
Talking of Rembrandt’s ‘The Jewish Bride’ to a friend, Vincent van Gogh went — characteristically — over the top. ‘I…
'I like vanished things': Anselm Kiefer on art, alchemy and his childhood
Martin Gayford talks to a surprisingly jolly Anselm Kiefer about art and metamorphosis
Exactly how much fun was it being an impoverished artist in Paris?
What he really wanted, Picasso once remarked, was to live ‘like a pauper, but with plenty of money’. It sounds…
Reynolds produced some of the finest portraits of the 18th century – and a few of the silliest
On Monday 21 April 1760 Joshua Reynolds had a busy day. Through the morning and the afternoon he had a…
'They took me in like I was their son': Wynton Marsalis on jazz's great tradition
Martin Gayford talks to Wynton Marsalis about the rigours of playing jazz
From the Elgin marbles to Carl Andre's bricks: the mistakes that have made great art
Some of art’s most important steps forward began simply as misconceptions
Why the BBC will never match Kenneth Clark’s Civilisation
No modern critic would dare match Kenneth Clark’s fearless way with sweeping statements
The brilliant neurotics of the late Renaissance
In many respects the average art-lover remains a Victorian, and the Florentine Renaissance is one area in which that is…
Ladies' hats were his waterlillies - the obsessive brilliance of Edgar Degas
Lucian Freud once said that ‘being able to draw well is the hardest thing — far harder than painting, as…
Francisco de Zurbarán had a Hollywood sense of drama
It seems suitable that just round the corner from the Zurbarán exhibition at the Palais des Beaux Arts is the…
Friends, soulmates, rivals: the double life of Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud
As friends, artistic soulmates and rivals, Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud were the Turner and Constable of the 20th century
The Sunflowers Are Mine, by Martin Bailey - review
‘How could a man who has loved light and flowers so much and has rendered them so well, how could…
