Paris
No one can beat Mary Cassatt at painting mothers and children
A lady licking an envelope. An intimate thing. It might be only the bill from the coal-man she’s paying, but…
How Rodin made a Parthenon above Paris
‘My Acropolis,’ Auguste Rodin called his house at Meudon. Here, the sculptor made a Parthenon above Paris. Surrounded by statues…
The Charlie Hebdo attacks form a backdrop to a complicated love triangle in C.K. Stead’s latest novel
There has been much debate recently about what exactly constitutes ‘literary’ fiction. If the term means beguiling, gorgeously crafted novels…
High wire act
‘Mid-century modern’ is the useful term popularised by Cara Greenberg’s 1984 book of that title. The United States, the civilisation…
Cabbages and kings
The first pastry cook Chaïm Soutine painted came out like a collapsed soufflé. The sitter for ‘The Pastry Cook’ (c.1919)…
Love rats
Paris A rat’s not called a rat for nothing, and — as we are repeatedly told — we are never…
Down – if not out – in Paris
Virginie Despentes remains best known in this country for her 1993 debut novel, Baise-Moi, about two abused young women who…
The first celebrity
It’s quite a scene to imagine. A maniacal self-publicist with absurd facial hair takes off in what’s thought to be…
France is now the sick man of Europe
It is a long time since the term ‘sick man of Europe’ could be applied to Britain. France is now…
Jonathan Meades on the postmodernist buildings that we must protect
Best of postmodernism: is that an oxymoron? Jonathan Meades thinks not
This Parisian exhibition has rewritten the story of art
Why do we put one work of art beside another? For the most part museums and galleries tend to stick…
Down and Out in Paris and London is a chav safari
Down and Out in Paris and London is a brilliant specimen from a disreputable branch of writing: the chav safari,…
Quiet but potent film about the migrant experience: Dheepan reviewed
The French master film-maker Jacques Audiard has never been anywhere near Hollywood plot school. His films contain gathering menace —…
Vocally and theatrically strong: Il trittico at the Royal Opera reviewed
The setting for Il tabarro, the first drama in Puccini’s 1918 triptych of one-act operas, is not the Paris of…
François Hollande’s own personal state of emergency
His response to the Paris terror attacks has left the French president increasingly isolated and unpopular
Eugene Delacroix foresaw the future of society not just art
Delacroix’s frigid self-control concealed an emotional volcano. Martin Gayford explores the paradoxes that define the apostle of modernism
Bernard Buffet: painter and poser
Bernard Buffet was no one’s idea of a great painter. Except, that is, Pierre Bergé and Nick Foulkes. Bergé was…
A short history of statue-toppling
Sculptural topplings provide an index of changing times, says Martin Gayford
Miriam Gross’s Diary: the problem with Steve Jobs
Disappointingly, the recent film about Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, does not include the thing about him which most struck…
Paris: go while it’s still friendly
Julie Burchill hymns the joys of post-attack Paris
Portrait of the week
Home The House of Commons voted on air strikes in Syria. Labour MPs had been allowed a free vote by…
It is political correctness, not maniacal bigots, that will end civilisation
What does one do, attend or refuse a party after a tragic event such as the recent Paris outrage? My…
The pretend war: why bombing Isil won't solve the problem
Britain, France and America are in a protracted fight against Islamic radicalism. Pity our leaders have no idea how to win it
Get ready: these climate change talks might actually do something
The Prince of Wales is right, and I appreciate that this isn’t something people say very often. Now and again,…
The strange death of Louis XIV
At the beginning of the summer of 1715 Louis XIV complained of a pain in the leg. In mid-August gangrene…
