Tag Archives: Art History

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE – JUNE 17, 2026 PREVIEW

Cover of Country Life June 17, 2026, featuring Van Gogh's Irises

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE: The latest issue features ‘Why the iris charmed Van Gogh’; How Holbein survived Henry VIII; Making super salads; Piers of the realm: the British love of the seaside…

Everything, everywhere, all at once

Irises have inspired great artists from Vincent van Gogh to Sir Cedric Morris. Michael Prodger examines the flower’s allure

Green with envy

Why not take a leaf out of Tom Parker Bowles’s book and sample the very best salad flavours from around the world?

Pier into the future

Our seaside piers are the great survivors of the Victorian age and many are thriving in the 21st century, reveals Jonathan Lee

Spread from Country Life June 17, 2026

Arts & antiques

It is 500 years since artist Hans Holbein arrived on these shores, yet we remain captivated by his portraits, finds Carla Passino

Louise Farina’s favourite painting

The perfumer senses the zest of an Italian spring morning in a still life celebrating citrus fruit

Country-house treasure

John Goodall sees High Church spirit in a handwritten Bible at Treberfydd House in Brecon

Spread from Country Life June 17, 2026

History and fantasy

In the second of two articles, John Goodall delves into the fable-meets-fact history of Warwick Castle, Warwickshire

The legacy

Octavia Pollock adds a dash of colour to the illustrious history of Winsor & Newton, supplier to the stars of the art world

The importance of being Ernst

Ernst Vegelin van Claerbergen, head of the Courtauld Gallery, is optimistic about the future of the Arts, as he tells Carla Passino

Winging it

A beauty or a beast? Mark Cocker investigates how the exotic pheasant splits opinion

Spread from Country Life June 17, 2026

Luxury

Jonathan Self explores the royal enthusiasm for amethyst and Amie Elizabeth White weaves in some summer essentials

Interiors

An open-plan makeover wows Arabella Youens, plus perfect pitchers with Amelia Thorpe

Simply perfect

A 20-year revival of the Arts-and-Crafts garden at Fonthill House in Wiltshire catches the eye of Christopher Stocks

Spread from Country Life June 17, 2026

Travel

Sophia Money-Coutts savours all the fun of Florida on a trip to the party town of Palm Beach

A new sense of purpose

Robin Hereford is calling for a revival in the fortunes of brown furniture — pieces with style and sustainability on their side

A wrinkle in time

A new generation of American collectors is being charmed by exquisite English antique furniture, discovers Patrick Monahan

Cooking up a storm

Michael Billington is blown away by the RSC’s Tempest starring Sir Kenneth Branagh, but High Society delights without dazzling

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE – JUNE 3, 2026 PREVIEW

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE: The latest issue featuresConstable Country’ – The places the painter loved….

Taking the scenic route

History, hauntings and high-jinx figured in Britain’s first motoring guides, finds Jack Watkins

Spreads from Country Life 3 June 2026

What a Derby day

Epsom hosts one of racing’s most thrilling spectacles. Jack Watkins picks 10 of the best winners

Monaco

Adam Hay-Nicholls explores the changing face of Monaco, Steven King treads the Prince Rainier III sculpture trail, Arabella Youens seeks out the best properties for sale in the Principality and Mark Hedges cruises serenely into town

His green and pleasant land

John Constable painted places he knew and loved the best. Susan Owens examines how insight influenced his landscapes

Outstanding in their fields

From ‘shoy hoys’ to Worzel Gummidge, Aeneas Dennison traces the story of scarecrows

Spreads from Country Life 3 June 2026

Andy Wilman’s favourite painting

The television producer chooses a work that reveals a human response to the brutality of war

Country-house treasure

A godfatherly gift ensures that Sir Edwin Lutyens and Shilstone House in Devon are happy bed-fellows, discovers John Goodall

Spreads from Country Life 3 June 2026

Building on the past

In the second of two articles, John Goodall reveals how Elizabethan Doddington Hall is thriving into the 21st century

The legacy

Octavia Pollock profiles Percy Shaw, the inventor of cat’s eyes, the 20th century’s top design

Winging it

The feral pigeon’s modern-day scavenging masks a more valiant history, suggests Mark Cocker

Drawn to the land

Katharine Freeland meets artists who are mapping estates in an echo of traditional landowners

London Life

Jack Watkins strolls the streets that became an artist’s muse, our writers have all you need to know this month, Will Hosie shares seven of the best homes on the market and Rupert Clague charts the rise of the capital’s coffee houses

Spreads from Country Life 3 June 2026

Death, taxes and Tests with New Zealand

What next for England’s Bazball approach, asks James Fisher

Luxury

Amie Elizabeth White is on red alert — and gives pearl a whirl

Interiors

Arabella Youens admires an extended Cotswolds cottage and Giles Kime ponders going it alone

Dreaming of roses

Charles Quest-Ritson shares 1,000 reasons to fall in love with the restored walled garden at Dummer House, Hampshire

Arts & antiques

Rebecca Salter, president of the Royal Academy, outlines her ambitions to Carla Passino

Travel

A mountain-top encounter rings a bell with Pamela Goodman

And much more

ART: Apollo Magazine – February 2025 Preview

APOLLO MAGAZINE (February 2, 2025): The latest issue features ‘Poking fun at 18th-Century Paris’…

The menacing visions of Jusepe de Ribera

Though clearly influenced by Caravaggio, the Spanish painter rendered saints and sinners in a ferocious style all of his own

The uneasy business of being an American artist: an interview with Rachel Cohen

The author of ‘A Chance Meeting’ talks to Apollo about the reissue of her dazzlingly original account of more than a century of artistic endeavour in the United States

The repeat performances of William Morris

The designer’s wallpaper patterns are so familiar that they’re in danger of being taken for granted – but there’s still plenty to discover if we look more closely

Arts: The Brooklyn Rail – December/January 2025

The Brooklyn Rail (December 11, 2024): The latest issue features…

“When you invent the ship, you must also invent the shipwreck; when you invent the plane, you must also invent the plane crash; and when you invent electricity, you invent electrocution… Every technology carries its own negativity, which is invented at the same time as technical progress.”
–Paul Virilio

“The human spirit must prevail over technology.”
–Albert Einstein

Art

Critics Page

ArtSeen

Sylvia Plimack Mangold: Tapes, Fields, and Trees, 1975–84 – By Rebecca Allan

David Smith: The Nature of Sculpture – By Phong Bui

Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300–1350 – By David Carrier

Jaeheon Lee: Ghosts in the Garden – By William Corwin

Edges of Ailey – By Ekin Erkan

Patterns in Abstraction – By Leia Genis

Jordan Nassar: THERE – By Robert Alan Grand

Jay DeFeo: Trees – By Suzanne Hudson

Nour Mobarak: Dafne Phono – By Eana Kim

Yuli Yamagata: Ghosts Don’t Wear Watches – By Alfred Mac Adam

Soledad Sevilla: Ritmos, tramas, variables – By Valerie Mindlin

Mark Bradford: Keep Walking – By Charles Moore

André Griffo: Exploded View – By Rômulo Moraes

Jesse Krimes: Corrections – By Joanna Seifter

Lynne Drexler: Color Notes – By David Whelan

Rosemarie Beck: Earthly Paradise – By Leah Triplett Harrington

Francesco Clemente: Summer Love in the Fall – By Selena Parnon

Sean Scully: Duane Street, 1981–1983 – By Raphy Sarkissian

Henni Alftan: Stop Making Sense – By Ann C. Collins

Hap Tivey: Perception is the Medium – By Benjamin Clifford

William Gropper: Artist of the People – By Margot Yale

Artists: Why Rembrandt Paintings Are So Prized

DW Documentary (November 15, 2024): The 17th century was the zenith of painting, in the Netherlands. In no other era were artists so productive. Never before had so many painters tried to make a living from their art. Demand was huge.

People from all walks of life began to enthusiastically collect paintings. New genres were born. And both the art market and the profession of art dealer emerged. Exceptional artists such as Rembrandt van Rijn, Jan Vermeer and Frans Hals created masterpieces that still inspire us today.

One reason for the cultural heyday and its glut of paintings was an enormous surplus of capital, generated by speculative money transactions and trade, which was also based on the exploitation of the colonies and the ideal conditions that shipping found in the Netherlands. The film traces a period in which art, too, became an economic factor. In a way, the 17th century can be seen as the origin of our current art system.

After all, this was when auction houses were first established, leading to emergence of professional art dealers and wealthy collectors. Art was democratized. This documentary film explores an era when business and art entered into a marriage for the first time. How did such an artistic flourishing come about? What art-historical innovations do we owe to this period? And what significance does it have for our view of art and our approach to art today?

#documentary #dwdocumentary #dwdocs

Research Preview: Nature Magazine – Nov 30, 2023

Volume 623 Issue 7989

Nature Magazine – November 29, 2023: The latest issue cover features trails left by satellites, including BlueWalker 3, a prototype communications satellite, as they pass across the sky.

‘Early dark energy’ fails to solve mystery of cosmic expansion

The extra ingredient would explain why the Universe is expanding so fast now — but conflicts with data from ancient quasars.

Huge California wildfires seeded cirrus clouds half a world away

Smoke from record-breaking fires in 2020 travelled all the way to Cyprus, where it helped to trigger cloud formation.

These falcons excel at problem-solving — and outdo some of the world’s smartest birds

A bird of prey called the striated caracara can figure out puzzles that are a struggle for Goffin’s cockatoos, which are known for their intelligence.

Art History: Rembrandt’s Prints & Life In Amsterdam

Christie’s (November 26, 2023) – Rembrandt House Museum Specialist Tim Schmelcher and Head of Collections, Epco Runia, discover more about Rembrandt’s life in Amsterdam, in particular his printmaking.

Then a more detailed look at the Sam Josefowitz Collection of Rembrandt prints – the most comprehensive and impressive in private hands – as we examine some of the highlights of these graphic masterpieces.

On 7 December 2023, Christie’s will be offering a selection of these prints across two sales in London: Old Masters Part I and The Sam Josefowitz Collection: Graphic Masterpieces by Rembrandt van Rijn.

Art History: Two Paintings Survey Canaletto’s Venice

Christie’s (November 23, 2023) – Immerse yourself in a dreamlike vision of Canaletto’s Venice where the floating city of the 1700s appears strikingly unchanged centuries later. Giovanni Antonio Canal, better known as Canaletto (1697-1768), was born and died in Venice.

Did Canaletto paint these paired views of Venice for the Countess of Essex?

Home for most of his life, the city was also the artistic subject that dominated his career. Canaletto helped establish the veduta — or topographical view — as one of the chief genres of Venetian painting in the 18th century, as well as a prime export. A pair of vedute by Canaletto, unknown to scholars until now, will lead the Old Masters Part I sale at Christie’s in London on 7 December 2023, as part of Classic Week.

Coming from a private collection, these masterpieces were painted around 1734, when Canaletto was at the peak of his powers, almost certainly for an English patron.

Find out more: https://www.christies.com/en/stories/…

Research Preview: Nature Magazine – Nov 23, 2023

B 8G4L/ChimeraX

Volume 623 Issue 7988

Nature Magazine – November 23, 2023: The latest issue cover features how cryo-electron microscopy can reveal the structure of motor protein myosin filaments, which power the heart via muscle contraction.

Earth just had its hottest year on record — climate change is to blame

Around 7.3 billion people faced temperatures strongly influenced by global warming over the past year.

UK first to approve CRISPR treatment for diseases: what you need to know

The landmark decision could transform the treatment of sickle-cell disease and β-thalassaemia — but the technology is expensive.

How AI is expanding art history

From identifying disputed artworks to reconstructing lost masterpieces, artificial intelligence is enriching how we interpret our cultural heritage.

Morgan Library Exhibits: Swiss Painter Ferdinand Hodler “Drawings” Tour

The Morgan Library & Museum (August 23, 2023) – Isabelle Dervaux, curator of “Ferdinand Hodler: Drawings—Selections from the Musée Jenisch Vevey”, discusses the artist’s legacy and his impact on modernism.

Ferdinand Hodler: Drawings—Selections from the Musée Jenisch Vevey

June 16 through October 1, 2023

A modern art pioneer, renowned Swiss painter Ferdinand Hodler (1853–1918) created works that range from vast symbolist compositions to intimate, realist portraits and nearly abstract landscape paintings. This exhibition of approximately sixty works, primarily on paper, will focus on the role of drawing in his practice, from quick compositional sketches to elaborate oil studies.

Most of the drawings Hodler produced were preparatory studies for his large-scale figure compositions; these offer a fascinating account of his working process, which involved technical experiments with imprints, tracing, and collages. A few of his portrait drawings will also be featured, including a poignant series in which he recorded the illness and death of his lover Valentine Godé-Darel.

These rarely seen drawings offer a compelling survey of Hodler’s singular contribution to early modernism.