How Vermeer Painted Light
Light from a window on the left, a wall that is never quite white, and small dots of paint that read as gleam. How...
Read more →Art Criticism
What a painting or print is actually doing, and why it matters. Movement explainers such as Impressionism versus Post-Impressionism, close looks at single works from Hokusai to Van Gogh and Vermeer, and a slow method for looking at any painting. Facts about each work come from the museum that holds it.
The Starry Night: What Van Gogh Painted and Why
Painted from memory at the asylum in Saint-Rémy, with a village that was not in his view. What is actually on the canvas, what...
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How to Look at a Painting: A Slow Method
Most museum visitors spend seconds per painting. A simple order for looking longer: distance, light, edges, then subject, and what each step tends to...
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The Great Wave Off Kanagawa: What Hokusai’s Print Is Really Showing
Look past the wave and there are three boats and a small Mount Fuji. How the print was made, why there are many copies,...
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Impressionism vs Post-Impressionism: How to Tell Them Apart
Monet painted light; Cézanne, Van Gogh and Seurat each went somewhere else with it. The differences in brushwork, colour and intent, with the paintings...
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