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Painting story
The Haywain Triptych
The world is a haystack and everyone grabs what they can: Bosch’s triptych of greed, from the Fall to a Hell still under construction.
Famous Paintings, Explained
The stories behind famous paintings, the painters who made them, and the movements that shaped them. Every work here can be recreated by hand in oil on canvas.
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Artist guide
Luke Fildes Paintings
Victorian Realism · British · 1843 to 1927
Painting story
Garden of Earthly Delights
Paradise, a garden of pleasures and a musical Hell: Bosch’s triptych read panel by panel, from Adam and Eve to the tree-man.
Painting story
Sunday Reading in a Rural School
Explore Bogdanov-Belsky’s Sunday Reading: the reader, open book, listening villagers and child holding a page in the Russian Museum painting.
Painting story
The Old Shepherd's Chief Mourner by Edwin Henry Landseer
A collie rests its head on its master’s coffin in Landseer’s The Old Shepherd’s Chief Mourner, painted in 1837 and praised by Ruskin.
Painting story
Blind Pew
Explore N. C. Wyeth’s Blind Pew: the searching hand, complete figure, stick, fallen hat and the Treasure Island episode behind the 1911 painting.
Artist guide
Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo Paintings
Rococo · Italian · 1727 to 1804
Painting story
Dignity and Impudence by Edwin Henry Landseer
A serious bloodhound and a cheeky little terrier share a kennel in Landseer’s Dignity and Impudence, painted in 1839.
Painting story
The Black Brunswicker by John Everett Millais
A soldier of the Black Brunswickers says goodbye to his love before Waterloo while she tries to hold the door shut: Millais, 1860.
Artist guide
Hieronymus Bosch Paintings
Early Netherlandish · Dutch · Born 1450 to Died 1516
Painting story
Mental Arithmetic
Solve the problem in Bogdanov-Belsky’s Mental Arithmetic and explore the pupils, Rachinsky’s school and the thinking boy in his 1895 painting.
Artist guide
N. C. Wyeth Paintings
American Illustration and Realism · American · 1882 to 1945
Painting story
The Faithful Hound
A hound howls over its dead master, a knight fallen beside his white horse: Landseer’s The Faithful Hound, an image of loyalty beyond death.
Painting story
The Monarch of the Glen by Edwin Henry Landseer
A twelve-point stag on a misty Highland hillside: Landseer’s 1851 icon of Scotland, saved for the National Galleries of Scotland in 2017.
Painting story
At School Doors
A ragged village boy stands in the doorway of a rural school, looking in at the lesson he cannot join. Painted in 1897.
Painting story
The Magic Circle by Waterhouse
In The Magic Circle, Waterhouse portrayed a sorceress in the act of tracing a protective or conjuring circle on the ground, surrounded by the…
Artist guide
John Everett Millais Paintings
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood · British · 1829 to 1896
Painting story
The Transport of Christ to the Sepulchre
Explore Ciseri’s Transport of Christ to the Sepulchre: the hanging arm, strained shroud, bearers and mourners in the Madonna del Sasso painting.
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Curated collectionsOdyssey, Magic and Witchcraft, Famous Women, Landscapes and more.Artists A to ZEvery painter in the catalogue, with an archive of their works.Art movementsRenaissance to Expressionism: what defines each and who led it.Top 100 most famous paintingsThe ranked list, with the story behind every entry.
