Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Painting

The first step in the restoration process will be stabilizing the Tanner house's roof and walls.

Henry Ossawa Tanner Was One of the First World-Famous Black Artists. Now, His Home Is in Danger

The Philadelphia row house hosted generations of Black scholars and leaders

Researchers examined ten paintings—including Two Russian Ships of the Line Saluting (1827) by Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg—and found that seven included traces of proteins associated with brewing beer.

Art Meets Science

Danish Golden Age Painters Used Beer Leftovers to Prep Their Canvases

Researchers are finding yeast and grain in the works of 19th-century artists in Denmark

Pop artist Andy Warhol sits in front of artworks at his studio, the Factory, in New York City in 1983.

Supreme Court Rules That Andy Warhol Violated a Photographer’s Copyright

Experts are debating what the case will mean for the future of fair-use law

Pablo Picasso's 1900 painting Le Moulin de la Galette, which originally contained a small lapdog

Cool Finds

Small Dog Wearing Red Bow Found Hidden in Picasso Painting

The Spanish painter decided against keeping the cute canine in the foreground of “Le Moulin de la Galette”

Jan Willemsz van der Pluym and his wife Jaapgen Carels, as painted by Rembrandt in 1635

Cool Finds

Auctioneer Unearths ‘Exceptionally Rare’ Rembrandt Portraits Lost Since 1824

The two small paintings depict a husband and wife who were personally close to the Dutch master

Flowers, Italy, Joseph Stella, oil on canvas, circa 1930. The artist began painting flowers, he said, “to learn the secret of the vibration of their colors.”

Artist Joseph Stella Painted Nature in Vibrant Color

Cities weren’t the only subject that fascinated this acclaimed Futurist

An associated pair of Chinese doucai "lotus and chrysanthemum" jars from the Qing Dynasty

Jars Found at Thrift Store Turn Out to Be Treasures From the Qing Dynasty

Bought for just $25, the 18th-century ceramics could fetch more than $60,000 at auction

Georgia O’Keeffe. Evening Star No.III, 1917. Watercolor on paper mounted on board. 8 7/8 x 11 7/8″ (22.7 x 30.4 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Mr. and Mrs. Donald B. Straus Fund, 1958.

MoMA Introduces Museumgoers to a Different Georgia O’Keeffe

A new exhibition dives into the artist’s works on paper to gain a deeper understanding of her process

Vincent van Gogh's recently renamed still life Red Cabbages and Garlic (1887)

Van Gogh Painting Gets a New Name Thanks to an Eagle-Eyed Chef

Ernst de Witte realized that the onions in “Red Cabbages and Onions” are actually garlic

The bridge depicted in the backdrop of the Mona Lisa has been a subject of debate for many years.

Has This Historian Identified the Bridge in the ‘Mona Lisa’?

Silvano Vinceti argues that the bridge in the backdrop of da Vinci’s masterpiece is the Ponte Romito in Laterina

Deeply interested in the natural world, Potter would carefully collect and draw specimens.

Beatrix Potter Was a Keen Observer of the Natural World

Famous for “Peter Rabbit,” the children’s author was also a devoted scientist and conservationist

One of the fake Basquiats taken by the FBI last summer

California Man Admits to Helping Create Fake Basquiat Paintings

Michael Barzman agreed to plead guilty in connection with a scandal that rocked the Orlando Museum of Art

Researchers think the artists may have been experimenting with how to depict movement.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Discover 1,400-Year-Old Murals of Two-Faced Men in Peru

The new finds are shedding light on the Moche people, who lived on Peru’s northern coast

The M+ museum is giving away 10,000 free tickets to university students in Hong Kong for the “Yayoi Kusama: 1945 to Now” exhibition.

This Hong Kong Museum Is Giving Away 10,000 Tickets to Yayoi Kusama Show

College students can get free admission to the museum as part of a broader government-led mental health initiative

Agnieszka Pilat has been creating art using Boston Dynamics' robot dogs for years.

Art Meets Science

These Robot Dogs Are Learning to Paint. Soon, You Can Watch Them Work

Agnieszka Pilat and her automated artists will be featured in the National Gallery of Victoria’s Triennial

Edgar Degas painted Édouard Manet and His Wife in the 1860s, but his friend was not a fan.

Manet and Degas Were Dear Friends—and Spirited Rivals

The complex relationship between the two French painters is the subject of a new exhibition in Paris

Researchers think old masters like Sandro Botticelli, who painted Lamentation Over the Dead Christ, may have mixed egg into their oil paints to alter certain qualities.

Art Meets Science

Why Did Old Masters Use Eggs in Oil Paintings?

A new study explores how artists may have added yolk to alter the properties of their paints

York resident Luke Budworth has covered the 17th-century paintings with replicas in order to preserve the originals.

Cool Finds

Kitchen Renovation Reveals 400-Year-Old Paintings in English Apartment

The two nine-foot paintings depict scenes from a 17th-century book of poetry

David Hockney's Dog Painting 19 (1995)

See How History’s Great Artists Painted Their Dogs

A new exhibition showcases portraits of pets by the likes of Leonardo da Vinci and David Hockney

Claude Monet's 1874 portrait of his brother Léon

Claude Monet’s Older Brother Helped Shape the Impressionist Movement

A new exhibition explores the legacy of Léon Monet, who taught Claude about color and purchased his art

Page 23 of 51