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Zola’s vivid characters blew his theories off course

So close was Jean-François Millet to the humble peasants he painted that he wore clogs and coarse clothing. He was steeped in nostalgia, yet inspired avant-garde artists from van Gogh to Salvador Dalí, finds Mary Miers

Avoiding the curse of the figurative

JEAN-FRANÇOIS MILLET ONCE SAID, “I am a peasant amongst peasants.” It summarised the French painter’s empathy with rural communities working on the land. They became the subjects of his remarkable dra

Huw Montague Rendall is a baritone. He is ...

A poet who prospered despite Rome’s bloody civil wars