I’m a woman, hear me roar

The piece I’d never part with

With so many medals to fit in the tiniest miniature she had ever worked on, limner Elizabeth Meek literally had to hold her breath when painting the portrait of Charles III, but the result is a resounding success

The Yellow Boy by Joshua Reynolds saw multiple peregrinations, passing even through (Romanian) royal hands for a time, before returning to London in 1981. It now headlines a selling exhibition of magnificent 18th to 20th-century works

The mischievous cultural commentator and diarist who changed the way museums think about the past

OVER THE LAST 40 YEARS, ELLE HAS CELEBRATED CREATIVITY OF ALL KINDS. HERE, A RANGE OF TODAY’S LEADING ARTISTS, WRITERS, PHOTOGRAPHERS AND DIRECTORS SHARE THE RITUALS, ROUTINES AND REALITIES BEHIND THEIR GREATEST WORKS, FROM MIND-BLOWING EXCEL SHEETS TO THE MAGIC OF THE DARK ROOM

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