The birth of venus

Thought to have been painted in 1665, there is much mystery surrounding this painting, both in the identity of the sitter and the painter himself. Could the girl with the pearl earring be Magdalena, t

Thought to have been painted in 1665, there is much mystery surrounding this painting, both in the identity of the sitter and the painter himself. Could the girl with the pearl earring be Magdalena, t

So Vincent van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo in October 1876, charting the latest instalment of the Holbein cult. He was renting a room in Isleworth, west London, still hoping for a religious career

The hand of Fate and the eye of Sarah Bernhardt plucked Alphonse Mucha from penurious obscurity and catapulted him into the Parisian graphic-art firmament

This month we’ve been captivated by Feldspar’s joyfully tactile occasional table, The Staddle. Its form is inspired by Dartmoor’s granite staddle stones, worn smooth by centuries of weather and wander

There’s no shortage of great picks at this year’s TEFAF Maastricht, the Netherlands, including a Barbara Hepworth sculpture, a pastel portrait by Dora Maar and two sections of 4th-century Roman mosaics