In the flesh

With a strength of character that belied her fragile looks, Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun pushed the boundaries of royal portraiture and, after the French Revolution, challenged the loss of female influence via every frill and fold in her work

Anthony Lawrence, a New Forest artist, painted everything from Dante’s Inferno to portraits of Ian McKellen and Yehudi Menuhin. This October, Palais des Vaches presents the first major retrospective o

The ‘Mona Lisa of manuscripts’, finally on view

Does a newly found Nicholas Hilliard miniature portray Shakespeare’s patron the Earl of Southampton?

Marie Antoinette’s passion for furniture and genius for bagatelles, however evanescent their purpose, filled the French royal palaces with beauty and charm, as Matthew Dennison reveals

There are many reasons that an artist’s ambitions can be thwarted, including the decision to become a teacher. Later this month, an exhibition will shine a light on talent obscured by a career in the classroom