The opening of the Bayeux Tapestry, embroidered figures on linen

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American artist working in London1871

Whistler's Mother

Artist: James McNeill Whistler

Anna Whistler sits beside a patterned curtain, her white bonnet and handkerchief interrupting a field of grey and black. The picture can feel like a monument to motherhood, yet its formal title asks us to attend to relationships between shapes and tones. Her own letters reveal the practical decisions, affection and religious feeling behind that apparent stillness. Later exhibitions and a controversial postage stamp helped turn a private likeness into a public emblem.

Portraits Seated woman Mother

Read the story 634 visitsShop prints

Flanders1434

The Arnolfini Portrait

Artist: Jan van Eyck

A gallery tour of Jan van Eyck's double portrait of a wealthy Bruges merchant and his wife, painted in 1434 and now in London.

Read the story 573 visitsShop prints

DutchFebruary 1890

Almond Blossom

Artist: Vincent van Gogh

A docent-led reading of Van Gogh's Almond Blossom, painted in February 1890 as a gift for his brother Theo and sister-in-law Jo after the birth of their son Vincent Willem. The tour connects the painting's blue sky, white blossom and Japanese-inspired design to its occasion, and separates what we can see from what the museum and letters establish.

Read the story 516 visitsShop prints

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Dutch1669

Self Portrait at the Age of 63

Artist: Rembrandt

Rembrandt painted himself in the final months of his life, at sixty-three, in a work whose concentrated surface, shadowed background, and ambiguous half-smile have made it one of his most discussed late self-portraits. This short tour looks closely at what he chose to put in, what he painted out, and how the National Gallery's curators read the result.

Read the story 475 visitsShop prints

Spanish1820-1823

Saturn Devouring His Son

Artist: Francisco Goya

Goya painted Saturn devouring one of his children on the wall of his own house between 1820 and 1823. This short tour looks at the myth behind the scene, the fear the Prado sees in it, and the strange intimacy of a mural made for no outside audience.

Read the story 473 visitsShop prints

Italybetween circa 1512 and circa 1513

Sistine Madonna

Artist: Raphael

A docent-led reading of Raphael's Sistine Madonna, painted in Italy around 1512 to 1513. The tour explains the Madonna and Child, Saint Sixtus II and Saint Barbara, using the supplied identification and collection record, and stays honest about how much the sources do and do not explain.

Read the story 450 visitsShop prints

Showing 1 to 6 of 207 artworks.