Michael Prodger
The Assassin of Painting
A new exhibition at Tate Modern succeeds in freeing Miró the artist from Miró the brand
The Fine Art of Living
Inventor of the fête galante, Jean-Antoine Watteau painted faux-pastoral scenes with a peerless verve
An Awfully British Medium
The subtleties of watercolour reflect the national character—and it’s still going strong
A British Model of Modernism
How insular is our sculpture? Not very, as a major new exhibition at the Royal Academy reveals
The New South Sea Bubble
Auction houses are reporting records being broken—even though the works on sale are quite mundane
An Eye for the Ladies
Stendhal loved Lawrence, Thackeray thought his work tawdry. An NPG exhibition gives us a chance to decide
The Serpent in His Own Eden
Paul Gauguin forged the myth of himself as a South Seas primitive — but his painting was not just a pose
Poetry in Motion
Photographic pioneer, inventor and killer, Eadweard Muybridge was a very complex character indeed
High-Stake Fakes
If you think that painting hanging in a dark corner of your house is worthless, think again
Britain is in Rude Health
From Hogarth to Spitting Image, nothing defines our national identity better than comic art
Why Remoaners should back Boris
“Boris, ironically, now offers Remoaners the best chance of a soft Brexit, or at least a sensible one. And to those who want a second referendum—’the people’s vote’—there may even be a chance of that too.”
On the road
“In the summer of 1980, in the grip of some Kerouac-ish fantasy, I opted to hitch-hike from Laredo to New York”
Discovering the Great War of China
A third of a million Chinese labourers helped the Allies defeat the Kaiser, but their huge unsung contribution ended in betrayal