Michael Prodger
No Mickey Mouse Artist
Roy Lichtenstein based his work on comic strips but his approach to painting was intellectual
Portrait of a Railway Child
Edouard Manet’s virtuosity in painting the human form is unsurpassed—and highly original
The Old Men Who Made Paint Itself Expressive
It is rare for great artists to keep producing well into old age. Two biographies of Titian and Cézanne reveal masters who saved their best until last
Mixed Media, Mixed Results
Three shows run the gamut of artistic expression, from the glorious Goya to risibile performance art
Camera Bravura
The National Gallery’s new show, Seduced by Art, celebrates the lasting influence of photography’s earliest pioneers
A Mania For Nymphs
Peter Lely’s underrated pastorals and mythologies are erotic delights for the connoisseur
The First Modern Art Movement
The Pre-Raphelites, whose work stars in a new Tate Britain show, dismissed the artistic hierarchy and founded a brotherhood with fire in the belly
A Delicious Summer Sorbet
Sterling Clark’s collection of French art, on show at the Royal Academy, is as appetising as it is unfamiliar
Melancholia, Not Modernism
Edvard Munch may have yoked new technologies together but his leitmotifs were timeless
The Mask of the Monarchy
In six decades of portraits the Queen’s impenetrable expression has barely altered
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