Harriet Baker is a writer based in London. She writes on art and books for the FT and the TLS

Gwen John bares it all at Pallant House

The artist’s remarkable paintings of women are also a form of self-exposure

30 Jun 2023
Photograph of Eileen Agar wearing her Ceremonial Hat for Eating Bouillabaisse

For Eileen Agar, the natural world was a playground of artistic possibilities

The British artist looked to nature to provide material for her surreal creations

13 Jul 2021
Ben Nicholson photographed by Humphrey Spender (c. 1935).

Mugs, jugs and modern art – Ben Nicholson at Pallant House, reviewed

The painter had a keen eye for crockery – and the best pieces from his collection got to star in his art

30 Jun 2021
The Landlady (1918), Nina Hamnett. Private collection.

In her life and art, Nina Hamnett had some serious fun

The first survey show dedicated to the ‘Queen of Bohemia’ presents a flamboyant figure who was single-minded about her art

20 May 2021
Rose Wylie photographed in her cottage in Kent in November 2019.

‘When you’re an artist, you don’t have to do what you’re told to do’ – an interview with Rose Wylie

Inspired by everything from Tarantino films to chocolate biscuits, the artist’s exuberant, comic-strip canvases are utterly unmistakable

18 Jan 2020
Ethel Mairet's workgirls and apprentices at her ‘Gospels’ workshop, Ditchling, in the 1930s.

Handy work – the business of craft in interwar Britain

An exhibition at the Ditchling Museum explores the interwoven lives and pioneering work of designer-artisans in Sussex and beyond

5 Jul 2019
Interior. Strandgade 30 (1901), Vilhelm Hammershøi.

Shades of grey – the austere artistry of Vilhelm Hammershøi

The Danish painter scorned the fussy fashions of the bourgeoisie, taking a more spartan approach – at home and in his art

12 Jun 2019
The Three Sisters (1955), Balthus. Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros.

‘How do you solve a problem like Thérèse?’ – Balthus in Madrid reviewed

Balthus’ strange, dream-like paintings deliberately set out to unsettle viewers

17 Apr 2019
Dining Room in the Country (detail; 1931), Pierre Bonnard. Minneapolis Institute of Art.

How Pierre Bonnard became carried away by colour

The more you look, the more mysterious the bright landscapes and paintings of his wife in the bath seem

16 Mar 2019
Black Windows (2006), Sargy Mann

In blindness, Sargy Mann found new ways to picture the world

After losing his sight, the British painter drew on touch, memory and imagination to continue his work

28 Feb 2019
Brüderstrasse (Free Room) (1930), Jeanne Mammen. The George Economou Collection

Visions of a dark world in the art of Weimar Germany

The works produced in Germany’s interwar period reflect the turbulence of a decade marked by trauma, hope and crisis

10 Nov 2018
Balls (film still; 2018), Lily Cole.

Lily Cole’s new film breathes life into the past at the Foundling Museum

Fiction and history, past and present are interwoven in this tale of two women whose children are taken into care

13 Aug 2018

How Cedric Morris fused his twin passions for plants and painting

The British artist was as devoted to cultivating flowers as he was to painting them, as this colourful exhibition reveals

15 Jun 2018
Chantal Joffe photographed in her studio in March 2018.

Chantal Joffe on painting, pastel and parenthood

An interview with the British artist, renowned for expressive portraits of family, friends and fellow artists

26 May 2018
Five Forms (1935), Paule Vézelay. © The estate of Paule Vézelay

The ‘living lines’ of Paule Vézelay

She was well known in the surrealist circles of the 20th century, but Vézelay’s work has been all but forgotten since

10 May 2017