Michael Prodger is a senior research fellow at the University of Buckingham and art critic for the New Statesman

The Renaissance palace putting Brueghel and Braque side by side

The renovated Fondation Bemberg in Toulouse is a fitting home for its founder’s eclectic art collection

26 Feb 2024

The Venetian painters who opened up a world of new possibilities

The lessons learned by the city’s painters in the 1500s brought about radical new forms of expression

28 Nov 2023
Henry Moore sculpture displayed on a lawn

Hug a Henry Moore!

The Sainsbury Centre’s new director is taking a more touchy-feely approach to displaying the permanent collection

30 May 2023
The ‘Resolution’ in a Gale (detail; c. 1678), Willem van de Velde the Younger. National Maritime Museum, London

Naval-gazing in Restoration England

Securing the services of Willem Van de Velde and his son was a coup for Charles II – and it put wind in the sails of England’s own maritime art tradition

28 Mar 2023

The Flemish painter who was a dedicated follower of fashion

Theodoor Rombouts was a great assimilator of styles, but he was more than just another of the Caravaggisti

25 Feb 2023

Mimic men – how artists have spurred each other to new heights

An illuminating exhibition in Vienna explores how artists from the Greeks on have revelled in rivalries

24 Nov 2022
Adoration of the Magi by Perugino

Making over Umbria’s greatest museum

The Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, home to some of Perugino’s most important works, can now display its outstanding collection in suitably grand style

30 Aug 2022

The painter who turned his eye upon the crowds of Paris

Louis-Léopold Boilly experienced his fair share of personal drama, but he had a rare gift for depicting the ins and outs of everyday existence

28 Apr 2022
The Death of Socrates (detail; c. 1786), Jacques-Louis David. Private collection

Why was Jacques-Louis David so determined to keep his drawings to himself?

The artist rarely showed the drawings that made his revolutionary paintings possible, but the Met is finally putting them centre stage

23 Feb 2022
Isaac Abrahamsz Massa (1626; detail), Frans Hals. Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto

Ruff and ready – how Frans Hals made his portraits crackle with life

The Dutch painter already knew the majority of the sitters in his lively portraits of merchants and dignitaries – and it shows

15 Nov 2021
Photo: Hufton & Crow

Towering over the Thames, a heavenly new home for Lambeth Palace Library

One of the world’s greatest collections of medieval manuscripts now has state-of-the-art accommodation, writes Michael Prodger

10 Jul 2021
Basque in glory: the Guggenheim Bilbao photographed in 2020.

The notional gallery? How art museums turned into public palaces

Two new books offer complementary perspectives – the macro and the micro – on the modern museum

9 Apr 2021
Portrait of Madame Gonse (detail; 1852), Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. Musée Ingres Bourdelle, Montauban

Pride of place – the Musée Ingres Bourdelle honours Montauban’s two most famous artistic sons

The museum in the south of France has spruced up its galleries dedicated to Ingres and now has an entire floor of sculptures by Bourdelle

16 May 2020
The restored Antikenhalle, or Hall of Antiquities, in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden.

King of the Zwinger – Dresden’s most important museum is more majestic than ever

The jewel in the crown of the city’s palatial complex of museums now shows off its masterpieces to even better effect

9 May 2020
Woman Standing in Front of a Mirror (detail; 1841), C. W. Eckersberg.

The Danish artists who struck gold in the depths of disaster

Denmark was beset by catastrophes in the early 19th century – but its painters flourished

26 Sep 2019
Alexander taming Bucephalus (c. 1800), Antoine-Jean Gros. Photo: © RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre)/Michel Urtado

Battle lines – the tortured genius of Antoine-Jean Gros

An exhibition of drawings at the Louvre reflects the artist’s struggle between his warring inclinations

13 Sep 2019
The Veneration of St Michael (1825–30), Giuseppe Pietro Bagetti. Musei Reali di Torino

Did Italian art ever really take a Romantic turn?

Italian artists have been neglected in histories of the pan-European movement

20 Jan 2019
The Procuress, (1625), Gerrit van Honthorst, Centraal Museum, Utrecht

The local museum with a world-class collection of Old Masters

The Centraal Museum is raising its profile with a show devoted to the Utrecht Caravaggisti – but it remains firmly grounded in the city

30 Jun 2018

The grand gestures hiding in Parisian churches

Religious art didn’t die out in the 18th century – Parisian churches are full of large-scale baroque paintings

16 Jun 2017