Can reconstructing historic collections give us the wrong idea about the past?
Reuniting objects that belonged to important collectors can be a visual treat, but there are some intellectual traps to be avoided
Modern art, with a Belgian flavour
Fernand Khnopff was among the most original artists of the fin-de-siècle – but his dreamlike images are unmistakably Belgian
Picturing poverty in the 19th century
In her final book Linda Nochlin makes a case for painting that looks poverty in the eye
How the French Rothschilds turned their private passions into public gifts
A monumental new study argues that ‘the patronage of the French Rothschild family is a European history of taste’
The man who created ‘dictator chic’
Charles Percier may not be a household name, but his Empire style sums up the Napoleonic era – and has had imitators ever since
It’s time to look again at the golden age of sleaze and splendour
Was the French Second Empire as morally and artistically bankrupt as its critics made it out to be?
Cavorting amid the ruins with Hubert Robert
The Louvre's Hubert Robert exhibition was a revelation
Diary: on Francis Haskell
The enduring intellectual influence of Francis Haskell, the ‘historian’s art historian’ who reshaped the whole discipline.
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‘Notre-Dame’s fortunes have merged with the destiny of France itself’
Over the centuries Notre-Dame de Paris has become much more than a place of worship – it is a symbol of a nation