Film director & art historian Phil Grabsky and art-lover Laura Bentham meet each week to talk about paintings that inspire or excite them. Listen to their ‘Painting of the Week’ and explore some of the world’s most amazing art.
Season 4 ep. 1: John Singer Sargent – Madame X
Season 4 kicks off with Sargent’s scandalous masterpiece, which he called “the best thing he ever did”. This painting caused a big enough stir to force him to both edit the painting and to relocate from Paris Season 4 kicks off with Sargent’s scandalous masterpiece, which he called “the best thing he ever did”. This painting caused a big enough stir to force him to both edit the painting and to relocate from Paris to London in 1886...
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Christmas Special: Painting of the Year
In this special Christmas episode, Phil and Laura pick their top 3 favourite paintings from a year full of masterpieces to discuss over Laura's homemade Christmas punch... Watch on YouTube to view each painting in time with the video
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Season 3 ep. 20: Gustav Klimt – Hermine Gallia
On this episode of Painting of the Week, Phil & Laura discuss a Klimt work which sits right on the cusp of his drastic artistic transformation...
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Season 3 ep. 19: Eric Gill, Ditchling War Memorial
Phil, Laura and special guest Janet Laurence explore a local work by a controversial artist Eric Gill, a terrible man with a wonderful talent, and debate whether you can separate the art from the artist...
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Season 3 ep. 18: Yuko Mohri, Moré Moré
This episode explores a wildly different art style on the cutting edge of the Japanese avant-garde movement, as featured in our latest film’ Tokyo Stories’...
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Season 3 ep. 17: Georges de la Tour, The Penitent Magdalene
This moody, gothic painting was a clean break from the bombastic nature of the baroque style which dominated in the seventeenth century and brings the viewer into a quiet moment of intense contemplation with Mary Magdalene herself…
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Season 3 Ep 16: Wilfredo Lam, La Silla (The Chair)
Part three in a series exploring everyday objects in countries around the world, this bold painting is Lam’s depiction of his time in Paris…
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Season 3 Ep 15: Charles Webster Hawthorne, The Boat Steerer
This episode, recorded at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum with CEO Chris McCarthy, examines an evocative painting by one of the founders of the Cape Cod art colony, the oldest continuous art colony in the USA…
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Season 3 Ep 14: John Singer Sargent, El Jaleo
This episode of Painting of the Week explores a dynamic masterpiece by the greatest portraitist of his time, John Singer Sargent, and his immersion into the "Hispanism" which gripped Europe at the end of the nineteenth century...
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Season 3 Ep 13: Egon Schiele, Seated Woman with Bent Knees
This week's Painting of the Week explores a work which subverts the traditional beauty standard, bringing a sense of grittiness and discomfort into this erotically charged portrait of the artists' beautiful wife...
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Season 3 Ep 12: Goya, The Duchess of Alba
This week, Phil and Laura discuss Goya's portrait of a formidable young noble woman, recently widowed. Is there more to this portrait than meets the eye?
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Season 3 Ep 11: Albrecht Drürer, Great Piece of Turf
This week Phil and Laura explore Albrecht Dürer's 'Great Piece of Turf' and what made this very pretty patch of lawn so ground-breaking in the 16th century...
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Season 3 Ep 10: Vermeer, Girl Reading a Letter by an Open Window
In this very special episode Phil speaks to 'Girl With a Pearl Earring' author Tracy Chevalier from the Rijksmuseum's once-in-a-lifetime Vermeer exhibition. Phil and Tracy stand before a masterpiece and discuss it's surprising history...
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Season 3 Ep 09: Caravaggio, The Calling of Saint Matthew
This striking work brings the gospel of Saint Matthew into the age of Caravaggio…
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Season 3 Ep 08: Pieter de Hooch, Courtyard of a House in Delft
In this episode, Phil and Laura explore this masterpiece from the Dutch Golden Age, uncovering the magic contained within this very normal visions of everyday life...
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Season 3 Ep 07: Horace Pippin, Christmas Morning, Breakfast
In today's festive episode, Phil and Laura focus on Horace Pippin's 'Christmas Morning, Breakfast' and the fascinating story of one of America's foremost black artists...
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Season 3 Ep 06: Rembrandt, the Jewish Bride
For this episode, Phil and Laura discuss a mysterious masterpiece by Rembrandt...
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Season 3 Ep 05: Renoir, Luncheon of the Boating Party
This week Phil and Laura discuss one of their favourite paintings - Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party - and why its creator was such a controversial figure...
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Season 3 Ep 04: William Meyerowitz, Gloucester Humoresque
For this episode, Phil traveled to the wonderful Cape Ann Museum in New England while making 'Hopper: An American Love Story' and discussed William Meyerowitz's 'Gloucester Humoresque' with chief curator Martha Oakes.
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Season 3 Ep 03: Caspar David Friedrich, Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog
This week, we explore a painting that has become the archetypal image of the Romantic era and the Sublime…
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Season 3 Ep 02: Rene Magritte, The Promenades of Euclid
This week, Phil and Laura discuss a surrealist painting that plays with the idea of reality and perception…
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Season 3 Ep 01: Laura Knight, Ruby Loftus Screwing a Breech Ring
Season 3 begins with Phil and Laura discussing an important wartime work which reveals much about the previously untapped skills of British women...
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Season 2 Ep 20: Maxfield Parrish, Daybreak
To celebrate the clocks going forward here in the U.K. and the return to 'British Summer time', this Painting of the Week is Maxfield Parrish's Daybreak - the most popular print of the twentieth century!
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Season 2 Ep 19: Giotto, Kiss of Judas
This week, Phil and Laura discuss one of Phil's favourite paintings to feature in the Exhibition on Screen film ‘Easter in Art’: Giotto’s Kiss of Judas.
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Season 2 Ep 18: Jo Hopper, Edward Hopper, Railroad Gates
This week, Phil and Hopper House curator Elizabeth Thompson Colleary discuss not one but two paintings, both entitled ‘Railroad Gates’ - one by Edward Hopper and one by his wife Jo - and uncover a fascinating story in the process…
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Season 2 Ep 17: Piero della Francesca, The Madonna del Parto
Painted in just seven working days, this extraordinary fresco only narrowly escaped total destruction in 1785…
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Season 2 Ep 16: Rembrandt, The Night Watch
This enormous masterpiece is one of Rembrandt’s finest works, and one of the most famous of the Dutch Golden Age. Brimming with life, it has a fascinating history which includes being wrongfully identified as a night scene during the 19th century and multiple attempts at vandalism!
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Season 2 Ep 15: Frida Kahlo, The Two Fridas
On this date made entirely of twos - 22/2/22 - we are celebrating 2 weeks until the release of our film exploring the life and art of international icon Frida Kahlo and so, rather fittingly, this episode of Painting of the Week focuses on The Two Fridas, with special guest Ali Ray, the director of the upcoming film.
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Season 2 Ep 14: Duncan Grant, The Room with a View
In this episode, Phil & Laura journey to Charleston House in rural Sussex to explore an excellent Duncan Grant exhibition, selecting his fascinating ‘The Room with a View” to discuss, and, more broadly, the Bloomsbury Group and its remarkable cast of characters.
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Season 2 Ep 13: Jan van Eyck, The Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele
This 1436 tomb decoration brings Jesus and the Virgin Mary into the contemporary world, and right in front of the man who commissioned the painting…
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Season 2 Ep 12: Kaixuan Feng, Filtres a cafe (130)
In honour of Chinese New Year today, our Painting Of The Week is by Chinese artist Kaixuan Feng, who has trained in both traditional Chinese painting and contemporary art, bringing the two together in her unique series of beautifully decorated coffee filters…
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Season 2 Ep 11: Henry Raeburn, The Skating Minister
For this special Burns' Night edition of Painting of the Week, Phil & Laura are looking at an iconic and decidedly unusual Scottish painting by Sir Henry Raeburn (1756 - 1823) - his charming depiction of the Rev. Robert Walker gliding across Duddingston Loch on his skates…
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Season 2 Ep 10: Jacopo Pontormo, The Deposition from the Cross (altarpiece)
Sitting between High Renaissance and Baroque styles, this 16th century altarpiece from the Capponi Chapel in Florence brings together two of the most luxurious art periods in history…
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Season 2 Ep 9: William Holman Hunt, The Lady of Shalott
A painting based on a drawing based on a poem based on a legend… this week Phil & Laura discuss Hunt’s rendition of the legend of the Lady of Shalott, an Alfred, Lord Tennyson poem used with great enthusiasm by the Pre-Raphaelites.
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Season 2 Ep 8: The Great Bookcase
Worked on by fourteen leading nineteenth century artists and taking 3 years to complete, the stunning ‘Great Bookcase’ is so much more than a piece of furniture. Join Phil in his discussion with Matthew Winterbottom, Curator of Sculpture & Decorative Arts at the Ashmolean as they discuss one of the museum’s most intriguing pieces…
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Season 2 Ep 7: Alfred Sisley, The Bridge at Argenteuil
This week Phil and Laura take a look at The Bridge at Argenteuil, painted in 1872 by Impressionist Alfred Sisley. A prolific artist who painted numerous riverscapes and seascapes both in England and France…
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Season 2 Ep 6: Mary Cassatt, In The Loge
Listen in this week to find out more about Mary Cassatt - a key figure in the impressionist movement who has been frequently overlooked - and her 1878 painting ‘In The Loge’, an exploration of the act of ‘looking’…
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Season 2 Ep 5: John Constable, The Gleaners
In this episode, Phil and Laura look at one of the greatest of all British artists: John Constable. He is known best for his Suffolk (eastern England) landscapes but this painting is Brighton on the south coast. Why was he there? What does the painting reveal?
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Season 2 Ep 4: Utagawa Kunimasa IV, Dept Store Game
An absolute treat this week – from the 5-star exhibition The Art of Tokyo at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, UK. Is it a painting or is it a board game? Phil talks to Clare Pollard, Curator of Japanese Art at the Ashmolean.
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Season 2 Ep 3: Edvard Munch, Four Girls on the Bridge
This painting by Edvard Munch depicts girls standing on a bridge wearing bright clothes and with a bright blue sky overhead, perhaps suggesting that it’s summer. However, the sketchy forms and puzzling nature of the figures suggest it is equally a depiction of Munch’s psychological state, a somewhat darker place.
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Season 2 Ep 2: John Everett Millais, Portrait of John Ruskin
This portrait of Victorian art critic John Ruskin was painted by Millais in 1853-4. Ruskin was an early advocate of the pre-Raphaelites and part of their success was down to his efforts. Phil is joined this week by Matthew Winterbottom, Curator of Sculpture & Decorative Arts at The Ashmolean where the painting hangs…
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Season 2 Ep 1: L.S. Lowry, Going to the Match
In this famous scene, painted by Lowry in 1928, we see countless fans hurrying towards the turnstiles to see a football match. As with so many of his industrial landscapes, the picture is a composite of the actual and the imagined…
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Season 1 Ep 20: Edouard Manet, The Railway
Painted in 1873, The Railway is the last painting by Manet of his favourite model, fellow painter Victorine Meurent. We see her sitting with a sleeping puppy, a fan, and an open book in her lap, while a little girl watches the white clouds of steam as a train passes beneath them. But actually, we are seeing far more than that…
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Season 1 Ep 19: Andrea Mantegna, Triumphs of Caesar
In this episode of the Painting of The Week Podcast, Laura and Phil take a look at 'Triumphs of Caesar' a series of nine large paintings created by the Italian Renaissance artist Andrea Mantegna
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Season 1 Ep 18: Diego Velázquez, Portrait of Pope Innocent X
Painted by the extraordinary Spanish artist Diego Velázquez in Rome in 1650, Pope Innocent X considered this portrait to be ‘too true’… Laura and Phil take a closer look.
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Season 1 Ep 17: Bridget Riley, Uneasy Centre, 1963
Bridget Riley is one of today’s most prominent artists, having made her name in the 1960s with black and white paintings that explored the dynamic effects of optical phenomena. This week Phil and Laura look at Uneasy Centre from 1963… and somehow manage to mention the rock band Black Sabbath!
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Season 1 Ep 16: Berthe Morisot, Girl in a Boat, with Geese
Phil and Laura this week look at a painting by Berthe Morisot, one of the leading French Impressionists. The vivid oil painting features a lady rowing a boat, with geese standing on the edge of a river… or does it? Time to take a closer look…
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Season 1 Ep 15: Shamsia Hassani, Money Art
This week’s Painting of the Week is by the young female Afghan graffiti artist Shamsia Hassani. The work is called Money Art and has literally just been painted. This podcast is one not to be missed.
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Season 1 Ep 14: The Alexander Mosaic
A one-and-a-half-million-piece marble mosaic that is as stunning as it is fascinating. Found in Pompeii and now in the wonderful archaeological museum in Naples. Phil & Laura take a closer look at both the history and the art…
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Season 1 Ep 13: Johannes Vermeer, Girl with a Pearl Earring
Created by Johannes Vermeer in 1665, this painting is among the most popular ever painted. Phil and Laura look a little closer at this enigmatic portrait to try to understand why that is...
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Season 1 Ep 12: Henri Matisse, The Snail
This week Phil & Laura explore one of Matisse’s most famous works, created towards the end of his life when he was confined to bed due to ill health… His materials? Coloured paper and a large pair of scissors. The result: for many, a masterpiece.
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Season 1 Ep 11: Edward Hopper, People in the Sun
Among the greatest of all American painters, Hopper frequently focusses on humans in different forms of isolation. His People in the Sun may seem to be 5 men and women happily sun-bathing – but look again…
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Season 1 Ep 10: Howard Hodgkin, Mrs Acton in Delhi
Hodgkin was one of Britain’s foremost contemporary painters and is hugely popular. India was a place very close to his heart, and the fascinating Mrs Acton in Delhi was painted there between 1967 – 71.
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Season 1 Ep 9: Pieter Bruegel, The Hunters in the Snow
The wintry scene painted by Bruegel in 1565 is one of a series depicting rural life at different times of the year. The three hunters are seen returning from what appears to be an unsuccessful trip…
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Season 1 Ep 8: Otto Dix, Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia von Harden
This portrait, painted in 1926, came about when German artist Otto Dix passed the journalist in the street and exclaimed ‘I must paint you! I simply must! You are representative of an entire epoch!’…
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Season 1 Ep 7: Peter Paul Rubens, The Descent from the Cross
This masterpiece, painted by Rubens in 1612-1614 for Antwerp Cathedral is this week’s Painting Of The Week. What makes it so famous? Phil & Laura take a closer look…
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Season 1 Ep 6: Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon
Originally titled The Brothel of Avignon (renamed The Ladies of Avignon), this large oil painting created in 1907 by Pablo Picasso was deemed immoral at its first exhibition in 1916…
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Season 1 Ep 5: Eric Ravilious, Train Landscape
Eric Ravilious’s Train Landscape is one of his best-loved watercolours. Painted in 1939 it shows the Westbury Horse in Wiltshire as seen from the window of a train carriage…
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Season 1 Ep 4: Jacques-Louis David, The Death of Marat
The Death of Marat by Jacques-Louis David in 1793 depicts the body of Jean-Paul Marat lying dead in his bath after his murder, and is one of the most famous images of the French Revolution…
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Season 1 Ep 3: Frida Kahlo, The Two Fridas
Frida Kahlo’s painting The Two Fridas is the subject of this episode of Painting of the Week. It was completed shortly after her divorce and shows two very different personalities…
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Season 1 Ep 2: Claude Monet, Bouquet of Sunflowers
In this episode we explore Monet’s Bouquet of Sunflowers, painted in 1881. A work that was revered by critics and artists alike, and was the inspiration for Van Gogh’s later sunflower paintings…
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Season 1 Ep 1: JMW Turner, The Fighting Temeraire
Welcome to the first episode of our Painting of the Week podcast! In this episode Phil and Laura look at Turner’s 'The Fighting Temeraire', which was once voted ‘The Greatest Painting in Britain’…
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