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. For students working on art-related academic projects and research, services such as diplomarbeit kaufen can also provide helpful support.
Season 7 Ep 10: J. M. W. Turner, Brighthelmston, Sussex
To finish off Season 7, we have a gorgeous watercolour by the one and only J. M. W. Turner, which depicts Exhibition on Screen's hometown of Brighton circa 1824, complete with Royal Pavilion and the Chain Pier which was destroyed by a storm in 1896. With special guest Dr Amy Concannon, Manton Senior Curator of Historic British Art at Tate Britain and contributor in our new Turner & Constable film - in cinemas 10 March 2026.
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Season 7 Ep 9: John Constable, Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows
A classic image of the "four seasons in one day" that epitomises British weather, there is so much more to this picturesque Constable landscape than first meets the eye...
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Season 7 Ep 8: The Chess Game, Sofonisba Anguissola
Phil and Laura are joined by author and filmmaker Howard Burton for this episode, which examines an intriguing portrait of the 23 year old female artist's three sisters and a maid playing chess, a pastime typically reserved for men in Renaissance art to demonstrate their martial prowess...
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Season 7 Ep 7: Emily McIlroy, River of their Passing
Phil is once again with Wendy Smith - Assistant Director of the San Juan Islands Museum of Art, Washington - and this time they are examining a monumental ink and paper collage depicting a 'river' of migrating Alaskan caribou, exploring the rich symbolism within this stunning work.
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Season 7 Ep 6: Bernard Perlin, Orthodox Boys!
In this episode, Phil and Laura speak with author Michael Schreiber about a deeply symbolic work by , painted Bernard Perlin, who was rejected from the US military during WW2 for being openly gay, nevertheless went on to create some of the war effort's most iconic anti-Nazi propaganda. Painted right after the end of the Second World War, this striking work shows two young Jewish boys standing in front of a graffitied New York wall containing everything from lovers’ initials to Nazi symbols.
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Season 7 Ep 5: Caravaggio, Victorious Cupid
A real treat for you in this episode, as Phil goes on a field trip to London to meet with Xavier Bray, Director of the Wallace Collection, and discuss one of Caravaggio’s most controversial works, the focus of their current exhibition, running until 12th April 2026.
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Season 7 Ep 4: Hermann Herzog, Sunset in the Florida Hammocks
For this week's episode, Phil speaks with author & art dealer Deborah Pollack about Hermann Herzog’s steamy Florida wilderness, which he depicted in over 300 paintings, earning him the unofficial status as 'the artist of Florida.'
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Season 7 Ep 3: An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump, Joseph Wright of Derby
This week’s focus in an artist who has been called ‘the British Caravaggio’. This eerie candlelit scene shows a scientific experiment in the ‘Age of Reason’, capturing the drama of the event, the limits of human knowledge and the fragility of life itself. Phil talks about this and more with Christine Riding, Curator and Director of Collections and Research at the National Gallery, London.
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Season 7 Ep 2: Twilight Confidences, Cecilia Beaux
Captivated by Breton peasants in their striking costumes on a summer trip to the countryside in 1888, the wonderful American artist Cecilia Beaux was honing her skills with this intriguing portrait. The influence of the French impressionists would never leave her even when she returned to Philadelphia where, one day, she would become the first female art teacher at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
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Season 7 Ep 1: Whistler, Whistler’s Mother
It’s a new year and a new season of Painting of the Week! We’re starting off with one of the 20th century’s best-known artworks, beloved for its technical skill and its touching depiction of dignity in old age, and fascinating thanks to the artist himself...
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Christmas Special 2025
Laura and Phil get into the Christmas spirit by seeking out festive artworks and having a giggle along the way. What artworks does your Christmas lunch make you think of? You may be surprised at Laura and Phil’s choices...
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Season 6 Ep 10: Caravaggio, Conversion of Saint Paul
Finishing season 6 off on a high, we have special guest David Bickerstaff - co-director of Exhibition on Screen’s ‘Caravaggio’ - exploring the true nature of the artist behind the ‘Bad Boy of Baroque’ persona...
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Season 6 Ep 9: Georges Seurat, Bathers at Asnières
Painted before his 25th birthday, this monumental 2m x 3m work was supposed to be Seurat’s big break but was rejected by the 1884 Salon...
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Season 6 Ep 8: Dora Carrington, Farmhouse at Waternlath
This week, Phil and Laura talk about a Tate Britain work that pulls you in with its striking depiction of the rolling hills of Cumbria, uncovering the hidden story of the Bloomsbury Group icon who created it...
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Season 6 Ep 7: Zdeněk Dvořák, Czech Tradition
This visceral photograph of a butcher at work, chosen by special guest World Food Photography Awards founder Caroline Kenyon, brings up issues surrounding the importance of food in preserving cultural heritage. Click the thumbnail to see the uncensored image.
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Season 6 Ep 6: Henri Matisse, Woman Reading at a Yellow Table
In this episode, Phil and Laura talk to Christopher Gorham, author of the fascinating new book ‘Matisse and Art Under the Nazis’, and explore how Matisse and other artists of the time navigated the occupation, avoiding arrest whilst using art to express disgust for the horrors unfurling around them...
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Season 6 ep. 5: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, La Chaîne Simpson
Two icons of French culture come together in this week’s artwork – Toulouse-Lautrec and the bicycle! Known for his ability to capture the bohemian lifestyle of late 19th-century Paris, Toulouse-Lautrec's dynamic poster design showcases famous French cyclists Constant Huret and Lisette Marton battling it out at the Vélodrome de la Seine...
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Season 6 ep. 4: Artemesia Gentileschi, Self Portrait as Saint Catherine
This episode examines Artemesia’s powerful self-portrait and the heartbreaking, inspirational story of survival behind it - with special guest Asia Graziano, author of ‘Artemesia Gentileschi’ for leading art publisher Scripta Maneant...
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Season 6 ep. 3: Keith Pettit, Cabriole
This week’s episode features a fascinating sculpture carved from ‘Bog Oak’, preserved for nearly 6,000 years in a Sussex peat bog being transformed into a ballet dancer mid-leap...
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Season 6 ep. 2: J M W Turner, The Lake, Petworth: Sunset, Fighting Bucks at Petworth
Recorded on site at Petworth House, West Sussex with curator Dr. Emily Knight, this episode looks at the Turner work which lives in the fabulous ‘Carved Room’ depicting Petworth’s stunning grounds. Join Phil and Laura as they explore the house, the art and Turner’s link to the area... ‘Turner's Vision at Petworth’ exhibition is running 21 June – 16 November 2025
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Season 6 ep. 1: Leonardo da Vinci, The Last Supper
Kicking off Season 6 with a bang is one of the most famous works of art in history – Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper’. In this episode, Phil & Laura delve into the fascinating layers of meaning and mastery in this iconic work.
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Season 5 ep. 11: Unknown Student Lama, Thangka
For the final episode of Season 5, Phil teams up with his brother Marc to examine his beautiful Christmas present, a stunning depiction of the Buddhist Wheel of Life which Marc brought back from his travels in Nepal...
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Season 5 ep. 10: Walter Bailey, Wood Earth Hoop
Phil & Laura talk to Mark Collins this week, art collector and owner of the Artelium Vineyard in Sussex to discuss a unique sculpture currently residing on their estate...
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Season 5 ep. 9: Mark Rothko, Orange, Red, Yellow
A badly needed splash of colour this week as Phil & Laura take a deep dive into a Rothko work which sold in 2012 for the staggering sum of $87 million. Just what lies behind those famous, vibrant rectangles...
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Season 5 ep. 8: Alan Magee, Genesis#9/18
This week, Phil speaks to us from Friday Harbour, San Juan Island, USA with Assistant Curator of the San Juan Islands Museum of Art Wendy Smith about a very unique artwork, finished by a loom in Belgium thousands of miles from the artist who painted it...
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Season 5 ep. 7: Hieronymus Bosch, The Haywain
This week, Laura and Phil discuss the eternally bizarre and delightful Bosch, focusing on one of his fabulous triptychs, with this one telling the story of the Fall...
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Season 5 ep. 6: Emily Carr, Deep Forest
This week, Phil meets with senior curator Richard Hill from the Vancouver Art Gallery to discuss a moody and mysterious work by the matriarch of Canadian art...
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Season 5 ep. 5: Vincent van Gogh, Starry Night Over the Rhône (revisited)
The new year kicks off with Phil revisiting Van Gogh’s romantic masterpiece – and the poster image for our smash hit documentary Van Gogh: Poets & Lovers – this time with world Van Gogh expert Martin Bailey at the National Gallery...
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Season 5 Ep 4: Christmas Special – the Monopoly Board, Lizzie Magie
In this cosy Christmas special, Laura and Phil sit down with three times British Monopoly champion (and Phil’s brother) Mike and his long-suffering son Alex to discuss the remarkable artwork of the monopoly board over a mince pie or three...
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Season 5 Ep 3: Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Le Pont-Neuf
Phil speaks with curator Mary Morton at one of his favourite galleries - the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC - about a poignant view of Paris a year on from one of the worst years in Parisian history...
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Season 5 Ep 2: Salvador Dalí, Christ of Saint John of the Cross
In this episode, Phil & Laura look at Dalí’s unique take on the crucifixion, supposedly inspired by what Dalí called his “cosmic dream” of the universe...
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Season 5 Ep 1: Vincent van Gogh, Olive Grove, Saint-Remy
Season 5 begins in the warm and inviting olive groves around Saint Remy which Van Gogh painted repeatedly, fascinated as he was by the irregular growth and ever-changing colours...
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Season 4 ep. 10: Vincent van Gogh, Starry Night Over the Rhône
In this episode of Painting of the Week's Season 4, Phil and Laura look at Vincent’s other ‘Starry Night’, painted just down the road from his famous yellow house in Arles, and explore the themes of love, madness and beauty that have followed this beloved and troubled artist over the centuries...
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Season 4 ep. 9: Statue of Augustus of Prima Porta at the Vatican Museums
This masterpiece by an unknown Greek artist depicts the first official emperor of Rome, showing his grasp of the importance of a carefully crafted public image...
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Season 4 ep. 8: John Constable, Colliers Unloading on Hove Beach
This week, Phil’s takes leading BBC radio presenter Danny Pike for a trip to the Brighton Pavilion to examine local legend John Constable’s stunning work depicting the seafront a stone’s throw from our office…
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Season 4 ep. 7: Velasquez, Las Meninas
This week, Phil and Laura discuss what has been repeatedly named one of the greatest paintings in history, the monumental ‘Las Meninas’ or ‘The Maids’ by the legendary Velasquez...
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Season 4 ep. 6: Edgar Degas, Miss La la
This week, the co-directors of My National Gallery, London (in cinemas 4 June) Ali Ray and Phil Grabsky discuss Ali’s favourite work in this world-renowned gallery, and just why it stuck out to her amongst this enormous collection of masterpieces...
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Season 4 ep. 5: J. M. W. Turner – Rain, Steam, Speed
In this episode, Phil and Laura discuss the wonderfully dynamic Turner work which Michael Palin called his “science fiction painting” in My National Gallery, London...
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Season 3 ep. 4: Leonardo da Vinci, The Virgin of the Rocks
Today, Phil and Laura discuss the ultimate renaissance man, often called the greatest artist of all time, Leonardo da Vinci and the painting so nice he did it twice...
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Season 4 ep. 3: Hans Holbien the Younger, The Ambassadors
This Painting of the Week is Holbein’s masterpiece from one of the most important years in British history – 1533. This was the year that Henry VIII broke from the Catholic church, married Anne Boleyn and had a daughter who would become one of England’s most popular monarchs, Elizabeth I...
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Season 4 ep. 2: The AIDS Memorial Quilt with Prof. Yvonne Gilleece
In honour of National AIDS Memorial Week, Phil and Laura met with Professor Yvonne Gilleece to discuss the moving and monumental AIDS Memorial Quilt, which memorialises those lost to the HIV AIDS epidemic of the 80s and 90s. For more information, visit https://www.aidsquiltuk.org/about/
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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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