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A gift for every interest — and every deadline: The best coffee-table books to give at Christmas
Amie Elizabeth White rounds up some of the best coffee-table books of 2025.
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Has the secret of Vermeer’s most enigmatic masterpiece finally been revealed? A British art historian’s controversial claim to have uncovered the true identity of 'Girl with a Pearl Earring'
Andrew Graham-Dixon talks to Carla Passino about Vermeer's 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' — an iconic example of Dutch Golden Age art and one of the most famous paintings in the world.
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'Real children like it… I think it frightens some adults, but very few children': 75 years of The Chronicles of Narnia
As C. S. Lewis’s enchanting children’s classic 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' turns 75, Matthew Dennison pulls back the coats to explore its evergreen spell.
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Power, prestige and passion: Where to see more than 100 of the world’s best dynastic jewels
Many of the world’s most astonishing jewels are on display together in Paris — and they once belonged to Europe’s most powerful families.
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Dragonflies, flowers, dogs and lobsters: The 17th century nature brought back to life by the paintings of Alexander Marshal
Alexander Marshal — this country’s first major botanical painter — deserves to be better known, writes Tiffany Daneff, after seeing his luminous originals in the Royal Collection.
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The accidental Impressionist who captures country life on canvas
Painting a local cricket match, Sherree Valentine-Daines received an invitation that changed her career and led her to become artist-in-residence at Goodwood
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The greatest flowers make the greatest art
A search for still-life subjects led Kate Friend to some of the greatest gardens and gardeners in the country
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Is the British Museum's attempt to save a Tudor-era pendant with links to Henry VIII proof that the institution is on the up?
After years of neglect and controversy, Britain's premier cultural institution seems to be finding its feet again.
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'Gems of enflamed transparencies, of bottomless blues, of congealed opals': Why glass was perfect for the elemental experimentalism of Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau masters such as Louis Comfort Tiffany and Émile Gallé turned the most fragile of materials into iridescent masterpieces that shimmered like seashells or glittered like Byzantine mosaics.
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Who won the rivalry between Turner and Constable? It was us, the public
A forthcoming exhibition at Tate Britain that revives the rivalry between these two 19th century painters sheds new light on their relationship.
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'Love, desire, faith, passion, intimacy, God, spiritual consciousness, curiosity and adventure': The world of Stanley Spencer, a very English visionary
Stanley Spencer’s talent for seeing the spiritual in the everyday, his stirring sense for the wonder of Nature and his love for the landscapes of Berkshire and Suffolk shaped his art, as Matthew Dennison reveals.
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What a report on the spending of female billionaires tells us about the future of museum collections
Between 2015 and 2024, the number of female billionaires grew from 190 to 344. Could this be good news for the art world?
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Items from the collection of Lady Glenconner are going under the hammer, including a nine-carat gold Cartier box gifted to her by Elizabeth II
‘I have had such great pleasure living with these wonderful objects, each telling their own fascinating story.’
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A painting owned by Edward Guinness is on display next to a near identical version at Kenwood House — but which one is the real Vermeer?
A mini exhibition at Kenwood House allows viewers to ‘to practise their own connoisseurship’.
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‘So many of us look at the world through our screens and forget to pay attention to the world outside’: Katy Hessel on the world’s great female artists, why free entry to museums matters and her consuming passions
The author of ‘The Story of Art Without Men’ speaks to Lotte Brundle about the dangers of AI, how she fell in love with the art world and why it’s okay that her favourite painting is by a male artist.
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'The King of Hell was fat from gorging on souls and he expelled some more from his bowels': The many guises of the Devil Antiquity to present day
Taking as many guises as his names, the Prince of Lies turned at times into a man-devouring ogre, a mutant medley of claws, horns and wings, or the brooding rebel that lit the imagination of Romantic painters.
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A portrait featuring a string of pearls stolen in one of Britain’s most notorious jewellery heists is going under the hammer
A portrait by Philip de László features a headline-making pearl necklace that was stolen, recovered and stolen again — and it's coming up for auction this week.
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The curious case of Cecil Beaton and Madame X
When he noticed an uncanny resemblance between John Singer Sargent’s painting of Virginie Gautreau and a Cecil Beaton portrait of Leslie Caron, Patrick Monahan called on the Hollywood Golden Age actress to investigate.
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Eccentric, awe-inspiring and a home-from-home for literary giants: Why the London Library is an institution like no other
The London Library is celebrating 180 years in St James’s Square.
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A five minute guide to Wayne Thiebaud — the artist who 'reinvented still life as a genre and found fame in the process'
The Courtauld Institute is staging the first-ever exhibition of Wayne Thiebaud's work.
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What is everyone talking about this week: Does Britain need its own Met Gala?
Will Hosie questions what form the British Museum's upcoming fundraising gala should take.
