The Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn (1609-1669) brought Dutch painting to its Golden Age – matching Dutch society’s great wealth and cultural achievements with an innovative and creative style of painting. He trained the generations of artists that followed him

The Swiss symbolist painter, Arnold Böcklin (1827-1901) took the world of mythology as his source of inspiration. His most famous painting, Die Toteninsel (The Isle of the Dead), painted in multiple versions between 1880 and 1886, was the inspiration for

One of the best modern works in the choral tradition is Randall Thompson’s cycle based on the settings of verses from Isiah. The Peaceable Kingdom was inspired by the 1826 painting by the same name by the Quaker artist and

Francisco Goya (1746 – 1828) lead a life in and out of favour with the Spanish king and his highly dramatic paintings and etchings, particularly in relation to the various Spanish wars, were highly influential. His pictures of woman, his

The French Romantic artist, Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863), created his masterwork Liberty Leading the People in 1830. Its unforgettable imagery of Liberty, holding the tricolor representing liberty, equality, and fraternity, leading Parisians of all classes as they take up arm and

After finally achieving success with his opera ‘Pelléas et Mélisande’ in 1902, Claude Debussy (1862-1918) wrote ‘L’Isle Joyeuse’ (‘The Joyous Island’), while working hard on his new composition, ‘La Mer’. His very successful artistic achievements were in stark opposition to

A recent exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum in New York paired one of Caravaggio’s paintings, ‘The Musicians’ (1595) with two other paintings, ‘Allegory of Music’ by Laurent de la Hyre (1606 -1656) and ‘The Lute Player’ (c.1626) by Valentin de

The recently released film, ‘Mr. Turner’, by Mike Leigh focuses on the last 25 years of James Turner’s (1775-1849) life, the height of Turner’s career. The film opens with a beautiful Dutch landscape scene, with the sun rising at dawn,