The art of the Christmas card
It’s the thin end of the wedge, the slippery slope, the beginning of the end of a civilised Christmas. It…
Why do we kiss under mistletoe?
Give us a snog. Pucker up at the Christmas party. Kiss me quick at the Nativity play. Will you be…
The art of seizing the moment in photographic portraiture
A Tatler photographer once told me that the secret to taking a good photo was the three Ts: tum, tits,…
The joy of a cluttered museum
The joy of a cluttered museum
Absurd and amusing, solemn and scholarly: Charles Jencks's Cosmic House reviewed
An editor once told me: always look at the loos. It was remarkable, she said, how many grand cultural projets,…
The daring young man who gave his name to the leotard
Jules Léotard was blessed in his name. It might have been quite different had he been called, say, Jules Droupé.…
The National Trust has lost the language of architecture
Press officers, breathe easy. This is not another column attacking the National Trust. Actually, I tell a lie. It is.…
Glorious: Bernardo Bellotto at the National Gallery reviewed
What is the National Gallery playing at? Why, in this summer of stop-start tropical storms, is the NG making visitors…
Rich and strange: Eileen Agar at Whitechapel Gallery reviewed
Heads turn, strangers gawp, matrons tut or look in envy. A man doffs his bowler hat knowing when he is…
The art of government: what politicians’ paintings say about them
What politicians’ paintings say about them
What does your wedding reading say about you?
The pitfalls of choosing a wedding reading
Bricks and pieces: the blight of London’s fake facades
The problem with London’s fake facades
The bizarre art of Scottie Wilson deserves to be better known
On eBay I have an alert set for ‘Scottie Wilson’. Nine times out of ten, it’s a diamanté Scottie dog…
Why should art have ever been considered a male preserve?
Sixty years ago, women were still excluded from the art history canon, says Laura Freeman
The first-century saint who went viral
Laura Freeman considers how artists have depicted one of the strangest and most touching of the Stations of the Cross
The stifling cult of self-care
The stifling cult of self-care
Paint in the bloodstream: The Death of Francis Bacon, by Max Porter, reviewed
Francis Bacon once told the art critic Richard Cork: ‘I certainly hope I’ll go on till I drop dead.’ Max…
Every page of this astonishingly beautiful ode to the citrus is a treat
Laura Freeman is transported by J.C. Volkamer’s astonishingly beautiful ode to the citrus
Will our churches ever reopen?
Will churches ever fully reopen?
Let men have their boys’ clubs
There’s nothing wrong with men-only clubs
Looking at Barnett Freedman makes me weep at the government's dismal graphics
Among the spoils of a lockdown clear-out was a box of my grandmother’s books: Woolf, Austen, Mitford and The Complete…
From blue to pink: Looking for Eliza, by Leaf Arbuthnot, reviewed
On the way back from my daily dawn march in the park, I often pass my neighbour, a distinguished gentleman…
Sumptuous and saucy: Compton Verney's virtual tour of their Cranach show
‘Naughty little nudes,’ my history of art teacher used to say of Cranach’s Eves and Venuses. Aren’t they just? Coquettish…
What do your lockdown slippers say about you?
Tartan, monogram, moccasin, clog. What do your slippers say about you? Trick us all you like with your office Manolos,…
The life of Artemisia Gentileschi is made for Netflix, but it’s the art that really excites
The life of Artemisia Gentileschi is made for Netflix, says Laura Freeman, but it’s her art that really excites
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