Laura Freeman

Let there be dark

10 June 2017 9:00 am

Who’s afraid of the dark? Who now fears shadows and bumps in the night? Where do you even find any…

Do the bump: ‘The Visitation’, 1528–30, by Jacopo da Pontormo

Woman to woman

3 June 2017 9:00 am

Bump to bump they stand: Mary and her cousin Elizabeth, both pregnant, both apple-cheeked and glowing as expectant mothers should…

Making waves

27 May 2017 9:00 am

Hokusai wanted to paint everything, says Laura Freeman, and at 70 he was only just beginning

‘Choshi in Soshu province’, woodblock print from A Thousand Pictures of the Sea, c.1833, by Hokusai

Making waves

25 May 2017 1:00 pm

The end, whenever it came, was always going to be too soon for Katsushika Hokusai. There was still so much…

A choice of first novels

22 April 2017 9:00 am

If you go down to the woods today… That is the starting point for Idaho by Emily Ruskovich, who grew…

Proud to be a prude

22 April 2017 9:00 am

What advice would you give to this modern moral question posed by my friend’s younger sister? A boy at school…

A Neapolitan quartet, Naples 1955

From page to stage

4 March 2017 9:00 am

Reading Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan quartet is a heady experience. You not only see, hear, know her characters — you can…

A Neapolitan quartet, Naples 1955

From page to stage

2 March 2017 3:00 pm

Reading Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan quartet is a heady experience. You not only see, hear, know her characters — you can…

‘Allegro Moderato Fireman’s Parade’ (from the Calcium of Light portfolio), 1974–76, by Eduardo Paolozzi

On the make

23 February 2017 3:00 pm

Rudolfo Paolozzi was a great maker. In the summer, he worked almost without stopping in the family’s ice-cream shop, making…

‘Allegro Moderato Fireman’s Parade’ (from the Calcium of Light portfolio), 1974–76, by Eduardo Paolozzi

On the make

23 February 2017 3:00 pm

Rudolfo Paolozzi was a great maker. In the summer, he worked almost without stopping in the family’s ice-cream shop, making…

Rodin’s ‘Gates of Hell’: more than 300 figures, including a panther-like Eve

Rodin at 100

18 February 2017 9:00 am

The girl who posed for Auguste Rodin’s figure of Eve on the ‘Gates of Hell’ was, the sculptor said, a…

Rodin’s ‘Gates of Hell’: more than 300 figures, including a panther-like Eve

Rodin at 100

16 February 2017 3:00 pm

The girl who posed for Auguste Rodin’s figure of Eve on the ‘Gates of Hell’ was, the sculptor said, a…

Rides without romance

11 February 2017 9:00 am

You know the old designation NSIT — Not Safe in Taxis? Well, we need a new one: TSIU — Too…

Sunny delight

11 February 2017 9:00 am

No Californian could have painted Hockney’s pools. No La-La Land artist, raised on sun and orange juice, would have done…

‘Ossie Wearing a Fairisle Sweater’, 1970, by David Hockney

Sunny delight

9 February 2017 3:00 pm

No Californian could have painted Hockney’s pools. No La-La Land artist, raised on sun and orange juice, would have done…

Rides without romance

9 February 2017 3:00 pm

You know the old designation NSIT — Not Safe in Taxis? Well, we need a new one: TSIU — Too…

Rides without romance

9 February 2017 3:00 pm

You know the old designation NSIT — Not Safe in Taxis? Well, we need a new one: TSIU — Too…

Munchkins and mischiefs

7 January 2017 9:00 am

Arthur Rackham shouldn’t have lived in anything as conventional as a house. It should have been a gingerbread cottage, like…

Rackham frontispiece: ‘Hey! Up the chimney, Lass! Hey after you!’, from ‘The Ingoldsby Legends, or Mirth & Marvels’

Munchkins and mischiefs

5 January 2017 3:00 pm

Arthur Rackham shouldn’t have lived in anything as conventional as a house. It should have been a gingerbread cottage, like…

A fresh start

29 December 2016 3:00 pm

Most of us lead lives of quiet desperation. So we’re told. Frits van Egters apparently leads a life more desperate…

A good night’s sleep

3 December 2016 9:00 am

Have you, on hearing the story of the princess who felt a pea through 40 feather mattresses, ever thought that…

‘Hello… can you put Nigel Slater on the line?’

A good night’s sleep

1 December 2016 3:00 pm

Have you, on hearing the story of the princess who felt a pea through 40 feather mattresses, ever thought that…

Stuck on stucco

19 November 2016 9:00 am

Whenever the words ‘stucco house’ appear in the newspapers, you can be certain the occupiers have been up to no…

The white stuff: drawing showing sections of the stucco interiors at 20 Portman Square, c.1775, by Robert Adam

Stuck on stucco

17 November 2016 3:00 pm

Whenever the words ‘stucco house’ appear in the newspapers, you can be certain the occupiers have been up to no…

Shiver me timbers

29 October 2016 9:00 am

Brrrrr, this is a chilly book. Each time a character put on his sealskin kamiks, muskrat hat, wolfskin mittens and…