Art Stories

Stories behind the art: extraordinary artworks, the stories they hold, and ways to make them yours.

A boy reads a large book in a high backed chair at a red desk in a bright room.

Home office wall art: 12 paintings for focus

Wright of Derby’s alchemist, Dürer’s scholars, Larsson’s children at their desks and Hilma af Klint’s key: twelve pictures of people thinking, reading and making, for the room where you work.

Rooms & Decor

A young prince in red silk holds the hand of a girl in a shimmering silver gown with lace.

Wedding portrait paintings: 12 couples from Van Dyck to Böcklin

Royal betrothals, Florentine wedding chests, a Rococo declaration of love and a Symbolist honeymoon: twelve masterpieces about marriage, and how to turn your own day into a portrait.

Art & Artists

A pale sphere holding a pink heart, crossed by a spiralling double line.

Pink wall art: 12 paintings in blush, rose and coral

Hilma af Klint’s pastel cosmos, Utamaro’s rose kimonos and a Rococo marquise with a rose in her hair: twelve paintings in every shade of pink.

Rooms & Decor

A bouquet of purple-blue irises in a vase against a pale yellow-white background.

Van Gogh paintings: 8 you can hang at home

Irises, Roses, Oleanders, L’Arlésienne and four more: eight works by Vincent van Gogh from the Met and the Art Institute of Chicago, with the story behind each one and where it looks best.

Art & Artists Impressionism

A sunlit stretch of the ancient Via Sacra in Rome, leading toward the church of Saints Cosmas and Damian.

Guest room decor: 12 welcoming paintings for visitors

Rome in the sun, a London courtyard, Tahiti with Gauguin and a Swedish river with Carl Larsson: twelve travelling pictures that make a guest room feel like a small holiday.

Rooms & Decor

A Dutch family in a sunlit interior gathers around a keyboard instrument, a man with a viola da gamba beside them.

Family portraits painted like the old masters: 12 ideas for every family

Van Dyck’s royal children, Renoir’s Madame Charpentier, a Dutch family making music: twelve masterworks behind Fable’s family portrait styles, and the photo each one needs.

Art & Artists

A lone traveller crosses an arched bridge beneath a snowy willow.

Blue and white decor: 12 prints with porcelain colours

Hokusai’s snow, Hiroshige’s waves, Canaletto’s pale skies and Blake’s moonlit circle: twelve blue and white pictures to hang beside your porcelain.

Rooms & Decor

A fisherman on a jagged rock leans out over a rushing river with a net, his lines echoing the spray, with Fuji pale in the mist.

Hokusai beyond the Great Wave: 14 prints to know

The Great Wave made Hokusai the most famous artist in Asia, but it is one print among thousands. Here are fourteen more: views of Fuji, ghosts, flowers, cranes and poems.

Art & Artists Japanese art

A young woman in a flowing kimono holds an open umbrella against a plain background.

Entryway decor ideas: 12 paintings for the first wall a guest sees

A cat at the letter box, a dog on guard at the stairs, a Japanese traveller at dawn and a Larsson doorway: twelve welcoming pictures for a hall, with how to hang them.

Rooms & Decor