About
About The Sublime
I write about the paintings that stay with me, starting with the feeling and then working out why it is there.
My name is Dave Bell. I'm British, and I have lived in northern Germany since 2008. I am not a formal art historian, and I am not going to pretend to be one.
What I am is someone who knows when a painting moves him, even if he does not always know why at first. That gap between the feeling and the explanation is what this site is about.
How I write
I usually begin with a simple, honest reaction. The first thing I thought when I saw Ophelia was: I hope she is going to be OK. Then I go and find out what is actually happening in the painting, who made it, and why it works the way it does.
I keep the research where it deepens the feeling and leave out the rest. If a fact does not help you see the painting better, it probably does not need to be here.
The painters I love
Turner is one of my favourites, mostly because of the light. Constable might be my favourite artist ever. He makes me nostalgic for a time I never lived in, which I know is not entirely rational.
I have a large print of Friedrich's Wanderer above the Sea of Fog at home, and seeing the real painting in Hamburg in 2024 stayed with me. Mucha's Slav Epic in Prague, around ten years ago, was probably the best art exhibition I have ever seen.
I love Klimt's gold, his sensuality and all that decorative richness. Vermeer gets me through his light. And the Pre-Raphaelites, with their beauty and tragedy, are hard for me to walk past.
And a few honest opinions
Hopper's Nighthawks is cool, but a little plain for me, and it does not move me the way it moves other people. Rothko probably needs to be seen in person before I can say anything sensible about him. And the Mona Lisa is iconic, but not something I would want at home.
Who this site is for
The Sublime is for people who love paintings but do not want to feel stupid for not knowing the art-history context already. If a painting has ever stopped you for a moment and you wanted to know why, you are in the right place.
Images on this site
I only use images of artworks that are in the public domain, from sources that say so clearly, such as Wikimedia Commons and open-access museum collections. Every image has its source and licence listed underneath the essay.
Get in touch
If a painting has stayed with you and you think I should write about it, I would love to hear about it. Email me at dave@thesublime.art.