J. M. W. Turner
Turner is one of my favourite artists, mostly because of the light. He can paint storms, fires, wrecks and endings, and the colour still lifts them into something alive.
Read: Why Is The Fighting Temeraire So Beautiful and So Sad?
Artists
The classic artists I keep coming back to
These are the classic artists I keep coming back to. Some of them I have loved for years, and some I am only starting to understand. Each note says, as honestly as I can, what draws me in.
John Constable
Constable might be my favourite artist ever. His paintings make me nostalgic for a time I never lived in, which I know is ridiculous, and which I still feel every time.
Read: Why Does Constable's The Cornfield Make Me Nostalgic for a Time I Never Lived In?
Caspar David Friedrich
I have a large print of his Wanderer at home, and I saw the real painting in Hamburg in 2024. Nobody paints loneliness and wonder in the same breath quite like him.
Read: Why Does Wanderer above the Sea of Fog Feel So Lonely?
John Everett Millais
Millais painted the most beautiful sad painting I know. The detail is so loving that it takes a moment to realise what you are looking at.
John William Waterhouse
Myth, water, flowers and women adrift. Waterhouse came after the Pre-Raphaelites but carried their beauty and their tragedy a long way.
Essay coming soon
Alphonse Mucha
Most people know Mucha for his posters. I saw his Slav Epic in Prague around ten years ago, and it is probably the best art exhibition I have ever seen.
Essay coming soon
Gustav Klimt
The gold gets me first. Then the sensuality, then all that decorative richness that somehow never feels like too much.
Essay coming soon
Johannes Vermeer
Vermeer is all about light for me. Quiet rooms, a window, a person busy with something small, and light that makes the moment feel important.
Essay coming soon