Top drawers – a brief history of sketching through the ages
Spanning several continents and 13,000 years of graphic art, Susan Owens’s new book outlines the many reasons why artists have always been drawn to drawing
The French Renaissance palace putting Brueghel and Braque side by side
The renovated Fondation Bemberg in Toulouse is a fitting home for its founder’s eclectic art collection
Enter the void with Pierre Huyghe
An exhibition in Venice of the French artist’s work is conceptually dense, but does it work in visual terms?
The Venetian painters who opened up a world of new possibilities
The lessons learned by the city’s painters in the 1500s brought about radical new forms of expression
Naval-gazing in Restoration England
Securing the services of Willem Van de Velde and his son was a coup for Charles II – and it put wind in the sails of England’s own maritime art tradition
The Flemish painter who was a dedicated follower of fashion
Theodoor Rombouts was a great assimilator of styles, but he was more than just another of the Caravaggisti
Mimic men – how artists have spurred each other to new heights
An illuminating exhibition in Vienna explores how artists from the Greeks on have revelled in rivalries
Making over Umbria’s greatest museum
The Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, home to some of Perugino’s most important works, can now display its outstanding collection in suitably grand style
The painter who turned his eye upon the crowds of Paris
Louis-Léopold Boilly experienced his fair share of personal drama, but he had a rare gift for depicting the ins and outs of everyday existence
Why was Jacques-Louis David so determined to keep his drawings to himself?
The artist rarely showed the drawings that made his revolutionary paintings possible, but the Met is finally putting them centre stage
Ruff and ready – how Frans Hals made his portraits crackle with life
The Dutch painter already knew the majority of the sitters in his lively portraits of merchants and dignitaries – and it shows
Towering over the Thames, a heavenly new home for Lambeth Palace Library
One of the world’s greatest collections of medieval manuscripts now has state-of-the-art accommodation, writes Michael Prodger
The notional gallery? How art museums turned into public palaces
Two new books offer complementary perspectives – the macro and the micro – on the modern museum
Pride of place – the Musée Ingres Bourdelle honours Montauban’s two most famous artistic sons
The museum in the south of France has spruced up its galleries dedicated to Ingres and now has an entire floor of sculptures by Bourdelle
King of the Zwinger – Dresden’s most important museum is more majestic than ever
The jewel in the crown of the city’s palatial complex of museums now shows off its masterpieces to even better effect
The Danish artists who struck gold in the depths of disaster
Denmark was beset by catastrophes in the early 19th century – but its painters flourished
Battle lines – the tortured genius of Antoine-Jean Gros
An exhibition of drawings at the Louvre reflects the artist’s struggle between his warring inclinations
Did Italian art ever really take a Romantic turn?
Italian artists have been neglected in histories of the pan-European movement
The local museum with a world-class collection of Old Masters
The Centraal Museum is raising its profile with a show devoted to the Utrecht Caravaggisti – but it remains firmly grounded in the city
The grand gestures hiding in Parisian churches
Religious art didn’t die out in the 18th century – Parisian churches are full of large-scale baroque paintings
Hug a Henry Moore!
The Sainsbury Centre’s new director is taking a more touchy-feely approach to displaying the permanent collection