Reacting against the strictures of the international academic style, Russian artists turned to native arts and crafts for inspiration, often deriving subject-matter from Russian history and fairytales...

In the middle of the nineteenth century, Paris underwent an enormous rebuilding programme, which involved the demolition of the medieval neighbourhoods. A network of new parks, squares and wide avenu...

The disparities between the realities of life and the attempts of the Academy of Arts to idealise it simmered for a number of decades before bursting into the open revolt of a group of students in 18...