This became Delacroix's theme: that the achievements of the spirit - all that a great library contained - were the result of a state of society so delicately balanced that at the least touch they would be crushed beneath an avalanche of pent-up animal forces.

For the student of visionary art the interesting fact is that an image comes first and takes up residence in the mind long before the artist has any notion why…

Fine colour implies a unified relationship, in which each part is subordinate to the whole, and the transitions between them are felt to be as precious and bea…

Ingres was one of those artists to whom the outline was something sacred and magical, and the reason is that it was the means of reconciling the major conflict…