Art

Craig Clunas considers what we can learn of the society of Ming China by looking at how paintings were used as gifts.

Thomas Doherty examines a series of conflicts between left-wing artists and movie moguls at the time of Sergei Eisenstein's brief sojourn in Tinseltown in the 1930s.

Valerie Holman describes the little-known role played by the cartoonist Kem in assisting the British propaganda effort aimed at Iran.

Denise Silverster-Carr on the history of this unique resource for research.

Edward Lucie-Smith

Kate Greenaway, 'the uncrowned queen of the golden age of children's book illustration', died of cancer, aged fifty-four, on November 6th, 1901.

Jason Edwards takes a fresh look at attitudes to the nude in Victorian art, to coincide with Tate Britain's major exhibition on the subject opening this month.

W.A. Coupe explores the polarised opinions aroused by the 'Iron Chancellor', as revealed in the German press.

Roy Porter opens our new series on Picturing History, based on a series of lectures organised in conjunction with Reaktion Books, and shows how 18th-century images of the medical profession flow over into the work of political caricaturists.

Charles Saumarez Smith, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, reflects on some of the issues raised by the exhibition 'Painted Ladies: Women at the Court of Charles II'.