Manet: The Man Who Invented Modern Art
Manet is one of the main candidates for the title of the most important artist there has been. As the reluctant father of Impressionism, and the painter of Dejeuner sur l'herbe, he can probably be accused of inventing modern art. But his story is fascinating on many other levels. As a piece of compelling biography, Manet's is the unlikely tale of the stubborn son of the most highly placed judge in France who decides to become an artist and embarrass his father. The resulting family tensions are the stuff of legend. Then there was Manet's dramatic private life, including exotic romantic affairs and a particularly horrible death. Always cited as the father of the Impressionists, Manet stubbornly refused to show with them, and was careful to maintain an aesthetic distance from Monet, Renoir and the others. While they worshipped him, he looked down on them.
Holbein: Eye of the Tudors
A survey of Hans Holbein's career from his beginnings as a religious painter to his work for Henry VIII and beyond. The program also includes a close analysis of "The Ambassadors".
William Dobson: The Lost Genius of British Art
Acclaimed British art critic, Waldemar Januszczak, investigates the few known facts about William Dobson and seeks out personal stories he left behind as it follows him through his tragically short career. Among the Dobson fans interviewed in the wonderful film is Earl Spencer, brother of the late Princess Diana, who agrees wholeheartedly that William Dobson was the first great British painter.
Mary Magdalene: Art's Scarlet Woman
Waldemar Januszczak explores the impact of Mary Magdalene's myth on art and artists. In art all Christian saints are inventions but Mary Magdalene has been the subject of more invention and re-invention than any other.
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