Art history

Beloved by many, despised by others, Thomas Kinkade's quaint rustic scenes and his wholesome image belied a dark and tortured story that contrasts with his 'sugary' artworks.

At the toughest time of his life, the painter was supported by an unlikely soulmate, Joseph Roulin, a postman in Arles. It was a friendship that would benefit art history.

The recent discovery of an art forger's workshop reminds us of the long history of fraudulent artworks – here are the simple rules to work them out.

In the past month alone, shadowy portraits have been found hidden in longstanding masterpieces by Titian and Picasso. What can they and other such discoveries tell us?

A new exhibition of more than 200 photographs charts 300 years of image-making in the US, showing how the country's history and photography have run in parallel.

Winter isn't all bad – these "sublime" landscapes of the frozen North from the turn of the 20th Century offer us a way into resilience – and an "acceptance of the seasonality of life".

Following the release of the US president-elect's official portrait, an expert reveals how scouring the pages of art history can help decode its meaning.

It's been a year of lookalikes – but the lure of the "second self" goes way back to ancient folklore and the writings of Edgar Allen Poe and Sigmund Freud.