Round-Up 2022: My Top Articles About Art

A celebration of inspiration and imagination

Art can be a remarkable place that affects us in ways that other things cannot. It stretches our imaginations. It pushes us to reconsider our entrenched position. It allows us to see worlds beyond our own.

Finding inspiration from artists and their work can be both a catalyst and a means to fuel our own creativity.

This year has been my most successful on Medium, where I’ve found a fantastic group of readers who enjoy my writing about art, history and culture. I’ve found great pleasure in researching and composing all of the work I have published.

Here’s a selection of my most popular pieces on art.

Why Is This Woman Pinching the Nipple of the Other?

Gabrielle d’Estrées and One of Her Sisters (c. 1594) attributed to the School of Fontainebleau. Oil on oak wood. 96 × 125 cm. Louvre, Paris, France. Image source Wikimedia Commons

My most popular article of 2022 was this one, in which I asked “Why is this woman pinching the nipple of the other?”

This fascinating painting remains one of the most famous works of French art, and yet very little is known about its making. It shows two women sitting unclothed in a bathtub. The one on the right is named Gabrielle d’Estrées. Beside her is another woman — thought to be her sister — who is unambiguously pinching her nipple.