The Bigger Picture: Your Favourite Art History Podcast

Two iconic Vincent van Gogh paintings. Two ways of seeing. In this episode of The Bigger Picture, we bring Sunflowers and The Starry Night into conversation to explore the tension between painting from life and painting de tête – from memory and imagination. From Paul Gauguin’s visit to the Yellow House in Arles to van Gogh’s doubts in Saint-Rémy, we examine the paintings’ symbolism, the hopes behind the sunflower series, and why those famous “stars too big” troubled their maker. Discover an art history story of friendship, gratitude, creative freedom and self-doubt – and what these beloved masterpieces can teach us about looking closely, dreaming boldly and leaving room for another view. Vincent van Gogh, The Sunflowers, August 1888, oil on canvas, 92.1 × 73 cm, The National Gallery, LondonVincent van Gogh, The Starry Night, June 1889, oil on canvas, 73.7 × 92.1 cm, The Museum of Modern Art, New YorkFollow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebiggerpicture.arthistory/

Step into the colour, heat and lively bustle of At the Market in Michalovce (1935), a dazzling market scene by Slovak Impressionist painter Jozef Teodor Mousson. In this episode of The Bigger Picture, Dr Peter Tuka explores Mousson’s journey to Eastern Slovakia, the influence of the Nagybánya artists’colony and French Impressionism, and a fascinating comparison with Gustave Caillebotte’s Paris Street; Rainy Day. Discover how sunlight, movement and traditional Zemplín kroj – regional Slovak folk dress – transform an ordinary market day into a vivid record of Slovak art, local identity and cultural memory, preserving the people and traditions of Michalovce at a moment of change. Jozef Teodor Mousson, At the Market in Michalovce I. [Na Trhu v Michalovciach I.], 1935, oil on canvas, 61x74cm, Private Collection Gustave Caillebotte, Paris Street, Rainy Day, 1877, oil on canvas, 212x276cm, The Art Institute of Chicago Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebiggerpicture.arthistory/

Why does Eugène Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People still feel so powerful nearly two centuries after the July Revolution of 1830? In this episode of The Bigger Picture, we step onto the barricades of Paris to uncover the history, symbolism and political controversy behind one of the world’s most iconic paintings. Discover how Delacroix transformed revolution into a masterpiece of Romanticism, how Liberty became both a classical allegory and a living woman of flesh and blood, why the painting shocked the Paris Salon, and how its dramatic composition unites citizens across class divides. Along the way, we compare Delacroix with Jacques-Louis David and Neoclassicism, explore the enduring legacy of Marianne and the French Tricolour, and ask what this unforgettable image can teach our divided world about freedom, solidarity and the courage to stand together. Eugène Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People, 1830, oil on canvas, 260x325cm, Louvre Paris Venus de Milo, 2nd century BC, Parian Marble, 204cm, Louvre ParisFollow me on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebiggerpicture.arthistory/

In this episode of The Bigger Picture, Dr Peter Tuka explores Jacques-Louis David’s monumental Neoclassical masterpiece The Intervention of the Sabine Women, now in the Louvre, Paris. From the legendary abduction of the Sabine women and the dramatic intervention of Hersilia, to David’s obsession withAncient Greek sculpture, heroic nudity, Roman history, and classical ideals of beauty, we unpack why this strange and spectacular painting became one of the defining images of French Neoclassicism. Along the way, we connect the paintingto the French Revolution, Robespierre, the Reign of Terror, David’s imprisonment, his political transformation, and his personal reconciliation with his wife, Charlotte. What begins as a bizarre battlefield full of naked warriors, anxious mothers, and inconveniently placed babies becomes a powerful meditation on conflict, forgiveness, family, and the urgent need for reconciliation in our own divided world. Jacques-Louis David, The Intervention of the Sabine Women, 1799, oil on canvas, 385x522cm,Louvre, ParisFollow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebiggerpicture.arthistory/

In this episode of The Bigger Picture, Dr Peter Tuka explores Mierle Laderman Ukeles’ groundbreaking 1973 performance Washing/Tracks/Maintenance: Outside, a defining work of Maintenance Art performed at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut. Through the simple but radical act of scrubbing the museum’s entrance steps, Ukeles challenged the boundaries between art and everyday labour, artist and cleaner, public culture and invisible care work. This episode looks at how Ukeles transformed cleaning, motherhood, domestic chores, and low-status maintenance labour into powerful feminist performance art, asking why the work that keeps museums, homes, cities, and lives functioning is so often ignored. From her 1969 Manifesto for Maintenance Art to her performances inside and outside the museum, this is a story about conceptual art, second-wave feminism, care, class, labour, and the hidden systems that hold the world together.Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Hartford Wash: Washing/Tracks/Maintenance: Outside, 23 July 1973, Wadsword Atheneum, Hartford, ConnecticutFollow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebiggerpicture.arthistory/