Tom Stammers is a historian of France and Reader in Art and Cultural history at the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London. His first book, ‘The Purchase of the Past’ (Cambridge University Press), won the 2021 RHS Gladstone Prize.

Features
Andiron representing Psyche, , 1809, made by Pierre-Philippe Thomire, after a design by Charles Percier.

The man who created ‘dictator chic’

Charles Percier may not be a household name, but his Empire style sums up the Napoleonic era – and has had imitators ever since

16 Mar 2017
Features

It’s time to look again at the golden age of sleaze and splendour

Was the French Second Empire as morally and artistically bankrupt as its critics made it out to be?

26 Sep 2016
Reviews

Cavorting amid the ruins with Hubert Robert

The French artist’s obsessive portrayal of antiquity reveals his endless variety

2 Jun 2016
Comment Features

Diary: on Francis Haskell

The enduring intellectual influence of Francis Haskell, the ‘historian’s art historian’ who reshaped the whole discipline.

31 Aug 2015
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Podcast

Masterpiece [Re]discovery 2022. Photo: Ben Fisher Photography, courtesy of Masterpiece London

The Masterpiece podcast: episode three

This episode explores an ancient funeral stele, Marie Antoinette’s breast bowl, and how digital technologies are helping to preserve Egyptian heritage sites

Art news daily

Frank Auerbach has died at the age of 93

Sotheby’s announces first auction in Saudi Arabia – and completes Breuer Building deal

Tens of thousands flee Baalbek after Israel issues evacuation order including World Heritage site

Latest Comment

Are the art market’s problems being blown out of proportion?

How to paint with real freedom

Is the Stirling Prize suffering from a case of tunnel vision?