When he wasn’t writing plays, soldiering or doing hard time for being a suspected spy, John Vanbrugh was busy bringing the baroque to Britain
The National Portrait Gallery retrospective includes photos of high-schoolers, sports players, political rallies – and some striking self-portraits
Some 140 masterpieces of painting, drawing, sculpture and decorative art from the last two millennia go on display at the Art Institute of Chicago
Between the advent of the term ‘homosexual’ and the outbreak of the Second World War, artists found creative ways to express queer sensibilities
Tate Modern’s major retrospective takes in the artist’s early work, her return to painting and everything in-between
An intimate survey of the photographer’s work, co-curated by one of his close friends, goes on display at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn
The Royal Academy of Arts reveals how carefully conceived even the most cartoonish of the artist’s paintings really are
The Viennese artist captured the grandeur of Austria’s landscapes, from river deep to mountain high
Patrons sometimes spent more on the cases of these small marvels than on the paintings themselves – and this exhibition suggests it was worth every penny
The Danish painter’s eerie interiors are joined by portraits, landscapes and depictions of musicians
This exhibition in Brussels reveals how Renaissance artists tried to capture the full range of human physiognomy – sometimes in a single painting
The Musée des Arts Décoratifs recreates the sights, sounds and smells of a wealthy family’s domestic life in pre-Revolutionary Paris
Though the Neo-Impressionist is best known for his Parisian scenes, the Courtauld provides a refreshingly different view
This exhibition at the Frick reveals how the English painter’s portraits are a visual encyclopaedia of Georgian taste
The Palazzo Barberini puts on a survey of the sculptor’s mastery of the baroque and close ties to the Papacy
Blenheim Palace marks the tercentenary of its architect’s death by exploring his grand designs, success as a playwright and tempestuous relationships
The Rijksmuseum celebrates the profound influence that Ovid’s epic poem has had on artists over the last two millennia
Satirical prints and drawings that range from the cheeky to the downright revolutionary go on display at the Albertina in Vienna
The Cincinnati Art Museum unveils some 40 small, colourful works – from courtly scenes to mythological paintings – that depict states of longing
The warrior class that dominated Japan for centuries have long been a fixture in pop culture – but what were they really like?
The Bard Graduate Center in New York celebrates the many talents of 19th-century France’s most prodigious architect
Portraits, landscapes and lively scenes of bathers from the painter’s late period go on show at the Fondation Beyeler
The Courtauld Gallery presents an alternative history of British landscape painting in the 18th and 19th centuries
Dive headlong into an under-appreciated aspect of the artist’s oeuvre at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark
