Jacob Riis’s Bandits’ Roost, 59 1/2 Mulberry Street (1888), showing men, residents and a child in a narrow Lower Manhattan tenement alley.
Who Mourns the Gang Member?
Every child is searching for somewhere to belong. Who will claim them before the gang does? Read more...
Theresa Rézeau self-portrait with Francis Bacon’s Study for Self-Portrait at Phillips Auction House, London.
I Don’t Know When I Was Born
What if you didn’t know when you were born? Francis Bacon’s self-portrait asks what it means to truly know ourselves. Read more...
Caravaggio, David with the Head of Goliath, c. 1609–10, showing David holding the severed head of Goliath.
Callow Disgrace
Caravaggio meets The King in a reflection on power and pride. What happens when authority arrives before wisdom? Read more...
Detail from Raphael’s The Transfiguration (1516–1520), showing a father holding his son below the mountain.
The People Who Stayed
Raphael left the painting unfinished. He died before the miracle arrived. Some of us are still waiting below the mountain. Read more...
George Frederic Watts, Hope (1886), showing a blindfolded woman seated on a globe, holding a lyre with a single remaining string.
What If Hope Is the Drug?
When does perseverance become a refusal to accept evidence? Theresa Rézeau reflects on George Frederic Watts’s Hope (1886). Read more...
Gustav Klimt, The Three Ages of Woman, 1905, depicting infancy, motherhood and old age in a meditation on the stages of a woman’s life.
Forever 21
At twenty-one, a daughter steps into a life of her own. Through the lens of Klimt, a mother learns that love must let her go. Read more...
Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa, c. 1503–1519, portrait of a seated woman with folded hands and an enigmatic expression against a distant landscape.
Divine Elegance
Theresa Rézeau on Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and what it means to hold a room without trying. Read more...
Elizabeth Forbes, School Is Out, 1889, depicting children leaving school, used to explore education, work and the uncertain future facing young people.
The Bill Arrived. The Job Didn’t.
The bill has arrived. The job hasn't. Read more...
Vincent van Gogh’s Prisoners’ Round (1890), depicting prisoners walking in a circle within the walls of a prison yard.
Even the Jailbird Sings
Theresa Rézeau on Van Gogh's Prisoners' Round and the freedoms no wall has ever learned how to contain. Read more...
The Sower (1850) by French painter Jean-François Millet, depicting a solitary agricultural worker scattering seeds across a field.
The Boss
Theresa Rézeau on Millet's The Sower and José Mujica: power, freedom, and the quiet authority of those who plant rather than accumulate. Read more...
The Clubfoot (1642) by Spanish painter Jusepe de Ribera, depicting a smiling young boy with a disability standing against an open landscape.
The Dignity of Difference
Theresa Rézeau on Ribera's The Clubfoot and what a smiling boy in 1642 still reveals about dignity, disability, and human worth. Read more...
Floral still life by Dutch painter Rachel Ruysch, depicting an elaborate arrangement of flowers against a dark background.
The Last Flower
Theresa Rézeau on Rachel Ruysch's still life paintings and what wilting flowers teach us about beauty, time, and the grace of letting go. Read more...
The Shipwreck (1805) by British painter J. M. W. Turner, depicting survivors struggling amid violent waves and a storm-tossed sea.
The Man Who Built the Impossible
Theresa Rézeau on Turner's The Shipwreck and Thomas Andrews, the man who designed the Titanic and watched it disappear in a single night. Read more...
Edwin Landseer, Alpine Mastiffs Reanimating a Distressed Traveler, 1820, two powerful dogs rescuing a man in the snow.
The Image of Risk
When did the powerful dog become an image of danger? Theresa Rézeau explores Landseer, risk and responsibility. Read more...
Henri Rousseau’s The Football Players, a painting of four football players by the French artist.
Jersey Number 10
Today, the world will watch a World Cup final. Once again, millions will look to the player wearing the number 10. Henri Rousseau saw it first. Read more...
William Hogarth’s The Four Stages of Cruelty, an eighteenth-century series examining cruelty, violence and its consequences.
The Monsters We Create
Theresa Rézeau on Hogarth's Four Stages of Cruelty and the society that keeps producing the conditions for youth violence. Read more...
Léon Bonnat, Jacob Wrestling with an Angel (1876), depicting Jacob struggling with the angel in a dramatic biblical scene.
Change My Name
Theresa Rézeau on Bonnat's Jacob Wrestling with an Angel and what a new name cannot do alone. Read more...
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Blind Leading the Blind, 1568, depicting six blind men following one another as the leader falls into a ditch.
The Blindness of the Sighted
Blindness and the refusal to see are not the same thing. Theresa Rézeau on Bruegel and what we choose not to see. Read more...
The Potato Eaters (1885) by Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh, depicting a peasant family gathered around a table sharing a simple evening meal.
Year 1992
Theresa Rézeau on Van Gogh's Potato Eaters and a year in Zimbabwe she has never left behind. Read more...
Katsushika Hokusai, late-period Japanese artwork, reflecting the artist’s lifelong pursuit of mastery and creativity into old age.
The Invisible Candidate
Why does experience become invisible with age? Theresa Rézeau explores ageism in the workplace through Hokusai's late masterwork. Read more...
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