Museum HD

No artist captured the essence and charm of Venice better than Giovanni Antonio Canal, better known as Canaletto. This remarkable collection of over 200 paintings, drawings and etchings allows us to discover Canaletto's artistic talent, his contemporaries and the city he reproduced with genius. The film also opens the doors of two official royal residences, Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, to reveal more about the artist and Joseph Smith, the man who introduced Canaletto to Britain.

“Happiness is an angel with a serious face.” These words by the Italian painter Amadeo Modgliani define to perfection the portraits which made him famous… He reinvented the icon, with his oval faces, his elongated necks and lapis-lazuli eyes which are strangely expressive even when robbed of substance. You will be able to appreciate the simplicity of his figures, the restraint in his lines and colours, especially when you admire “The Woman with the Blue Eyes” or the “Portrait of Anna Zborowska”. Enjoy your visit!

Born in 1866 in Moscow, Wassily Kandinsky is considered as one of the most important 20th century artists. He was notably the founder of abstract art. Having left Russia for Germany where he started teaching at the Bauhaus in 1922, he then settled in France in 1933 and left behind him a particularly abundant work. You will rediscover here his most emblematic creations, essentially drawn from the collection of the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Enjoy your visit!

Raphael Federici (street artist), Marine Goodmorning (illustrator), Luca Fiore (cartoonist) and Harry Boudchicha (drawing teacher) reveal their best drawing techniques. Each episode focuses on a specific subject: movement, oil painting, shadows, hair... For the first 10 minutes, each artist gives a theoretical lesson illustrated by sketches. Then they each start working on their creation. Finally, they end with a debrief, comparing and explaining their techniques

In 64 episodes, fun and educational, you will know how to draw an airplane, a fireman, a haunted mansion, a soccer player, a sunset, a lion, the Eiffel Tower, seashells, a fairy... Our master draftsman Gia-Haï Phan will show you the basics of a successful drawing: proportions, perspectives, values, contrasts, volumes, blending, everything is covered.

Built in 1926, the Bauhaus in Dessau remains Walter Gropius's major work. One of the most famous buildings of 20th century architecture. Not only architect of the Bauhaus, he is also the director of this "School of Creation": the Bauhaus, both patron and client. It is the separate needs of the school that determine the design of the buildings, which are connected to each other. To each space its coherence, its own existence. Gropius opts for a nesting system: he designs an asymmetrical building, giving it a floating character, playing on different masses and different heights, advancing into space. As if in extension. The desire for transparency is omnipresent. The curtain wall of glass that clings to the three floors of the main parallelepiped is the most accomplished mark of it. The interior decoration is designed and built by the Bauhaus students. It is a total architecture for Gropius. Rationalizing construction, producing more economical and functional housing will remain the a

Pablo Picasso is one of the world's greatest artists, and until his death in 1973, he was its most prolific. How did it all begin? After being ignored for too long, it's time to focus on the artist's early years and the upbringing that enabled him to achieve the extraordinary. Three cities played a key role: Malaga, Barcelona and Paris. Young Picasso traverses them and explores their influence on the artist, analyzing specific works from his early years.

In 2013, Norway celebrated the 150th anniversary of the birth of Edvard Munch (1863-1944), one of the most prominent figures in modern art. Munch 150, co-produced by the National Museum and the Munch Museum, is already being hailed as "the exhibition of a lifetime". Public interest is enormous, as evidenced by the record-breaking $120 million public auction result for one of his four paintings, The Scream. This presentation will take you behind the scenes of how this exhibition came to be, as well as including a guided tour of Norway, outlining the biography of this man whose life spanned the mid-19th century to the German occupation during the Second World War.

Passionate about horticulture, Monet remains the undisputed master of garden painting in the history of art, but he was not alone. Artists such as Van Gogh, Bonnard, Picasso and Matisse used the garden as a strong theme in their work. These great artists, along with many other famous names, are brought together in an innovative exhibition from the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Royal Gallery of Arts in London. From the exhibition itself to the beauty of artists' gardens such as Monet's at Giverny, we take a journey to discover how the modern garden was used to explore radical and wondrous new ideas.

A native of the southern French town of Grasse, Jean-Honoré Fragonard is one of the most important 18th century French painters. He studied at the French Academy in Rome but chose to be free in his work, preferring to carry out private commissions, some of which were licentious, such as “The Shirt Withdrawn” exposed at the Louvre. The “Fanciful Figure” exposed at the Louvre-Lens demonstrates an original and very modern style. One of his masterpieces is without doubt the painting “The Bolt”, in the collection of the Louvre in Paris. Enjoy your visit!

Discover or rediscover the masterpieces by Gustave Moreau (1826-1898) on display at the Musée d'Orsay, the Gustave Moreau Museum in Paris...

Graffiti World is a short program dedicated to contemporary urban art around the world. Each episode explores a specific city, highlighting iconic works of street art. Local soundscape accompanies the images for an authentic, commentary-free immersion. The program showcases the creativity and diversity of artistic expression in public spaces. An invitation to discover the richness of graffiti as an art form in its own right.

Strictly Come Dancing’s Zoe Ball and Ian Waite are quickstepping their way across the south West of England in a bid to turn a profit at auction in Hampshire. Experts Margie Cooper and Paul Laidlaw are on hand to guide. Paul shares a secret with Zoe about buying antique hair brushes. Ian, though, offers dancing lessons to dealers to secure a discount. Lordy! Zoe also hears how one village became world famous for lace production while Ian ends up meeting a giant horse with its own boat.

Legends of stage and screen, Charles Dance and Geraldine James join antiques experts Natasha Raskin and Will Axon on this Road Trip romp around Wiltshire. Charles finds a pair of Edwardian silver vases he hopes will prove profitable at an auction in Essex. Geraldine, however, bumps into a chap in the street with a 19th Century French Empire secretaire. It costs her a small fortune – will the gamble pay off? A diversion from the shops sees Charles end up in the cockpit of a very old helicopter while Geraldine learns how a small part of Swindon dating back 170 years influenced the creation of the modern NHS.

Top presenting pals Nicki Chapman and Jules Hudson escape to the country to find antiques with Natasha Raskin and Phillip Serrell. It becomes girls versus boys, both teams with £400 in their pockets. Kicking off from Wormsley in Herefordshire they Road Trip into Wales and Oxfordshire, before finally finishing in North Finchley, in London for an auction. Along the way the girls meet a clog maker who carves shoes by hand. While the boys head to the Herefordshire Light Infantry Museum to hear about the regiment’s involvement at Gallipoli.

Lucian Freud, one of the most famous British painters of our time, is also one of the few twentieth-century artists to have portrayed himself so consistently in self-portraiture. His self-portraits provide a fascinating insight into both his personality and his development as a painter, from his first portrait in 1939 to his last. Through fascinating interviews with former models, friends and leading experts, this intensely captivating documentary reveals the work of a master who represents a compelling study of the dynamics of aging and the process of self-representation.

They are the world’s most popular artists. The works of Cézanne, Monet, Degas and their compatriots fetch tens of millions of dollars. But just who were they really? Why and how did they paint? What lies behind their enduring appeal? To help answer these questions, this programme secured unique access to a major exhibition focussing on the 19th century Parisian art collector Paul Durand-Ruel, the outspoken champion of Impressionism. This eagerly anticipated exhibition is perhaps the most comprehensive ever held about the Impressionists.

Graffiti World is a short program dedicated to contemporary urban art around the world. Each episode explores a specific city, highlighting iconic works of street art. Local soundscape accompanies the images for an authentic, commentary-free immersion. The program showcases the creativity and diversity of artistic expression in public spaces. An invitation to discover the richness of graffiti as an art form in its own right.

In this episode, we will discuss with Emeric Lhuisset, visual photographer. He lives in Paris but travels regularly to the Middle East for his work, especially to Iraq and Lebanon. He has a degree in art from the School of Fine Arts in Paris, but also in geopolitics. He teaches at the Paris School of Political Science on the themes of contemporary art and geopolitics.

Actor and charmer Nigel Havers and his canny, deal-making chum (and ex-agent) Michael Whitehall explore the West Country. Travelling by Bentley and TVR, they’ll have £400 each and expert advice from Margie Cooper and James Braxton. But what will do best at the auction... Nigel’s old cockle bucket or Michael’s tambourine? Plus there’s a trip to see some Bristol Savages and bit of Georgian elegance with the story of ‘The King of Bath’.

A celebrity couple Road Trip – award winning journalists John Stapleton and Lynn Faulds Wood. Joining them on this jolly jaunt are Thomas Plant and Margie Cooper. With £400 in their pockets the teams kick off in Wrightington, Lancashire and head to Stockport for auction. Lynn and Thomas find themselves literally knee deep in antiques while hunting for old biscuit tins while Margie tries to convince John some rare lamps will make a profit. Also John learns how an American revolutionised British public transport and Lynn sees why snakes are milked in Liverpool.

It was painted almost 600 years ago; the "Madonna at the Fountain" by Jan Van Eyck. Despite being a Charlotte’s favorite, she is reaching the limits of her ability. The minute details, the special use of oil paint and the slow-drying pigments play tricks on her. While the team is researching Van Eyck's complex oil painting technique, they are also travelling to Rome. In search for the deep blue ultramarine, in The Vatican they see the impact that Van Eyck had on his Italian contemporaries and lights a candle for Charlotte in the Santa Maria Maggiore.

In 2010, five masterpieces by Picasso, Matisse, Braque, Modigliani and Léger went missing. A year into the investigation, the police arrested the burglar, Vrejan Tomic. A repeat offender, with 11 art thefts to his name, he usually works to order. In this case, the client was Jean-Michel Corvez. Wrapped in bin bags, these unsellable works were found at the home of a third man, Yonathan Birn. How? Why?

Painted in 1911, Pablo Picasso’s "La Coiffeuse" is an iconic work of Cubism. The painting was last seen in 1998, following a loan for an exhibition in Munich. On its return to Paris, it was stored in the Centre Pompidou’s storerooms… until the day it was discovered to be missing, in 2001. Had it been stolen from the storerooms? Sixteen years after the theft, in 2014, a ship docked at the port of Newark, in New Jersey, USA. The artwork was on board…

In June 2017, a major exhibition opened in Paris at the Musée d'Orsay. For the first time, this exhibition brought together all Cézanne's portraits. This was an opportunity to analyze Cézanne's work with the help of international experts and to tour the rooms of the National Portrait Gallery in London and the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

A lover of Tibet and high mountains, painter Qiu Xiaoqiu has made more than twenty journeys across the Tibetan highlands. He brought back striking portraits of nomads wandering through the mineral vastness of the Himalayas. The first Chinese artist to paint animals in their natural habitat, one of his works depicting pandas inspired the world-famous WWF logo.

Discover the secrets of this talented artist's masterpieces. Géricault's first work was exhibited to the public at the 1812 Salon in Paris. Géricault once again demonstrates his incredible mastery of portraits in which the search for realism does not alter the psychological dimension of the model, but on the contrary sublimates it.

Between 1883 and 1926 Claude Monet lived in a house at Giverny where he created a flower garden and a water garden, which provided the inspiration for his series of paintings known as the “Water Lilies”. The “Water-Lily Pond” portrays this garden, with its water lilies and the Japanese bridge in the background. In the series of eight large canvases on the theme, housed in the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris, Monet introduces variations in light according to the hour of the day. Enjoy your visit!

In 1598, King Abbas decided to make Isfahan his capital and planned a huge urban project. The Royal Mosque is at once a place of prayer, a garden in the middle of the desert and a way of writing down the texts of the faith. It is also a school and a place of public hygiene. It embodies the unprecedented richness of an art of living, the power of a king and the talent of hundreds of craftsmen and artists.

In this episode, we meet the artist Hervé Di Rosa. A founding member of the Figuration Libre movement in the 1980s, Hervé Di Rosa has constantly sought to renew his artistic approach, from the use of recurring characters in his paintings to the appropriation of artisanal practices from the ends of the earth. It is in his Parisian studio that he is preparing a new exhibition at the Maison Rouge.

Making sculpture with bits of nothing, plaster, paper or a few pebbles, are enough for Michel François to question our relationship to everyday life and make us think about the world. Exhibited at the Venice Biennale in the 1990s, the artist has been living in his studio for the past three years, seeking to merge the everyday gesture with artistic practice.

Comic and entertainer Jim Moir and his wife Nancy Sorrell are Road Tripping in Kent today. Better known as Vic Reeves, Jim brings his unique brand of humour to the business of buying antiques. While model and TV presenter Nancy also knows a thing or two about bargaining and she’s very competitive! The couple are ably assisted by experts Charlie Ross and Thomas Plant. Look out for Jim’s uncanny gift of guessing the age of just about anything, Dixon crossing the Niagara Falls and how to navigate by Longitude. Plus will the mysterious Mrs Parker turn up to the auction?

Today, the Photo Contest team goes to the Bois de Boulogne. The two candidates of the day are Sarah-Laure Estragnat and Nicolas Gérardin, and they will have one hour to take the best photograph on the theme of Japan.

In this episode, we will meet the artist Valery Vrady. The works of this artist are exhibited in the Assembly of the Russian Academy of Arts, in the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, or in the Union of Artists in Moscow. But she is also exhibited abroad. Since 1978, Valery Vrady is a member of the Union of Artists USSR and a member of the International Art Fund.

Take an hour break to discover the work of a French painter, Auguste Renoir. You will discover his labour with Girls at the piano, The Bathers, still-life with apples and pears.

Take an hour break to discover the work of an Italian painter, Raphaël. You will discover his labour with Spozalizio, The virgin and child with St John the Baptist or portrait of Baldassare Castiglione.