I'm James Payne, a curator, gallerist, and a passionate art lover. I am on a mission to demystify the art world and discover the stories behind the world’s greatest paintings and sculptures. Each episode will focus on one piece of art and break it down, using clear and concise language free of 'art-speak'. Help to support this channel and keep it free. Subscribe to Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/user?u=53686503 Or make a donation via PayPal using my email Jamespayne33@hotmail.com (remember to tick "friends/family" or there's a fee). Thank you! Sometimes the art work is a springboard for ot
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2:5920K views · 12d ago · 2:59
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (1824–1898) was one of the most influential French painters of the nineteenth century, although today he is far less well known than many of the artists he inspired. At a time when Impressionism was transforming painting with its fascination for modern life, light and movement, Puvis looked in an entirely different direction.
24:52224K views · 27d ago · 24:52
My book Great Art Explained is ready to order now worldwide Spain Also available in many other countries Latin and Central America India now, China and Korea soon My new Podcast can be found here! Today Henri Matisse’s the red studio is considered one of the landmarks of modern art, seen by thousands of visitors at the Museum of Modern art in New York. But before arriving there in 1948 it spent more than a decade hanging in a London nightclub.
▶️ Mentioned videos: Video on youtube.com
27:28193K views · 2mo ago · 27:28
My National Gallery Guide is here My new Podcast can be found here! My book Great Art Explained is ready to order now worldwide Spain Also available in many other countries Latin and Central America India now, China and Korea soon
20:14207K views · 4mo ago · 20:14
My book is available at all the usual places. Thank you. My new Podcast can be found here! My other channel, Great Books Explained here or if you prefer a one-off donation Alternatively, every video has a "thanks" button under it- I appreciate it!
28:04156K views · 6mo ago · 28:04
Guest: Francis Bacon
My new Podcast can be found here! My book Great Art Explained is ready to order now worldwide Spain Also available in many other countries Latin and Central America India now, China and Korea soon When Francis Bacon emerged in post-war Britain, his work sent shockwaves through the art world. His paintings embodied violence, distortion and trauma. People were horrified, but they couldn’t look away.
2:2346K views · 7mo ago · 2:23
Here is a short film I made on a recent trip to NYC. The Red Studio is one of the most important and influential paintings. Would you like to see a full-length film on it. If not, what would you like to see? Either long or short form?
16:16142K views · 7mo ago · 16:16
Guest: Tamara de Lempicka
My book Great Art Explained is ready to order now worldwide Spain Also available in many other countries Latin and Central America India now, China and Korea soon This is a story that takes in revolutions, wars, bisexuality, art and fast cars, and ends in a fiery grave.
▶️ Mentioned videos: Jazz in Paris
58:5526K views · 8mo ago · 58:55
In this recording of a talk I recently gave, I first of all discuss my journey to YouTube (first 15mins), and then I talk about how art can (and should) be seen in so many different ways, and all are relevant. “In a world of noise and distraction,” I say in my book, “great art slows us down. It demands attention, reflection, and interpretation. It doesn’t exist to give us easy answers—but it does give us better questions.”
📖 Mentioned book: great art slows us down. It demands attention, reflection, and interpretation. It doesn
2:5216K views · 9mo ago · 2:52
Painted around 1545 for the Medici court in Florence, this is one of the most unsettling images of love ever made. The painting was likely a diplomatic gift from Cosimo I de’ Medici to the French court — possibly to Francis I. That context matters. The French court loved complex allegories, intellectual puzzles, and refined eroticism. This is a painting designed to be decoded.
20:43187K views · 10mo ago · 20:43
Get a chance to win an LG TV and a FREE 3-month LG Gallery+ subscription! Join LG Gallery+ Global Launch Event My book Great Art Explained is ready to order now worldwide Spain Also available in many other countries Latin and Central America India now
2:2433K views · 10mo ago · 2:24
Another short for a possible long-form GAE. David Alfaro Siqueiros who was born today in 1896 once wrote: “The artist must paint as he would speak. I don’t want people to speculate what I mean, I want them to understand.”
2:4632K views · 10mo ago · 2:46
These shorts are also a way for me to look at lesser-known artists and gauge interest in them for a possible longer video. Edmonia Lewis should be one of the great, instantly recognisable names of nineteenth-century art. But for a long time, she almost vanished from the story.
2:2229K views · 11mo ago · 2:22
These shorts are also a way for me to look at lesser-known artists and gauge interest in them for a possible longer video. Gabriele Münter was at the forefront of modern art in early 20th-century Europe. Constantly experimenting, she revitalised landscape, still life, and portrait painting, transforming everyday subjects into bold, original works.
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16:54177K views · 11mo ago · 16:54
My book Great Art Explained is ready to order now worldwide Spain Also available in many other countries Latin and Central America soon India in January My other channel, Great Books Explained here or if you prefer a one-off donation Alternatively, every video has a "thanks" button under it- I appreciate it!
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23:25165K views · 1y ago · 23:25
My book Great Art Explained is ready to order now worldwide Spain Also available in many other countries Latin and Central America soon India in January My other channel, Great Books Explained here or if you prefer a one-off donation Alternatively, every video has a "thanks" button under it- I appreciate it!
25:09192K views · 1y ago · 25:09
My book Great Art Explained is ready to pre-order now worldwide My other channel, Great Books Explained here or if you prefer a one-off donation Alternatively, every video has a "thanks" button under it- I appreciate it!
3:0026K views · 1y ago · 3:00
I am planning on a full length Francis Bacon film for my channel, but here is a short I made about the Francis Bacon painting I look at in my upcoming book (Oct 2 in UK and Oct 14 Worldwide at all the usual booksellers). My book, like my channel tries to, looks into more alternative ideas around the painting. It's my first attempt at being a proper 'presenter'. Hope you like it. Full length content coming shortly!
24:44347K views · 1y ago · 24:44
Guest: Egon Schiele
My book Great Art Explained is ready to pre-order now worldwide My other channel, Great Books Explained here or if you prefer a one-off donation Alternatively, every video has a "thanks" button under it- I appreciate it!
23:58654K views · 1y ago · 23:58
My other channel, Great Books Explained here or if you prefer a one-off donation Alternatively, every video has a "thanks" button under it- I appreciate it! In the early 1500s, two of the greatest artists of all time were working just a few rooms apart in the Vatican. Michelangelo was painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel at the same time Raphael was working on a painting in the Pope’s private library: The School of Athens.
18:02188K views · 1y ago · 18:02
In the UK at and type in GreatArt5 My other channel, Great Books Explained here or if you prefer a one-off donation Alternatively, every video has a "thanks" button under it- I appreciate it! In 1949, Life magazine asked: “Is Jackson Pollock, the greatest American Painter. He is a figure that is polarising among art aficionados. Some see him as a fraud, others as a genius.
26:18423K views · 1y ago · 26:18
Try Opera browser FOR FREE here My book Great Art Explained is ready to pre-order now My other channel, Great Books Explained here or if you prefer a one-off donation Alternatively, every video has a "thanks" button under it- I appreciate it!
1:1528K views · 1y ago · 1:15
And the code is GreatArt5 for £5 off (which is about 20%) Other regions, check your usual suppliers as pre-sale deals are really good. Believe it or not, an early review came in from the brilliant Stephen Fry (yikes!) "James Payne’s YouTube Channel “Great Art Explained” gained a huge and appreciative worldwide audience. This beautifully put-together book is simply the best introduction to the lifelong pleasure and rewards of looking at pictures since Gombrich.
📖 Mentioned book: Great Art Explained
27:2197K views · 1y ago · 27:21
Guest: Leonora Carrington
My other channel, Great Books Explained here or if you prefer a one-off donation Alternatively, every video has a "thanks" button under it- I appreciate it! This is a film about magic. Leonora Carrington’s paintings are populated with mythical creatures, alchemy, folklore, fairy tales, the occult and human-animal hybrids. She was an artist who explored the limits of the imagination and was dedicated to free expression - especially when it meant breaking the rules.
▶️ Mentioned videos: Leonora Carrington (1992) - visit to the artist in home on Mexico City · Das siebente Pferd oder Penelope, Leonora Carrington Trailer, Regie Giulia Giammona
14:47152K views · 1y ago · 14:47
Guest: José Maria Velasco
My other channel, Great Books Explained here or if you prefer a one-off donation Alternatively, every video has a "thanks" button under it- I appreciate it! Sometimes a Landscape painting is anything but a painting of a landscape.
▶️ Mentioned videos: Video on youtube.com · Video on youtube.com
2:3241K views · 1y ago · 2:32
A short history of the Bauhaus, a revolutionary art and design school founded in 1919 by Walter Gropius in Weimar, Germany. Its goal was to unify art, craft, and technology, emphasizing functionality and simplicity in design. The school attracted visionary artists and designers like Paul Klee, Vassily Kandinsky, Marcel Brauer, and László Moholy-Nagy. This is a short about my recent trip there.
21:39182K views · 1y ago · 21:39
My other channel, Great Books Explained here or if you prefer a one-off donation Alternatively, every video has a "thanks" button under it- I appreciate it! Rome is the birthplace of Baroque, the highly ornate and elaborate style of architecture, art and design that flourished in Europe in the 17th and first half of the 18th century.
36:121.1M views · 1y ago · 36:12
My other channel, Great Books Explained here or if you prefer a one-off donation Alternatively, every video has a "thanks" button under it- I appreciate it! Milan, 1494: Leonardo da Vinci was an exceptional man, and everyone who met him described him as a genius. And yet, he was now 42 years old – a middle-aged man in an era when life expectancy was 40 - And he still hadn’t produced anything that would be considered a masterpiece by his contemporaries.
17:35148K views · 2y ago · 17:35
My other channel, Great Books Explained here or if you prefer a one-off donation Alternatively, every video has a "thanks" button under it- I appreciate it! Man Ray’s image, 'Le Violon d’Ingres' helped redefine photography, at a time when it was still seen as a mechanical, documentary medium rather than a vehicle for creative expression.
▶️ Mentioned videos: Jazz music
18:34199K views · 2y ago · 18:34
My other channel, Great Books Explained here The Monuments Men and Women Foundation WWII's most wanted art or if you prefer a one-off donation Alternatively, every video has a "thanks" button under it- I appreciate it! This film looks at how stolen art “disappears” in a complicated practise designed to obscure facts and create wealth for the art market.
26:39286K views · 2y ago · 26:39
My other channel, Great Books Explained here or if you prefer a one-off donation Alternatively, every video has a "thanks" button under it- I appreciate it! In 1917 Marcel Duchamp bought a mass-produced porcelain urinal from a plumbing suppliers, laid it on its side, signed it, and then put it in an exhibition and called it art.
31:02521K views · 2y ago · 31:02
My other channel, Great Books Explained here or if you prefer a one-off donation Alternatively, every video has a "thanks" button under it- I appreciate it! Las Meninas, Diego Velázquez’s portrait of a Spanish princess and her entourage is one of, if not the most widely discussed paintings in western painting. Every viewing raises more questions, and every answer is followed by a dense network of meanings.
▶️ Mentioned videos: Video on youtube.com · Video on youtube.com · Video on youtube.com
16:54239K views · 2y ago · 16:54
Guest: William Blake
My other channel, Great Books Explained here or if you prefer a one-off donation Alternatively, every video has a "thanks" button under it- I appreciate it! “Shall [we] call him Artist or Genius—or Mystic—or Madman? Probably he is all.”
15:08192K views · 2y ago · 15:08
My other channel, Great Books Explained here or if you prefer a one-off donation Alternatively, every video has a "thanks" button under it- I appreciate it! Édouard Manet, a precursor to the Impressionists, turned convention on its head. He painted the environment he knew well as a member of the bourgeoisie from an aristocratic lineage: Picnics, boating, concerts, masked balls, and the salons of Paris, but he painted it from a radical point of view.
📖 Mentioned book: How to Enjoy Art
16:13497K views · 2y ago · 16:13
Guest: Van Gogh's Last Painting
My other channel, Great Books Explained here or if you prefer a one-off donation Alternatively, every video has a "thanks" button under it- I appreciate it! There was always debate about which painting was the artist’s last. For many years it was thought to be this painting, mainly because it featured in a 1930’s book and the 1956 film adaptation of that book.
▶️ Mentioned videos: Footage of Auvers · Video on youtube.com
15:10189K views · 2y ago · 15:10
Guest: Great Art Cities
My other channel, Great Books Explained here or if you prefer a one-off donation Alternatively, every video has a "thanks" button under it- I appreciate it! Istanbul, once known as Byzantium, and later as Constantinople, is a city of such diverse culture and history. It was the capital of three great empires – Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman.
15:07318K views · 2y ago · 15:07
My other channel, Great Books Explained here or if you prefer a one-off donation Alternatively, every video has a "thanks" button under it- I appreciate it! The age of Enlightenment was a European intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries, and it focused mainly on the power of human intelligence to explain the natural world.
▶️ Mentioned videos: Aerial mountain footage by Maarten Schot · Hermannsdenkmal Detmold
30:05600K views · 2y ago · 30:05
My other channel, Great Books Explained here or if you prefer a one-off donation Alternatively, every video has a "thanks" button under it- I appreciate it! At the age of 8, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the child prodigy, was presented to the Pope - who prophetically announced that the child would be the Michelangelo of his age.
▶️ Mentioned videos: Villa Borghese footage by Eric Clarke whose excellent channel you can
15:08225K views · 3y ago · 15:08
My other channel, Great Books Explained here or if you prefer a one-off donation Alternatively, every video has a "thanks" button under it- I appreciate it! Dorothea Tanning painted the dark side of Surrealism. Her work sprang from the fantastic and the supernatural happenings we find in Gothic and Romantic literature, as well as the dream narrative of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
🎵 Mentioned music: Phobia
18:40569K views · 3y ago · 18:40
Guest: René Magritte
My other channel, Great Books Explained here or if you prefer a one-off donation Alternatively, every video has a "thanks" button under it- I appreciate it! In The Lovers II, by Magritte, he takes the cinematic cliché but disrupts our voyeuristic pleasure by covering the faces in cloth. A moment of connection becomes one of isolation, of sexual frustration. An intimate moment becomes something dark and effortlessly disturbing. Something hidden and anonymous.
17:31384K views · 3y ago · 17:31
My other channel, Great Books Explained here or if you prefer a one-off donation Alternatively, every video has a "thanks" button under it- I appreciate it! In 1937, the Nazis held an exhibition of 650 modern artworks that they had stolen from museums and private collectors. It was part of the Nazi’s culture wars, designed to inflame the public and it was called “The Degenerate Art Exhibition.”
17:20215K views · 3y ago · 17:20
Guest: Thomas Gainsborough
My other channel, Great Books Explained here or if you prefer a one-off donation Alternatively, every video has a "thanks" button under it- I appreciate it! PLEASE NOTE: The word corn in British English denoted all cereal grains, including wheat, oats and barley, such as in the Corn Laws.
▶️ Mentioned videos: Chelsea Lang (Brilliant channel!)
15:21475K views · 3y ago · 15:21
Guest: Keith Haring
My other channel, Great Books Explained here or if you prefer a one-off donation Alternatively, every video has a "thanks" button under it- I appreciate it! Haring had championed the poster format as a traditional form of political activism. He saw in them the immediacy which we now think of when we think of his aesthetic.
▶️ Mentioned videos: Hip-hop Asow · Disco · Music Provided By Aftertune
32:321.1M views · 3y ago · 32:32
Guest: John Singer Sargent
My other channel, Great Books Explained here or if you prefer a one-off donation Alternatively, every video has a "thanks" button under it- I appreciate it! John Singer Sargent was the most successful society portrait painter of the Belle Epoque, and having one’s portrait painted by him was seen as an indication of impeccable good taste. In this episode, I look at two paintings created by Sargent. Two paintings united by scandal.
59:3238K views · 3y ago · 59:32
This is a talk about my passion for art, some of my favourite works of art, and I explain how I started my YouTube channel by accident, with no plan, or technical know-how. The Thames & Hudson Introduction to Art – several authors What Great Paintings Say.
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