Art, literature & historyArt, literature & history — together
See art in its time and place.
Explore paintings alongside the people who made them, the exhibitions that brought them together, and the books and events of their time.
Artworks · Exhibitions · Historical timelines
Follow your curiosity
What would you like to explore?
Atlas
Art through time
See paintings, books and historical events together on an interactive timeline.
Museums
Museums & collections
Look inside museum collections and find illustrated guides to selected works.
Exhibitions
Historic exhibitions
Discover the artworks, artists and places behind past shows.
Creators
Artists & their work
Get to know the people behind the paintings through their art and lives.
A closer look
Stories worth opening.
Begin with a pattern, a painting or a question.
Interactive article · Art & geometry
Islamic patterns
How geometry becomes ornament.
Discover how stars, circles and repeating shapes become intricate patterns. Look closely at the designs, then try making your own.
Read & experimentExhibition · Paris, 1874
The first Impressionists
Meet the artists who exhibited together outside the official Salon.
Illustrated article · Saints in art
Who is that in the painting?
Keys, wheels and dragons: learn to recognise saints through the objects beside them.
The Atlas
One timeline. Different ways of seeing history.
A painting is one part of a bigger story. Explore art alongside books and historical events, and follow the places, people and ideas that interest you.
Inside a museum guide · MuMa, Le Havre
A winter sunrise in Monet’s painting.
An orange sun, a pale sky, a river held in the cold. Spend a little time with Winter Sun at Lavacourt, then discover more works in the MuMa guide.
Look closer
Past exhibitions
What did visitors see?
Explore artworks recorded in exhibitions, from independent shows to major museum gatherings.
Exhibition · 1874
The first Impressionist exhibition
Explore the works documented in the artists’ first exhibition together.
Exhibition · 1937
“Degenerate Art”, Munich
Explore modern art targeted by the Nazi regime in a propaganda exhibition that drew vast crowds to Munich.
Exhibition · 2023
Vermeer
Explore the 28 paintings brought together at the Rijksmuseum in 2023.
Museum guides
Find a work worth stopping for.
Selected artworks, a little context and something to look for. Read online or take a PDF with you.
Paris · Museum guide
Louvre
20 selected artworks · Online + PDF
Madrid · Museum guide
Museo del Prado
20 selected artworks · Online + PDF
Nicosia · Museum guide
A. G. Leventis Gallery
20 selected artworks · Online + PDF
Le Havre · Museum guide
MuMa — Musée d’art moderne André Malraux
20 selected artworks · Online + PDF
Creators
Meet the people behind the work.
A different life. A different way of looking.
About Artlines
Art doesn’t exist apart from history.
Artlines brings artworks, artists, exhibition records, books and historical events together. Read about individual works or compare what was happening across the world during the same period.
The first 100 painters
The painter timeline starts with 100 painters from the Pantheon 2025 ranking, with editorial corrections: Hokusai is included; Donatello, primarily a sculptor, is excluded. Popularity is a starting point, not a measure of artistic quality.
Ranking adapted from Pantheon 2025 / Datawheel under CC BY-SA 4.0. This licence covers the adapted selection, not the application or artwork images.