This is great fun, takes little time and is very interesting indeed.

The history of art is like an incredibly complicated jigsaw, with the individual artists as the pieces. The more of the pieces you know about the better your overall picture. So the idea is to select a random artist every single day, 365 a year, and to then read their Wikipedia entry. This takes very little time and always contains surprises. And that’s it. You can expand on this by clicking through some of the interesting links on the Wikipedia pages or by reading about the artists in your art library. But these extra activities are optional.

So select any Western artist, from Giotto di Bondone to Jenny Saville. Don’t just pick artists that you like or artists from historic periods that you like, you are trying to build a bigger picture than that. To get you started I have drawn up a short list (containing no rhyme or reason) and provided the Wikipedia links. All you have to do is to click on them and read. Enjoy!

1. 1. Wassily Kandinsky
   2. Andrea Mantegna
   3. Allan Ramsay
   4. Gerrit Dou
   5. Mary Cassatt
   6. Francisco de Zurbaran
   7. Gustave Courbet
   8. Winslow Homer
   9. James Ensor
   10. Andreo Modigliani
   11. Domenico Ghirlandaio
   12. Elizabeth Thompson
   13. Otto Dix
   14. Ford Maddox Brown
   15. Jean Antoine Watteau
   16. Walter Sickert
   17. Andrea del Sarto 
   18. Cy Twombley
   19. Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
   20. Hendrick Terbrugghen