MAY 2026

Trois Crayons Magazine, May 2026

to listen

The History of the Muse: The Understanding British Portraits Podcast

In this The History of the Muse episode, Ruth Millington explores the history of British portraits from the perspective of the artist’s muse, with a particular focus on the portraits created by the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood. Speaking to art and literature historian, researcher, writer and freelance curator, Hannah Squire, this episode delves into the relationships that models have held with the artists who immortalised them, exposes the influential and active part models have played and deconstructs reductive stereotypes, reframing the muse as a momentous and empowered agent of art history.

to watch

The Clouet Drawings at Chantilly

In this brief extra from Waldemar Januszczak’s Sky series Art's Wildest Movement: Mannerism, Januszczak visits the Musée Condé at the Château de Chantilly to look at the portrait drawings of François and Jean Clouet. The visit is guided by the museum’s Director Matthieu Deldicque.

For a longer watch, the streaming platform Marquee TV has released a new documentary film Caravaggio.

to read

Understanding Paper: Structures, Watermarks, and a Conservator’s Passion

For those intrigued by our new watermark merchandise and keen to learn more about the subject, this 2021 article from the Harvard Art Museum’s Index series offers the ideal follow up. In the article, paper conservation fellow Leonie Müller discusses watermarks, the material qualities of paper and how its structures reveal the process of how it’s made.

For specialist readers keen to read about recent developments in watermark research, and ‘computational’ art history, please see this 2021 article by C. Richard Johnson Jr., William A. Sethares and Margaret Holben Ellis published in the Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art, or our recent interview with Dr Robert Fucci.