Pope Francis and art, JMW Turner’s 250th birthday, John Singer Sargent’s Madame X

Following the death of Pope Francis on Easter Monday, The Art Newspaper’s managing editor, Louis Jebb, who has written an extensive obituary of the late pontiff, joins Ben Luke to talk about the late pope’s engagement with art and with the Vatican art collections. Wednesday 23 April was the 250th anniversary of the birth of JMW Turner, one of the greatest British artists. A host of exhibitions and events are marking this moment, and we speak to Amy Concannon, the senior curator of historic British art at Tate Britain, about Turner’s enduring appeal. And this episode’s Work of the Week is arguably John Singer Sargent’s most famous—and in its time, his most infamous—painting, Madame X (1883-84). A portrait of Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau, it features in a major show of Sargent’s work that opens this week at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, before travelling later in the year to the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. Our associate digital editor, Alexander Morrison, discusses the picture with Stephanie L. Herdrich, a co-curator of the exhibition.

You can explore the Turner Bequest at tate.org.uk—the full collection will be online later this year. Cataloguing Turner’s Bequest: Sketchbooks, Drawings, Watercolours, Tate Britain, London, ongoing. Full list of the Turner 250 events: tate.org.uk/art/turner-250

Sargent and Paris, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: 21 April-3 August; Sargent: The Paris Years, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, 22 September 22-11 – January 2026.

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