Long before Lady Gaga’s famous meat dress, there was Dalí’s painting suit. On a visit to New York in 1934, Dalí stepped off the boat wearing a suit with some of his paintings attached to it using a piece of string, greeting the awaiting press by waving a French baguette.

To celebrate World Book Day, we’ve compiled a list of seven books inspired by famous paintings.

Goya's works are so intense and haunting that even today, 200 years later, in the age of CGI horror films, some visitors to the Prado museum in Madrid can hardly even look at them.

when the Germans occupied Paris in 1940 a Gestapo officer came knocking on Picasso’s door pointing to a photo of the Guernica mural and asking, “Did you do that?” To which Picasso reportedly replied, “No, you did.”

By 1853, after years of intense pressure from western countries, Japan began to open up. This opening up of trade resulted in a flood of Japanese goods entering the European market. Japanese tearooms began springing up in London and Paris, traditional Kimonos became the must-have fashion items for every self-respecting society woman and landscapers were now receiving requests for Japanese themed gardens. By 1872, this explosion of Japanese influence became so prominent it had been given its own term, Japonisme, by French art critic and collector Philippe Burty.

Inspirational quotes gain traction because they have distilled an idea or piece of information that is either universally true or true to you personally.

As well as bringing Christianity to Ireland, Saint Patrick also brought a culture of literacy and scholarship that would spread throughout the land and see the establishment of monasteries that became hubs of learning and the arts. These monasteries produced literary and artistic masterpieces like the high crosses of Muiredach and Clonmacnoise, The Book of Kells and a range of detailed metalwork such as the Derrynaflan Chalice.

A well-chosen frame can often be the difference between making a print stand out or letting it fade into the background. It’s important to give this decision some thought.

Picasso once said, “painting is just another way of keeping a diary.” What he
perhaps meant by this was that an artist’s work will often capture their mood,
thoughts or feelings at the time the work was created. This can certainly be said
of Vincent Van Gogh’s Almond Blossom