Masterpiece

A.M. Klein’s 1951 novel forged a high literary form commensurate with the importance of the new nation.

Born 150 years ago this month, the composer fused the pain of love with a rich musical form to craft the most enduring blues of all time.

The French artist’s 15th-century bronze sculpture, on view at the Frick Madison, is a Gothic, almost abstract creation with a serenely enigmatic air.

Released 50 years ago this month, Nicolas Roeg’s film creates a haunting, hypnotic visual language as it follows a husband and wife, played by Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie, in the wake of their daughter’s death.

Written for his eldest son, the composer’s “Six Trio Sonatas for Organ” introduced a new musical form that required unprecedented levels of technique in a single musician.

This American modernist artist’s 1937 painting, in wax emulsion, is a radiant celestial vision and a stunning example of what he called ‘music for the eyes.’

Back on view after conservation, Henri Rousseau’s ‘The Sleeping Gypsy’ had a long, controversial history before becoming one of the museum’s most treasured paintings.

Performed on Broadway by Ethel Waters 90 years ago, the song is an anti-lynching dirge whose lasting power lies in its understatement.

Jean-François Millet’s painting of a beleaguered farmworker shocked viewers when it was first shown in 1863 Paris, but it has proved to be an enduring image of relentless toil.

Published a century ago, the poet’s secular meditation on the Christian sabbath considers the human longing for ‘some imperishable bliss’ amid a culture of waning religiosity.

The star set aside his reputation as a silver-screen comic to direct this 1923 silent film of rare subtlety.

The tomb of Timur the Lame, who died in 1405, is a work of subtly conceived grandeur in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, the capital of his sprawling empire.

Published in 1918, the American intellectual’s autobiography is an idiosyncratic record of a man’s development in the modern world that still possesses a prophetic power.

Created by a young artist known as Master Mateo, this 12th-century gateway to the Spanish cathedral—located at one end of the pilgrimage that bears its name—is carved with more than 200 naturalistic figures from the Old and New Testaments.

Released 40 years ago, the writer-director’s film blends archival footage from the 1920s with new material filmed to look like old newsreels to construct a mockumentary about conformity that speaks to our time.

Auguste Rodin’s unfinished project is the keystone to his legacy as the father of modern sculpture and an arresting portrait of humanity.

This charming 1654 painting was made famous by Donna Tartt’s 2013 novel, but its own story of survival and the mysteries that surround the work and its maker speak volumes on their own.

Horace Pippin’s 1943 painting depicts a tranquil familial gathering, but beneath the pleasing brushstrokes lies a subtle and striking critique of American society.

The 1963 film adaptation of Robin Maugham’s novella explores class tensions through the lens of the crumbling relationship between an aristocrat and his cunning valet.

Commissioned in France in the 14th century, the Apocalypse Tapestry’s revelatory depictions of demons and angels alike remain staggering in their scale and artistic detail.