Ben Harvey
@bendavidharvey.bsky.social
Art historian, Arsenal fan, Brit living in the buckle of the Bible Belt.
These times! Illustration by Elena Lacey/The Washington Post; iStock.
August 15, 2025 at 11:46 AM
These times! Illustration by Elena Lacey/The Washington Post; iStock.
Lesser known Caillebotte street scenes (circa 1878) from the Getty show
May 26, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Lesser known Caillebotte street scenes (circa 1878) from the Getty show
Ha! Paul Karasik in the New Yorker. #ArtHistory
May 12, 2025 at 8:37 PM
Ha! Paul Karasik in the New Yorker. #ArtHistory
Typography 101: why kerning matters.
May 11, 2025 at 12:09 PM
Typography 101: why kerning matters.
Highly recommend Guy Delisle’s new graphic “novel” about Muybridge. Beautifully designed book—complete with three flick books embedded within. Covers Muybridge’s colourful life, but also a great primer on early photography, magic lanterns, animation & film. History at a gallop! #ArtHistory #Film
April 30, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Highly recommend Guy Delisle’s new graphic “novel” about Muybridge. Beautifully designed book—complete with three flick books embedded within. Covers Muybridge’s colourful life, but also a great primer on early photography, magic lanterns, animation & film. History at a gallop! #ArtHistory #Film
Having a great time in York at AAH 2025. Lucky enough to be part of a really good panel yesterday, and it’s not often that the co-chairs are so invested in their panel that they hand-make a beautiful object for attendees. Impressive effort indeed! #ArtHistory
April 11, 2025 at 4:04 AM
Having a great time in York at AAH 2025. Lucky enough to be part of a really good panel yesterday, and it’s not often that the co-chairs are so invested in their panel that they hand-make a beautiful object for attendees. Impressive effort indeed! #ArtHistory
Thomas Rowlandson’s Connoisseurs (1799)
March 22, 2025 at 8:48 PM
Thomas Rowlandson’s Connoisseurs (1799)
One of the fun things about seeking out original magazine covers is noting how things like library stamps and address labels are in dialogue with the cover illustration… here, for example, they seem to add trompe-l’oeil elements to Rockwell’s canvas, papers, etc. #ArtHistory
March 14, 2025 at 12:14 PM
One of the fun things about seeking out original magazine covers is noting how things like library stamps and address labels are in dialogue with the cover illustration… here, for example, they seem to add trompe-l’oeil elements to Rockwell’s canvas, papers, etc. #ArtHistory
Perhaps she’d seen Strangers on a Train (1951)?!
March 11, 2025 at 10:35 PM
Perhaps she’d seen Strangers on a Train (1951)?!
The SECAC2025 (Cincinatti) call for papers is now out. If your work touches on art and the law, consider contributing to our panel on "Incendiary Copying: Artists in Conflict Over Intellectual Property." Here's the CFP. Oh, and please help to spread the word! #Art #Law #Copyright
February 4, 2025 at 1:56 AM
The SECAC2025 (Cincinatti) call for papers is now out. If your work touches on art and the law, consider contributing to our panel on "Incendiary Copying: Artists in Conflict Over Intellectual Property." Here's the CFP. Oh, and please help to spread the word! #Art #Law #Copyright
Texas seems to have a lock on the abstract art + chapel thing—an actual chapel in the case of Rothko and a chapel vibe in the case of Ellsworth Kelly’s “Austin” at UT. #art #arthistory
January 5, 2025 at 1:09 PM
Texas seems to have a lock on the abstract art + chapel thing—an actual chapel in the case of Rothko and a chapel vibe in the case of Ellsworth Kelly’s “Austin” at UT. #art #arthistory
Finally got to see Claude Mellan’s astonishing engraving of Veronica’s Veil at the Houston Museum of Art—yes, that’s one continuous line.
December 30, 2024 at 2:12 PM
Finally got to see Claude Mellan’s astonishing engraving of Veronica’s Veil at the Houston Museum of Art—yes, that’s one continuous line.
“It’s a great relief when you get up the ladder and you look through the spyglass and it doesn’t say ‘no’ or ‘fuck you’ or something. It says ‘yes’” (John Lennon). Yoko Ono's Yes Painting, 1966, paper, glass, metal frame, metal chain, magnifying glass & painted ladder. 🧵17/17 #ArtHistory
December 9, 2024 at 3:43 AM
“It’s a great relief when you get up the ladder and you look through the spyglass and it doesn’t say ‘no’ or ‘fuck you’ or something. It says ‘yes’” (John Lennon). Yoko Ono's Yes Painting, 1966, paper, glass, metal frame, metal chain, magnifying glass & painted ladder. 🧵17/17 #ArtHistory
Duchamp’s To Be Looked at (from the Other Side of the Glass) with One Eye, Close to, for Almost an Hour, 1918, MoMA, oil, silver leaf, lead wire, & MAGNIFYING LENS on glass (cracked), mounted between panes of glass in a standing metal frame on painted wood base. 🧵16/? #ArtHistory
December 8, 2024 at 1:49 PM
Duchamp’s To Be Looked at (from the Other Side of the Glass) with One Eye, Close to, for Almost an Hour, 1918, MoMA, oil, silver leaf, lead wire, & MAGNIFYING LENS on glass (cracked), mounted between panes of glass in a standing metal frame on painted wood base. 🧵16/? #ArtHistory
Judging from my admittedly haphazard research and the contents of this list, almost all magnifying glass wielders in art are men. Here's a pointed exception. Barbara Kruger, Untitled (It's a small world but not if you have to clean it), photographic silkscreen on vinyl, 1990. 🧵15/? #ArtHistory
December 7, 2024 at 9:09 PM
Judging from my admittedly haphazard research and the contents of this list, almost all magnifying glass wielders in art are men. Here's a pointed exception. Barbara Kruger, Untitled (It's a small world but not if you have to clean it), photographic silkscreen on vinyl, 1990. 🧵15/? #ArtHistory
The image enlarges itself? A closer look at Ben Day dots? Roy Lichtenstein's Magnifying Glass, oil on canvas, 1963. 🧵14/? #Painting #ArtHistory #PopArt
December 7, 2024 at 3:00 PM
The image enlarges itself? A closer look at Ben Day dots? Roy Lichtenstein's Magnifying Glass, oil on canvas, 1963. 🧵14/? #Painting #ArtHistory #PopArt
Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1956).... a massive magnifying glass and an unusual two-handed technique. 🧵13/? #ArtHistory #Hitchcock #Film
December 5, 2024 at 2:45 PM
Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1956).... a massive magnifying glass and an unusual two-handed technique. 🧵13/? #ArtHistory #Hitchcock #Film
Sherlock Holmes, visual gags, etc.... Peter Cushing detecting in The Boscombe Valley Mystery (1968) and in Top Secret's Backwards Bookstore (1984). 🧵12/? #Film #ArtHistory
December 4, 2024 at 1:48 PM
Sherlock Holmes, visual gags, etc.... Peter Cushing detecting in The Boscombe Valley Mystery (1968) and in Top Secret's Backwards Bookstore (1984). 🧵12/? #Film #ArtHistory
Photographs of Salvador Dali with magnifying glasses (left to right, by Charles Hewitt, Philippe Halsman & Willy Rizzo) 🧵11/? #ArtHistory #Surrealism
December 3, 2024 at 4:16 PM
Photographs of Salvador Dali with magnifying glasses (left to right, by Charles Hewitt, Philippe Halsman & Willy Rizzo) 🧵11/? #ArtHistory #Surrealism
Daumier Art Lovers (1863) & Sketches from the Salon (1865). Caption: "Well, if you look very closely, you might end up finding some quality! The color seems to be good." 🧵10/? #ArtHistory
December 3, 2024 at 12:07 AM
Daumier Art Lovers (1863) & Sketches from the Salon (1865). Caption: "Well, if you look very closely, you might end up finding some quality! The color seems to be good." 🧵10/? #ArtHistory
Small (16x10cm) and subtle enough to provoke close looking. "A Connoisseur Admiring a Dark Night Piece", an etching published by Matthew and Mary Darly in 1771. "It's like, how much more black could this be?"
🧵9/? #ArtHistory
🧵9/? #ArtHistory
December 2, 2024 at 5:39 PM
Small (16x10cm) and subtle enough to provoke close looking. "A Connoisseur Admiring a Dark Night Piece", an etching published by Matthew and Mary Darly in 1771. "It's like, how much more black could this be?"
🧵9/? #ArtHistory
🧵9/? #ArtHistory
"A man looking through a magnifying glass at a picture of a monkey, whose flatulence extinguishes the flame of a candle; representing the pleasures of the sense of sight"--unknown artist, line engraving, early 18th Century?, Wellcome Collection. 🧵8/? #ArtHistory
December 1, 2024 at 9:28 PM
"A man looking through a magnifying glass at a picture of a monkey, whose flatulence extinguishes the flame of a candle; representing the pleasures of the sense of sight"--unknown artist, line engraving, early 18th Century?, Wellcome Collection. 🧵8/? #ArtHistory
As the hand meets the eye, so the handle meets the lens. The two magnifying glasses in Degas's Portrait of Edmond Duranty, pastel and gouache, 1879. #7/? #ArtHistory
November 30, 2024 at 9:45 PM
As the hand meets the eye, so the handle meets the lens. The two magnifying glasses in Degas's Portrait of Edmond Duranty, pastel and gouache, 1879. #7/? #ArtHistory