Michael Palin's Quest for Artemisia

Michael Palin discovers the story of 17th-century Italian artist Artemisia Gentileschi. He unearths not only her paintings, but a complex and difficult life.

Palin on Redpath

Michael Palin travels to France in search of the Mediterranean view on his wall, captured by his favourite artist, Scottish painter Anne Redpath. He travels from a London bank, via a chateau in Cap Ferrat and a monastery in Edinburgh.

Moominland Tales: The Life of Tove Jansson

The life and work of Tove Jansson, mainly known for creating the Moomins but also a writer and painter.

Michael Palin In Wyeth's World

Michael Palin heads for rural Pennsylvania and Maine to explore the extraordinary life and work of one of America's most popular and controversial painters, Andrew Wyeth. Fascinated by his iconic painting Christina's World, Palin goes in search of the real life stories that inspired this and Wyeth's other depictions of the American landscape and its hard grafting inhabitants. Tracking down the farmers, friends and family featured in Wyeth's magically real work, Palin builds a picture of an eccentric, enigmatic and driven painter. He also get...

Pierre Bonnard: A Love Exposed

The tender and tragic love story of French painter Pierre Bonnard and his wife and lifelong model Marthe. The artist recorded their relationship on canvas and, 50 years after his death, these paintings have established him as one of the masters of colour and light.

Michael Palin & the Mystery of Hammershøi

In 2005, Michael Palin set out to unlock the mysteries and find out about the background and life of Danish painter Vilhelm Hammershøi. Hammershøi painted around the start of the 20th century and many of his pictures have a distinct coolness and distance about them. Palin, wanting to know of his inspirations and the reason for these mystical pictures, starts his search in Hayward Gallery in London, goes to Amsterdam and finally the painters home town, Copenhagen (Denmark).