The Private Life of a Masterpiece was a BBC arts documentary series which told the stories behind great works of art; 29 episodes of the series were broadcast on BBC Two, commencing in 2001 and ending in 2010. It initially ran for five seasons from 2001 to 2006, for a total of 22 episodes; each episode was 50 minutes long. A seven-DVD box set of the first five series was released in 2007, which re-arranged the documentaries into genres from art history. A further seven episodes were broadcast between 2006 and 2010.
The series was produced by independent TV production company Fulmar TV, based in Cardiff. The series producer, who also devised the concept of the programme, was Jeremy Bugler.
The series was praised by the TV critic of The Times, David Chater, who listed it at Number 30 in The top 50 TV shows of the Noughties.[1]
Series 1 to 5 was broadcast between 30 May 2001 and 17 April 2006:
Sandro Botticelli: La Primavera
Paolo Uccello: The Battle of San Romano
Leonardo da Vinci: The Last Supper
Piero della Francesca: The Resurrection
Rembrandt van Rijn: The Night Watch
Johannes Vermeer: The Art of Painting
Diego Velázquez: The Rokeby Venus
Francisco Goya: The Third of May 1808
Eugène Delacroix: Liberty Leading the People
Katsushika Hokusai: The Great Wave
Édouard Manet: Le déjeuner sur l'herbe
James McNeill Whistler: Whistler's Mother
Edvard Munch: The Scream
Auguste Renoir: Bal au moulin de la Galette, Montmartre
Vincent van Gogh: Sunflowers
Georges Seurat: A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte
Pablo Picasso: Les Demoiselles d'Avignon
Gustav Klimt: The Kiss
Salvador Dalí: Christ of Saint John of the Cross
Michelangelo: David
Edgar Degas: La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans
Auguste Rodin: The Kiss
A Christmas series was broadcast between 24 December 2006 and 26 December 2006:
Jan van Eyck: The Annunciation
Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Census At Bethlehem
Paul Gauguin: God's Child
An Easter special was broadcast on 11 April 2009:
Caravaggio: The Taking Of Christ
A Christmas special was broadcast on 25 December 2009:
Sandro Botticelli: The Mystic Nativity
An Easter special was broadcast on April 3, 2010:
Rogier van der Weyden: The Descent from the Cross
A Christmas special was broadcast on 25 December 2010:
Filippo Lippi: The Adoration of the Christ Child (Lippi)