Look Closer

Every famous painting hides something most people never notice.

A painter's face reflected in a tiny mirror. A whale scraped out of a beach scene. A Cupid hidden on a wall for 250 years. A sentence in pencil that Edvard Munch wrote on The Scream himself.

Look Closer turns 50 masterpieces, from Van Eyck to Van Gogh, into short, playful lessons you can enjoy in ten minutes. Each lesson is a two-page spread:

• The challenge: see the whole painting and hunt for one hidden detail
• The reveal: a close-up, the story behind it, and the art term it teaches

Along the way you'll learn the language of art, from sfumato and chiaroscuro to anamorphosis and trompe l'oeil, without ever opening a textbook.

Inside you'll find:

• 50 famous paintings in full colour, each with a close-up of its secret
• 50 art terms explained in plain, friendly language
• A review quiz after every ten lessons
• A glossary and a guide to where you can see each painting in person

Facts, not myths. Many art "secrets" online are wishful thinking. Every detail in this book comes from museum research, restoration studies or the artists' own words, and each lesson names its source.

Written by painter and art theorist Viktoriia Pavlova (MA, University of Helsinki), Look Closer is for curious beginners, museum lovers, students, and anyone who has ever stood in front of a masterpiece and wondered what they were missing.

A perfect gift for art lovers. Read one lesson a day, and you'll never look at a painting the same way again.