Picture Titles: How and Why Western Paintings Acquired Their Names

How the practice of titling paintings has shaped their reception throughout modern history

A picture's title is often our first guide to understanding the image. Yet paintings didn’t always have titles, and many canvases acquired their names from curators, dealers, and printmakers—not the artists. Taking an original, historical look at how Western paintings were named, Picture Titles shows how the practice developed in response to the conditions of the modern art world and how titles have sh...