Behind the teacher who shaped the leading lights of Impressionism lies a painter far less academic than he might seem.

For me, however, Friedrich’s unpeopled, timeless paintings were a quicker path to the sublime: the mystic chill of “Morning Mist in the Mountains” (1807–8), the arresting simplicity of ...

There’s no shortage of symbolic imagery in the snow-globe intimacy of Frank Borzage’s romanticism, but his 1937 film “History Is Made at Night” takes the cake. A woman fleeing ... (August 12), his ...