Changelog

Switch to the next artwork right from the menu bar.

• The menu bar card has a new Next Artwork button that changes the wallpaper without opening the gallery. With Recommended for today, it skips today's pick and the current work, so pressing it again never brings you back. A press counts as that day's change
• A spinner shows while the work downloads, and a check beside the title confirms the change
• Daily auto-rotate now changes the wallpaper after 4 a.m. instead of at midnight, so a late-night session is not interrupted. Settings show when the new work arrives

Daily auto-rotate now changes the wallpaper when a new day begins.

• The wallpaper changes once the date turns over, rather than 24 hours after the last change, so your Mac shows the new day's artwork in the morning. Picking a wallpaper yourself no longer pushes the next change later
• If your Mac wakes before Wi-Fi reconnects, the new wallpaper appears as soon as the connection is back
• Outlines, Timeline lines and gallery columns are sharper on standard-resolution displays

Artist faces on the Timeline and the Graph now ship with the app.

• Faces on the Timeline and the Graph appear right away, even the first time and offline

A new trial now opens with a short welcome, and 50 Impressionist works join the catalog.

• When a trial begins, a card shows what Art4 does and how to get a license. Continue the trial, get a license, or enter a key you already have
• 50 Impressionist works were added. Pissarro, Sisley, Morisot and Cassatt have more works, and Eva Gonzalès and Marie Bracquemond appear for the first time
• The days left in a trial now count down while Art4 stays open
• Artist pictures on the Timeline and the Graph appear faster

Sensitive artworks are now hidden by default, and 51 Monet paintings join the catalog.

• Nudes and graphic violence no longer appear in the gallery, search or wallpaper rotation. Turn on "Show sensitive artworks" in Settings to bring them back
• 51 works by Claude Monet were added
• The Graph no longer prints captions on its lines. A painter's ties are listed in the panel
• A bar on the Timeline lights up under the pointer
• Spacing and control heights were evened out across the app

Minor fixes.

• Small fixes and adjustments

The Timeline and a new Graph come together in an Art History tab.

• The new Graph maps how painters are connected: who met, taught, rivaled and influenced whom. Click a painter to see their ties
• Small artworks are set as wallpaper whole, on a white mat, instead of being stretched and blurred
• 179 well-known works were added

It's easier to find your way back while exploring artworks.

• After opening an artist, movement, theme, or attribute from an artwork, the link above the gallery title (or ⌘[) takes you back to that artwork with your search and filters as they were
• Right-click that link to jump back several steps at once
• Click the Gallery tab again while it's open to clear the search and filters and start over
• Setting a wallpaper on All Desktops now changes every desktop, even after you picked a different picture in System Settings

Minor fixes.

• Small fixes and adjustments

The timeline is easier to read, and the window header now matches the page.

• The timeline now opens on artists with more than ten works in Art4 and the artists connected to them; filter by movement or artist to see everyone
• The timeline opens on the 1870s instead of jumping to a particular artist
• Artist previews on the timeline wait a moment longer before appearing
• The region filter is hidden for now
• The window header uses the same color as the page
• When Art4 is in Japanese, sharing it links to the Japanese site

Art4 no longer overrides a wallpaper you choose yourself.

• After you pick a different wallpaper in System Settings, Art4 no longer switches back to its own when you move to another desktop or open Art4

The app looks brighter in light mode.

• In light mode, the window and panels now sit on a near-white page instead of the darker system gray, so artworks stand out more

The timeline is easier to read, and guide facts are more accurate.

• Lines on an expanded timeline no longer run through event labels or artist names
• Guides and artwork details were checked against museum records and corrected, including media, dates and holding museums

The timeline is easier to read, and the app feels faster.

• The timeline now opens on the key artists; filter by region, movement, or artist to see everyone
• Expanded artists show their most important moments first instead of a wall of labels
• Scrolling the gallery and switching tabs is smoother
• Source links in guide popovers are easier to read in dark mode
• Wallpaper rotation no longer repeats the previous day's pick and follows your largest display
• Update settings changed from the update alert now stay in sync

Japanese artwork descriptions read more naturally.

• Dates such as "early 1650s" and "c. 1803–5" are now written in Japanese
• Artist and museum names are now shown in Japanese, and artworks with an unknown collection say so
• Art movement names now match the catalog
• Source titles in guide popovers are now easier to read

A native share sheet for your member card, a privacy toggle, and faster images.

• Share your member card through the macOS share sheet, with X and Threads alongside your other destinations
• Settings > General > Privacy adds a toggle for sharing anonymous usage data — no account, device identifier, or artwork title is sent
• Artworks you revisit load faster, with remote images cached on disk
• Faster Timeline tab switching and wallpaper suggestions
• Artwork CSV exports are now safe to open in spreadsheet apps

Smoother member cards and clearer update notes.

• Gallery, Timeline, and Saved remain accessible while your member card is open
• Use Back to Gallery to return directly to your collection
• Fixed Save Image so you can choose where to save your card
• Saved and shared card images are smaller, with a transparent background and a slight tilt
• Member cards rotate smoothly into view, with support for Reduce Motion
• Fixed language comments appearing in the update window's release notes

More consistent member cards and fixes for appearance controls.

• Your member card keeps the same design each time you open it with the same license
• Sharing a member card now includes a message that you have an Art4 license
• Fixed the appearance menu in the window header so it opens reliably
• Fixed the menu bar icon's contrast when Art4's appearance differs from the menu bar
• Refined Japanese text in the app and artwork explanations

A member card of your own, and maps to explore the places connected to artworks.

• A member card now appears after license activation. Reopen it from Settings to change its design, save it as an image, or share it
• Supported artwork details now include maps and source links for places of creation and collecting institutions
• Revised explanations of motifs to include only meanings supported by evidence for the specific artwork

A clearer timeline overview, with new histories connecting art across regions.

• Added five bilingual world overviews spanning 700–1950, connecting artworks, the circumstances of making, and exchanges across regions
• Replaced stacked regional histories in All with a single overview row
• Selecting a region shows its own history. With multiple regions selected, History lets you browse chapters for the years currently in view

Explore the stories behind artworks with sourced historical documents.

• Added historical context to artwork details, with period documents you can zoom and pan; descriptions and sources open in place
• Added an Attributes filter (books, keys, skulls, and more) with guides explaining what each attribute means and where it comes from
• Added scholarly artwork connections that link related works
• Expanded guide highlights from 200 to 671 artworks and added about 100 artworks to the collection
• Added region filtering and artist search to the timeline, with expanded era overviews and turning points
• Redesigned the Settings window
• Removed Today's pick and first-run onboarding so the gallery opens right away
• Adopted the new wordmark and unified scrollbar styling
• Improved timeline scrolling and search performance

Fixed issues with tab navigation.

• Fixed “See timeline” so it opens the Timeline tab from an artist detail page
• Fixed the main tabs so they switch views while an artwork detail is open

Explore the artists and stories behind the artworks in more depth.

• Added artist detail pages with biographies and related artworks
• Greatly expanded sourced guide highlights and made artwork annotations easier to open
• Removed the unnecessary separator below the macOS tabs
• Improved the security and reliability of in-app updates

Explore artworks more deeply with the new guide features.

• Added guide highlights that point out details to look for in an artwork
• Added a filter for browsing artworks that have guide highlights
• Added AVIF display renditions to make image delivery more efficient on supported environments

Images now load dramatically faster.

• All artwork images are now served from Art4's own delivery network — the gallery's first load is roughly 3x faster
• Opening an artwork's detail view shows the full image much sooner
• Detail images are sharper, using every pixel of the downloaded rendition
• Image loading no longer fails when external services are congested or rate-limited; if Art4's delivery network is ever unavailable, images automatically fall back to the museums' original sources
• Fixed artworks whose images failed to load after their files were renamed on Wikimedia Commons

Choose where your wallpaper is applied.

• New "Apply to" setting: All Desktops or Current Desktop
• Current Desktop applies the artwork only to the desktops you can see, leaving your other Spaces untouched
• Fixed an issue where desktops still showing an older wallpaper could revert to the system default after a restart
• Reduced unnecessary disk work when switching Spaces

Keyboard control and tab switching are now faster and more consistent.

• Zoom the gallery and timeline with ⌘+ / ⌘- (your zoom level persists across relaunches)
• Press Esc to dismiss the timeline's detail panel
• Unified the timeline detail panel design across artists, events, and connections
• Visited tabs now stay loaded, so switching tabs is instant and keeps your scroll position and filters

Artist profiles and the art-history timeline are now richer and easier to explore.

• Expanded artist profiles and biographies in Japanese and English
• Improved artist context in artwork details
• Restored artist portraits throughout the art-history timeline

Art4 for macOS is now available. Explore public-domain masterpieces and set them as your Mac wallpaper.

• Search and filter by artwork, artist, movement, theme, and color
• Set high-resolution artworks as wallpaper
• Save favorites and build collections
• See the current artwork from the menu bar
• Rotate wallpapers automatically

Requires macOS 14 or later.