NB! · Humour
Alexandr Radayev
Archive · Observations · Mores
Kharkiv Calendar of 1885 on a peasant woman who threw her newborn into a pigsty
Russian chthonic horror. If anyone had questions for Nekrasov, reality is always harsher than invention. On the night of the 8th the peasant woman Berestova, aged 19, resident of the village of Lozovaya in the Izyum district, threw her newborn child into a pigsty, where it was eaten by the
Monarchies · Observations · Mores · Ethnography
Prince Albert's Balmoral tartan and the rules of wearing it, broken at Zara Phillips's wedding
The English royal family often dresses in ancestral tartans, each with its own history and owner. The Balmoral tartan, for instance, invented by Prince Albert, may apparently be worn by no one but the Queen, members of the royal family and the Queen's personal piper. True, the rule
Art · Monarchies · Ethnography
Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VII), and Prince Alfred in Highland dress, with a little dog at their feet and a mountain landscape behind
Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VII), and Prince Alfred in Highland dress, with a little dog at their feet and a view of a mountain landscape in the background. The portrait, by Franz Xaver Winterhalter, is in the Royal Collection. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were
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Installation of soft coloured forms on the parquet floor of a gallery room
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Aerial site plan laid out on the parquet floor of a gallery room
Architecture · Art · Moscow · Museums · Observations
The Museum of Architecture opens “The Fifth Wave”, an exhibition of artists who left Russia
In the enfilade of the main building of the Museum of Architecture, an exhibition has opened that continues my beloved 2020 Garage Triennial of Contemporary Art. If you remember, the selection of works for the 2nd Triennial at Garage was built on recommendations from artists who had taken part in
NB! · Art · Cinema · People
Sarah Bernhardt as a Sculptor: The Chimera Inkwell, a Self-Portrait of the Actress
Did you know that the most famous actress of all time, Sarah Bernhardt, was also a gifted sculptor? Some 50 of her sculptures survive. This fanciful inkwell, for example, is the actress's self-portrait, entitled Chimera.
Books · Mores · Ethnography
European legend of the wealthy pig-faced heiress and its French origins
The tale of the girl with a pig's features has been current in Europe since time out of mind. The urban legend, in one version or another, told of a pregnant woman cursed by a beggar-woman because the haughty rich lady had likened the beggar's
NB! · Observations · Humour
Perhaps ENTOGRAPHY is my favourite misprint of the day
Archive · Monarchies · Mores · Pop Culture
Poppy Delevingne shares photo of her grandmother with Prince Philip in Venice in 1936
British model Poppy Delevingne has shared on Instagram a family story, accompanied by a photograph of her grandmother with the seventeen-year-old Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, on holiday in Venice in 1936. According to the family recollection, her grandmother said she understood at once that this young
Archive · Interviews · Society · People
Marietta Chudakova cites a fragment of a 1953 interview with A. F. Kerensky:
"...When Vladimir Ulyanov wished to enter Kazan University, he turned to my father for help. My father wrote a letter in which he recommended Vladimir Ulyanov as a model pupil. - That was a bold step on the part of your father, an imperial official, to give a letter of