NB! · Architecture · Paris
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NB! · Art · New York · People
The most expensive painting in the history of Latin American art: "Diego and I" by the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo
The most expensive painting in the history of Latin American art is "Diego and I" by the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. In November 2021 the picture was sold at Sotheby's in New York for 34.9 million US dollars. The previous record belonged to "Rivals&
Art · Observations · People
A Little Dog, Biscotti and a Chinese Cup on the Scarlet Tablecloth
A little dog, biscotti and a Chinese cup on the scarlet tablecloth. The flies, quite rightly, decided there could be no better place for a rendezvous and for the delivery of a letter. Thanks for this picture go to the seventeenth-century Italian painter Giovanna Garzoni
Archive · Books · Monarchies · Society · Saint Petersburg
"There is no power on earth more absolute than that of the sovereigns of Russia: throughout their empire their will is the only law; obedience the only morality
"There is no power on earth more absolute than that of the sovereigns of Russia: throughout their empire their will is the only law; obedience the only morality. Yet we shall see their pitiable condition, and how their power, having overstepped every limit prescribed to men, has destroyed itself
Books · Observations · Humour
The saddest advertisement for selling books: ideal for crafts, for creating atmosphere, and they can even be read
In the spirit of Meghan Markle, just a little
NB! · Aristocracy · Archive · Mores
General Kostenetsky Dined at Count Osterman-Tolstoy's for Twenty Years
General Kostenetsky dined at Count Osterman-Tolstoy's for twenty years. It was so organic a part of their routine that every day, an hour and a half before dinner, the Count sent his carriage to fetch the General
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Is This Even Legal?
Art · Observations · Humour
The convex mirror as a picture within a picture, one of its earliest depictions in painting
For a second I thought Robert Campin's "Saint John the Baptist" of 1438 was standing next to a washing machine. If you look closely, the convex mirror on the wall is, as it were, a picture within the picture, offering a glimpse of the interior and
Books
All in trousers cut to one pattern, With moustaches, overcoats and bowler hats, In the street I look like anybody, And I lose myself completely at the corners
If only I don't swap personalities: He will enter into me, and I into him — I am gripped by total indifference And am afraid decidedly of everything… Literal translation Sasha Chorny, 1907-1908
Aristocracy · Mores · People · Saint Petersburg
Count Stroganov's open dinners and the unknown guest who dined there for almost 30 years
The open dinners of Count Alexander Sergeyevich Stroganov were the stuff of legend: his table was prized not only by colleagues and kinsmen but by members of the imperial family and by distinguished foreign guests, such as the painter Vigée Le Brun. At times this influential and wealthy gentleman found
Art · Observations · Paris
Works by the French street artist known as MifaМosa, who creates in the pixel-art vein
On the whole, MifaМosa's pieces resemble the work of Pixelboy, a Russian artist of the same profile. Both authors began developing their aesthetic at the same time and, I think, independently of one another
NB! · Observations · Humour