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The Rothschilds’ ball at Château de Ferrières with a dress code of surrealist heads
The Surrealist Ball. Hosted by Baroness Marie-Hélène de Rothschild and her husband Baron Guy de Rothschild at their family estate, the Château de Ferrières in Seine-et-Marne, France. The dress code, written in mirror script, read: "Black tie, long dresses and surrealist heads". As the guests
Art · Mores · Paris
A servant reads aloud to his mistress, Madame Geoffrin, while she dines
A painting by Hubert Robert, Christie's Paris. Incidentally, on Madame Geoffrin's wall hangs yet another painting by Hubert Robert.
Architecture · Faith · Observations · Heritage · Paris
Paris to restore the church of Saint-Eustache, one of the city's main churches
At last, some good news. Pity it is not ours. Still, the Parisian church of Saint-Eustache is to be restored. For a long time now one of the city's principal churches has been in less than perfect condition, and the announcement of repair and restoration work is
Archive · Art · Museums · People
Claude Monet's promissory note of 18 October 1875
Claude Monet's promissory note of 18 October 1875. In the document the artist acknowledges receipt of a loan of 1,000 francs from Gustave Manet, brother of the painter Édouard Manet. To obtain the loan, Monet had to pledge 35 paintings. The artist promises to repay the debt
Coming Up · Books · Moscow
Three-volume encyclopedia of the Bolshoi Theatre to mark its 250th anniversary in 2026
The Bolshoi Theatre Encyclopaedia to Be Published in Summer 2026. The publication is timed to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the Bolshoi Theatre, which will be celebrated in 2026. The encyclopaedia will comprise three volumes. The first is devoted to the theatre's conductors, directors, designers, choreographers and
Archive · Books · Moscow · Mores · People
Leo Tolstoy's romance with Ekaterina Tyutcheva in 1857 and 1858 and the prototype of Kitty
Tyutcheva is beginning to please me quietly... Little by little, but she has taken hold of me seriously and wholly So Leo Tolstoy recalls Ekaterina Tyutcheva in his diary. In my alternative historical imagination I sometimes wonder what would have happened had Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy in fact married Ekaterina Tyutcheva,
Art · Moscow · Heritage · Society
Artists dressed “Worker and Kolkhoz Woman” to draw attention to the dilapidated monument
Worker and Kolkhoz Woman in overalls and a sarafan in the colours of the Russian tricolour, sewn by the Monolit textile association in 1998. The decision to dress the sculpture was taken to draw attention to the preservation of a monument that in the 1990s had fallen into an extremely
NB! · Archive · Art · Monarchies · People
Salvador Dalí and Velázquez's portrait of Philip IV at prayer in the Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial in 1964
Archive · Moscow · Pop Culture · Humour
A waiter lights a guest's cigar in a photograph taken in Moscow in 1997
Chuck Norris and Vladimir Zhirinovsky in Heaven. Photograph taken in Moscow in 1997
Archaeology · Architecture · Heritage · Rome
Restoration of the Colosseum's entrance area, with the sites of its lost gallery columns, completed in Rome
The large-scale restoration of the Colosseum has been completed, or, to be precise, of the area beneath the lost part of the colonnade and the semicircular piazza before the arena, where Roman spectators once crowded under two galleries of marble columns up to 50 metres high. In these galleries
Geography · Cinema · Monarchies · Society · Nature
The Charles III Trail, 2,700 miles long, runs along the English coast past the Seven Sisters
King Charles III Opens a Path Bearing His Own Name at the Seven Sisters National Nature Reserve in Seaford, East Sussex. The King Charles III Trail is a new walking route of 2,700 miles running along the entire coast of England. From Newhaven the trail skirts Seaford Bay, passes