Art · Monarchies · Observations · People

Henry FitzRoy in a cap in his portrait and possible reasons for the image

I do not know why Henry FitzRoy, the illegitimate son of Henry VIII and yet his heir, came to be captured in a nightcap in this portrait. I think the version that he simply did not want to climb out of bed, even when the artist had already arrived, and

A black grand piano stands in a parquet-floored hall, with a woman in dark clothes beside it. The walls bear bright lacquer panels with fairy-tale scenes; two red ottomans sit on the floor.

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Hall with lacquer panels on the walls and a grand piano

NB! · Architecture · Art · Moscow · Observations

I have never seen anything like it: the Palekh Hall in the Sats Theatre, with huge lacquer panels of theatrical scenes by artists of the Palekh workshop of the 1970s and 1980s

Art · Observations · Society

Sergey Grigoryev’s 1950 painting “Discussion of a Bad Mark” and Soviet upbringing

Discussing a Fail Mark, 1950, Sergey Grigoryev, Stalin Prize. The canvas is criticised for the parallelism of its lines to the picture plane, the primitive arrangement of its figures and its simplified palette. The artist's merit lies rather in outlining the genre's range and shaping a

Large framed black-and-white portrait of a smiling elderly woman in a polka-dot jacket, on a wall with columns. Rows of small portraits hang on the right.

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Black-and-white portrait of an elderly woman on a lobby wall

Art · Moscow · Observations · Heritage

Quietly and without idle applause, a great date in world theatrical history has passed: the Natalia Sats Academic Children's Musical Theatre, the first professional musical theatre for children in the world, a theatre that for the first time in history de

Quietly and without idle applause, a great date in world theatrical history has passed: the Academic Children's Musical Theatre named after Natalia Sats has turned 55. It is the first professional musical theatre for children in the world, a theatre that for the first time in history devoted

Art · Cinema · Observations · Nature

When I see the work of the British naturalist artist Charles Tunnicliffe (1901-1979), who spent most of his life on the island of Anglesey at peace with the world around him, drawing scenes from the lives of birds and animals, I am invariably reminded of

When I see the work of the British naturalist artist Charles Tunnicliffe (1901-1979), who spent most of his life on the island of Anglesey at peace with the world around him, drawing scenes from the lives of birds and animals, I am invariably reminded of the Soviet cartoon of

NB! · Observations · Education · Society

I See No Grounds for Obtaining a Higher Education in Such Conditions

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Forgive Me

Books · Moscow · People

Konstantin Balmont's two suicide attempts in 1890 and 1909

On 13 March 1890 the student Konstantin Dmitrievich Balmont threw himself from a window of the Louvre furnished rooms on Tverskaya and survived, getting off with a broken leg that would leave him limping for many years. Perhaps this is a touch of belletristic exaggeration, but Balmont's limp

Architecture · Moscow · Observations

A photograph by Alexandr Kadochnikov that has gone viral: the dome of the Paveletskaya metro pavilion huddles in the embrace of the building at 43/16, Building 1, Novokuznetskaya

A photograph by Alexandr Kadochnikov that has gone viral: the dome of the Paveletskaya metro pavilion huddles in the embrace of the building at 43/16, Building 1, Novokuznetskaya. The pavilion itself occupies the ground floors of a house that was completed four years after the station was built. Most

Museums · Science · Palaeontology · Nature

The Maiasaura nest in Montana was the first proof that dinosaurs cared for their young

A mother dinosaur watches over her brood. This is a photograph of the display at the Museum of the Rockies, where in the 1980s and 1990s the skeleton of a Maiasaura stood beside a model of a dinosaur nest with growing hatchlings. The point is that a nest of just

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