After the first Impressionist exhibition, a journalist from Le Figaro wrote that the paintings of Monet, Renoir, Morisot and Sisley made him think of a monkey to whom the public ought to present a basket of flowers

Evidently, this was an allusion to Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps's painting "The Monkey Painter" of 1833.

Nearly 150 years have passed since that exhibition, and with every private view new talented primates remain in the shadow of their many masterpieces. It must be said, though, that the monkeys have become less industrious.

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

In the finale of the Strugatskys' Roadside Picnic, the Golden Ball is told: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to offend nobody, but the digest really does come free of charge. So, here is the main business of the

Frederic Leighton

Frederic Leighton. “Daedalus and Icarus”, 1869 Daedalus warns his son not to climb too high: the heat of the sun may melt the wax, but Icarus is already gazing into the distance, and the lamentations of a foolish old man interest him not in the least

After the first Impressionist exhibition, a journalist from Le Figaro wrote that the paintings of Monet, Renoir, Morisot and Sisley made him think of a monkey to whom the public ought to present a basket of flowers

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

Frederic Leighton

Attempts to resolve the problems of many years of uncontrolled mass migration

Characters from Gogol's "Petersburg Tales" on the pedestal of the monument to Nikolai Gogol on Nikitsky Boulevard, photograph of the 1960s