Coming Up · Art · Moscow

Lest you get lost among portraits of theatrical figures, composers, playwrights and drawings by masters of the twentieth century no less famous, and sometimes more so, add to your collection of masterpieces, for the reproductions of the Arbat Courtyard ar

Lest you get lost among portraits of theatrical figures, composers, playwrights and drawings by masters of the twentieth century no less famous, and sometimes more so, add to your collection of masterpieces, for the reproductions of the Arbat Courtyard are already forlorn on the refrigerator door. A Couple in White

A white-bearded old man with tousled hair floats in a grey swirl of storm beside a flock of flying white owls.

NB! · Art

The painting “Winter” by the artist William Holbrook Beard

Winter. William Holbrook Beard (1825-1900)

NB! · Archive · Art · Books · People

The Finnish writer, artist and creator of the Moomin universe Tove Jansson (1914–2001) in the studio at her home, 1956

Architecture · Faith · Art · Nature · Rome

A Rabbit on the Wall of the Franciscan College of St Isidore in Rome

A rabbit on the wall of the Franciscan College of St Isidore in Rome. What is the little fellow doing here, apart from nibbling his cabbage? In the Middle Ages the rabbit was associated with the Immaculate Conception. Notions of the physiology of these animals pointed to purity. It is

Art · London · Observations · Humour

London artist Jane Hoodles makes hair sculptures inspired by the Victorian era

I met an English artist who makes surreal artefacts out of hair. At first I took it for a genuine wig from some masquerade and asked her to tell me its story, so imagine my astonishment when the owner of the cake of hair said, "It's an

NB! · Art · Observations · Education · Paris · Humour

Voltaire at the École nationale des chartes, or proof that, given a set of eyelash extensions, any dried apricot can pass for a second-hand peach

Voltaire at the École nationale des chartes, or proof that, given a set of eyelash extensions, any dried apricot can pass for a second-hand peach. Though in Russia, I dare say, some criminal case or other might well be opened over such embellishment of one of the national symbols

Black-and-white still: a young man in a light shirt and dark neckerchief carries a basket of bread, with people behind him.

Art · Cinema · Museums · Rome

The painting is part of the display at the Borghese Gallery

Pier Paolo Pasolini was undoubtedly impressed by Caravaggio's Boy with a Basket of Fruit when he shot these frames of Mamma Roma with the young Ettore Garofolo. The painting is on display at the Galleria Borghese

NB! · Archive · Art · People

Mstislav Rostropovich (1927-2007) and Marc Chagall (1887-1985)

NB! · Art · Books · Mores · Humour

Artist-Writers and Young Ladies: Take Note

Art · Observations · Society · Humour

The Piper Comanche shot down by dozens of arrows, fired by North Dakota Indians in protest at the building of an oil pipeline, turns out on an internet search to be the very same single-engine aircraft in which Obama flew over a reservation in Oklahoma…

The Piper Comanche shot down by dozens of arrows, fired by North Dakota Indians in protest at the building of an oil pipeline, turns out on an internet search to be the very same single-engine aircraft in which Obama flew over a reservation in Oklahoma and came under fire

Coming Up · Art · Books · Observations

Bonhams shows porcelain flowers from Vincennes and Sèvres linked to Madame de Pompadour

The auction house Bonhams wins back my favour with an exhibition of flowers. These, however, are no ordinary flowers. In the first place, they are made of porcelain: just look at the exquisite delicacy of the work! In the second, they are products of the Vincennes and Sèvres porcelain manufactories.

Art · Observations · Mores · Humour

Gesina's 1651 drawing of a woman with two children in a carrying basket

Thanks to Gesina ter Borch, an artist of the Dutch Golden Age, for an idea on how to save on a pram. Gesina drew the woman with two children in a carrying basket in 1651, when she herself was about 20 years old. Own up, whom did these realities of