Art · Moscow · Museums · Observations

The Darwin Museum is a most interesting place in its own right, but the way objects of contemporary art have been so carefully and organically integrated into its display, overturning epistemological foundations and focusing attention on…

The Darwin Museum is a most interesting place in its own right, but quite another story is the way objects of contemporary art have been so carefully and organically integrated into its display, overturning epistemological foundations and focusing attention on unnatural history, turning the space into a modern alchemical showcase

Art · Moscow · Museums · Observations · Science · Humour

Monster skeleton at the Darwin Museum is an artwork by Masha Bogoraz

Good Lord, What Are You? The Darwin Museum has acquired the skeleton of some unimaginable monster. According to the legend, the artefact was discovered by Darwin in the Galápagos Islands and then brought to the American Museum of Natural History, where it was unearthed by a Russian scholar, Vladimir Bogoraz,

Sculpted bust of a bearded man with curly hair and a bowed head, set against red fabric and an ochre wall.

NB! · Faith · Art · Observations

Sculpture of Saint Paul by François Marchand, Made Around 1540

A sculpture of Saint Paul of incredible beauty by François Marchand, c. 1540. What a strong, expressive scar on the face, and what a serene pose

Archive · Art · Observations · Humour

Baritone Fouger sang Papageno at 74 and kept performing after the age of 80

Expectation and reality: Jacques Drésa's costume design for Papageno the bird-catcher in Mozart's "The Magic Flute", and the same costume realised for Lucien Fugère in the 1922 production of the opera. To my mind, Papageno looks far more striking in the flesh. Do

Art · Moscow · Heritage · People · Nature

Artist Sofya Matveyeva and her dried-plant panels at the Tsitsin Main Botanical Garden

In the Stock Greenhouse of the Tsitsin Main Botanical Garden, the decorative treatment of the doors has been touchingly preserved: panels of dried plants assembled by the Soviet artist Sofya Vasilyevna Matveyeva (1904-1986). Sofya Matveyeva worked in the Main Botanical Garden almost from its founding, under Nikolai Tsitsin himself,

Coming Up · Art · Society

Charity exhibition “Ty ne odna” opens at the Lazy Mike gallery on 26 June

On 26 June the Lazy Mike gallery opens "You Are Not Alone", a charity exhibition: proceeds from the sale of works by 12 contemporary Russian women artists will go to the women's mutual aid fund of the same name. Among the works are some we have

Colour illustration signed by the artist, showing a couple embracing in a doorway while a woman in a bonnet watches from behind the door.

Art · Mores · Humour

French artist Paul-Émile Bécat and his risqué illustrations

A mature lady checks that she has not forgotten how it is done. The French artist Paul-Émile Bécat became widely known precisely for his frivolous illustrations, and if you google his works, you will find far more ticklish scenes

Geography · Art · Maps · Monarchies · Humour

A half-naked lady with a remarkable coiffure sits enthroned upon a sumptuous chariot drawn by two exceedingly large armadillos

A half-naked lady with a remarkable coiffure sits enthroned upon a sumptuous chariot drawn by two exceedingly large armadillos. Why, this is America, of course! One guesses it at the first glance. At any rate, this is the image chosen for that enchanting part of the world by Jean

Coming Up · Art · Observations · Paris · Society Pages

Chaumet jewellery exhibition “Napoleon and Josephine” on Place Vendôme in Paris

Ladies, Put Your Names Down for Tiaras! In the historic Maison Chaumet on the Place Vendôme in Paris, an unprecedented exhibition of jewels from the jewellery house of Chaumet, entitled “Napoleon and Joséphine”, is running until the middle of July. I was fortunate enough to visit the colossal exhibition of

Aristocracy · Art · Monarchies · Humour

What's That You Say?

What's that you say? All rappers' wives look the same? One wonders how Henri Gascar, the French painter, would have commented on it in 1697, with his portrait of Marie Casimire Sobieska, Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania, with her daughter Therese Kunegunde, Electress of

Cover illustration of La Vie Parisienne: a figure in a dark coat and boots stands on a centaur's back and kisses him.

NB! · Archive · Art · Mores · Paris

Georges Léonnec drew a centaur and a rider for the cover of La Vie Parisienne in 1924

The centaur's kiss on the cover of La Vie Parisienne. 1924, drawing by Georges Léonnec

NB! · Faith · Art

John the Baptist and the Lamb

John the Baptist and the Lamb. José de Ribera