Bronze inkwell shaped as a bust of a woman with bat wings, a bow at the neck and a small chimera face on the basin.

NB! · Art · Cinema · People

Sarah Bernhardt as a Sculptor: The Chimera Inkwell, a Self-Portrait of the Actress

Did you know that the most famous actress of all time, Sarah Bernhardt, was also a gifted sculptor? Some 50 of her sculptures survive. This fanciful inkwell, for example, is the actress's self-portrait, entitled Chimera.

Charcoal drawing of a black cat standing on its hind legs, front paws on a windowsill, looking out of the window.

NB! · Art · People

Black cat at a window in Leonid Pasternak’s 1936 drawing “Maruska”

Maruska. Drawing by Leonid Pasternak, 1936

NB! · Architecture · Art · Observations · Paris

What I would give to be gazing at the chin of the bronze Napoleon, dressed as a Roman emperor by Auguste Dumont, or at the freshly scrubbed façade of the French Ministry of Justice from forty metres up the Vendôme Column, all for just €3.9…

NB! · Coming Up · Art · Moscow

The Stage Gallery Continues Its Exhibition of Akhmat Bikanov, a Young Artist and Graduate of MARKHI, with Touching Watercolour Portraits of Fictional and Real People with Prominent Noses

Art · Museums · Observations

Exhibition of Nizhny Novgorod artists at Richter, opened on 30 March

Since today is a museum day, I am recalling the exhibition that opened at Richter on 30 March and brought together artists from Nizhny Novgorod. It was a great pleasure to see. The works are excellent, the artists deserve praise. In order, among what caught my eye: Vladimir Chernyshev, Trajectory

Faith · Art · Pop Culture

Early portrait of Saint Jerome by Van Dyck sold at auction in Switzerland for 2.4 million francs

A very small allegorical portrait of Saint Jerome, 47 x 40 cm, by the young Van Dyck sold at auction in Switzerland for 2.4 million francs (that is, 2.2 million euros) against an estimate of 600,000-800,000 euros. It is one of several Van Dyck depictions

Art · Moscow · Museums · Observations · Society Pages

New York graffiti artist Harif Guzman shows photos, video and installations at MMOMA

MMOMA on Petrovka has opened an exhibition of the New York graffiti artist Hharif Guzman, bringing together his photographs, videos, graffiti, posters, signs, installations, paintings, boards and even such an art object as a shirt bearing a placard reading "this is my shirt". A very coherent and vivid

Art · People

Pierre-Narcisse Guérin depicts the death of Marshal Lannes, wounded at Aspern

Pierre-Narcisse Guérin, The Death of Marshal Lannes, Duke of Montebello. We see Napoleon holding Lannes and pressing him to his chest. Tarle writes that Napoleon wept for the second and last time in his life when the dying Marshal Lannes lay in his arms: one of his closest friends

Art · Moscow · Observations · Society Pages

Art Week positively teems with bright events, and here at the Triumph Gallery is the presentation of a sumptuous album from Shaltai Editions

Art Week positively teems with bright events, and here at the Triumph Gallery is the presentation of a sumptuous album from Shaltai Editions. The vivid fuchsia portfolio Le Jardin, with silkscreen prints by Alexandra Vertinskaya, sets the spring mood in a barely thawed Moscow, quite literally. The album reproduces 8

NB! · Art · Mores · People

Laundresses, 1652-53, by the Dutch watercolourist and poetess Gesina ter Borch, best known for the touching and amusing sketches of scenes from family life in her albums

NB! · Archive · Art · Monarchies · Humour

When She Put On All Her Best at Once

When she put on all her best at once. Photographs of Elizabeth II from 1986, when she was 60, taken by Curtis Hoopper for work on the Queen's portrait. These pictures were found in the artist's studio after his death.

Art · Moscow · Museums · Observations

The exhibition “Choosing Distance” on the Coronacene era opens at Garage

A new exhibition has opened at Garage that you want to go on looking at, and looking at. It is called “Choosing the Distance: Speculations, Fakes, Forecasts in the Era of the Coronacene”. It is hard to single out one exhibit or one artist, for literally everything impresses. We shall