A display case in a gilded frame with a clock among bookcases, holding costumed monkey figures playing instruments in a hall with painted walls.

NB! · Art · Museums · Humour

Mechanical monkey orchestra, probably late 18th century, in a gilded frame with a clock

Nothing special, just a monkey orchestra, supposedly of the late eighteenth century, though the ceiling paintings and candelabra point to the historicism of the nineteenth. The mechanism, alas, is broken

Art · Observations · Humour

Self-portrait “Man in Yellow”, long attributed to Delacroix, now assigned to an anonymous artist

Self-Portrait of an Unknown French Artist of the Nineteenth Century, also known as Man in Yellow, was long attributed to the brush of Eugène Delacroix, it being believed that it depicted his friend Baron Schwiter. There is indeed a certain resemblance between this man and the full-length portrait

Painting of an infant in a white bonnet lying in a cradle under a floral canopy, with a woman in a white cap seated beside it.

NB! · Archive · Art · Observations · Mores

Jean Monet, Claude Monet's first son, in his cradle with toys and flowers

What are the advantages of having a celebrated Impressionist for a father? Besides money and fame, there is, for instance, beauty in every detail of one's surroundings. Here is tiny Jean Monet, the first son of Claude Monet, in a cradle amid quite extraordinary toys and flowers.

Aristocracy · Faith · Art · Mores · People

Margravine Sibylla of Baden-Baden in a Witch Masquerade Costume Portrait

Sibylla of Saxe-Lauenburg (1675-1733), Margravine of Baden-Baden, in a masquerade costume as a sorceress. I do not know whether the outfit really came with fire-breathing asps; perhaps there were simply no fire salamanders to be had. In this portrait Sibylla has gathered together the various attributes

Round miniature of a hand from the clouds holding a red heart on a thread above a river and town, inscribed Non habet fundum.

NB! · Art · Books · London · Museums

Miniature of a heart from Jacob Hoefnagel's 1634 book in the British Museum collection

This has no end. From the book Gloria Crocodilus of 1634 by the Flemish artist Jacob Hoefnagel, with 82 allegorical miniatures. From the collection of the British Museum

NB! · Art · Moscow · Museums · Education

Lenin in the VKhUTEMAS hostel on 25 February 1921, arguing with the students about Futurism, Mayakovsky and the future of art

Lenin in the VKhUTEMAS hostel on 25 February 1921, arguing with the students about Futurism, Mayakovsky and the future of art. Behind him stands Nadezhda Krupskaya in a pale blue dress. A very beautiful work by Alexey Sotnikov, 1965, from a very rich exhibition marking the centenary of VKhUTEMAS

NB! · Art · Museums

Cleopatra with an Egyptian cobra, onyx, Milan, turn of the 16th and 17th centuries

Cleopatra with an Egyptian cobra, onyx, Milan, turn of the 16th and 17th centuries. Collection of the British Museum

NB! · Art · Pop Culture · Humour

Not that I am hinting at anything, but no one has ever seen Napoleon (the unfinished portrait of the Emperor by Jacques-Louis David) and Captain Harlock in the same room

NB! · Art · Museums · Observations · Society Pages

Last week I visited the exhibition of the Ball and Cross, which became a sensation during the pandemic, by your old acquaintance Max Boxer at the Museum of Decorative and Applied Arts

Last week I visited the exhibition of the Ball and Cross, which became a sensation during the pandemic, by your old acquaintance Max Boxer at the Museum of Decorative and Applied Arts. And do you know, Boxer is still the best at what he does. A splendid collection of young

Art · Moscow · Museums · Ethnography

A simple story at the Garage Triennial of Contemporary Art: the friendship of two creators, the Russian painter of the Arctic Alexander Borisov (1866-1934) and the Nenets self-taught talent, the first artist of Novaya Zemlya, Tyko Vylka (1886-1960)

A simple story at the Garage Triennial of Contemporary Art: the friendship of two creators, the Russian painter of the Arctic Alexander Borisov (1866-1934) and the Nenets self-taught talent, the first artist of Novaya Zemlya, Tyko Vylka (1886-1960). Vylka learned to draw from a tear-off calendar

Art · Heritage

Luca della Robbia's Madonna before and after restoration, for Sotheby's auction in early 2021

Relief sold for $2 million. https://theparnassian.com/madonna-luki-della-robbia-kotoraia-budet-vystavlena-na-auktsione-sotbis-v-nachale-2021-goda-kak-ona-vygliadit-seichas-i-kak-vygliadela-do-restavratsii/

NB! · Art · Moscow · Museums

Demonstration, Alexander Monin, 1924

Demonstration, Alexander Monin, 1924. From the exhibition “VKhUTEMAS 100. School of the Avant-Garde” at the Museum of Moscow