Black-and-white photograph of a woman with short dark hair seated with a glass in her hand, with two people in wicker chairs behind her.

NB! · Archive · Observations · Pop Culture

Maria Callas and Winston Churchill in one photograph in a relaxed setting

A unique shot: Maria Callas, with Winston Churchill behind her. Who would have imagined the two of them in one place, and in such a relaxed setting at that

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This Is the Best

NB! · Observations · Humour

The Phystech lot are joking, and I honestly cannot say which of these returns I am awaiting more

NB! · Archive · Architecture · Heritage · Paris

The Vendôme Column before and after its destruction

Painting by Jean Dufy of the Place de la Concorde in Paris with the obelisk and fountains, the Seine with a steamboat and Sacré-Cœur in the distance.

NB! · Art · Observations · Paris

Place de la Concorde in 1950s Paris in a painting by Jean Dufy

I do so long to be in the incredible Paris of the fifties of Jean Dufy. Place de la Concorde. I wish everyone such a Chagallian-Dufyesque mood

Poster urging “Stay at home!”: a masked medic looks upward, people stand on balconies, and the slogan reads “Resistir es vencer”.

NB! · Archive · Art · Society

Spanish illustrators created coronavirus posters in the spirit of Civil War graphic art

Posters on the fight against coronavirus by contemporary Spanish illustrators, inspired by the graphic legacy of the Civil War. Viva la sanidad publica!

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A Reminder

NB! · Interviews · Cinema · Observations · Education · People

Jean-Luc Godard, aged 89, live on the Instagram of the University of Lausanne, where he once taught a course on cinema

Jean-Luc Godard, aged 89, live on the Instagram of the University of Lausanne, where he once taught a course on cinema. One gets the feeling that Godard does not quite grasp what the young people are up to here, and simply chills, puffing on a cigar as he answers

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Woman with a halo holding a golden vessel, Renaissance panel painting

Detail of a painting: a hand and forearm set against green and red garments, blue brocade with a gold pattern and a sleeve trimmed with pearls.

NB! · Faith · Art

The hands of Mary Magdalene in a painting by Carlo Crivelli from 1480

The delicate, slender, tender and sensual hands of Mary Magdalene. Carlo Crivelli, 1480

NB! · Aristocracy · Observations · People

But Yelizaveta Shakhovskaya's only daughter, Varvara, turned out to be a long-liver

But Yelizaveta Shakhovskaya's only daughter, Varvara, turned out to be a long-liver. I do like that sort of thing 😬

NB! · Aristocracy · Art · Museums · People · Saint Petersburg

The beauty Elizaveta Borisovna Shakhovskaya

The beauty Elizaveta Borisovna Shakhovskaya. One of her portraits is held in the Louvre, and two more in the Hermitage: this one, by Jean-Laurent Mosnier, and a second, a miniature by Augustin Ritt.