The East · Art · People
The Andalusian Fates, José Villegas y Cordero, 1910–1913. José Villegas y Cordero (1844–1921), a Spanish painter from Seville, sold his first picture at the age of twelve and in time became one of the best-paid and most collected of Spanish artists. His early work is devoted to
Books · Mores · People · Humour
In his review of the 3rd edition of the translation of Krylov's fables by the British writer, translator and Slavist William Shedden-Ralston, Turgenev described an amusing episode from the life of Ivan Andreyevich Krylov: A large, heavy picture, hanging directly above the spot where Krylov usually sat,
NB! · Faith · People · Rome · Humour
Books · People · Humour
The Earth Is Round, but There Are Idiots on Every Corner. The French writer Albert Simonin
Art · Museums · Science · Paris · People
As Louis Pasteur said, a Sunday spent in the laboratory: could a Sunday be better spent? In this portrait of the laboratory by the Finnish artist Albert Edelfelt (1885), from the collection of the Musée d'Orsay, Louis Pasteur holds a flask containing the spinal cord of a rabbit
Coming Up · Art · Museums · Paris · People
She is best known as Picasso's muse and lover, which, alas, often leaves her own work overlooked. Yet what Maar did as a photographer and as a Surrealist artist occupies a place entirely apart. Indeed, once you have seen her works, you will always recognise her hand in
NB! · Art · Observations · New York · People
Portrait of Maggie Smith by the Broadway caricaturist Al Hirschfeld. 1971: so in more than 50 years she has scarcely changed
Art · Observations · People
I assumed it was perfectly obvious that everyone must share my love of a sky thick with clouds. And it came as a positive shock to discover that some people prefer sunny weather. Even now I cannot understand it. But that is another story altogether… Glenn Gould, 1979 Illustration: CLOUDS
NB! · Archive · Art · People
NB! · People · Pop Culture
Books · Society · People
A very sad message from the creator of the nationally beloved project "Flibusta", known by the pseudonym Stiver. Stiver has written about his grave illness and about the fact that Flibusta will most likely soon cease to exist. Launched in 2009, the site with its free library of
Archive · Monarchies · Society · People
Peter I's autograph drawing of a tricolour flag with the colours indicated, and of a flag with the diagonal Saint Andrew's cross, 1699. Collection of the Archive of Ancient Acts. The sketch of the three-striped white-blue-red flag is drawn on the reverse of