A young man in a green uniform with a red sash and order stars sits beside a table with decanters and glasses.

Cinema · Monarchies · People

Actor Edouard Philipponnat, aged 24, in the role of Emperor Alexander I

The Only Frenchman Cast in Ridley Scott's Epic "Napoleon" Plays the Russian Tsar. The role of Alexander I is played by the 24-year-old Édouard Philipponna

Aristocracy · Archive · Observations · Mores · People · Humour

Stephen Tennant in Cecil Beaton's photographs, an aesthete famed for his appearance

In Cecil Beaton's photographs: Stephen Tennant, perhaps one of the most elegant people of the twentieth century, or at the very least one of the best-known aesthetes of the last one. Yet he became famous not for his lineage (though he came from the privileged class), nor

Aristocracy · Monarchies · Mores · People

Napoleon's illegitimate sons Charles Denuelle and Alexandre Walewski and the Bonaparte name

Napoleon's illegitimate sons: Charles Denuelle, called the infernal bastard, Count Léon (1806-1881), and Alexandre, Count Colonna-Walewski (1810-1868). Each left numerous descendants, but none of the offspring of Napoleon's illegitimate sons had the right to bear the surname Bonaparte, although Count Léon pressed the

A fair-haired man in a grey suit and a dark-haired woman in a light wrap sit on a sofa looking at an open magazine, a colourised photograph.

Mores · People · Pop Culture

Yesenin's marriage to a wife 18 years his senior lasted just over a year

Sergei Yesenin and Isadora Duncan. Yesenin was eighteen years her junior; their marriage was brief, lasting little more than a year, but brilliant

NB! · Archive · People

Franz Kafka, Aged Two

Art · Observations · People

Louise Bourgeois: a work of art does not need to be explained; if you feel nothing about it, I cannot explain it to you; if it does not move you, I have failed

Well, then.

NB! · Art · Monarchies · Museums · People

An authentic dress of Empress Josephine and her portraits in a similar guise

Drawing of Edgar Poe seated at a desk with a quill in hand, a cat perched on his shoulder.

NB! · Books · People · Nature · Humour

Edgar Poe said his stories were written by his cat Catarina

Edgar Allan Poe's beloved cat was called Catarina, and she would sit on his shoulder, watching him write. Poe liked to say that his stories had in fact been written by his faithful cat.

NB! · London · Monarchies · Observations · People

I Had Never Noticed This Striking Resemblance Between Elizabeth II and Her Grandmother Mary of Teck

Art · Books · Paris · People

Rodin's Monument to Balzac, from the Nude Study to the Scandal at the 1898 Salon

While working on his famous monument to Balzac, often dismissed as a shapeless monstrosity, Auguste Rodin produced several models and sketches. Among them is this nude study. Apart from Rodin, hardly anyone ever saw Balzac like this. And it was in this form that Rodin first conceived the monument to

Art · Observations · People · Nature

Impermanent sculptures of branches and vines by American artist Patrick Dougherty

My favourite artist of the day is the 78-year-old American Patrick Dougherty, who makes fantastical sculptures out of twigs and saplings. Dougherty's chief technique is stickwork: armed with stems, secateurs and a saw, he clothes the familiar furniture of the landscape (walls, fences, trees, hillocks) in

Cinema · Observations · People · Pop Culture

Hannibal Barca from a Phoenician aristocratic family and the question of his appearance

Denzel Washington to play the Carthaginian general Hannibal, who invaded Italy on an elephant from North Africa, in a new Netflix project. The director is Antoine Fuqua, who has filmed Washington before: think of the action film The Equalizer. As for the historical figure, it is hard to speak of