In 1948 Robert Doisneau secretly photographed passers-by at a gallery window with a nude painting

In 1948, the French photographer Robert Doisneau made a series of secret photographs of people who had caught sight of a nineteenth-century painting of a female nude in the window of an art gallery. Doisneau hid his Rolleiflex behind an antique chair, so that he was nowhere to be seen, while the frame took in the piquant picture and the passers-by who noticed it. Look at these faces: it seems that humanity will never again be quite so innocent

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

In the finale of the Strugatskys' Roadside Picnic, the Golden Ball is told: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to offend nobody, but the digest really does come free of charge. So, here is the main business of the

Frederic Leighton

Frederic Leighton. “Daedalus and Icarus”, 1869 Daedalus warns his son not to climb too high: the heat of the sun may melt the wax, but Icarus is already gazing into the distance, and the lamentations of a foolish old man interest him not in the least

In 1948 Robert Doisneau secretly photographed passers-by at a gallery window with a nude painting

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

Frederic Leighton

Attempts to resolve the problems of many years of uncontrolled mass migration

Characters from Gogol's "Petersburg Tales" on the pedestal of the monument to Nikolai Gogol on Nikitsky Boulevard, photograph of the 1960s