19th Century Girl Albums: Entertainment for Bored Aristocrats or a Separate Genre in Art?
The young ladies of the 19th century were not so different from the modern ones: they also needed attention, recognition, evidence of sympathy from friends and, of course, a cordial…

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“Love Letter” by Jan Vermeer: Why the lute is central to the picture
At the first glance at Jan Vermeer's famous painting “Love Letter”, the name seems far-fetched, because the letter itself is hardly noticeable. But the lute in the hands of a…

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As an apprentice carpenter and an orphan became a world famous salon painter: Mihai Munkachi
Recently, in the Western world of art, a trend has begun to be traced more clearly, which fundamentally changes the priorities of styles. And no matter how adherents of abstractionism…

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10 collectors whose investments in art are millions of dollars

The richest people in the world spend billions of dollars in order to collect a decent collection of antiques and art. Each collector has his own taste and his own idea of ​​the beautiful. But owners of billions of dollars are similar in one thing: they consider art a great investment, which in the future can bring serious profit to the owner.

Philip Niarchos

The collector became a worthy successor to the work of his father, Stavros Niarchos, who laid the foundation for the collection of art of the twentieth century back in 1949. In his mansions in different cities of the world were paintings by Vincent van Gogh and Picasso, Henri Matisse and Paul Gauguin. Philip Niarchos later added to his father’s meeting by buying self-portraits of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Vincent van Gogh at auction, as well as Andy Warhol’s painting “Red Marilyn”. Continue reading

Fantastic take-off and the tragic end of the discoverer of Russian porcelain Dmitry Vinogradov

Russia has always been famous for outstanding talents, however, the indisputable fact is that these people did not always have sweet and free in their homeland. Russian history remembers many geniuses whose life was ruined by the domestic system. A terrible fate fell on the lot of Dmitry Ivanovich Vinogradov, rightfully considered the father of Russian porcelain, who spent the last days of his life chained to a kiln.

A master was born in the ancient Russian city of Suzdal in 1720. In the early 1730s, the boy’s father, seeing his great inclinations for science in his son, sent him with his elder brother Jacob to study in Moscow, where they studied at the Spassky School at the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy. I must say, this school was one of the most authoritative educational institutions of the state of that time. At one time, many outstanding personalities studied in it. Continue reading

“The Invisible Artist”, which creates paintings on people, like on canvases

Since today many acts of civil protest in China remain strictly prohibited, a well-known Chinese artist-photographer, master of the original creative camouflage of people, Liu Bolin invented a unique technique for expressing one’s own opinion and view on pressing problems of society. Working with his team of professionals, Bolin seems to dissolve himself and his employees in space, merging with the environment, which emphasizes that modern man is invisible and of little significance to government structures and those in power.

He, with the help of his assistants, fits organically into both urban and natural landscapes, as well as supermarkets and various works of art. Bolin as a canvas can stand, without moving, in one place for several hours against a selected background, while his assistants paint it from head to toe, trying to mix it with the environment. Continue reading

“Love Letter” by Jan Vermeer: Why the lute is central to the picture
Cristobal Balenciaga once said that “a good fashion designer should be an architect for patterns, a sculptor for form, an artist for design, a musician for harmony, and a philosopher…

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Secrets of the painting “A Lady with a Parrot by the Window”: How the Smile of a Heroine and a Bird are Connected
Caspar Netscher is a Dutch artist of German descent, an outstanding portrait painter, and also a master of depicting everyday scenes of the Dutch elite. He also developed a technique…

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Vincent Laurence van der Winne and his still lifes vanitas: where did the artist hide his portrait?
Vincent Laurence van der Winne (1628–1702) is a Dutch artist and writer. Initially, van der Winne was engaged in weaving, but then, sensing a craving for fine art, he decided…

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