In 1348, during the time of the Black Death in Italy, a group of seven young women and three young men flee from plague-ridden Florence to a deserted villa in the countryside of Fiesole for two weeks. To pass the evenings, each member of the party tells a story each night, except for one day per week for chores, and the holy days during which they do no work at all, resulting in ten nights of storytelling over the course of two weeks. Thus, by the end of the fortnight they have told 100 stories. Each of the ten persons is in charge of choosing the theme of the stories for that day, and all but two days have topics assigned: examples of the power of fortune; examples of the power of human will; love tales that end tragically; love tales that end happily; clever replies that save the speaker; tricks that women play on men; tricks that people play on each other in general; examples of virtue. Only Dioneo, who usually tells the tenth tale each day, has the right to tell a tale on any topic he wishes, due to his wit. Thus is the story written by Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio, a few years after the epidemic of Black Death in Italy. Now, more than 600 years later, Giovanni Boccaccio's Italy is attacked by a new pandemic caused by a virus called Covid-19, and the whole country is being on National quarantine. The people who love to chat and laugh and being close to each other now all have to stay at home, and go out only if necessary, with facial masks, no smiles and at least 1 meter from each other. But the Italian people are living, not surviving, as Paola Locati of Milan wrote: "First, certain areas of the Lombardy region, where I live with my family, were put in lockdown, then it was the entire region on Sunday, then suddenly it was the whole country. Now how do we live? (I am purposefully not using the term “survive” – I refuse to.) " A woman of courage. (To read Paola Locati's article: The hardest thing about Italy’s coronavirus lockdown? Caging my teenage daughter) And other Italians are writing their own Decameron, one way or another. A young woman named Mary Gray from Giovanni Boccaccio's hometown Florence had to count her coins because of the crisis but went out to buy flowers for herself instead of bread; An English teacher in Rome was cheered by a lively grocer who turned out to be a teacher himself helping his sister as he is now on vacation because of school closures; A woman living near Codogno (the town where the first cases of COVID-19 in Italy were reported) started to feel "like life is on hold", yet "was learning to appreciate little things, like the sound of the birds in the morning, the slow pace of life and the time spent alone in my home". (To read the whole article: Coronavirus: What Our Contributors in Italy Think of Country-Wide Lockdown) But the most evocative account of Italy in lockdown, came from Beppe Severgnini, a column writer for Corriere della Sera from Crema, "a quintessential Italian community where everyone knows each other"...less than 15 miles away from the original lockdown areas of Codogno and Castiglione d’Adda": "As I write, it’s 10 a.m. and the square is empty — a bizarre silence. Normally, the square teems with students, shoppers, farmers, friends heading to cafes for their morning cappuccino. Beneath my window, pensioners usually gather to catch the early sun. Today the sun bounces off the bricks of the cathedral, undisturbed except for a lonely cyclist pedaling through the Torrazzo gate — a woman, apparently, though it’s hard to say behind the face mask. Even the church bells sound different in the empty quiet. When people have appeared, they’ve given one another a wide berth. So un-Italian. Normally, people charge into each other and greet with affection, shaking hands, kissing and embracing. Italy is a touchy-feely society. We tend to trust our senses and intuition more than grand ideas (those are Germany’s trademark). For us, life is food, wine, music, arts, design, landscape; the smell of the countryside; the warmth of one’s family, and the embrace of friends. Those involve our mouths, our noses, our ears, our eyes, our hands. Fear of Covid-19 forces us to repudiate those senses. It’s painful." (To read the whole story: My Lockdown Diary, From a Small, Old Town in Italy) Nobody knows how long Italy will be in national lockdown, nobody knows if and when other European countries will do exactly the same to slow down the outbreak, but what the Italians are doing are very inspiring, something we may need in the coming weeks, or even days.
Salute to the brave Italians, Boccaccio's compatriots! The décor at Red Gate Farm seemed nothing if not cozy and comfortable…But the prevailing air of casualness and happenstance was deceptive," Caroline Kennedy, daughter of Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis is selling Red Gate Farm, a 340 acre compound on Martha Vineyards purchased by her mother in the late 1970s for $1 million, a property with over a mile of Atlantic Ocean beachfront near the clay cliffs of Gay Head. The listing price is $65 million. If it sells for close to its asking price, the deal would mark a record for a single-family estate on Martha’s Vineyard. The current record, $32.5 million, was set in January by the sale of an estate once owned by the late Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham. When she was first lady in the early 1960s, Jackie Kennedy and her husband liked to spend their summer in Hyannis on Cape Cod, known as "Kennedy compound," the summer White House of President John F. Kennedy, Ms. Onassis’s first husband. After assasination of John F. Kennedy and her marriage to Aristote Onassis, she continue summering there. Then her children John Kennedy and Carolyn Kennedy grew up and she needed a place of her own to read books and be connected to nature, so in 1978, she purchased the Red Gate Farm, a ferry ride away from Hyannis. Jackie O engaged architect Hugh Newell Jacobsen to design the main house and a two-story guesthouse, which were completed in 1981, and her friend Rachel "Bunny" Mellon has designed the landscapes. Barbara Leaming, the writer of the book Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis: The Untold Story commented that Ms. Onassis was very particular about the renovation. "She wrote out her copious instructions to staff on index cards, such as the one affixed to a kitchen cabinet interior, which specified exactly which flowers were to be placed in which vessels in which areas of the house," she wrote. Carolyn Kennedy said her mother "loved the old stone walls, the blue heron that lived in the pond behind the dunes, the hunting cabin that was the only thing on the property when she acquired it, the clay cliffs, the Wampanoag legends, water skiing and setting lobster pots in Menemsha Pond and building a fairy treehouse for her grandchildren." A few years after the death of her mother, Carolyn Kennedy and her husband Edwin Schlossberg spent a few million dollars to renovate the place, with the help of Deborah Berke, dean of the Yale School of Architecture. The newly refurbished property comprises a 6,456-square-foot house as well as a guesthouse. The main house includes a formal sitting room with a fireplace, a drawing room, living and family rooms, a library, a dining room and a large kitchen. There are also two outdoor decks, a den and two offices that could also be used as art studios. All rooms except the dining room overlook the ocean. The guesthouse has an additional four bedrooms. Ms. Kennedy said she is selling because her three children have grown up and it is time for the family to "spread its wings." "Martha’s Vineyard will always be a part of our lives, but it is time for us to follow my mother’s example and create our own worlds," she said. "We hope that another family will treasure this place as we have for three generations." The property is listed with Christie’s International Real Estate.
Kimono(きもの/着物)is a traditional Japanese garment, and the national dress of Japan. It is a T-shaped, wrapped-front garment and is worn left over right (unless the wearer is deceased). It is usually worn with an obi belt, alongside a number of other accessories, such as zōri shoes and tabi socks. The kimono is constructed of mostly rectangular pieces of fabric, cut from a specific bolt of fabric known as a tanmono, which is 38–42 cm (15–17 in) in width and 12.5 m (41 ft) in length. Various types of kimono indicate the wearer's age, gender, the formality of the occasion, and less commonly, marital status, when worn; decoration, style of wear, and accessories also denote these. Types of kimono can range in formality from the extremely informal to the most formal of occasions. The first prototypes of what would become the kimono were introduced to Japan via Chinese envoys during the Kofun period. The Imperial Japanese court quickly adopted Chinese styles of dress and clothing. As a clothing, it was first called Kosode (meaning 'small sleeves'), and later evolved into Kimono (meaning 'the thing to wear') during the Meiji period(1868-1912). By the mid-seventeenth century it became the principal item worn by everybody in Japan, rich or poor, man or woman, thanks to the emergence of 'pattern books' which show the outline of the kimono with indications of the pattern, colour and style allowing people from all over Japan to choose the kimono design they wanted. As the people influencing fashion and taste during that time were the Kabuki actors and the courtesans like Geishas who all wore Kimonos, Kimono is connected to the 'floating world' – a world of pleasure, entertainment, and drama that existed in Japan from the seventeenth century through to the late nineteenth century. In order to cater to the discerning tastes of the Kabuki actors and Geishas who like to wear kimon with particular shade and design, the Japanese craftsmen had elevated Kimono making into an art form, using hand painted silk fabric. Some of the Kimonos are so precious they became family heirlooms, passing down from generation to generation. The exhibition of Victoria & Albert Museum: Kimono:Kyoto to Catwalk presents the kimono as a dynamic and constantly evolving icon of fashion, revealing the sartorial, aesthetic and social significance of the garment from the 1660s to the present day, both in Japan and the rest of the world. In the mid-seventeenth century Japan guarded its door to western world meticulously and its only trading partner is the Dutch East India Company whose employees had taken the kimono back to the west, which became so popular they asked the Japanese to make more kimonos in particular styles that satisfied the tastes and demands of Europeans, and called them 'Japanese robes'. But it was in the nineteenth century, when Japan opened its ports to international trade, that the kimono really took off in European fashion. According to the exhibition curator Anna Jackson: "Kimonos were brought over en masse to Europe, America, New Zealand – often stylish women were depicted in such garments." The kimono also appeased the intellectual and aesthetic movements of Orientalism and Japonisme that emerged in the nineteenth century, when Japan and its culture problematically represented an 'exotic other' to Europeans. For the painters specifically, the intricate detail and embroidery of the kimono 'allowed artists to show off their skill. After the Second World War, Kimono became outdated as it was reputed to be uncomfortable and difficult to wear, and the modern Japanese has adapted the western clothing instead. But it has experienced a number of revivals in popularity over the decades and is still worn as fashionable clothing within Japan, most often older men and women (who may have grown up wearing it), geisha, maiko, and sumo wrestlers, who are required to wear traditional dress whenever appearing in public. And Kimono as a culture influence to the west has never stopped, both in fashion and in art and has been object of private collection as well as that of the museums around the world. The V&A exhibition is unique in the sense that it intents to change museum traditions, which have often divided fashion and fine art into separate categories. According to Anna Jackson, the museum is displaying the kimonos on mannequins and models rather than simply using traditional display cases. 'If you look historically at how kimonos are exhibited in museums, including in the V&A, they are always displayed on a T-bar structure, as this allowed viewers to see the detail on the kimono's surface – the patterning, the colour, the design. But the danger of displaying the kimono in this way means you only see it as a work of art rather than as a piece of clothing.' 'Unlike what we have in the west, there isn't a divide in Japan between fine art and decorative art. They painted on a kimono and designed on a kimono – it was like a canvas that one could wear.' 'Kimono: Kyoto to Catwalk' is on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, from 29th February to 21st June 2020.
On 11 March, French auction house Aguttes is going to present a meticulously curated sale Paintings of Asia, Major Works, featuring works by some of the most sought-after artists. Top lots of the sale are Sanyu’s Potted Peonies in a Blue and White Jardiniere (1950s) and Lin Fengmian’s Femme au miroir.
Potted Peonies in a Blue and White Jardiniere (Fleurs en pot dans une jardinière bleue et blanche sur une table bleue)is a masterpiece created by Sanyu(ChangYu 1901-1966) in the 1950s. Flowers is one of the artist’s signature motifs throughout the course of his career. The work was acquired directly from the artist by Comtesse Matilde Locatelli and thus by descent. It was then acquired by a Spanish private collector and remained in the collection since then for about 70 years.
Sanyu (1901-1966). Potted Peonies in a Blue and White Jardiniere Oil on hardboard, signed lower right Lot no.: 1 Created in: 1950 Size: 109.8 x 79.8 cm Provenance:
Estimate: €2,500,000 - 3,500,000
Sanyu, born in a province of Sichuan, was one of the first Chinese artists to visit Europe in the early 1920s. When he moved to Paris, he was captivated by the incandescent art scene. He attended classes at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, and became a regular visitor to the cafés of Montparnasse. A brilliant artist with an inquisitive mind, he formed connections with numerous artists and figures of his time. The patron and collector Henri-Pierre Roché supported him for a while, introducing him to Picasso, Matisse, Foujita and Man Ray. Within the environment of the Paris School, he learned to combine aspects of his traditional Chinese education with the foundations of Western modernism. The distinctive feature of the style he developed was this union of two cultures, its essence lying between Eastern serenity and Western aesthetics.
Although his work was misunderstood and known to very few during his lifetime, the intercultural dynamics he explored and this form of hybridisation, which was totally new at the time, undoubtedly made him a pivotal artist with a key role in the history of Chinese art.His work was gradually rediscovered in the late twentieth century, and a number of international retrospectives were dedicated to him. Today, Sanyu’s work has finally been acclaimed by the art world.
Also on auction is Woman with a Mirror by Chinese painter Ling Fengmian (1900-1991). It reflects the Western qualities that imbued his work, particularly in the shape of the face, where the influence of Modigliani’s portraits is discernible.
This type of woman’s portrait, characteristic of Ling Fengmian's style in the 1950s and early 1960s, invariably featured a flower in a vase or a ceramic bowl. The diaphanous feel of the petals and the transparency of the white garment are achieved through the light, skilful application of the paint. Black and blue tones highlighted with white in the background of the work, where a few hazy red lines suggest architecture, set the figure of this young woman in an indeterminate space that immerses the viewer in a sense of reverie and contemplation. Lin Fengmian (1900-1991). Woman with a Mirror Ink and color on silk, signed and stamped by the artist lower left Lot no.: 2 Size: 67.5 x 65.5cm Provenance:
Estimate: €250,000 - 350,000
Born in 1900 in Guangdong province in China, Ling Fengmian wanted to become a painter from an early age. In 1918, he entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Dijon, then the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris the following year. On his return to China in 1926, he became president of the Beijing National Academy of Arts. In 1928, he founded the Hangzhou Academy of Arts with Cai Yuanpei. He was considered the father of Chinese modernity, with students who included Chu Teh-Chun and Zao Wou-Ki. He used Western techniques like watercolours and oils to achieve effects of transparency, and used square formats, very different from the traditional formats found in Chinese painting.
The auction detail:
Aguttes |11 March 2020, Paintings of Asia, Major Works
Previews 24 February 2020 (Monday) to 3 March 2020 (Thursday) |10am - 1pm,2pm - 6pm (except Fri afternoon and weekends) Official exhibition dates & address Date: 9-10 March 2020|11am - 6pm 11 March 2020|11am - 12pm Address: Paris, Drouot salle 2 : 9, rue Drouot Auction: 11 March 2020 (Wednesday)|2:30pm (local time) Address: Drouot salle, Drouot-Richelieu, 9, rue Drouot 75009 Paris
Aguttes is the fourth largest French auction house and the first one to be independent, with no outside shareholders. Founded in 1974 by Claude Aguttes and now run with two of his daughters—Philippine Dupré la Tour and Charlotte Reynier-Aguttes—the auction house has a team of 60 people. In 2018 the company passed the symbolic €50-million auction milestone, a result never before achieved by an independent auction house in France. In 2019, Aguttes totalled €66 million.
With an international saleroom located in western Paris and representative offices in Brussels, Lyon and Aix-en-Provence, Aguttes stands out for its personalised service and responsiveness. The auction house is positioned on the valuation and auction of exceptional works and major French collections. In 2019, thanks to its international buyers (who amount to 70% of all buyers), it has held 76 auctions above €100,000, 4 sales of million-euro lots, and 15 world records. Aguttes is positioned as the alternative to art market leaders in its 15 specialised departments: Asian painters, Old Masters Paintings & Drawings, Asian art, Russian Art, Classic Cars, Jewellery & Fine Pearls, Collector Watches, Rare Books & Manuscripts, Contemporary, Modern & Impressionist Art, Design, Furniture & Decorative Art, Wine & Spirits.
Bernard Arnault was born Bernard Jean Étienne Arnault on 5 March, 1949 in the French city of Roubaix, near the Belgian border.
His father was an entrepreneur owning the civil engineering company, Ferret-Savinel, founded by Bernard Arnault's grand father. Arnault joined his father's company after graduating in 1971 from the École Polytechnique, France’s most prestigious engineering school whose alumni include three Nobel laureates and former French president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. Three years later, his father made him manager of the company, when was only 25. In 1976 Arnault persuaded his father to sell off the construction side of the business and focus instead on real estate, he later changed the company's name to Ferinel and became president of the company, specialising in holiday accommodation. In 1981, Arnault moved to USA with his wife and two children in opposition to the newly elected Socialist's policy of taxing the rich. Three years later, Arnault returned to France while an unique and risky opportunity was waiting for him. Boussac, a business empire with holding interests in textile companies as well as news paper went bankrupt. But it owns something else. Christian Dior, the French Couturier's career was entirely backed up by Marcel Boussac, the owner of Boussac which used to be the biggest cotton manufacturer in France, and thus Boussac owns the brand created by the designer who died abruptly in Italy in 1957. And Bernard Arnault wanted to buy Christian Dior Couture. On his first trip to the United States, Bernard Arnault went to New York, he took a taxi at the Kennedy Airport, and he talked to the taxi driver who had no idea a casual comment with this French business man would plant the seed of the biggest luxury goods group we are seeint today. When the taxi driver told Arnault he loved France, Arnault asked him what he knew about France, and if he knew who was the French president at that time. The taxi driver's reply: I do not know who the French president is, but I know Christian Dior. Bernard Arnault bought Christian Dior couture, and thus began his fierce and sometimes ruthless shopping spree of luxury goods companies, from couture to champagne to cosmetics to Carrefour. As of today, the LVMH owned by Bernard Arnault, who just turned 71, has 75 brands under its name, making it the largest luxury goods group in the world, and making Bernard Arnault the second (for a while the) richest man in the world.
On 28 February 2020, Diane Von Fürstenberg, fashion designer and creator of "the wrap dress" was knighted Chevalier de la Legion D’Honneur in Paris in the grand Napoleon III rooms of Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, in a mid-19th century building located on the quai d’Orsay.
“It’s being given to me for my work and commitment to women as well as my work for the Statue of Liberty, who is a symbol of freedom and friendship between France and America. I am extremely honored for this important recognition ...”Said Diane Von Fürstenberg, upon receiving news of her knighthood from French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As a fashion designer, Diane von Furstenberg has sold 15 million wrap dresses; As a philanthropist, she has raised $100 million for the Statue of Liberty Museum. Christine Lagarde, the President of the European Central Bank, and the former President of the International Monetary Fund, presented Von Fürstenberg with the prestigious honour. Lagarde compared her to other legendary female designers like Coco Chanel, Madeleine Vionnet, and Sonia Rykiel, who have mastered the art of designing for their times. “Your wrap dress beautifies women’s bodies without either restricting them or burdening them with too much sophistication,” Lagarde said. “The woman clothed by Diane Von Fürstenberg is free in her movement and free to take life in her own hands......A dress can only be truly beautiful if it’s worn with dignity and with elegance, and your support of women’s struggles for independence reflects a generosity that infuses the most perfect and subtle elegance: the elegance of the heart.”
After Christine Lagarde pinned the Legion’s five-point cross and red ribbon to Diane Von Fürstenberg’s sparkling velvet dress, she delivered a moving speech. “I want to salute what the Statue of Liberty represents: freedom and hope. We need to remember it was originally named Liberty Enlightening the World, and god knows we need it......I am accepting this Legion D’Honneur with pride and humility, knowing that recognition and honour give us a voice. And when we have a voice it is our duty and privilege to use that voice for those who have no voice. My heart is filled with gratitude. Merci and vive Paris!”
Francais: Diane von Fürstenberg reçoit la Légion d’Honneur
Diane von Fürstenberg recevait la Légion d’Honneur des mains de la Présidente de la Banque Centrale européenne, Christine Lagarde, à l’occasion d’une cérémonie touchante et tumultueuse au Quai d’Orsay.
Jeff Bezos, Anna Wintour, Christian Louboutin, John Elkann, Lapo Elkann, Delphine Arnault et Antoine Arnault étaient présents. Dans son discours, Christine Lagarde a loué la carrière unique de DVF : la création de la robe portefeuille, son rôle comme Présidente du CFDA et celui qu’elle joua dans la rénovation de la Statue de la Liberté, à l’origine un cadeau du peuple français aux États-Unis : « Vous avez aussi connu en chemin des moments difficiles, comme il en arrive aux femmes qui ont des responsabilités, mais vous y avez puisé la force de recommencer […] dans un parcours de vie caractérisé par la détermination à continuer, et à maintenir le cap dans les périodes difficiles », a déclaré Christine Lagarde. « Vous êtes l’une des personnes les plus généreuses de ce drôle de monde de la mode, auquel je ne connais pas grand-chose. Mais, pour soutenir les combats des femmes, l’élégance qui compte le plus, c’est celle du cœur », a-t-elle ajouté. En réponse, DVF a rappelé à tous pourquoi elle est si célèbre pour sa classe, dès les premiers mots. « L’honneur de recevoir [cette distinction] de [votre] part est aussi grand que l’honneur lui-même », a-t-elle dit, sous les applaudissements. Passant à un éloge de Paris, en faisant signe vers la fenêtre qui donnait sur la Seine, elle a poursuivi : « Paris est une ville de femmes, une ville d’élégance, une ville où on a envie d’aller au café et dans les librairies, pour y avoir… des aventures secrètes », a-t-elle ajouté sous un tonnerre d’applaudissements. Further reading
Tao Porchon-Lynch, who was recognized by Guinness World Records as the “World’s Oldest Yoga Teacher” in 2012, died on 21 Febrary in White Plains, New York, at 101.
"Our beloved TAO passed away this morning, peacefully and without pain. As she would say, she is now dancing her way to the next planet," wrote Joyce Pine, a close friend and student of Porchon-Lynch. This remarkable woman always liked to say: “There’s nothing that you cannot do.” and she is a living proof of this mantra. In her early day, she has been model, cabaret performer and Hollywood actress. When she was almost 50 year old, she gave up acting and became yoga teacher; At age 87 she took up ballroom dancing and won more than 750 first-place awards as a competitive dancer; At age 96, she appeared on NBC's “America’s Got Talent,” receiving a standing ovation from the show's judges; At age 100, she was a brand ambassador for Athleta, the line of women's fitness clothes, and once graced the cover of its catalog; At age 101, Tao was still teaching yoga class, and she taught her last class on 16 Febrary 2020. "Wake up each day thinking it's going to be a great day, and it will be." thus said Tao, and now, she would wake up thinking it's going to be a great day in the new planet she has just danced toward to. An extraordinary woman, an undying soul. Further reading
Audrey Hepburn(4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was born in Belgium, grew up in Netherlands and England, her first husband was American with some Spanish heritage, her second husband was Italian, she settled in Switzerland and her last companion was Dutch, but she has a very special connection with France, in particular, Paris. In 1944, the French novelist Colette wroter Gigi, which became very successful and was adapted into a film in France in 1949, and Anita Loos wanted to make it into a Broadway play. When the wheelchair-bound Colette was being pushed along the Monaco seafront, she spotted a young girl wearing a one-piece black swimsuit outside Hotel de Paris. “Voilà ma Gigi!” That young girl was Audrey Hepburn, who was making the film Monte Carlo Baby in Monaco. She became Colette's Gigi, thus her first conection with France, with Paris. Then Sabrina, a film in which Audrey Hepburn played the daughter of a chauffeur who worked for a rich Larrabee family in Long Island, and she was hopelessly in love with the second Larrabe son David. Her father decided to send Sabrina to Paris to save her. Sabrina did not go to Paris in the film, and she made her soufflé in Paramount Pictures studio. But Audrey Hepburn did, and she met Hubert de Givenchy, in Paris, who made all of Sabrina's post-Paris wadrobe. Three years later in Funny Face, when Audrey played Jo, a passionate intectual working in a bookstore in Paris, it was Givenchy again who designed her Parisian outfits after her extraordinary transformation to a breathtakingly beautiful mode making fashion shoot with Fred Astaire in front of Arc de Triomph and inside the Louvre. Audrey Hepburn went back to Paris in 1963 with Cary Grant in Charade, a comic thriller, where she followed Cary Grant on Rue Monge and Rue Censier, dropped vanilla chocolate ice cream on his navy blue suit near the pont de l’Archevêché and kissed him on a riverboat on the Seine, and finally accepted his marriage proposal at Palais Royal. A year later, Audrey Hepburn was in Paris again carrying another new Gienchy wardrobe and a bird cage to try to make it sizzle with William Holden. But it seems William Holden's problem on screen - a Hollywood writer's block was just a mirror of his problems off screen - his alcholism which affected the production so much that the movie title may as well be named Paris when will it sizzle instead of its original title: Paris when it sizzles. Fortunately, the legendary director William Wyler decided to invite Audrey Hepburn to Paris again in 1963, making her the daughter of an art collector and forger so Peter O'toole can investigate her father and fall in love with her in How to steal a Million. In this film, Audrey Hepburn incarnated a picturesque Parisian girl living la vie en rose wearing Givenchy dresses and coats, driving red Eden Roc, living in a big house in Neuilly-sur-Seine with her father, and rendezvousing in Ritz hotel... It could be said that How to steal a Million is a film showcasing Audrey's love affair with Paris, and it would be her last film made in and about Paris.
Bernard Arnault, the French man who owns LVMH, the largest luxury group in the world, has once again left Jeff Bezos, the American man who owns Amazon, the largest online store in the world, becomes the richest man in the world.
According to Forbes latest report on 17 January 2020, Jeff Bezos’s worth slid by $760 million to $115.6 billion as Amazon shares dipped 0.7%, while Bernard Arnault gained $1.9 billion in net worth as LVMH stock edged up by 0.7% to make his net worth increasing to $117 billion, $15 billion more than his net worth at the time when he apparead on the cover of Forbes in October 2019.
It is not the first time LVMH triumphs over Amazon. In December 2019 for a short while Bernard Arnault has replaced Jeff Bezos as the richest man on the planet.
Let’s hope that this time, the French man of elegance who collects art, plays tennis and piano will triumph over the American man who has made his online store a largest juggle in the world flooded with cheaply and badly made stuff that are disgusting to look at and terrible to use.
The triumph of Bernard Arnault, will hopefully awaken more people’s appreciation of objects of beauty, quality and elegance in As Bernard Arnault he himself has said to Forbes, “It’s just the beginning.”
Johanna Quaas (née Geißler; born November 20, 1925 in Hohenmölsen)is a German gymnast. As of now she is the oldest gymnast in the world. Quaas is a regular competitor in the amateur competition Landes-Seniorenspiele, staged in Saxony, Germany.
She started gymnastics at an early age and appeared in her first competition in 1934. As she said herself, her dream was to compete in Olympics. But the breakout of World War II changed her fate. In 1945, Johanna Quaas finished her job training as gymnastics coach in Stuttgart. Afterwards, she moved to Weißenfels, where she started to train handball as gymnastics was banned by the Allied Control Council. In 1947, this ban was removed and she started again with gymnastics. In 1950, she started to study at University of Halle-Wittenberg. Afterwards, she trained coaches at the Institut für Körpererziehung. She co-authored the gymnastics text book "Gerätturnen". During this time, she trained at the HSG Wissenschaft Halle. In 1961, she also coached gymnasts at SC Chemie Halle, including Barbara Dix-Stolz and Christel Felgner-Wunder, who were later nominated to start at the 1964 Summer Olympics. At age 57, Quaas again started with training in 1982 with two friends who have since passed away. After the German reunification, she also started at all Deutsche Turnfeste since 1990.
On September 13, 2012 it was announced that Quaas would receive an entry in The Guinness Book of Records as oldest gymnast in the world, which she has kept ever since.
‘I do gymnastics to avoid being susceptible to falls and that is a good preventive tool,’ she said in an interview with The Straits Times.
‘I do gymnastics to avoid being susceptible to falls and that is a good preventive tool,’ she said in an interview with The Straits Times.
‘My proudest moment so far was when I was 84 years old and there was no one in my age group competing in the championships,’ she said. ‘So they put me with the others in the 70-75 age group and I still won by one point.
Johanna Quaas keeps doing exercise almost everyday, including swimming, gymnastics, walking, and she enjoys sauna at least once a week. She likes to eat vegetables, fruits as well as the German meat. Quaas is a regular competitor in the amateur competition Landes-Seniorenspiele, staged in Saxony, Germany.
According to Numbeo, the most expensive city in the world in 2020 is Zurich, Switzerland, and the top 5 expensive cities are all in Switzerland.
Interestingly, the European fashion capitals including Paris, London and Milan are none of them on the list of 20 most expensive cities.
In North America, the most expensive city is unsurprisingly New York, and among the most expensive 30 cities, there are 10 cities from USA including San Francisco, Boston and Seattle.
The most expensive city to live in Canada is Toronto, but it ranks at only No. 42, cheaper than 15 cities of its neighbour the United States.
In Asia, the top three expensive cities are Tokyo, Seoul and Singapore, with Tokyo more expensive than Copenhagen.
For full cost of living index, visit Numbeo
In early November 1985, Princess Diana visited the United States with her husband Prince Charles. They stayed at the White House, where they attended a gala dinner on 11 November.
On that occasion, the Princess of Wales wore a midnight blue silk velvet gown designed by British designer Victor Edelstein who had also designed her wedding gown in 1981. After the dinner, Princess Diana danced with the American actor John Travolta to the music of his 1977 film Saturday Night Fever in the Entrance Hall. The photographs and TV footage of them "gliding around the room" were widely circulated around the world, and the gown came to be known as the "Travolta dress". The Princess of Wales wore the silk velvet gown again in Germany in December 1987 and at the premiere of the film Wall Street in April 1988 and she wore it for her last official portrait photograph, taken by Prince Charles's uncle, Princess Magritte’s husband the Earl of Snowdon, in 1997.
The iconic velvet gown has been auctions several times.
In June 1997 ( just two months before her death) Princess Diana auctioned off the gown for £100,000 to raise funds for Aids charities. It was bought by Florida-based businesswoman Maureen Dunkel who kept it until she went bankrupt in 2011 and was forced to put it up for auction but did not succeed. In March 2013, the gown was sold for £240,000 by London Auction House Kerry Taylor to a British man, who reportedly bought it as a gift to cheer up his wife. And now, 34 years after Princess Diana first wore it, Kerry Taylor included it in its auction catalogue again, with pre-sale estimate of £350,000. According to Victor Edelstein who had designed for Princess Diana for 11 years before her untimely death in 1997 the princess of Wales often visited his studio and saw this off-the-shoulder gown in burgundy, and wanted to have it made in midnight blue. The fittings were done in the Princess’s private apartment in Kensington Palace. During the last fitting, Princess as so happy with the final result she decided to show it to Prince Charles who told her she looked wonderful and it would be perfect with jewellery.
The gown has off the shoulder straps, while a diagonally swathed velvet skirt hugs the figure tightly to the knee with a bow to one side, then flares out into a broad flounce above layered tulle petticoats.
The auction was held on 9 December 2019, titled “Passion for Fashion” by the auction house, but this blue velvet gown failed to reach its reserve price of £200,000, provoking the media’s assumption that the fashion of Princess Diana is perhaps not relevant anymore.
One day later, however, Historic Royal Palaces (HRP), an independent charity that looks after palaces in the UK bought the gown out of auction at £264,000 ($347,000). According to Eleri Lynn, curator at HRP: “We're delighted to have acquired this iconic evening gown for the Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection -- a designated collection of national and international importance -- over twenty years since it first left Kensington Palace. Not only is the 'Travolta' dress a fantastic example of couture tailoring designed to dazzle on a state occasion, it represents a key moment in the story of twentieth century royal fashion." And it will also means that the Travolta dress will stay in Britain.
A few days ago, the Canadian actor and movie star Keanu Reeves became the focus of media again, not because of his new movie or his mysterious quality of being permanently young, but because of his new girl friend in decades (According to The Daily Mail), a Los Angeles-based artist Alexandra Grant, who looks like Helen Mirren, does not look glamours, and carries a daring shade of grey hair on her head.
The image of this worldly famous and widely loved Hollywood star being with a woman close to his age bracket has caused quite a social media storm. The haters think Keanu is dating a grandmother, and supporters applauded either Alexandra's courage of leaving her hair grey, or Keanu's gut of not going out with a younger, more beautiful and more glamorous girl. But really the applause should go to both of them, for living the way they want, and not caring about what other people expect or think or say.
From the public photos, Alexandra Grant looks like one of those earthily women who might love to do yoga and meditation or cook or burn essences and have a big heart, and the couple look happy, relaxed and loving together.
It's said Keanu and Alexandra had known each other for years before they became a couple earlier this year. Over the years, they have worked together on several projects, including writing two books: Ode to Happiness in 2011 and then Shadows in 2016, they then established a publishing house together in 2017. So it seems the two had shared a long and fruitful friendship before they locked their hands and hearts together.
Ode to Happiness is a grown-up's picture book, a charming reminder not to take oneself too seriously. With drawings by painter Alexandra Grant, text by actor Keanu Reeves, and in collaboration with mutual friend Janey Bergam, this facsimile artists' book is about making the best of a bad situation. In the tradition of a classic "hurtin' song", Reeves' text externalizes a melancholy internal monologue and subtly pokes fun at it. Grant's images, delicately realised in sombre inky washes, reflect the dark and light, the pathos and humour of the text. Neither entirely earnest nor wholly ironic, Ode to Happiness is both a meditation and a gentle tease about how we cope with life's sorrows.
So Odd to Happiness for Keanu Reeves and his new love!
Title: In pursuit of Fashion: The Sandy Schreier Collection
Time: 27 November 2019–MAY 17, 2020 Place: The Met Fifth Avenue
The Costume Institute's fall exhibition features promised gifts from Sandy Schreier, a pioneering collector, who over the course of more than half a century assembled one of the finest private fashion collections in the United States. The show will explore how Schreier amassed a trove of twentieth-century French and American couture and ready-to-wear, not as a wardrobe, but in appreciation of this form of creative expression.
The gift is part of The Met's 2020 Collections Initiative celebrating the Museum's 150th anniversary. In Pursuit of Fashion will feature approximately 80 of the 165 promised gifts, including womenswear, accessories, and fashion illustrations dating from a 1908 pochoir album, Les Robes de Paul Poiret, developed in collaboration with Paul Iribe to a 2004 Phillip Treacy butterfly hat.
Schreier was introduced to fashion through her father Edward Miller, a furrier at the Detroit outpost of Russeks Department Store, owned by the parents of the photographer Diane Arbus. She admired the clothes of the well-heeled clients so much that they would eventually bring in their cast-offs for her to play with.
Mesmerised by the golden age Hollywood films and the beauty of the film costumes, Schreier slowly started collecting them, and as she herself put it: “my main criterion is whether the piece meets the standard of fashion as art.” Further reading:
Compared with other Grand Slam tournaments like Australian Open, French Open and US Open, Wimbledon has something special about it, it is the oldest, it is of green grass, and as the Swiss tennis player Roger Federer said: the tradition.
Since he first played in Wimbledon in 1998 as a junior tennis player, it has been more than 20 years, during which Roger Federer grew into major and mature player, became world No.1.
But Wimbledon is special for the Swiss player, it witnessed his most Glorious victories: It was here, the young Roger Federer defeated the then World No.1 Peter Sampras in 2001, then became champion himself in 2003, then 2004, then again and again, until he made history by being the first ever to win 8 Wimbledon championship.
Now it is 2019, and Roger Federer has left the quarter-final behind him. Will he make the final, and who will he encounter: his old opponent the Spaniard Rafael Nadal, or the now World No.1 tennis player Novak Djokovic? or someone unexpected?
Will he create history again, on this grass court which has been very kind to him? We wish him the best luck! Downton Abbey is moving to big screen
After almost 4 years, The gate of Downton Abbey is finally opening again, for His Majesty King George V and Queen Mary, as well as for us! The year will be 1927, and Carson the Butler will have to come out of his retirement to help Mary prepare for the royal visit......
A brief refreshment on how the characters in Downton Abbey the TV series left us:Robert and Cora: After serious sickness, Robert took a step back from running Downton Abbey and the estate. His wife Cora became hospital president.
The Dowager Countess: Violet (played by Maggie Smith) reluctantly gave up her position of hospital president. Lady Mary: Lady Mary re-married after falling for dashing racing driver Henry Talbot (played by Matthew Goode) and was running Downton herself. Lady Edith: married Bertie Pelham, forming a family of three with her illegitimate daughter Marigold, meanwhile starting a career in magazine publishing. Anna and Bates: they had a baby Tom Branson and Sybbie: Tom and his daughter returned from America to make Downton their home. He and Mary’s husband Henry set up an automobile shop in York – named Talbot and Branson Motors. Isobel Crawley: Matthew Crawley’s mother, now called Isobel Grey decided to marry Lord Merton against the wishes of his daughter-in-law Amelia. Carson and Mrs Hughes: The two of them tied the knot, but Mr Carson developed palsy and had to retire. Thomas Barrow: Survived his suicide attempt, returned to Downton Abbey and stepped into Carson’s shoes as butler.
And the good news is, all of the main characters will be coming back, and played by the same actors, what a joy!
-Hugh Bonneville as the Earl of Downton -Elizabeth McGovern as Lady Cora -Dame Maggie Smith as the Dowager Countess -Michelle Dockery as Lady Mary -Jim Carter as Carson the butler - Joanne Froggatt as Anna Bates. -Laura Carmichael as Lady Edith -Lesley Nicol as Mrs Patmore -Allen Leech as Tom Branson
In Downton Abbey the TV Series, the Dowager Countess, Violet said: "I hate Greek drama, where everything happens off-stage." And now perhaps she will be more satisfied, because Downton Abbey will be on stage again, with her, of course.
The film is scheduled to open in theatres on 13 September 2019 in the UK and on 20 September 2019 in North America. The film trailer
Gloria Vanderbilt, the American heiress, socialite, artist, author, actress, fashion designer, died on June, 2019, at her own home in New York, at the age of 95.
Born on 20 February, 1924 in New York, into the wealthy Vanderbilt family, Gloria lost her father, the railroad heir Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt (1880–1925) at age of two, and she lived with her mother Gloria Mogan((1904–1965), mostly in France, until her paternal aunt, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875-1942) thought little Gloria's mother was unfit as custodian of her niece, thus a very publicized and scandalous custodian trial began, resulting in Gertrude winning the custody of Gloria Vanderbilt.
Although affected by this trial of century, Gloria Vanderbilt grew up to be a heathy woman of intelligence and talent. She started to model at age of 15, and in her early 20s, she started acting both on stage and in TV. She also painted and designed textile as well as glassware.
But it was fashion design that gained her international acclaim and commercial success. She first launched jeans bearing her name with her business partner, then launched dresses, blouses, sheets, shoes, leather goods, liqueurs, and accessories, all on her own, and sold all of them later for huge profit. Then she wrote.
With a life fully lived -- a priviledged birth, traumatic childhood, a variety of career, four husbands all related to world of art and drama(a Hollywood talent agent, a conductor, a director and a writer), numerous lovers from Howard Hughes to Frank Sinatra, together with challenging and tragic experiences as a mother: one of her sons Anderson Cooper, the prominent CNN tv anchor had decided as a teenager to embrace his different sexuality when being gay was not widely accepted as it is today, another son Carter Cooper killed himself in front of her -- Gloria Vanderbilt seemed having a lot to tell, and she did, in five volumes of memoirs and three novels.
It seemed she has told everything she could about her life, her love, her romances and her son's tragic suicide, until a few years ago, in 2016, her son Anderson Cooper started to talk to her, in a different way, more daring and intimate, like he had never done before. Their conversation grew into a new book by mother and son.
Indeed.
Behind the veil of those lucky private privileges and the distorted public childhood, was an extraordinary woman, who had been searching for love and beauty, who was passionate about growing and creating, and who had finally acquired wisdom about love, joy, loss, death, and about life and living, about what we leave behind when we leave.
Title: Goethe, transformation of the world Time: 17 May - 15 September 2019 Place: Museumsmeile Bonn Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 4 53113 Bonn Patron: Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier Art is a mediator of the unspeakable. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) is Gerrmany's most famous poet and writer whose works have been translated into every major languages, and characters like Faust and Werther as references can been seen in every genre of art. In his long and pro folic life, he had also been playwright, botanist, geologist, optical scientist, politician, philosopher, literary historian, art critic, theorist and collector...During and after his life, he had also served as inspiration for other writers and artists like painters, sculptors as well as composers, photographers and even film directors. The exhibition: Gothe, transformation of the World is the first major Goethe exhibition in 25 years held at Bonn's Bundeskunsthalle (the last major show of Gothe was held at Schirn Kunsthalle in 1984), featuring more than 300 works—including paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, memorabilia, film and music—will present a synthetic account of Goethe’s life and work in nine thematic sections, mostly with historical examples. Among these are portraits of Goethe by Angelika Kauffmann and Heinrich Christoph Kolbe, Goethe’s notes for Werther, his annotated German translation of the Koran, Goethe’s own drawing of the appearance of the Earth Spirit from Faust, plus selections from his collections of minerals, maiolica and seals. These works will shed light on Gothe's life, the dawn of our modern world and on the history of the reception of his singular work. The modern and contemporary works in the exhibition will help demonstrate how Goethe is “relevant”, both directly or indirectly. The exhibition has been organised by Johanna Adam, a curator at the Bundeskunsthalle, and Thorsten Valk, a curator at the Klassik Stiftung Weimar, and is a collaboration between the two institutions. Exhibition extended - Christion Dior: designer of dreams in V&A museums until 1 September 20198/6/2019
The exhibition Christian Dior: designer of dreams has been extendeed until 1 September, 2019 in The Sainsbury Gallery, V&A museum, London, covering from 1947 when Christina Dior designed his first "New Look" bar suit, to the present day while the brand's latest creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri is trying to interpret Christian Dior's vision of elegance.
to the present day while the brand's latest creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri is trying to interpret Christian Dior's vision of elegance.
This exhibition traces the history and impact of one of the 20th century's most influential couturiers, exploring the enduring influence of the fashion house, and Dior's relationship with Britain.
Some highlights of the exhibition:
Book on Christian Dior
Christian Dior's career, a veritable fairy tale, is set in a rich tapestry of Paris cultural life before, during, and after the war. Much of Dior's daily inspiration emanated from the world of the intellectual and artistic elite, in which he moved with such people as Erik Satie, Francis Poulenc, Henry Sauguet, Jean Cocteau, and Raoul Dufy.
Born at the end of an era in which luxury seemed reserved only for the happy few, Dior again revolutionized the world of fashion by introducing, in the early 1950s, "ready-to-wear" in his Dior Boutique. Until then, couturiers had worked essentially if not exclusively for the very rich and famous. With his boutique, Dior brought high fashion to the world at large. In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the "New Look", New York's Metropolitan Museum mounted a major Dior retrospective in the winter of 1996-97. Translated from the French by Joanna Savill.
Title:
Grace of Monaco, Princess in Dior Time : April 27 to November 17 2019 Place: Christian Dior Museum, 1 Rue d’Estouteville, Villa Les Rhumbs, 50400 Granville Opening hours: 27 April to 30 September: 10h-18h30 1 October to 17 November: Theusday to Sunday (except holidays): 10h-12h30 and 14h-18h Admission fee: 9 € Adult fee, 5 € reduced and group fee.
TheChristian Dior museum in Granville, France, the city where the designer was born, will present the exhibition "Grace of Monaco: Princess in Dior" to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the birth of Grace Kelly.
Grace Kelly, one of the most elegant women in fashion and movie history, the only actress who became a real princess after playing one on screen, remains one of the most iconic figure almost 40 years after her tragic death in Monaco in 1982.
The Monaco palace has carefully preserved her personal things including her outfits, accessories, letters and archival film footage. Fashion historian Florence Müller and curator of the exhibition found that one third of her total wardrobe were from Dior, which not only shows prominence of the brand at the time, but also Grace Kelly’s relationship with Marc Bohan, the house’s third creative director, both professionally and personally. As Bohan had been more than a designer to Kelly, he was also her confidante, and played the role of uncle to Kelly’s two daughters, Stephanie and Caroline.
Grace of Monaco: Princess in Dior will showcase 85 beautifully crafted dresses belonging to Grace Kelly´s own collection, including the gown she wore to her engagement ball held in New York’s Waldorf Astoria in 1956 and the couture autumn/winter 1968 look she chose for her first official portrait as Princess Grace of Monaco. The dresses will show Grace Kelly the princess and Grace Kelly the wife, mother, and a modern woman.
Further reading
A 67-acre 14-century estate outside Barcelona, Spain, is headed to the auction block in July.
The fully restored Villa Argentona will be sold in an online auction by Concierge Auctions without a reserve price on July 18, with bidding set to open at 10 a.m. on July 16.
The main features of the villa are:
All collection of art and sculptures will be included in the sale, with them valued separately at 1 million euros. The sculptures are by 19th-century artist Louis Thivin.
Location: Argentona ,Barcelona, Spain
This 14 century Estate in perfect condition is located in Argentona, a quaint tourist town just 30 minutes away from Barcelona, known for its horticulture and architectural variety. The Argentona Water Jug Museum in the town houses the ceramic works of Pablo Picassohimself.
The villa, in the Catalonian town of Argentona, is currently listed for sale for €12.5 million (US$14 million) with Ronei Kolesny of Barleigh Ellis in Barcelona.
But the owners are turning to Concierge Auction for an online auction, according to Caitlin Keys, managing director for Europe, Middle East and Asia for Concierge Auctions. The villa is open for viewing daily from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. or by appointment. On June 26, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., Concierge Auction will host a preview event at the villa.
2019 marks the 90th anniversary of Audrey Hepburn’s birth ((1929-1993) and the 10th anniversary of the passing of renowned photographer Bob Willoughby(1927-2009).
This is the first time such a comprehensive collection of Bob’s most memorable photos of Audrey is shown in Hong Kong. The 90 intimate and candid photographs – one for each year since Audrey’s birth – have been carefully curated by Douglas So, Founder and Director of F11 Foto Museum, with the help of Bob’s son, Christopher. They cover the 1950s and ’60s period when she was at the peak of her fame. The photographs include stills from Audrey’s best-known movies, among them rare candid shots captured behind the screen. Audrey Hepburn as a style icon, an Oscar and Emmy winning actress or an ambassador for UNICEF still remains one of the greatest inspiration for us today. Bill Willoughby first met Audrey Hepburn in 1953, when he was called in to shoot the new starlet one morning shortly after she arrived in Hollywood in 1953 and he was enraptured. "She took my hand like... well a princess, and dazzled me with that smile that God designed to melt mortal men's hearts," as the photographer recalled. And thus born a friendship which remained decades, allowing him to take behind-the-scene pictures of Audrey, especially during her filming of ‘My Fair Lady,’ ‘Green Mansions,’ ‘Paris When it Sizzles,’ ‘The Children’s Hour,’ and ‘Two for the Road.’. Also the photos of Audrey at home, as wife and mother.
Bob Willoughby’s son, Christopher Willoughby worked closely with the founder of F11 Foto Museum, Douglas So, to select the images. Douglas So has always been a huge fan of Audrey and all his visitors have always asked when he will have an exhibition of Audrey. The exhibition brings great joy to Christopher, and he is grateful that it is in his father’s vision.
The exhibition is open for public viewing from 2pm to 7pm, Tuesdays to Saturdays (closed on Sundays, Mondays and public holidays). Please email to info@f11.com, or call 6516 1122 for group visit appointment.
Admission Fee: HKD100 for adults. HKD50 for students and seniors aged 65 or above. Free admission for the disabled and children aged 11 or below.
Or you can buy the book written by Bob Willoughby
Quoi(what) : Hammershøi, le maître de la peinture danoise
( Hammershøi, the master of Danish painting) Quand(when): Du 14 mars au 22 juillet 2019(14 March to 22 July 2019) Où (where): Musée Jacquemart-André, 158 boulevard Haussmann 75008 Paris
For the first time in more than 20 years, the artworks of Danish painter Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864-1916) returned to Paris, with more than 40 of his works on exhibition in Musée Jacquemart-André, after his two previous expositions in 1987(Petit Palais) and in 1997 (Musee Orsay).
The painter himself was in Paris between 1899 to 1900 to participate in Expositions universelles.
Vilhelm Hammershøi was born in 1864 in Copenhagen, Denmark in a well-to-do merchant family and studied drawing from the age of eight as well as painting before embarking on studies at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts.
In 1885, he participated in the Charlottenborg Spring Exhibition with Portrait of a Young Girl (of his sister, Anna), which was admired by Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
Hammershøi worked mainly in his native city, painting portraits, architecture, and interiors. He also journeyed to the surrounding countryside and locations beyond, where he painted rolling hills, stands of trees, farm houses, and other landscapes.
He is most celebrated for his interiors, many of which he painted in Copenhagen at Strandgade 30 (where he lived with his wife Ida from 1898 to 1909, and Strandgade 25 (where they lived from 1913 to 1916). He travelled widely in Europe, finding London especially atmospheric in providing locations for his highly understated work, suffused as it was at the time with a foggy, coal smoke polluted atmosphere. His work in consequence has been described as "Monet meets the Camden School".
Greatly Influenced by Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer(31 October 1632-15 December 1675), Vilhelm loved painting intimate and delicate domestic scenes with young woman doing their daily chores, but unlike Vermeer, Vilhelm's tones are much more restrictive, mostly in greys and beiges, which evokes sense of solitude, silence, loneliness and melancholy, quite like James Whistler (July 11, 1834 – July 17, 1903), the American artist whom Vilhelm also admired a lot.
And as a very shy and taciturn person, he only used his family members like his wife, his sister or very close friends as his models.
Videos
A quick look at the exposition
Or you can get a copy of the catalogue put together by the curator of the exposition Jean-Loup Champion an Pierre Curie.
HAMMERSHOI. LE MAÎTRE DE LA PEINTURE DANOISE
JEAN-LOUP CHAMPION ET PIERRE CURIE (DIR.) |
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