A Love Letter from Balzac to Countess Ewelina Hańska

My beloved angel,

"I am nearly mad about you, as much as one can be mad: I cannot bring together two ideas that you do not interpose yourself between them.

I can no longer think of nothing but you. In spite of myself, my imagination carries me to you. I grasp you, I kiss you, I caress you, a thousand of the most amorous caresses take possession of me. As for my heart, there you will always be - very much so. I have a delicious sense of you there.

But my God, what is to become of me, if you have deprived me of my reason?

This is a monomania which, this morning, terrifies me. I rise up every moment say to myself, ‘Come, I am going there!’ Then I sit down again, moved by the sense of my obligations.

Ferdinand Georg Waldmuller | Portrait of Madame Ewelina Hańska, 1835

Ellen Montalba | Dreams

Ellen Emeline Montalba (1842-1912) was a British artist. She was born in Bath, England, one of four daughters of the Swedish-born artist Anthony Rubens Montalba and Emeline.

She and her three sisters all attained high repute as artists.

The 1871 British census shows Anthony Montalba living at 19 Arundel Gardens, Notting Hill, in London, with four daughters, all artists.

The Montalba sisters were regular contributors to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition during the 1870s.

Wisława Szymborska | Domande poste a me stessa / The questions you ask yourself

Qual è il contenuto del sorriso

e d’una stretta di mano?

Nel dare il benvenuto

non sei mai lontana

come a volte è lontano

l’uomo dall’uomo

quando dà un giudizio ostile

a prima vista?

Wisława Szymborska (1923-2012)

Léo Caillard, the photographer who dresses classical statues

Leo Caillard is a contemporary artist internationally recognized for the quality of his marble sculptures as well as for his digital creations at the cutting edge of new technologies.

Leo Caillard opens a dialogue between eras through the use of these two mediums and the unique aesthetic of his art, mixing figures from ancient statuary and abstract digital forms.

Born in Paris in 1985, he graduated from the prestigious Goblins school in 2006 then from fine arts in 2008.

He then left for New York for 2 years, the opportunity there to meet the contemporary art scene and start these first digital creations.

Beryl Cook | Naïve painter

Beryl Cook, OBE (1926-2008) was a British artist best known for her original and instantly recognisable paintings.

Often comical, her works pictured people whom she encountered in everyday life, including people enjoying themselves in pubs, girls shopping or out on a hen night, drag queen shows or a family picnicking by the seaside or abroad.

Elenco degli Artisti Americani

L'arte Americana è l'arte visiva realizzata negli Stati Uniti o da artisti statunitensi.

Prima della colonizzazione, c'erano molte tradizioni fiorenti dell'arte dei nativi americani, e dove gli spagnoli colonizzarono l'architettura coloniale spagnola e gli stili di accompagnamento in altri media furono rapidamente messe in atto.

La prima arte coloniale sulla costa orientale si basava inizialmente su artisti europei, con John White (1540-1593) il primo esempio.

Tra la fine del XVIII e l'inizio del XIX secolo, gli artisti dipingevano principalmente ritratti e alcuni paesaggi in uno stile basato principalmente sulla pittura inglese.

William Merritt Chase (1849-1916)

Rembrandt's palette

Technical investigation of Rembrandt's (1606-1669) paintings in the possession of the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister and in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (Kassel) was conducted by Hermann Kühn in 1977.

The pigment analyses of some thirty paintings have shown that Rembrandt's palette consisted of the following pigments: lead white, various ochres, Vandyke brown, bone black, charcoal black, lamp black, vermilion, madder lake, azurite, ultramarine, yellow lake and lead-tin-yellow.

Synthetic orpiment was shown in the shadows of the sleeve of the jewish groom.