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Author / Louisa Mahoney

Rediscover the Fine Arts Retro Aesthetic of the Babysitters Club

Remember The Baby-Sitters Club? If you grew up in the nineties, had a perm or a crush on Jonathan Taylor Thomas, you definitely swapped copies with your friends. The series, which details the lives of a group of pre-teens living and babysitting in suburban Connecticut was created by Ann M. Martin, although the majority of…

Is Anyone Looking for the Lost Art of Britain’s Founding Pop Artist?

I say “Pop Art”, you say Andy Warhol … or maybe Roy Lichtenstein. Pop is often seen as a quintessentially mid-century American (and male) movement, a reaction to overconsumption and popular images encapsulated by Warhol’s soup cans. But Pop Art actually dates back to artists working in 1950s London, one of whom was the co-founder…
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The Paris Off-Beat Winter 2022 Guide

Despite inflation and skyrocketing energy prices, The City of Lights isn’t going dark during the holidays, but instead is relying on LED lights and shorter hours (ie turning off all of the lights before midnight) to maintain the usual festive mood throughout the city. Let’s start planning your winter in Paris… Eating & Drinking your…

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The Wonderful Watercolors of Georgia O’Keeffe

One of the twentieth century’s essential artists, Georgia O’Keeffe needs little introduction. Her name immediately evokes large oil paintings depicting flowers or desert landscapes. O’Keeffe is also known for her paintings of New York City skyscrapers, her marriage to the photographer and art dealer Alfred Stieglitz, and her love affair with the American west. But…

When They Say ‘Haussmann’s Paris’, What Do They Mean?

Walking through Paris, as a tourist or a local, it’s hard to miss the sense of harmony that the city exudes. The standardized buildings, the parks, the long angular streets that seem to always lead to a landmark. Everything feels intentional, organized, and connected. This isn’t by chance, this sensation is largely thanks to the…

America’s “Bohemian Queen”: A Sleeping Surrealist Goes to Auction

“I am a witch, oh that’s true”, confirmed Gertrude Abercrombie to a Chicago radio host in 1977, the year she died. In truth, the strangest thing about Gertrude Abercrombie is that she isn’t a household name among the Surrealist greats of the 20th century. Sure, she wore pointy hats, cast spells, lived in a spooky…

In 19th Century Paris, She Held a Permit to Wear Pants

A cigarette-smoking, pants-wearing, animal-dissecting painter, Rosa Bonheur spent her life doing exactly as she pleased. 2022 marks the bicentenary of the birth an artist who opened countless doors for female creatives, both in her home country of France and abroad. Born in 1822 in Bordeaux, Rosa Bonheur was the daughter of Sophie Marquis, a piano…

The Paris Rejects Club

Even some of the greatest names in art history- Paul Cézanne, Édouard Manet, Camille Pissarro and James Whistler- were once rejected by the art world. In 1863, the “Salon of Painting and Sculpture” had been going for almost two centuries. Held annually at the Louvre, the show presented the work of promising young graduates from…

Inside a Secret (but Shoppable) Antiques Museum on the Seine

If you thought the antiques business was on the decline, you only need to step inside the Galerie Kugel to realise you might have had it wrong. Familiar with Paris? You’ve likely ogled at this mansion on the banks of the Seine a dozen times before, and yet never dared to assume you could simply…

She’s the Overlooked Female Caravaggio

The story has everything a good drama needs: religion, sex, and murder. Judith was a beautiful young widow who saved Israel when the town of Bethulia was under siege by the Assyrian king Nebuchadnezzar. After a long prayer, she entered the Assyrian camp with her maid and gained the trust of the general Holofernes. She…
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