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Tag / Portrait

Centuries Ago, They were Facetuning, Filtering and Catfishing Too

In 1539, Anne of Cleves met her hot-tempered fiancé, King Henry VIII, for the very first time – and to say it was awkward might be one of the biggest understatements in courtship history. Of course the union was politically calculated, but a flustered Henry proceeded to tank the marriage after claiming she looked nothing like her…

Art History’s Hidden Sexual Innuendo: The Weasel

Elevated to divine status, unicorns, lions, eagles and the occasional white rabbit are the loved and familiar characters in our romantic bestiaries, but the little weasel has never managed to secure such a position. Always wild, always wayward, it was the ideal material for folklore and fable. Early Macedonian culture saw them as a good…

She Was Marie-Antoinette’s Favorite Painter

What if we told you that just about every painting you’ve seen of Marie-Antoinette was created by a woman? Overlooked for two hundred years, Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun was one of the most celebrated portraitists of the late 1700s. She painted all of the most glamorous women of the Versailles court and some of the most…
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The “Unknown” Photographer who Documented the Cool Kats of Mid-Century Mali

At a New York art exhibition in the early 90s, three black & white photographs hung on the white walls, credited to a photographer “Unknown“. The portraits of fashionably dressed people and families taken between 1940 and the early sixties were actually the work of a nationally renowned photographer in Mali. Outside of his country however, Seydou Keita…

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Faded Faces: The Recovered Archives of a Forgotten Photography Studio

The passing of time creeps up around her face like the long arm of a dark shadow trying to erase the memory of her existence. But her gaze remains fixed and strong, as if she refuses to be forgotten. For most of the faces in these photographs, time may soon be running out… We’re looking at the…

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