Olga Dugina, 1964 | 1001 Nights

Sheherazade, the king's beautiful wife, is due to be executed at dawn - unless she can convince the king to change his mind.

That night she tells him a wonderful story which, as dawn comes, she leaves unfinished.

"Will you let me live to finish the tale?" she asks.

"Of course", replies the king, "I must know what happens next".

Christmas with Jenny Nyström

Jenny Eugenia Nyström (1854-1946) was a painter and illustrator mainly known as the creator of the Swedish image of the jultomte on Christmas cards and magazine covers, thus linking the Swedish version of Santa Claus to the gnomes and tomtar of Scandinavian folklore.

Her father was a school teacher and piano teacher, and also the cantor of the Kalmar Castle Church.

When Jenny Nyström was eight years old, the family moved to Gothenburg, where her father had found a better paying teaching job.

Sarah Jarrett | Pop Surrealism painter

Sarah Jarrett is a collage artist and illustrator based in Norfolk, UK.

She is fascinated and inspired by the human relationship with nature and the natural world.

She loves plants, flowers, and color.

Jarrett's ladies are frequently surrounded by flowers, birds and branches, which gives them a lovely surrealistic impression.

Lisi Martin, 1944 | It's Christmas Time

Spanish illustrator Lisi Martin was born in Barcelona, Catalonia.

She is the younger of 2 children, having an older brother.

She was a quiet child and claims to have started drawing at the age of 4 as a way to express her imagination.

There was no realization in her early years that she had any specific or unusual talent, but she had a clear love for art and continued to pursue it throughout her childhood.

Zinaida Serebriakova's 140th Birthday

Russian-born French painter Zinaida Yevgenyevna Serebriakova / Зинаи́да Евге́ньевна Серебряко́ва (1884-1967), born on this day in 1884, 140 years ago, was the First Famous Female Russian Artist.

Zinaida Serebriakova left an indelible mark on her nation’s culture through masterful paintings of the contemporary life and landscapes of her Russian homeland.

Serebriakova was born on an estate in the Kursk Province of Russia (present-day Ukraine) into a lineage full of respected artists.

Ethel Léontine Gabain (1883-1950)

Ethel Léontine Gabain, later Ethel Copley, was a French-Scottish artist.

Gabain was a renowned painter and lithographer and among the founding members of the Senefelder Club.

While she was known for her oil portraits of actresses, Gabain was one of the few artists of her time able to live on the sale of her lithographs.

She also did etchings, dry-points, as well as some posters.

Anaïs Nin: "L'amore non muore mai di morte naturale"..

L'amore non muore mai di morte naturale.

Muore perché noi non sappiamo come rifornire la sua sorgente.

Muore di cecità e di errori e tradimenti.

Muore di malattia e di ferite,

muore di stanchezza, per logorio o per opacità.

Vladimir Kush

Maria Martinetti | Orientalist painter

Maria Martinetti (1864-1921) was an Italian painter. She was a student of Gustavo Simoni.

She lived and exhibited in Italy and France.

In 1890 she moved to the United States.

She is known for her genre paintings.

10 Masterpieces of the Musée d’Orsay

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Bal du moulin de la Galette, 1876

This painting is doubtless Renoir's most important work of the mid 1870's and was shown at the Impressionist exhibition in 1877.

Though some of his friends appear in the picture, Renoir's main aim was to convey the vivacious and joyful atmosphere of this popular dance garden on the Butte Montmartre.

The study of the moving crowd, bathed in natural and artificial light, is handled using vibrant, brightly coloured brushstrokes.

The somewhat blurred impression of the scene prompted negative reactions from contemporary critics.

This portrayal of popular Parisian life, with its innovative style and imposing format, a sign of Renoir's artistic ambition, is one of the masterpieces of early Impressionism. | © Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841-1919) | Bal du moulin de la Galette, 1876 | Musée d'Orsay, Paris

5 Masterpieces at the Uffizi Gallery

The Uffizi Gallery entirely occupies the first and second floors of the large building constructed between 1560-1580 and designed by Giorgio Vasari.

It is famous worldwide for its outstanding collections of ancient sculptures and paintings (from the Middle Ages to the Modern period).

The collections of paintings from the 14th-century and Renaissance period include some absolute masterpieces: Giotto, Simone Martini, Piero della Francesca, Beato Angelico, Filippo Lippi, Botticelli, Mantegna, Correggio, Leonardo, Raffaello, Michelangelo and Caravaggio, in addition to many precious works by European painters (mainly German, Dutch and Flemish).

Moreover, the Gallery boasts an invaluable collection of ancient statues and busts from the Medici family, which adorns the corridors and consists of ancient Roman copies of lost Greek sculptures.

Johan Zoffany (1733-1810) | Tribuna of the Uffizi, 1772-1777 | Royal Collection (UK)

Juliette Wytsman | Impressionist painter

Juliette Wytsman (1866-1925) was a Belgian impressionist painter.

She was married to painter Rodolphe Wytsman.

Her paintings are in the collections of several museums in Belgium.

Wytsman was born as Juliette Trullemans on 14 July 1866 in Brussels, in Belgium.

She first studied under Henri Hendrickx at the Bischoffsheim Institute in Brussels.

8 Notable artworks at the Cleveland Museum of Art

The Cleveland Museum of Art is renowned for the quality and breadth of its collection, which includes more than 63,000 artworks and spans 6,000 years of achievement in the arts.

The museum is a significant international forum for exhibitions, scholarship, and performing arts and is a leader in digital innovations.

One of the top comprehensive art museums in the nation, recognized for its award-winning Open Access program and free of charge to all, the Cleveland Museum of Art is located in the University Circle neighborhood.

John French Sloan | A woman's work, 1912 | Cleveland Museum of Art

Trained as a journalist, the young John French Sloan (1871-1951) explored social issues more vigorously than most of the painters of his time, portraying working-class urbanites engaged in ordinary activities.

He observed this particular scene through a rear window of his Manhattan apartment.

Perched on a narrow fire escape, a woman hangs fresh laundry to dry on clotheslines strung between tenements.

As evidenced by the painting, the labors of American women at the turn of the 1900s were most often confined to the domestic realm. | Source: © Cleveland Museum of Art

John French Sloan (American, 1871-1951) | A woman's work, 1912 | Cleveland Museum of Art

Margaret Mead | Remember me / Ricordati di me

Years ago, American cultural anthropologist, author and speaker Margaret Mead (1901-1978) was asked by a student what she considered to be the first sign of civilization in a culture.

The student expected Mead to talk about fishhooks or clay pots or grinding stones.

But no. Mead said that the "first sign of civilization in an ancient culture was a femur (thighbone) that had been broken and then healed".

Mead explained that in the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die.

"You cannot run from danger, get to the river for a drink or hunt for food.

You are meat for prowling beasts.

No animal survives a broken leg long enough for the bone to heal.

A broken femur that has healed is evidence that someone has taken time to stay with the one who fell, has bound up the wound, has carried the person to safety and has tended the person through recovery.

Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts", Mead said.

Margaret Mead | Remember me

To the living, I am gone,

To the sorrowful, I will never return,

To the angry, I was cheated,

But to the happy, I am at peace,

And to the faithful, I have never left.

Dame Laura Knight | The Dark Pool, 1908-1918

Wisława Szymborska | Il poeta ed il mondo

Descritta dal comitato per il Nobel come il "Mozart della poesia" ma con "qualcosa della furia di Beethoven", Wisława Szymborska (1923-2012) è stata insignita del Premio Nobel per la letteratura nel 1996 "per una poesia che, con ironica precisione, permette al contesto storico e biologico di venire alla luce in frammenti d'umana realtà".

Il discorso della poetessa Wislawa Szymborska alla consegna del premio Nobel

7 dicembre 1996

(✔en) In un discorso, a quanto pare, la prima frase è sempre la più difficile.

Ebbene, la prima è comunque andata.

Ma ho la sensazione che anche le frasi successive - la terza, la sesta, la decima e così via, fino all'ultima parola - saranno altrettanto difficili, perché si suppone che io parli di poesia.

Pawel Kuczynski

Wisława Szymborska | The poet and the world

Described by the Nobel committee as the "Mozart of poetry" but with "something of the fury of Beethoven", Wisława Szymborska (1923-2012) was awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature "for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality".

Wisława Szymborska | Nobel Lecture

December 7, 1996

(✔it) They say the first sentence in any speech is always the hardest. Well, that one's behind me, anyway. But I have a feeling that the sentences to come - the third, the sixth, the tenth, and so on, up to the final line - will be just as hard, since I'm supposed to talk about poetry.

I've said very little on the subject, next to nothing, in fact. And whenever I have said anything, I've always had the sneaking suspicion that I'm not very good at it. This is why my lecture will be rather short. All imperfection is easier to tolerate if served up in small doses.

Jonathan Wolstenholme

Antonia Pozzi | La vita sognata, 1933

Chi mi parla non sa

che io ho vissuto un’altra vita -

come chi dica

una fiaba

o una parabola santa.

Perchè tu eri

la purità mia,

tu cui un’onda bianca

di tristezza cadeva sul volto

Amedeo Modigliani | Portrait of Jeanne Hebuterne with her Left Arm Behind her Head

Lettere d'amore | Eleonora Duse a Gabriele D’Annunzio: "Eccoti l’anima mia"

Eleonora Duse (1858-1924) incontra per la prima volta Gabriele D'Annunzio (Scrittore, poeta, drammaturgo, militare, politico, giornalista, 1863-1938) nel 1882, a Roma: quest'ultimo è un giovane affascinante, venuto da poco dagli Abruzzi, ma già potendo vantare la pubblicazione di tre sue opere.

Compare davanti alla Duse e le propone, tout court, di andare a letto con lui.

Eleonora lo congeda con sdegno, ma forse anche con un segreto compiacimento (in quel giorno lo descrive: Già famoso e molto attraente, con i capelli biondi e qualcosa di ardente nella sua persona).

Vittorio Matteo Corcos | Portrait of actress Eleonora Duse | Christie's

Camille Claudel (1864-1943)

Camille Claudel was a French sculptor and graphic artist.

In 1882 the sculptor Auguste Rodin agreed to supervise a small group of young women students, one of whom was the seventeen-year-old Camille Claudel.

Auguste and Camille fell in love almost at first sight.

Nydia Lozano, 1947 | Ladies with flowers

Nydia Lozano felt from a very young age, to her town of Alginet, the inclination to capture on paper her impressions of the countryside and the towns of Valencia.

His church towers and family faces interested Jose Espert, the first person to tell him what painting was and probably the only one who could talk to him about painters like Sargent in the early sixties.

He saw that Nydia’s path was already drawn and helped her follow him.

Anna Boch | Post-impressionist painter

Anna Boch participated in the Neo-Impressionist movement.

Her early works used a Pointillist technique, but she is best known for her Impressionist style which she adopted for most of her career.

A pupil of Isidore Verheyden, she was influenced by Théo van Rysselberghe whom she met in the artistic group, Les XX.

Anna-Rosalie Boch (1848-1936), known as Anna, was a Belgian painter, art collector, and the only female member of the artistic group, Les XX.