Fanny Churberg | Düsseldorf school of painting

Fanny Churberg (12 December 1845, in Vaasa - 10 May 1892, in Helsinki) was a Finnish landscape painter.

Her father, Matias Churberg, was a doctor from a family of farmers and her mother Maria was the daughter of the vicar in Liperi parish, Nils Johan Perander. Fanny was the third of seven children.

Four of her siblings died when they were young and so Fanny grew up with her two older brothers Torsten and Waldemar Churberg.

Fanny was proud of her Ostrobothnian family and heritage and was planning along with her brothers on changing the surname to Kuurila according to the family's old estate. They never got around to it though.

Robert Louis Stevenson | Winter Time / Tempo d'inverno

Late lies the wintry sun a-bed,

A frosty, fiery sleepy-head;

Blinks but an hour or two; and then,

A blood-red orange, sets again.

Before the stars have left the skies,

At morning in the dark I rise;

And shivering in my nakedness,

By the cold candle, bathe and dress.

Bror Lindh (Swedish painter, 1877-1941) | Winter night, 1941

Eustache Le Sueur | Baroque painter

Eustache Le Sueur or Lesueur (19 November 1617 – 30 April 1655) was a French artist and one of the founders of the French Academy of Painting. He is known primarily for his paintings of religious subjects. He was a leading exponent of the neoclassical style of Parisian Atticism.

Training and career

He was born in Paris, where he spent his entire life. His father, Cathelin Le Sueur, a turner and sculptor in wood, placed him with Vouet, in whose studio he rapidly distinguished himself.

Admitted at an early age into the guild of master-painters, he left them to take part in establishing the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1648 and was elected as one of the original twelve elders in charge of its administration.

Wisława Szymborska: Contributo alla statistica / A Word on Statistics

Su cento persone:

che ne sanno sempre più degli altri

- cinquantadue;

insicuri a ogni passo

- quasi tutti gli altri;

pronti ad aiutare,

purché la cosa non duri molto

- ben quarantanove;

buoni sempre,

perché non sanno fare altrimenti

- quattro, be’, forse cinque;

Rene Magritte | Golconda, 1953

Wislawa Szymborska | Nuvole / Clouds

Dovrei essere molto veloce

nel descrivere le nuvole -

già dopo una frazione di secondo

non sono più quelle, stanno diventando altre.

La loro caratteristica è

non ripetersi mai

in forme, sfumature, pose, disposizione.

Non gravate dalla memoria di nulla,

si librano senza sforzo sui fatti.

Claude Monet | The Clouds, 1923-1926 | Musée de l'Orangerie