Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Jeune fille (L’Eté), 1880

Renoir’s Jeune fille (L'Eté) is a pretty pastel fantasy: a plump brunette wears a breezy white chemise and a fashionable straw hat, festooned with a thick blue ribbon.

This Impressionist goddess of summer, nestled in a flowering meadow, has adorned her hat with freshly plucked blooms.

She leans towards the viewer with a sweet, languid look, her lips gently parted.

The sensuality of her expression is underscored by the casual exposure of her bare shoulder, arms and décolleté.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Jeune fille (L’Eté), 1880 | Christie's

Babylon, the Gate of the Gods

Babylon was an ancient city located on the lower Euphrates river in southern Mesopotamia, within modern-day Hillah, Iraq, about 85 kilometres (55 miles) south of modern day Baghdad.

Babylon functioned as the main cultural and political centre of the Akkadian-speaking region of Babylonia.

Its rulers established two important empires in antiquity, the 19th-16th century BC Old Babylonian Empire, and the 7th-6th century BC Neo-Babylonian Empire.

Babylon was also used as a regional capital of other empires, such as the Achaemenid Empire.

Babylon was one of the most important urban centres of the ancient Near East, until its decline during the Hellenistic period.

Nearby ancient sites are Kish, Borsippa, Dilbat and Kutha.

An artist's depiction of Ishtar Gate as it may have appeared around the time it was constructed in Babylon c. 575 BCE. From the game Old World

Antonio Zoppi | Grandpa plays the accordion for Grandma

Antonio Zoppi (1860-1926) was an Italian painter, mostly of genre and costume scenes, as well as landscapes.

He was born and resident in Novara. In 1881 at Milan he exhibited: Paggio del secolo XVI.

In 1881 at Rome he exhibited: Fate la carità e In vino laetitia.

To other exhibitions he sent: Winter Sun; Dolci ricordi; Il nonno; Adele; Study of a head; A landscaper of Tobacco; and Savoy and Winter Morning.

Antonio Zoppi | Grandpa plays the accordion for Grandma / Il Nonno suona la fisarmonica per la Nonna | Simpson Galleries, Houston, Texas

William Faulkner: "I believe that man will not merely endure he will prevail!"

William Faulkner’s speech at the Nobel Banquet at the City Hall in Stockholm

December 10, 1950

Ladies and gentlemen,

I feel that this award was not made to me as a man, but to my work - a life’s work in the agony and sweat of the human spirit, not for glory and least of all for profit, but to create out of the materials of the human spirit something which did not exist before.

So this award is only mine in trust. It will not be difficult to find a dedication for the money part of it commensurate with the purpose and significance of its origin.

Antonio Nunziante

Iain Faulkner, 1973 | Figurative / Romantic painter

Scottish painter Iain Faulkner was born in Glasgow where he was raised and educated.

He graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 1996 with a BA (Honours) Degree in Fine Art.

From the onset of his professional career, the fashionable and trendy routes of contemporary and conceptual art, adopted by many of his peers, was not an option.

He chose instead to follow the more difficult and demanding path of figurative painting wherein clear, concise yardsticks of competence, draughtsmanship and painterly skills can be measured and judged, warts and all.