13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. 697)

1. Not one, but two Victorian maritime forts going up for auction next month To be auctioned at Savills on 18 June, they have been under the same ownership for the last 12 years and were restored by businessman Mike Clare as unusual boutique stays. Lot 499, No Man’s Fort, between the Isle of Wight…

She was the Sapphic Sensation of Belle Époque Paris

Picture Paris at the turn of the 20th century: a city drenched in absinthe, artistic ambition, and outrageous fashion choices. Amid the bohemian splendor of the Belle Époque, a woman named Renée Vivien, a Brit in Paris, emerged as a poetic powerhouse and an icon of Sapphic love. Move over, Oscar Wilde, it’s time we…

Hayfever Got you Down? Blame it on Botanical Sexism

If you’ve ever found yourself sneezing your way through spring or breaking out in hives after hugging a tree, you might be the victim of botanical sexism. Yes, you heard that right. ‘Botanical sexism’ refers to the practice of preferentially planting cloned male plants in urban areas to avoid the litter of fruits and flowers.…

The Lost Apple Project: The Great Fruit Hunt of the Pacific Northwest

Imagine Indiana Jones, but instead of ancient artifacts, he’s searching for apples. Replace the dusty temples with abandoned orchards, and you’ve got The Lost Apple Project, a nonprofit organization that searches abandoned farms in the Pacific Northwest to locate old apple varieties that have been thought to be lost or extinct, and their story is…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. 696)

1. A workshop in NYC where you can make your own matchbox shadowboxes Book your workshop with Behind the Matches. 2. Mysterious scrapbooks full of artist obituaries found in the met archives The two scrapbooks held thousands of obituaries of painters, sculptors, and photographers of the early twentieth century. Organized in chronological order by publication…

Artist of the Week: Surrealist Sorceress, Remedios Varo

You might say female Surrealists are having a bit of a moment. Our forgotten Parisian bohemian queen, Leonor Fini stole the show at Art Basel’s 2023 fair in Miami, and this week, a painting by Britain’s lost surrealist, Leonora Carrington, sold at Sotheby’s for a record $28.5 million. We still have a few women Surrealists…

Miniature Must-Have Du Jour

It all started when I was looking to source a miniature French to English dictionary (as you do) for Messy Nessy’s Cabinet in Paris (coming soon). It wasn’t long before I found myself obsessing over a 2 x 2.7 cm red leather dictionary from the 1890s contained within a metal case complete with a magnifying…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. 695)

1. Paris traffic jams Found from a series on Live Journal. 2. Night at the Museum in Paris Airbnb has launched its latest competition for the Olympics at the Musée d’Orsay. A perfect opportunity for Thomas Crown, surely. Find out more on Airbnb. 3. Aphrodite, Stuck in the mud Found on Arkeonews and ART news.…

Artist of the Week: A Janitor’s Mysterious Masterpiece

James Hampton’s magnum opus was discovered posthumously in a rented garage he had converted into his studio. The installation features over 180 individual found objects, mostly collected from dumpsters on his way home in the early hours after midnight, when he would clock out from his janitor duties at the GSA in Washington DC. The…

Never thought of it like that: Versailles, a Giant Nightmarish Hotel

The Palace of Versailles, famously opulent and vast, is often celebrated for its architectural grandeur and the lavish ceremonies that took place within its walls. But at its core, it was essentially a giant overcrowded hotel of horrors for the entire French nobility, who were given their own room and key that symbolised both privilege…