Maybe once you hit a certain age, it is normal to become nostalgic. We look to the past, longingly remembering those simpler times, when no one worried about the safety of a five-year-old girl and her seven-year-old brother walking to the corner drugstore to spend their nickel allowance on a candy bar. Those kids grew … Continue reading Out of Time; Out of Place: Nostalgia, Time Travel, and Ernest Haslehust’s Enchanted England
Georgian England
A Controversy in Color: Finding Harmony in Art
The world had grown too chaotic to navigate. Manhattan held an allure for me, ever since my first visit as a wide-eyed 16-year-old. But maybe it wasn’t the best place to go in search of refuge. When I was barely 19, I moved there anyway, only to see my troubles multiply. My uncle, a Madison … Continue reading A Controversy in Color: Finding Harmony in Art
From Tampongate to Taxpayer Beggars: How 18th-Century Royals Invented Modern Messes
Queen Elizabeth II stood as a pillar against the endless stream of royal scandal. Although she presented herself as a stalwart role model, she couldn’t reliably steer her own children onto a noble path. As much as we wish we could forget the screaming banner headlines in 1993 about Tampongate, it’s hard to purge the … Continue reading From Tampongate to Taxpayer Beggars: How 18th-Century Royals Invented Modern Messes
The St. Leger Stakes: A Historic Race Rooted in Yorkshire and Nobility
Today, on the 249th anniversary of its debut, the St. Leger Stakes is the oldest horse race in the prestigious British Triple Crown, a series for three-year-old Thoroughbred colts and fillies, that is considered the pinnacle of British flat racing. (The other races making up the Triple Crown are the 2,000 Guineas Stakes at Newmarket … Continue reading The St. Leger Stakes: A Historic Race Rooted in Yorkshire and Nobility
The Brothers in the Tower
In August of 1792, Louis XVI of France was arrested. A month later, the monarchy was abolished. Stripped of his Royal inheritance, the deposed king was now known as Citizen Louis Capet. He was tried and convicted of treason and executed in January in 1793. Louis XVI bids farewell to his family the day before … Continue reading The Brothers in the Tower
Sex, Scandals, and Caricatures
An embarrassment of riches was bequeathed to us from the paintbrushes of Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), a founder and the first president of the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Sir Joshua Reynolds, Self-portrait c 1780© Royal Academy of Arts / Photographer: John Hammond His portraits depict every luminary who lived, loved, fought, performed, wrote, … Continue reading Sex, Scandals, and Caricatures
Art*Connections 