Casper van Wittel - Verona: A View of the River Adige at San Giorgio in Braida

Casper van Wittel - Verona: A View of the River Adige at San Giorgio in Braida. Painted in the 1710s.

He learned to paint in Amersfoort, but he settled in Rome to start a career as painter of city scapes. He painted places like Rome, Florence, Bologna, Venice, Milan, Piacenza and Naples.

Paris

The city wall of King Philip II of France (Philip Augustus) in Paris (France).

Over time, several city walls of Paris were built. Only a few traces of these walls survive, among those this section of the wall of Philippe Auguste. Mainly, the walls were destroyed to be replaced with grands boulevards. This particular city wall is the oldest city wall of Paris whose plan is accurately known. It was built from 1190 to 1213, enclosing 253 hectares on both sides of the river Seine.

Mother & Daughter

6th Plate Daguerreotype. Approximately 1850.

Maréchal Pélissier

Maréchal (Marshal) Pélissier (Roger Fenton, 1855)

Aimable Jean Jacques Pélissier, 1st Duc de Malakoff (1794 - 1864) was for some period of time the commander-in-chief of the French forces in Crimea.

Photographer Roger Fenton wrote in his 'Account of a Photographic Excursion to the Theatre of War in the Crimea' (published in the 'Revue photographique' of 5 February 1856):

"General Pélissier, whom I breakfasted with this morning, is coming at five o'clock in the morning the day after tomorrow. It is impossible to work after nine or ten o'clock because of the great heat, which makes the corks pop out of my bottles and ruins all the images."

OTMA

Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia in 1914

The four daughters of the last tsar of Russia: Olga, Maria, Tatiana and Anastasia, were brutally murdered at July 17, 1918. Because they led a relative isolated live, they were very close together. Olga, the eldest, was only 6 years older than the youngest, Anastasia. When they became older they choose one autograph for the four of them together: OTMA. In that name they gave joint gifts and signed letters.

Matthias Withoos - Nature Morte

Matthias Withoos: Nature Morte. Matthias Withoos (1627 -1703) prefered to paint wild thorny plants, amongst which flows secret life of animals and insects.

Gene Tierney Movie Card

Gene Tierney Movie Card

Gloria Swanson - Wages of Virtue

Movie poster, 1924.

Born Gloria Svensson in 1897, she was destined to be one of the biggest stars of the silent movie era.

Alfred Stevens - Lady With Dog

Alfred Stevens (1823-1906) - Lady With Dog, ca. 1859 (Philadelphia Museum of Art).

Alfred Stevens in his Paris studio, ca 1885.