Amersfoort city wall and moat

Amersfoort: City wall and moat. I took this photo last summer.

Vincent van Gogh - The Starry Night

'De Sterrennacht' ('nuit étoilée') by Vincent van Gogh

The painting depicts the view outside his sanatorium room window at night. It was painted in

Saint-Rémy, France in July 1890. It is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

"It often seems to me that the night is much more alive and richly colored than the day"
(van Gogh, 1888)

Lieutenant General Sir George De Lacy Evans

Lieutenant General Sir George De Lacy Evans (1787– 1870) during the Crimean War (photo: Roger Fenton, 1855). He was a British Army general who served in four wars in which the United Kingdom's troops took part in the 19th century.

His early service was in India, but he exchanged into the 3rd Light Dragoons in order to take part in the Peninsular war. He was sent on the expedition to the United States during the War of 1812 where he was quartermaster general at the Battle of Bladensburg and during the Burning of Washington.

Returning to the European war Evans was present at the battle of Quatre Bras on June 16, 1815 and the battle of Waterloo on June 18, 1815.

Evans commanded the British Legion which volunteered to assist Isabella II of Spain in the First Carlist War. During the Crimean War he commanded the 2nd Division of the British Army.

He served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1830 to 1841, and from 1846 to 1865.

Casper van Wittel - View of the river Tiber

Casper van Wittel: View of the River Tiber with the Ponte Rotto and the Aventine Hill in Rome. Painted in the 1680s, private collection.

Dutch painter, known in Italy as Gaspare Vanvitelli. He received his first training at Amersfoort, Holland. He went to Rome to work as a draughtsman on a scheme for regulating the Tiber. This probably gave him the idea of making large and very accurate topographical drawings which could be worked up into painted cityscapes.

Gene Tierney

Gene Tierney

Königsberg

Königsberg was heavily damaged by Allied bombing in 1944 during World War II and was subsequently conquered by the Red Army after the Battle of Königsberg in 1945. The city was annexed by the Soviet Union according to the Potsdam Agreement and largely repopulated with Russians. Notice the beautiful inner city (top photo), which was not rebuild by the Soviets (bottom photo), only the church remains.

Campbell, Hume and Brownrigg

Lieutenant General Sir John Campbell and Captain Hume, his aide-de-camp, the general sitting.

Colonel Brownrigg and the two Russian boys Alma & Inkermann.

Photos made by Roger Fenton during the Crimean War, 1855.

Avignon

City walls of Avignon, France. They date back to the mid-1300s, when they were built over a 10-year period. The walls were restored the 1860s. They completely surround Avignon's city center.

Amsterdam city map

Cornelis Anthonisz - map (bird's eye view) of Amsterdam, 1544. The city is shown within its first city walls. This is the city before the construction of the semi-circular ring of canals (click to enlarge).

Mathilde Bonaparte

Princess Marthilde Bonaparte (1820-1904) was a daughter of Napoleon's youngest brother Jerome Bonaparte. She was the BFF of her cousin Queen Sophie of The Netherlands, and one of the few people to visit Crown Prince Willem when he was deadly ill in Paris in 1879. She had an affair with the French sculpter Émilien O'Hara van Nieuwerkerk, who made the equestrian statue before the Noordeinde palace in The Hague (our Queen's workplace).