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Harry Seidler, second generation Bauhaus architect in Australia
Harry Seidler (1923–2006) was born to a Jewish Viennese family in 1923. Clearly he was still in primary school when the Nazis closed down the amazing Bauhaus Academy in Berlin in 1933, yet he went on...
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The Prado's treasures come to Melbourne
The Spanish collection of Italian Art now in Melbourne comes from the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid. Until the end of August 2014, c100 paintings from their collection are on loan for our winter...
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Golden Lane - Prague's historic heritage
My children certainly knew their grandparents spoke Czech (and Hungarian) at work in Australia, and they understood that their father spent his young years in Prague. But they had never seen a photo or...
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a feast of exhibitions for Edward Seago, a fine landscapist
Edward Seago (1910–1974) was not ever a healthy young lad. He was born to a Norwich coal merchant, and was given a proper education but not in art. I don’t suppose his parents were thrilled when he...
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Charles Darwin and his family's terrible medical condition
Charles Robert Darwin (1809–1882) was born to a wealthy doctor and financier Robert Darwin and his wife Susannah Wedgwood Darwin; plus he was a grandson of the brilliant physician and scientist,...
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Hotel Ritz in Paris: German occupation, sex, spies and great food
Tilar Mazzeo traced the history of the Hotel Ritz, a cultural landmark that opened its doors in fin de siècle Paris (1898). I found the hotel's story fascinating since Cesar Ritz, Auguste Escoffier,...
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Danubia: a personal history of the Habsburg Europe
Every reviewer should declare his/her interests in a topic before typing the first word of the review. So here we go. Firstly my husband and his entire family were Czech. Secondly I regularly lecture...
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Royal Albert Hall or The Proms - which came first?
Prince Albert, the Prince Consort, was delighted with the success of the Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace in 1851, and envisaged a lengthier list of facilities that would uplift the Great British...
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Synagogue architecture in Poznan in a desperate state
In 1848, Germans dominated numerically in the western and northern regions of the Grand Duchy of Poznan, although they remained clearly in the minority in the central and eastern counties. Additionally...
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Sydney and the royal family - Prince Henry, The Lost Prince, 1612
The Art Gallery of NSW in Sydney (until 28th Sep 2014) is showing two portraits of royal siblings on loan from the National Portrait Gallery in London. I will cite the words of the AGNSW coordinator,...
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Winnipeg, Little Kiev, New Jerusalem and New Iceland (1875-1925)
Historically Manitoba had been at the heart of Rupert's Land, owned by the Hudson's Bay Company. Shortly after Manitoba was admitted into Confederation with three other Canadian provinces in 1870,...
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Scotland's first disastrous overseas colony ....in Panama 1698
Difficult European projects in Central and South America, of interest at least to historians, are not new to this blog. Consider for example the French scandal in building the Panama Canal and the...
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Totally rewriting art history!! Dura Europos
Everyone knows that historical learning increases incrementally!So imagine an accidental discovery of documents or art objects that utterly change the way we understand a piece of history. One example...
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Royal Chelsea Hospital - an elegant retirement village for ex servicemen
King Charles II was the personal patron of Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723), the architect who helped rebuild London after the 1666 Great Fire. Whatever one thinks of the later Stuarts, no-one can...
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Paris' Picasso treasures - when will the museum re-open?
A post called French Riviera Art Trail showed how the already mature artist Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) moved permanently to Vallauris, next to the town of Antibes, in the 1950s. There he slowly learned...
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Golf and fine art in Edinburgh.
Golf has been played in Scotland since at least the 15th century. Whilst its origins are obscure, it is undoubtedly close to the Netherlandish game of colf, which was played over rough ground or on...
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Australian WW1 widows Vs Prince of Wales
Rural Australia was in a discussion with Buckingham Palace over a very expensive pair of handmade, silk pyjamas. The royal pyjamas were a gift from the people of the Victorian city of Ballarat to the...
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Festival Express train across Canada: Janis Joplin 1970
I saw a film about my all time favourite American rock musician, Janis Joplin (1943-1970), called Final 24 on the Biography channel. Because this biography concentrated on the last day of her life on...
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Was Paul Rosenberg the most influential interwar French art collector-dealer?
Many foreign artists had settled in France after 1900 and more galleries took the risk of exhibiting their works. So perhaps it was not surprising that most of the truly famous art collectors and...
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Swarovski crystals and the Czech city of Jablonec
I might be the only blogger in the southern hemisphere who can pinpoint the Czech city of Jablonec with total accuracy. My Czech parents-in-law were liberated in 1945 and moved to Jablonec to work.In...
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