The Jean-Pierre Saint-Ours exhibition at MAH

…t famous painters: the eighteenth-century neo-classicist, Jean-Pierre Saint-Ours (1752-1809.) And what a monumental, beautiful exhibition it is! If you like to feast on representation of the classics, the team at MAH serves up Saint-Ours’s full menu of Homer, Olympic games (the original!), Spartans, Cupid and Psyche along with dozens of his meticulous portraits. Such an important exhibition occupies Philippa and the two curators, Anne de Herdt and… Continue reading

Discarded Hollywood Glamour

…everyone would know of her courageous stand and work for women in the male-dominated Hollywood of the day. Few would know that after her death, investigators’ photos of her lying in her bed were published. Worse still, mortuary photos of her awaiting a post-mortem examination were likewise published. I know of no other celebrity whose person has suffered this particular violation of privacy nor been the subject of such a gross breach of medical e… Continue reading

Death and Alabaster

…iful to behold in ages to come means that they are undoubtedly works of art and ‘beautiful stuff’. However, one should never forget that within them lie what remains of people who lived and so can properly be used as a focus for a one-way communication with them. Is that not the true purpose of a memorial? Thomas Marsham resurrecting The Masonic symbols on Thomas Marsham’s memorial The sculpted skulls and bones on the Thomas Marsham memorial Henry… Continue reading