By Nina Heyn Frédéric Chopin was born in 1810 in Żelazowa Wola (near Warsaw). A musical prodigy, he was already performing at the age of seven at aristocratic salons, and his first polonaise was published when he was eight years old. His most famous “Heroic” Polonaise in A Flat major (op. 53) is probably one of…
By Nina Heyn Anyone who has been in Paris for more than a few days can’t help but notice the dichotomy of modernity and historical heritage, evident at every turn. For example, you access an ultra-modern Fondation Louis Vuitton building designed by Frank Gehry by walking past the old fence ironwork of the Jardin d’Acclimatation…
By Nina Heyn The Adriatic coast city of Ravenna is an absolute delight—a small, clean, northern-style town that is very walkable. There are several Romanesque basilicas decorated with mosaics that would floor even the most jaded tourist, and there are no crowds to see those jewels, especially when compared with the anxiety-inducing throngs of Florence…
By Nina Heyn We all face choices—large and small. For some types of choices that would be very painful to experience in real life, we are fine seeing them on screen. They can help to clarify our ideas or at least make for a good conversation piece. Here are a few viewing recommendations of stories…
By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout “I am not one of those talking painters of whom there are so many now, who can tell you twenty-four times in one breath what art is but who have never once in twenty-four years of painting managed to show you what art is.”~ Caspar David Friedrich A…
By Nina Heyn A “must-see” list for Florence usually includes checking out Renaissance art at the Uffizi Gallery, having a quick look at Michelangelo’s David, and taking a walk to admire the incredible feat of architecture of the Florentine Duomo. However, there are many other less obvious art history treats in Florence. One of them,…
“My world is one of crime. I steal from every artist around the world.”~ Wayne Thiebaud By Nina Heyn There are curiously few cityscapes in 20th- and 21st-century art. Impressionists documented the Paris of the last decade of the 19th century, but from about the 1900s until today, artists have been more interested in painting…
By Nina Heyn If it is spring in Paris, fashion is an obvious theme, but in the world of art, this means something more sophisticated than a runway at a designer house. Three major Paris museums have riffed on the theme of fashion in a manner reflecting these museums’ style and collections. House of Worth…
By Nina Heyn When I wrote a chapter about Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi (1593 – c. 1656) in my book, Women in Art: Artists, Models and Those Who Made It Happen, I wanted to separate the sensationalism of her biography from her art, which was original and high-quality, regardless of the unusual circumstances of her…
By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout Sometimes, with artists who died young, we can only wonder what greatness they would have achieved had they lived long enough. Such a list could include Raphael—the wunderkind of the mid-Renaissance—the talented Impressionists Frédéric Bazille and Gustave Caillebotte, who could have created masterpieces had they lived as long…