Dr Anna Clark
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drannaclark.bsky.social
Dr Anna Clark
@drannaclark.bsky.social
Humanities, history of art, architecture & landscape; museums, libraries & collections
Deux Ouvrières dans l’Atelier de Couture: two seamstresses, 1891, by Édouard Vuillard, French Intimiste artist & printmaker, born #OTD 1868; member of avant-garde group Les Nabis, his densely patterned interior scenes were influenced by Japanese printmaking and textiles.
National Galleries Scotland
November 11, 2025 at 6:01 AM
Cassis, Cap Lombard, 1889, by Paul Signac, French neo-impressionist artist, known for luminous coastal views, born #OTD 1863; developed pointillism with Seurat & influenced Matisse.
Kunstmuseum Den Haag
November 11, 2025 at 5:58 AM
“Against stupidity the gods themselves struggle in vain.”
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens. (Die Jungfrau von Orleans)
Friedrich Schiller, German philosopher, playwright, co-founder with Goethe of Weimar Theatre; born #OTD 1759.
Portrait c 1810 by von Kügelgen Frankfurter Goethe-Haus
November 10, 2025 at 6:17 AM
“And still they gazed & still the wonder grew,
That one small head could carry all he knew.”
Oliver Goldsmith, versatile Irish writer, born #OTD 1728; known for novel The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), poem The Deserted Village (1770) and play She stoops to Conquer (1771).
Trinity College Dublin
November 10, 2025 at 6:15 AM
The Shrimp Girl, c. 1740, vivid portrayal of London street seller of shrimps & mussels, her basket on her head with pewter measure, by William Hogarth, innovative English painter, engraver, satirist, born #OTD 1697; the spontaneity & loose brushwork foreshadow Impressionism.
National Gallery London
November 10, 2025 at 6:12 AM
Winter landscape with skaters, painted c. 1665 by Aert van der Neer, Dutch Golden Age artist who worked in and around Amsterdam, known for lively winter scenes on frozen rivers; died #OTD 1670.
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
November 9, 2025 at 6:15 AM
Edmond Halley, English astronomer, mathematician, geophysicist, meteorologist, born #OTD 1656, sponsor of Newton’s Principia, computed orbit and periodicity of eponymous comet, mapped solar eclipse of 1715.
National Portrait Gallery | Royal Society
November 8, 2025 at 6:04 AM
“See golden days, fruitful of golden deeds...”
John Milton, revered English poet, author of Paradise Lost, died #OTD 1674.
Christs College Cambridge
November 8, 2025 at 6:02 AM
The Bodleian Library opened to the public #OTD in 1602.
Duke Humfrey’s Library: oldest reading room in the Bodleian, named after Humphrey Lancaster, 1st Duke of Gloucester who bequeathed 281 books after his death in 1447.
@bodleian.ox.ac.uk
November 8, 2025 at 6:00 AM
“Si le monde était clair, l’art ne serait pas.”
Albert Camus, French philosopher, writer, author of L'Étranger, La Peste, born #OTD 1913; winner of Nobel Prize in Literature 1957.
Nobel Prize
November 7, 2025 at 6:27 AM
Marie Curie, Polish-French physicist, chemist, pioneer in radioactivity, first woman Nobel laureate & only winner of two Nobel prizes in different sciences (Physics & Chemistry); born #OTD 1867, buried in the Panthéon, Paris.
Nobel Prize | 5th Solvay Conference 1927 (colourised)
November 7, 2025 at 6:24 AM
William Stukeley, English antiquary, pioneered archaeological exploration of Stonehenge & Avebury sites, born #OTD 1687.
Society of Antiquaries, London
November 7, 2025 at 6:22 AM
Charter of the Forest sealed #OTD 1217 ⁦‪at St Paul’s London.
Carta Foresta, important complementary charter to Magna Carta, re-established rights of freemen to royal forest, protecting land for grazing, fuel & forage.
Carta Foresta 1217 Durham Cathedral | Queen Mary Psalter 1310-20 British Library
November 6, 2025 at 6:03 AM
Greatest scientist between Newton & Einstein: James Clerk Maxwell, Scottish physicist, died #OTD 1879; formulated Theory of Electromagnetism, four equations which underpin modern information & communication technologies.
Monument George Street Edinburgh | James Clerk Maxwell Foundation Edinburgh
November 5, 2025 at 6:04 AM
Painting & Music: Self-portrait c 1770, by eminent Swiss Neoclassical artist Angelica Kauffman, who painted Handelian singer Sarah Harrop as Erato the lyric muse in 1780. The artist died in Rome #OTD 1807 & Canova directed her funeral.
National Gallery London | Princeton University Art Museum
November 5, 2025 at 6:01 AM
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
Plot to blow up parliament foiled; Guy Fawkes arrested #OTD 1605.
National Portrait Gallery London | James DF Mellor #drawnfromhistory
November 5, 2025 at 5:58 AM
Master of candlelight: Gerard van Honthorst, Dutch artist of Golden Age & a founding figure of Utrecht Caravaggisti, born #OTD 1592; visiting painter at court of Charles I.
Denial of St Peter c. 1620, Musée de Beaux Arts, Rennes
November 4, 2025 at 5:59 AM
Christ giving the keys to St Peter, 1625, with distinctive rich yellow of Guido Reni, Italian Baroque artist of Bolognese School, born #OTD 1575. Trained in Rome under the Carracci, painter to the Pope, his restrained classicism inspired French & Spanish artists incl. Vouet, Murillo.
Musée du Louvre
November 4, 2025 at 5:58 AM
Paragon of painters: Annibale Carracci, a founding figure of Baroque, influenced Bernini, Rubens & Poussin, born #OTD 1560; painted celebrated Loves of Gods fresco (1597-1608) on the vaulted ceiling of Farnese gallery.
Palazzo Farnese
November 3, 2025 at 5:59 AM
La Saliera: gold & enamel salt cellar 1543, masterpiece made for François I, by Benvenuto Cellini, Italian Mannerist goldsmith & sculptor, born in Florence #OTD 1500. La Saliera featured in Balzac’s novel La Peau de Chagrin; Cellini inspired Dumas’s novel L’Orfèvre du Roi.
Kunsthistorisches Museum
November 3, 2025 at 5:58 AM
Laws of thought: George Boole, influential mathematician, born #OTD 1815; Boolean logic laid foundation for computers & Information Age.
University College Cork
November 2, 2025 at 6:00 AM
Finding beauty in everyday life: Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, born #OTD 1699, French painter of tranquil, luminous still-life & genre scenes, admired by Manet, Cézanne, Matisse and Proust.
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC | Musée du Louvre
November 2, 2025 at 5:59 AM
Palazzo Te, summer palace of Federigo II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, with design & celebrated illusionistic frescoes (Stanza dei Giganti) 1524-1534, by versatile Mannerist architect & artist Giulio Romano, pupil of Raphael, died #OTD 1546; he was mentioned by Shakespeare in The Winter’s Tale.
November 1, 2025 at 6:06 AM
November
Englishmen vs Frenchmen
Thomas Rowlandson 1788
Royal Collections Trust
November 1, 2025 at 6:05 AM
The month of November
Novembre, 1485-86, painted on vellum by Jean Colombe
The acorn harvest: swineherd in oak forest, using a stick to dislodge ripe acorns, to fatten his foraging pigs.
Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, Musée Condé
Château de Chantilly
November 1, 2025 at 6:04 AM