CHRISTIE’S New York recently sold this Leonardo da Vinci painting, considered lost since the 1600s, for a world record $450 million. A mystery bidder outmuscled the richest and best of the art investment world and forked out the incredible sum of almost half a billion dollars (including fees) based on questionable evidence, at best. Experts […]
Can you see elements of Van Eyck and the Pre-Raphaelites in the work of contemporary artist Isabelle van Zeijl? This article examines her work but for more about the Northern Renaissance (1500s) and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (1800s) you can also check out Reflections: Van Eyck & The Pre-Raphaelites at the National Gallery. Looking at an […]
Tate Britain’s Edward Burne-Jones exhibition (until Feb 24) celebrates this Victorian painter as the last of the Pre-Raphaelites. It’s his first solo exhibition at the Tate since 1933, with over 150 of his works on show. This article covers the rise of the Pre-Raphaelites and examines their creative principles. The Bloomsbury area of West Central London comprising […]
As the final month of the year approaches and you’re spoilt for choice during the festive season, check out our list of the best three London theatres of recent years. Our focus is on smaller Fringe theatres, which are, nonetheless, punching their weight against the best of the West End. No.1 The Etcetera Theatre Founded […]
WIDELY recognised as the world’s oldest scientific zoo, London Zoo has changed significantly from when it was first opened in 1828. Its purpose back then was as an extensive collection for scientific study and was managed by the Zoolological Society of London (established 1826). The 20,168 animals from 698 species there today are quite different […]
Keats House Museum in Hampstead is devoting much of its autumn programme to the work, literary influence and friendship of poets John Keats, Lord Byron, Percy Shelley and Frankenstein novelist Mary Shelley. Keats and Shelley were quite close. On hearing of Keats’ ailing health, Shelley advised him to convalesce at Shelley’s family retreat in Italy […]
MAYOR OF LONDON Sadiq Khan has recently unveiled plans to pedestrianise the East-West section of Oxford Street in time for the launch of the Elizabethan Line in Dec 2018. He has marked out a half-mile area from Oxford Street to Orchard Street, although the North-South section will remain as it is. Transport for London promises […]
British authors Rohan Quine and J. S. Jones have novels that whisk you away from the humdrum of the UK to more exotic and glamorous locations. The Beasts of Electra Drive Rohan Quine was raised in South London but lived in the USA for over a decade so his transatlantic background filters into the fictional […]
THE COCKNEY SCHOOL was a name given to a group of 19th century poets and essayists who came to prominence with poet John Keats as its figurehead. Interestingly, none of them were born within sight or sound of the East End’s Bow Bells (the true definition of a cockney) and only Moorgate-born Keats (then living […]
Yorgos Lanthimos, director of surreal 2015 feature Lobster, has a track record that suggests he doesn’t do mainstream movies and didn’t disappoint with the edgy, off-key The Killing of a Sacred Deer. Starring Colin Farrell as cardiovascular surgeon Steven Murphy and Nicole Kidman his ophthalmologist wife, the couple’s idyllic suburban life gets a chilling wake […]
Hillary Clinton Graffiti/Painting Shoreditch By Street Artist Pegasus
