Category Archives: Art & Illustrations

Lady Carnarvon by Paul César Helleu (c.1901)

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Paul César Helleu, Lady Carnarvon, ca. 1901.

Almina Victoria Marie Alexandra Wombell was the illegitimate child of Alfred de Rothschild, but grew up loved and pampered. She maintained a loving relationship with her father, who was exceptionally wealthy. The Carnarvon family needed an influx of money to maintain their estate at Highclere Castle. Almina, wealthy and accomplished, fell in love with George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, the future 5th Earl of Carnarvon. Later, he became famous for excavating Tutankhamon’s tomb. The two lived a glamorous life set against the increasing tensions of a pre-World War I. When it quickly became obvious England was entering the war, Almina used her influence and wealth to turn Highclere Castle into a hospital for wounded soldiers. Her approach of individual care, home cooked meals, and holistic ideas were revolutionary at that time, and she found a natural talent for nursing. For four years she worked at both Highclere and later in London, establishing another hospital and gathering the best equipment and talent to help heal the wounded soldiers via

A Collection Of Portraits by Whistler

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James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834 – 1903) was an American artist, active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He was averse to sentimentality and moral allusion in painting, and was a leading proponent of the credo “art for art’s sake”. His famous signature for his paintings was in the shape of a stylized butterfly possessing a long stinger for a tail. The symbol was apt, for it combined both aspects of his personality—his art was characterized by a subtle delicacy, while his public persona was combative.

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Jo by James Abbott McNeill Whistler, 1861 via

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Weary by James Abbott McNeill Whistler, 1863 via

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Reading by Lamplight by James Abbott McNeill Whistler, 1858 via

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Annie Haden by James Abbott McNeill Whistler, 1860 via

Count Burckhardt published 1862 by James Abbott McNeill Whistler 1834-1903

Count Burckhardt by James Abbott McNeill Whistler, 1862 via

Three Portraits of Queen Adelaide (Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen) (1830s)

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Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen (1792 – 1849) was the queen consort of the United Kingdom and of Hanover as spouse of William IV of the United Kingdom. William IV was King of the United Kingdom and King of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death. The third son of George III, William succeeded his elder brother George IV, as the last king and penultimate monarch of Britain’s House of Hanover.

Adelaide was beloved by the British people for her piety, modesty, charity, and her tragic childbirth history. A large portion of her household income was given to charitable causes. She also treated the young Princess Victoria of Kent (William’s heir presumptive and later Queen Victoria) with kindness, despite her own inability to produce an heir and the open hostility between William and Victoria’s mother, the Dowager Duchess of Kent.

She died during the reign of her niece on 2 December 1849 of natural causes at Bentley Priory in Middlesex and was buried at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor.

Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia, is named after her

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Queen Adelaide (Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen) by John Cochran, after Fanny Corbaux stipple engraving, 1820s-1830s. © National Portrait Gallery, London via

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Queen Adelaide (Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen) by Thomas Goff Lupton, after Sir William Beechey, mezzotint, published 1834 © National Portrait Gallery, London via

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Queen Adelaide (Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen) by Samuel William Reynolds, published by Martin Colnaghi, after Sir William Beechey, mezzotint, published September 1831 © National Portrait Gallery, London via