Modern Libraries of the World

Notable Aesthete

Deborah Turbeville

R. Kenton Nelson

Georgia O'Keefe

Frantisek Drtikol

Art Deco

Modernisme Majestueux

L'esprit de l'escalier

L’esprit de l’escalier or esprit d’escalier (stairway wit) is the sense of thinking of a clever comeback in an encounter when it is too late.

The phrase can be used to describe a riposte to an insult, or any witty, clever remark that comes to mind too late to be useful— when one is on the “staircase” leaving the scene of the encounter.

The phenomenon is usually accompanied by a feeling of regret at having not thought of the riposte when it was most needed or suitable.

Featured: Stairway at the Louvre, Paris, 2007

Sarah Moon

Paris Style

Le Couturier des Coutouriers

Il Portiere Di Notte

Un Coeur Tres Nature

Summer of Our Discontent

Robert Motherwell

Sunburn Series

Jeff Zaruba

Berenice Abbott

Hiroshi Sugimoto

Michael Levin

Le Royal Dressmaker

“A man

should look

as if he bought

his clothes

with intelligence,

put them on

with care,

then

forgot

about them.”

-Hardy Amies

Anatomie de l'elégance

Grey Gardens

Dovima the Divine

In Praise of Silence

Our Lady of the Ladle

“Life itself is the proper binge.”

~Julia Child

A Life of Hats

Pantheon of Aesthetes

Sir or Madam?

Joyce Tenneson

Asaf Ben Zvi

Eugene Gabritschevsky

Larry Abramson

Will Cotton

Dietmar Busse

Maligned

Eric Baker on Design

As I bounce around online looking for images I always look for the extraordinary, the esoteric, the naive, and the emblematic of a time; works that are not the pieces we often see in design history books.

Just as a map helps us find our way and shows us where we are, looking at design from years past helps us better understand the trajectory contemporary design has taken. DesignObserver.

The Thoughtful Traveler

Poires de Vacances

Fawning for Fame

Inhabit

Peter Lippmann

Past Imperfect

Swoon Worthy

Irving Penn

The Epitome of Grace

Mad About Hats

The novelist Alison Lurie wrote: “Whatever is worn on the head is a sign of the mind beneath it.”

Stephen Jones, the greatest milliner of his generation, disagrees.

“Whatever is worn on the head is a sign of what a person would like to be."

Cecil Beaton

Cocktail Hour

A Bow Unbent

Solitary Walking

Annechovie

Patricia Gray

Post Wisdom

Reflections

“The golden moments
in the stream of life
rush past us
and we see nothing
but sand.

The angels
come to visit us,
and we only know them
when they are gone.”

-George Elliot

Fifi Flowers Design

Edouard Chimot

EX LIBRIS

The Age of Innocence

In this classic novel of old New York, Edith Wharton recreates the city of her girlhood in the 1870s. The Arion edition has been illustrated with photographs of the actual settings of the story.

“Truly a thing of beauty” according to Forbes magazine, this edition celebrates a classic of American literature. The book has a special status as an affectionate record of the streets and buildings of New York City. At every moment of the novel the reader knows where the characters are, walking down a particular street, standing in front of a certain address, looking out the window of a familiar room.

The Arion Press edition is illustrated with images of the novel's actual setting, as they are today, captured by noted photographer Stephen Shore who brought to this project a personal knowledge of the historic buildings and streets that made up Wharton's New York world.

New York Times art critic Michael Kimmelman raved: "The work’s laconic eloquence speaks of an era and a nation."

The Kindle

Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon's sickly serene Self Portrait 1971 is a refracted faceted face akin to some of Paul Cézanne's self-portraits which are reminiscent of cut precious gem stones reflecting light. Bacon painted with a very dry brush giving the sensation of a granular, grainy effect.

The melancholia mood is of a man melting before you: a disturbing image of a disturbed man in a disturbed century. This is one of the last great self-portraits Bacon painted before he went off the rails and went back into to the lazy worn grooves of inane illustration.

The Errant Æsthete