Servitorii însemnau în trecut, ca şi astăzi, mai mult decât ajutor şi confort – reprezentau un indicator vital al statutului social. Am luat ca punct de reper Anglia în epoca victoriană, pentru că în acea perioadă demografia a cunoscut un boom istori...

Chez la grand-mère de Serge Poitevin (site de JL Guégaden) Réalisation d'1 couvre-lit dans les années 30s en "picot bigouden" à Penmarc'h (Bretagne) De G à D: Eugénie Guennec ép. Jégou (dite tante Loutte) Séraphine Le Guen ép. Guégaden (sa grand-tante) M-Louise Lucas ép. Gloaguen

Gaston La Touche 1854 - 1913 | French L’embarquement The Embarkment Signed "Gaston La Touche" (lower right) Oil on panel A fashionable group of merrymakers boards a rowboat at sundown in this oil on panel by renowned French painter Gaston La Touche. Softly lit and lushly detailed, the work represents the artist’s talent for capturing the gaiety of the Belle Époque. With its luminous coloring and feathery brushwork, this oil evokes the style and joie de vivre of the era rendered in La Touche’s distinctive, mature style. Fresh and airy, the work is a beautiful example of the artist’s skill at capturing the subtle qualities of light and color. Set against the plein air backdrop of a wooded pond awash in the soft glow of the golden hour, the scene reflects the influence of the Impressionists. The subject also recalls works by Manet, Monet and Renoir, who delighted in depictions of modern leisure among the expanding middle class. The scene is an informal one, and its unconventional cropping suggests that the viewer is invited to take a seat in the boat and join the group on their outing. Such relaxed, inviting scenes were remarkably popular among contemporary, modern audiences. However, La Touche's style is singular, possessing an element of fantasy and romance that set him apart from the Impressionists. Gaston La Touche was born in St. Cloud, outside of Paris, in 1854, and he showed a keen interest in art from a young age. At ten years old, he began taking private art instruction, which lasted until 1870, when his family was forced to flee to Normandy amid the Franco-Prussian War. This was the only formal art training La Touche would ever receive. Despite his lack of Academy training, he made his debut at the Paris Salon of 1875 with a sculptural medallion and etchings, and he exhibited his first painting at the Salon of 1881. Although he began his career painting dark-toned realist compositions, by 1890, his style had shifted to what would become his signature — a lighter, brighter, idealistic society world. The artist was associated with practically all of the most influential artists and thinkers of late 19th century France, including Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Émile Zola, who frequently met at the legendary Cafe de la Nouvelle Athenes to share their thoughts on modern society. In 1900, he was named a Chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur and an Officer in 1909. Additionally, he was well-decorated at the grand exhibitions of the day, earning medals at the Salons of 1884 and 1888, a bronze medal at the 1889 Exposition Universelle and a gold medal at the 1900 Exposition Universelle, demonstrating his position as one of the most accomplished artists of the Belle Époque. Today, his works reside in prestigious institutions such as the British Museum (London) and the Walters Museum (Baltimore). Late 19th century Panel: 26 1/8” high x 31 1/2” wide Frame: 34" high x 39 1/8" wide

This compelling canvas captures a moment of quiet bravery within a dimly lit orphanage dining hall. Amid rows of wooden tables, groups of malnourished children in tattered clothes hold small bowls, their faces marked by hardship. At the forefront, a young boy stands before a stern overseer, his pose timid yet daring as he asks for more food. This artwork poignantly illustrates the stark realities of childhood in a bygone era.

Emily Brontë, in full Emily Jane Brontë, pseudonym Ellis Bell (born July 30, 1818, Thornton, Yorkshire, England—died December 19, 1848, Haworth, Yorkshire), English novelist and poet who produced but one novel, Wuthering Heights (1847), a highly imaginative novel of passion and hate set on the Yorkshire moors. Emily was perhaps the greatest of the three Brontë sisters, but the record of her life is extremely meagre, for she was silent and reserved and left no correspondence of interest, and her single novel darkens rather than solves the mystery of her spiritual existence.

Women in the mid-19th century suffering from common mental health conditions were condemned to the asylum to live in appalling conditions.

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'The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our life-time.' The words of Sir Edward Grey, looking out from the windows of the Foreign Office at the end of August 1914, are amongst the most famous in European history, and encapsulate the impending end of the nineteenth-century world. The man who spoke them was Britain's longest-ever serving Foreign Secretary (in a single span of office) and one of the great figures of late Victorian and Edwardian Britain. Statesman of Europe describes the three decades before the First World War through the prism of his biography, which is based almost entirely on archival sources and presents a detailed account of the main domestic and international events, and of the main personalities of the era. In particular, it presents a fresh understanding of the approach to war in the years and months before its outbreak, and Grey's role in the unfolding of events. Yet Grey's life was not all public affairs, momentous as those were. He disliked being in London, much preferring country life at Fallodon, his family estate in Northumberland, and displayed none of the ambition of his contemporaries (or successors). He attended assiduously to his duties as director of the Great North Eastern Railway, one of the transformative enterprises in industry and communications of the period, and wanted to spend as much time as he could fishing. Apart from his memoirs, the only book he wrote was called The Charm of Birds. This hinterland gave quality to his judgements, and made his character attractive to his contemporaries. This important book is the definitive biography of one of the pivotal figures in European diplomacy, and a magnificent portrait of an age.