Category: Artworks

Felisa Blanco, age 10, is introduced here through a tender drawing associated with Madrid, where a child’s view of the world feels both intimate and expansive. Perched on a rounded patch of green, she bends toward an open book, absorbed in reading, while a soft-edged cloud fills the background like a daydream made visible. The…

Handwritten at the top, “un soldado del nuevo ejército español” frames the sheet as both declaration and lesson, while the stamped seal of the Ministerio de Instrucción Pública anchors it to an educational context in Elda (Alicante), Colonia nº 10. The composition is simple but emphatic: a youthful figure salutes in bold blocks of red…

Soft pastels and playful stage curtains set the scene for “Happy Birthday Dear,” an endearing piece of vintage-style artwork that feels like a miniature celebration frozen in time. At the center, a bold “3” and the word “TO-DAY” frame the milestone, while two rosy-cheeked children—one standing, one nestled in a pram—bring the greeting to life…

A towering anthropomorphic root—part carrot, part mischievous gentleman—ambles across a pale wintery ground, complete with spindly legs, trailing tendrils, and a toppled top hat. The odd figure even sprouts wisps of greenery like hair and carries a humanlike face turned in profile, as if caught mid-stride in a strange holiday parade. Along the bottom, the…

Victorian Christmas cheer could be wonderfully odd, and this card leans into that eccentricity with confidence. A neatly lettered greeting—“To wish you The Compliments of the Season”—arches across a pale, circular field, while a web-like pattern radiates in delicate lines behind the central scene. Instead of holly and snow, the artist stages a tense little…

Against a deep, nearly velvety black ground, “Flower Piece, 1922” unfolds like a nocturnal cabinet of curiosities: a vase-like form rises from the back of a crocodile, and from it springs an improbable bouquet of tendrils, pods, and blossoms. Speckled, gourd-shaped blooms curl outward, while a pale, lily-like flower opens at center, its petals lit…

Plate LVI from *Iconografia d’anatomia chirurgica e di medicina operatoria* confronts the viewer with the practical theatre of 19th-century surgery: a woman reclines as gloved hands hold tissue aside and guide a blade through the breast. The patient’s turned head and exposed shoulder create a portrait-like calm in sharp contrast to the incision, where color…

Under the title “Removing cataracts,” this carefully rendered medical plate turns the operating room into a study in lines, shadows, and nerve. A surgeon’s fingers hold the eyelids wide as a slender instrument approaches the eye, the scene drawn close enough to feel the tension of precision. More than simple illustration, it reads like a…

Handwritten enthusiasm spills across the page in “Howard Finster to Barbara Shissler Nosanow, 1981,” a lively letter that doubles as an artwork. Portrait sketches float among dense lines of text, giving the viewer several entry points—faces to meet, phrases to follow, and a rhythmic, almost musical repetition in the handwriting. The overall effect is intimate…

Across a softly gridded sheet, hurried cursive tumbles down the page in the intimate cadence of a private note, the kind meant to be held close rather than displayed. The message is affectionate and domestic at once—requests, greetings to family, and promises to write—before the eye is drawn to the vivid interruptions of lipstick marks…