Æsthetic Circus

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/69/06/4a/69064afd850f4a99b6ff96b93bdd1095.jpg Alexander Nikolaevich Benois 1870-1960 THE PALACE CHURCH AT PETERHOF signed in Latin and dated  1918-1954  l.r. and dedicated to the artist's grandson, Pierre Braslavsky l.l. watercolour and pencil on paper 36.5 by 58 cm, 14 1/4 by 22 3/4 in. 'It was at Peterhof that the novel of my life began'... At Peterhof there is something so magical, so dear and poetic, that almost everybody who gets to know it falls under its spell.' Benois felt a strong connection with the palace of Peterhof. His father Nikolai Benois worked there as an architect for over ten years, and the palace itself harked back to a distant past which Benois and his fellow members of the World of Art group were trying to revive in the arts. His first sketches of the palace architecture and grounds date from 1900 when Benois was preparing his history of eighteenth century art. He spent another summer there in 1907 and, fearing that

Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972) Goriano Sicoli, Abruzzi (B. 126) lithograph, 1929, on wove paper, L. 235 x 288 mm; S. 298 x 354 mm https://www.pinterest.com/pin/687361961867916002/ https://www.pinterest.com/pin/687361961867916002/  

 Edward Hopper  Gas 1940  Oil on canvas Dimensions 26 1/4 x 40 1/4" (66.7 x 102.2 cm) This work resulted from a composite representation of several gasoline stations seen by the artist. The light in this painting—both natural and artificial—gives the scene of a gas station and its lone attendant at dusk an underlying sense of drama. But rather than simply depicting a straightforward narrative, Hopper’s aim was “the most exact transcription possible of my most intimate impressions of nature”—in this case, the loneliness of an American country road. Fellow artist Charles Burchfield believed these paintings would remain memorable beyond their time, because in his “honest presentation of the American scene … Hopper does not insist upon what the beholder shall feel.” https://www.pinterest.com/pin/687361961867205545/   https://www.pinterest.com/AestheticCircus/