Evelyn McHale wrote in her suicide note that she didn't want her family to see 'any part' of her body. Instead, a photo of her death would become one of the most famous photographs of all time.
The nineteenth-century Italian aristocrat Virginia Oldoini, Countess de Castiglione, has been cast in many lights: narcissist, courtesan, spy, exhibitionist. In the photo studio of Mayer & Pierson, she played all these parts and one more-the role of self-portraitist. For decades, Oldoini helped conceptualize and starred in more than four hundred portraits so experimental and expressive that they have drawn comparisons to works by Claude Cahun and Cindy Sherman.
Next weekend, New Yorkers especially enamored with the relationship (and with JFK Jr. himself) should make their way to Washington Square Park, where a JFK Jr. lookalike competition is set to take place. There's a $250 cash prize for the contestant who most resembles JFK Jr.-dubbed "the biggest hunk" on the flyer-and while it doesn't say this explicitly, we wouldn't be shocked if a swarm of single women started lining up the night before in search of a real-life Camelot.
Fearing for her safety, Lisette Model buried her photos of artists like Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong, but a new book reveals them to the world. Lisette Model was targeted by the FBI during the Red Scare, like so many other leftist Jewish refugees. The book is one front, not least because of the systematic exclusion of women from art historical narratives and institutions.
The Oscar Wilde that entered Napoleon Sarony's New York studio in 1882 was fresh-faced, yet to pen the plays and singular novel that would make his name. But he was no unknown quantity. As captured by the photographer, Wilde was an aesthetic: his outfit of velvet jacket, silk knee breeches, and slippers crowned with grosgrain bows cutting the figure of a dandy who had captivated London society with his keen wit.
The White House has suggested that the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery (NPG) create a dedicated section to display multiple images of US president Donald Trump, expanding beyond the single official portrait traditionally shown during a sitting president's term. The idea first came up during a 19 December visit to the museum by Abby Jones, the acting chief of protocol at the State Department, and the White House photographer Daniel Torok, according to The New York Times.
Running from March 17 to July 19, 2026, Renoir and Love will be one of the top special exhibitions of the year in Paris. Celebrating how affection, connection and human relationships shaped Renoir's work during a defining period of his career. Bringing many key works together for the first time in decades, the exhibition offers a fresh perspective on how Renoir approached love not as an abstract ideal, but as something lived and experienced within the changing social life of late-19th-century Paris.
