SNIPPETS
ART
9.7m Right Side Up On December 3rd, 1961, Henri Matisse’s painting “Le Bateau” was put right-side up after hanging upside-down for 46 days without anyone noticing at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. A stockbroker named Genevieve Habert found the mistake and notified the authorities. The picture is composed pieces of paper cut out of sheets painted with gouache, and was created during the last years of Matisse’s life.
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A Home for Art The most popular art museum in the world is the Musee du Louvre in Paris. Once a fortified palace that was the home to kings of France, the Louvre is the world’s most visited museum, and received more than 9.7 million visitors in 2012. Renowned for some of the finest pieces of art in the world, including the Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa the Louvre is over 60,000 square meters of art space.
Ravi Varma Painting Found
Da Vinci, the Perfectionist Leonardo da Vinci is known as a great artist but only 15 paintings of his are known to exist. He believed that only perfect art should exist and destroyed everything else. He used to experiment new techniques on his artwork and was known for procrastinating due to which very few works survive. He thought art should be made flawlessly like magic and hence he destroyed most of his sketchbooks too.
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FWD LIFE
DECEMBER 2014
A rare painting by Raja Ravi Varma was found at the Mannanam CMI Ashram in Kottayam. The canvas depicts Mother Mary and baby Jesus with John the Baptist. The Ashram is believed to have been gifted the painting by King Sree Vishakam Tirunal of Travancore. The art work stands to prove the communal harmony prevalent during that time. Studies are being conducted to discover more about this painting.