1. Paul Gauguin, the famous French painter, had a biography which matches for sure his beautiful and haunting works. During his early years, in dire need of cash, he was one of the workers at the Panama Canal. The harsh working conditions nearly killed the artist, who would forever regard the time spent there as a true nightmare. Still, Gauguin was one of the lucky few. Almost 25 000 workers lost their lives there. 2. The term of "Art Nouveau" was not a briliant invention or a concept which appeared after careful and tiring discussions. Actually, it's origin is rather mundane, for it was borrowed from the name of a store opened in Paris in about 1885. If this isn't fame...
3. What would our lives be without the small and apparently easily lost pencil? This modest tool which proved to be an invaluable help for artists all around the world was actually invented in England, in 1565.
4. One of the most famous art thefts in history was that of the Mona Lisa, which was taken from the Louvre Museum in 1912 and finally recovered three years later. Even if the story is still fascinating, mixing politics, nationalism and love for art, the funny part is that during those three years no less than 6 replicas of the painting appeared on the market and were sold for really high prices.
5. Is their any art lover (or anybody really) who hasn't heard the name of Picasso? What even some of his admirers may not know is that Pablo Picasso began drawing almost before he started to walk. What's more, his very first word is rumored to have been "lapiz". That would be Spanish for pencil.
6. Roman statues were beautiful in their time and magnificent today, for they offer a glimpse into a part of art history that otherwise would have been almost completely forgotten. Yet, the Roman sculptors really knew how to make and sell their works. You no longer liked the statue? You ended up hating the emperor or hero? Maybe they had fallen out of grace? It wasn't a great loss, for Roman statues had removable heads, so you could replace them rather easily.
Photo: ibiblio.org
