An early twentieth-century printed view of Khabarovsk in the Russian Far East. The settlement spreads across elevated ground above the Amur River, with buildings and a prominent church visible along the skyline. The image preserves a view of the growing river city as represented in a period publication.
A printed street scene from Wakayama, Japan, depicting decorations associated with the traditional Boys’ Festival, or Tango no Sekku. Banners or poles rise above the buildings along the street. The festival was historically observed on the fifth day of the fifth month and later became connected with Japan’s Children's Day.
A wood-engraved view of Urique, a town in the mountainous region of Chihuahua, Mexico. Modest buildings line the street beneath steep surrounding slopes. The illustration emphasizes the relationship between settlement and landscape in a remote mountain valley.
A landscape engraving of the rocky terrain around Kalabaka in Thessaly, Greece. Towering stone formations rise above a broad plain, creating a distinctive view of the region near Meteora. The image reflects the nineteenth-century tradition of illustrating distant landscapes for geographical and travel publications.
This wood engraving shows the Rathausquai, now part of the Limmatquai, beside the River Limmat in Zurich. Boats, pedestrians, and buildings animate the waterfront. The printed caption identifies the scene as “The Rathhaus Quay, Zurich,” preserving a historical English spelling of the location.
A crowded market square in Mexico City, reproduced as a nineteenth-century wood engraving. Vendors, shoppers, and street activity fill the foreground, while substantial urban buildings frame the scene. The print records how a market and its surrounding public space were presented to readers of illustrated publications in the 1870s.
This nineteenth-century steel engraving presents a view of Kelso in the Scottish Borders, with a bridge crossing the River Tweed and the ruins of Kelso Abbey visible in the townscape. The composition combines the riverside landscape with the architecture of an established market town.
Audrey Hepburn photographed by Norman Parkinson in Italy on June 23, 1955, during the filming of War and Peace. She wears a pale pink cocktail dress from Hubert de Givenchy's Spring/Summer 1955 collection, posed against a cascade of pink blossoms.
The photograph was taken at Villa Rolli, near Cecchina in the Alban Hills, for a fashion editorial published in Glamour.
Vivien Leigh as Anna Karenina and Kieron Moore as Count Vronsky in Anna Karenina (1948), a British film adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's novel directed by Julien Duvivier. Produced by Alexander Korda, the film also stars Ralph Richardson as Alexei Karenin.
The black-and-white production features period costumes designed by Cecil Beaton.
American actress Janet Blair poses beside a snowman in a playful winter publicity photograph, wearing a patterned swimsuit and fur-trimmed boots. Blair began her Hollywood film career in the early 1940s and became known for her appearances in Columbia Pictures productions, including My Sister Eileen (1942) and Tonight and Every Night (1945).
Photographer unidentified.
A colourful American advertisement for Studebaker automobiles, featuring an elegant sedan and an equestrian scene. The illustration combines detailed automotive artwork with images of leisure and sporting life, reflecting the aspirations of automobile advertising in the early 1930s.
Studebaker, based in South Bend, Indiana, was one of America's established automobile manufacturers.
Russian artist Boris Kustodiev painted Berendeevka in 1919. The landscape presents a quiet rural setting with wooden buildings, trees, and a winding path. Its warm colours and decorative treatment of nature reflect Kustodiev's interest in traditional Russian life and the landscapes of the countryside.
French painter Michel Garnier depicts the departure of the young Marquis de Saint-Marc for the Battle of Fontenoy in 1745. Painted in 1788, the scene was commissioned by the marquis himself, more than forty years after the event. It combines an intimate family farewell with the conventions of eighteenth-century French genre painting.
Oil on canvas. Private collection.
Sophia Loren and Cary Grant in The Pride and the Passion (1957), an American historical adventure film directed by Stanley Kramer. Set during the Napoleonic Wars in Spain, the film also stars Frank Sinatra and follows an effort to transport a massive cannon across enemy-occupied territory.
Loren plays Juana, while Grant portrays the British officer Anthony Trumbull.
.jpg "GMC Suburban Carryall (1953)")
A 1953 GMC Suburban Carryall, part of General Motors' postwar line of passenger-carrying utility vehicles. With its rounded bodywork, prominent chrome grille, and spacious enclosed cabin, the Suburban combined the practicality of a truck with the seating capacity of a family vehicle.
The photograph shows an example of the model in a snowy residential setting.
A black-and-white studio portrait of French actress Simone Signoret during the early years of her film career. Signoret began appearing in French cinema during the 1940s and would later become one of its most internationally recognized performers, celebrated for films including Casque d'Or (1952) and Room at the Top (1959).
Photographer unidentified.
Photographed in Paris in 1939, Lisa with Harp is one of Horst P. Horst's celebrated studies of the Swedish fashion model Lisa Fonssagrives. Using double exposure, Horst combines the model's figure with the strings of a harp, creating an unusual composition that bridges fashion photography and surrealist experimentation.
The photograph was later published in Vogue in May 1941.
Ramon Novarro and Joan Crawford appear together in Across to Singapore, a 1928 American silent romantic drama directed by William Nigh for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Set against a maritime adventure, the film features Novarro as a sailor whose romantic entanglements bring him into conflict with his family. Crawford plays Priscilla Crowninshield, his love interest.
Italian actress Sophia Loren poses beside a Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing sports car in 1956. The photograph captures the meeting of Italian cinema glamour and the distinctive automotive design of the 1950s.
Photograph attributed to Pierluigi Praturlon. Mondadori Portfolio.
Photographed by Lillian Bassman for Harper's Bazaar in 1951, Carmen Dell’Orefice appears in the fashion series It's a Cinch. Bassman's experimental use of soft focus, dramatic contrast, and darkroom techniques transformed fashion photography into an expressive visual art.
The series is an important example of her distinctive photographic style.