Death of a Salesman
Grigori Rasputin was one of history’s most infamous, improbable influences, a degenerate Siberian peasant who contributed enormously to the implosion of Russia’s three-hundred-year-old Romanov dynasty. A self-styled “holy man,” Rasputin presented himself as a miracle worker to Alexandra Feodorovna, the last tsarina, by preying on her penchant for mystics and her bouts of nervous hysteria. Combining coincidence with curative talents, he convinced the empress that he alone could ease the pain of her hemophiliac son and heir to the throne, Alexei. Asked why he allowed the famously unwashed and lecherous intruder in his family’s midst, Tsar Nicholas II replied, “Better one Rasputin than ten hysterical scenes a day.” Rasputin’s influence soon...
Read MoreThe Lovely Bones
Arguably the most famous and iconic plantation ruin in the South, twenty-three pillars are all that remain of Windsor, a home so grandiose in its heyday that Mississippi steamboat captains used it as a landmark. It’s haunting under any circumstances, more so when glimpsed through a dense morning fog, emerging as a series of vertical phantoms which slowly morph into great columns supporting only thin air. The evocative stone skeleton holds a preponderant sense of time lost and forgotten and, with minimal surrender, conjures images of what was. Indeed, no one knew what Windsor actually looked like until an accidental discovery late in the last century. Located below Port Gibson, Mississippi, Windsor was begun in 1859 and finished two years later. On a...
Read MoreThe French Connection
In 1884, Virginie Amélie Gautreau, a Parisian socialite celebrated for her eccentric beauty and rumored liaisons, agreed to pose for rising star artist, John Singer Sargent. What they assumed would be a collaboration advancing both their social positions had, alas, the opposite effect. When the painting was unveiled at the Paris Salon, entitled Portrait de Mme ***, the public, who had no trouble identifying the subject, was appalled by Virginie’s revealing gown with its right strap falling casually off her shoulder, her corpse-like skin and provocative pose. It was also savaged by critics crying that no well-born lady would dress in such an unconventional manner. Desperate to save the moment, Sargent painted the strap back in place and renamed the painting Madam...
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