SURPRISING STORIES BEHIND AMAZING ARTWORKS

11 Surprising Stories Behind Amazing Artworks

Jon Mayer By Jon Mayer Mar 21, 2022 Claude Monet in his studio painting his Water Lilies series, 1923. Claude Monet in his studio painting his Water Lilies series, 1923. / Print Collector/GettyImages facebook twitter reddit The stories behind paintings and sculptures can be as interesting as the work itself; in fact, looking “behind the easel” can even shed light on our shared history and culture. From Mark Rothko's Seagram murals to Gustav Klimt's Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, here are stories behind artistic masterpieces you should know, adapted from an episode of The List Show on YouTube. 1. Claude Monet's Water Lilies Series Claude Monet’s beautiful gardens in Giverny once caused him to curse out an entire town. The impressionist would go on to paint his famous water lily paintings in the serene setting, but navigating the small French commune’s bureaucracy proved stressful. Locals objected to Monet’s plans for an Asian-influenced water garden, fearing the environmental impact of introducing non-native plant species to the area. They made it so difficult to acquire the land that Monet once wrote to his wife, “I want no longer to have anything to do with … all those people in Giverny … S*** on the natives of Giverny.” Despite his initial frustrations, Monet succeeded in acquiring the land necessary for his gardens, and soon built the Japanese footbridges he would make so iconic. An avid gardener, Monet also acquired a number of newly-bred, multicolored species of water lilies, though in his words, he “grew them without thinking of painting them.” Luckily, the influential painter was able to make that creative leap on his own, but we still might not have gotten some of his most beautiful later pieces without an assist from Georges Clemenceau, the former Prime Minister of France who also happened to be an old friend of Monet’s. When the artist developed cataracts late in life, he was resolved to avoid eye surgery, even saying he would “give up painting if necessary.” Clemenceau—who would later tell his friend that “complaining gives you the greatest joy in life”—helped convince his gifted friend to get the surgery. Monet eventually completed the massive water lily paintings that he called his Grandes Decorations and donated the pieces to the French state, as he had promised. Today they are housed in Paris’s Musée de l’Orangerie. 2. Édouard Manet's Bonus Asparagus Monet’s rough contemporary, Édouard Manet, once gifted what may be history’s most valuable stalk of asparagus. When the French art critic and collector Charles Ephrussi purchased a still-life painting of a bunch of asparagus, Manet charged him 800 francs. Ephrussi sent 1000 francs in payment. As either a token of appreciation for the extra cash or evidence that he couldn’t avoid an opportunity for a good dad joke, Manet created an additional painting of a single stalk of asparagus and sent it to his patron with a note reading, “there was one missing from your bunch.” Today, the bonus picture hangs in Paris’s Musee D’Orsay. 3. Mark Rothko's Seagram Murals New Collection Displays At Tate Britain - Photocall Mark Rothko's Seagram Murals on display at the Tate. / John Phillips/GettyImages On February 25, 1970, Mark Rothko’s nine Seagram murals arrived at the Tate Gallery in London, the very same day Rothko was found dead in New York. But that sad bit of historical timing is just the final chapter of an interesting story. The paintings had originally been commissioned by Philip Johnson for the newly built Seagram building, the most expensive skyscraper of its type when it was built, and were meant to be hung in the building’s Four Seasons restaurant. A venue like The Four Seasons, in the center of corporate America, didn’t seem like a natural fit for a high-minded artist like Rothko. He had his reasons, though. As he told Harper’s Magazine editor John Fischer, “I accepted this assignment as a challenge, with strictly malicious intentions. I hope to paint something that will ruin the appetite of every son of a bitch who ever eats in that room.” Rothko also accepted the assignment with an “out” built into his contract. At any point, he could return the money and retrieve his paintings. After eating a meal at the Four Seasons, Rothko is said to have remarked: “Anybody who will eat that kind of food for those kind of prices will never look at a painting of mine.” That one meal may not be the sole reason for his about-face, but he withdrew from the agreement and donated the pieces to London’s Tate Gallery. They eventually ended up in the Tate Modern. Playwright John Logan actually dramatized the creation of the Seagram murals in his Tony-winning play, Red. 4. Gustav Klimt’s Woman in Gold Gustav Klimt’s Woman in Gold depicts Adele Bloch-Bauer, the wife of sugar mogul Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer. When the Nazis invaded Austria in the late '30s, they stole from wealthy Jews like Bloch-Bauer, taking his entire art collection and his prized Stradivarius cello. Years later, with the painting then hanging in Vienna’s Austrian Gallery at Belvedere Palace, Frederick’s niece, Maria Altmann, went on a mission to reclaim her family’s property. A lengthy legal battle ensued. Discussing the Austrian government’s tactics with The Los Angeles Times back in 2001, Altmann said “They will delay, delay, delay hoping I will die. But I will do them the pleasure of staying alive.” The United States Supreme Court even weighed in at one point and the painting was eventually returned to Ms. Altmann, who then sold the piece to philanthropist Ronald Lauder so he could put it on display at Manhattan’s Neue Galerie. 5. The Benin Bronzes Germany To Return Benin Bronzes The Benin Bronzes. / Thomas Niedermueller/GettyImages Of course, the Nazis aren’t the only ones to have stolen precious works of art. One particularly damning episode took place near the end of the 19th century, during the colonial fervor that’s been called “The Scramble for Africa.” In 1896, the British Acting Consul in the Niger Coast Protectorate, Captain James Robert Phillips, sought permission to depose the Oba, or ruler, of Benin, a kingdom located in present-day Nigeria. Philips believed the Oba was standing in the way of profitable trade in the region and wrote, “I have reason to hope that sufficient ivory would be found in the King's house to pay the expenses incurred in removing the King from his stool." When Philips and his men were denied an audience with the Oba they went anyway, ostensibly on a peaceful mission (though that account has been called into question). Almost the entire party was killed, and in less than two months, retaliatory British forces were sent to occupy Benin City. While the number of casualties is unknown, contemporary accounts make it clear the number was substantial. British forces burned down buildings, including the Royal Palace, and looted thousands of works of art, including the so-called Benin Bronzes. These sculptures—many of which are actually made of brass—represent not just part of Benin’s history, but artistic excellence so advanced that an early 20th century curator of the Berlin Ethnographic Museum declared them to “stand even at the summit of what can be technically achieved.” Many of the sculptures were made with a time-intensive “lost-wax casting process” by master artisans in Benin’s brass-casting guild. Today, most of the Benin Bronzes are in museums and private collections far outside the original Kingdom of Benin. The British Museum owns over 900 such pieces. And while new conversations about repatriating ill-gotten artwork have led to initiatives like the Benin Dialogue Group and plans for a new museum in Benin filled with artwork loaned back to the area, very little has been permanently returned to Nigeria, or to the present-day Oba. One notable exception comes from a Welsh doctor named Mark Walker, whose grandfather took part in the 1897 raid of Benin. Through a series of coincidences and the efforts of two former British police officers, Steve Dunstone and Timothy Awoyemi, the younger Mr. Walker helped return two artifacts to the Oba of Benin back in 2014. In 2021, it was announced that German museums would work to repatriate some of their Benin Bronzes as early as 2022. 6. Kara Walker's A Subtlety, or the Marvelous Sugar Baby Large Scale Sugar-Coated Sculpture Displayed in Brooklyn's Former Domino Sugar Refinery Kara Walker's 'A Subtlety' in Brooklyn's Former Domino Sugar Refinery. / Andrew Burton/GettyImages Kara Walker’s work is also inextricably tied to the legacy of colonialism and slavery. While she became famous largely for her provocative work with paper cutouts, it was a much different type of piece that showed some of the possibilities and limitations of public art. In 2014, she installed A Subtlety, or the Marvelous Sugar Baby, an Homage to the unpaid and overworked Artisans who have refined our Sweet tastes from the cane fields to the Kitchens of the New World on the Occasion of the demolition of the Domino Sugar Refining Plant in the former location of that same Domino Sugar Refining Plant in Brooklyn, New York. • This Canadian Ghost Town Is a Perfectly Preserved 1980s Time Capsule • 125 Amazing Women Who Changed the World • 15 Wild Facts About 'Yellowstone' • 6 Novels That Controversially Fictionalized Real Events The piece was financed largely by the real-estate company Two Trees, which owned the Domino Sugar Refinery site and was planning a costly development at the location. That a giant real-estate outfit would underwrite work from an iconoclastic artist like Walker would prove to be just one of the project’s many ironies. The exhibit’s centerpiece was a massive sculpture that took a team of dozens to create. It mixes the posture of a sphinx with elements taken from stereotypical depictions of the “mammy” archetype. With the entire figure covered in thousands of pounds of actual sugar, donated by Domino, and the floor of the site still stained with molasses from its history as a working plant, the piece alludes to the history of sugar production and trade, and the bitter role the ingredient played in accelerating the African slave trade. Walker called her piece A Subtlety, a nod to the old label for grand sugar sculptures created for nobility of the past, though her towering work is, as she recognized, unsubtle in many ways. Though the sculpture’s representation of breasts and genitalia could be read as allusions to the hyper-sexualization of Black women in American culture, or to an awful legacy of sexual violence, many of the exhibition’s attendees seemed blissfully unaware of that history. Some posed suggestively with the sphinx; others made adolescent bodily jokes on Instagram and other social media platforms. Walker, for her part, anticipated the reaction, saying, “I put a giant 10-foot vagina in the world and people respond to giant 10-foot vaginas in the way they do.” She did choose to surreptitiously film some of these reactions, and compiled them into its own piece, a video titled An Audience. 7. Georgia O'Keeffe's Gerald's Tree Georgia O’Keeffe spent many years visiting and then living near the Ghost Ranch in New Mexico—an area she might never have discovered if she wasn’t such a terrible driver. Her difficulties in learning to operate a car were “legendary,” according to the art critic Calvin Tomkins. As she told Tomkins back in 1974: “One day, the boy who was trying to teach me to drive said he knew of a place he thought I’d like better than any I’d seen, and he brought me [to the Ghost Ranch]. … I think the story is that a family was murdered there, and that from time to time a woman carrying a child appears in the original house—that’s the ghost. Well, I came back a few days later, alone, and asked if I could stay.” She would go on to paint many of her master works in or near the stark setting. O’Keeffe didn’t leave everything up to chance, though. She eventually started driving her Model-A Ford to find interesting landscapes, and then used it as a mobile studio, where she painted pieces like Gerald’s Tree. Upon arriving at a location, O’Keeffe would remove the detachable driver’s seat and unbolt the passenger seat, turning it around so she could face the back-seat “easel.” The mobile studio allowed O’Keeffe to paint during oppressively hot days and protected her from the bees that tended to gather as days wore on. 8. John Everett Millais's Ophelia Ophelia Ophelia / Hulton Archive/GettyImages O’Keeffe wasn’t the only artist who had to contend with bugs to bring us beauty. While John Everett Millais was painting his Ophelia, he wrote of the stresses of painting in the open air, saying, “My martyrdom is more trying than any I have hitherto experienced. The flies of Surrey are more muscular, and have a still greater propensity for probing human flesh.” On top of that, Millais was threatened with reproach for trespassing on a field and destroying the hay. His model, Elizabeth Siddal, had it even worse. In order to represent the story of Ophelia’s drowning from Hamlet, Millais had Siddal pose in a bathtub full of water. The website My Modern Met describes the unforeseen consequences like this: “During one sitting, the oil lamps responsible for keeping the water warm went out, and Siddal grew severely ill as a result.” Her father eventually had to pressure the artist into paying for his daughter’s medical bills. Millais may have felt that the tumultuous process “would be a greater punishment to a murderer than hanging,” in his own melodramatic words, but the finished painting stands today as one of the finest exponents of the pre-Raphaelite movement. 9. Frida Kahlo's Self-Portrait Dedicated to Leon Trotsky Many of Frida Kahlo’s paintings employ visual metaphor to allude to her tumultuous life, but her Self-Portrait Dedicated to Leon Trotsky doesn’t leave much guesswork for the modern viewer. In the painting, Kahlo holds a note of dedication to the Russian revolutionary reading “con todo cariño.” That Spanish phrase, which can be translated as “with all love,” probably doesn’t imply the same level of romantic passion as “con todo amor” would have, but if she had made the piece half a year earlier there’s no telling what she might have inscribed. Kahlo and her husband, Diego Rivera, were avowed Marxists. It was actually Rivera who convinced Mexican President Lázaro Cárdenas to offer Trotsky political asylum in Mexico years after he was exiled from the Soviet Union. Trotsky and his wife stayed in their hosts’ second home, the Casa Azul, while in Mexico. That’s when things get messy. Or, given the turbulent marriage between the two famed Mexican painters, messier. Perhaps, in part, to get revenge for Rivera’s affair with her sister, Cristina, Frida began her own affair with Trotsky. The lovers apparently conspired right in front of Trotsky’s wife, who couldn’t follow along in English, their shared second language. Some of their meetings actually happened in Cristina’s house. By July of 1937, the relationship had fizzled out, with Frida reportedly telling a friend, “I am very tired of the old man.” The self-portrait was, nonetheless, dedicated to Trotsky in November. A few years later he was killed in Mexico by an undercover agent working for Stalin, and Kahlo was actually brought in for questioning by the Mexican police. 10. Hilma af Klint's Paintings for the Temple Spring Exhibition Photocall; Hilma Af Klint Exhibition At Serpentine Gallery Spring Exhibition Photocall; Hilma Af Klint Exhibition At Serpentine Gallery / David M. Benett/GettyImages When the Swedish painter Hilma af Klint rose to prominence decades after her death, the art historian Julia Voss suggested that “[a]rt history has to be rewritten.” For years, many had considered artists like Wassily Kandinsky and Francis Picabia the fathers of abstract art. Before they began experimenting with abstraction around 1910, the medium was dominated by figurative work representing real or imagined scenes. Af Klint’s abstract, often geometric pieces, though, predate the work of the supposed abstract pioneers by several years. And the story of why it took so long to rediscover her work is almost as interesting as the motivations behind the pieces themselves. Af Klint did show her more traditional, figurative paintings during her life, and even exhibited her more abstract work in London back in 1928. Perhaps the tepid reaction to the work led her to believe she was ahead of her time. A skeptical studio visit from the philosopher Rudolf Steiner, whose Anthroposophical Society af Klint was an acolyte of, certainly didn’t help. Whatever the reason, af Klint decided to bequeath her paintings to her nephew, with the clear direction that he not display any of them until 20 years after her death. Af Klint had taken an interesting journey to arrive at abstraction. She attended her first séance at 17, and eventually formed a spiritual collective of five women who called themselves De Fem (or “the five”). The women went on to conduct other séances, with one resulting in a “commission” for a series of paintings from a spiritual entity the group called High Master Amaliel. Af Klint eventually fulfilled this commission by creating 193 “Paintings for the Temple.” And while af Klint once said “the pictures were painted directly through me,” suggesting some kind of channeling, she also specified that “It was not the case that I was to blindly obey the High Lords of the Mysteries,” leaving some tension between her own agency and the spiritual dimensions of the work. The temple af Klint had envisioned for her opus was a custom-built spiral that never came to be. It’s fitting, then, that a record-breaking 2018 exhibition of her work took place at a museum once envisioned as a “temple for the spirit” by its director, Hilla von Rebay: Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic spiraled masterpiece, the Guggenheim. 11. Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Sunday in the Park With George "Sunday In The Park With George" Theatre Marquee Unveiling "Sunday In The Park With George" Theatre Marquee Unveiling / Walter McBride/GettyImages Today, Stephen Sondheim is widely regarded as Broadway royalty, but in 1982 he was coming off one of the biggest flops of his career, Merrily We Roll Along, which had run for just 16 performances. Searching for inspiration, he and collaborator James Lapine turned to visual art, including Georges Seurat’s pointillist painting, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. Lapine noted that, though the painting resembled a scene that might be seen on a stage, the main character—Seurat himself—was absent. The musical that eventually came out of this moment, Sunday in the Park With George, beautifully examines the creative process, with a focus on A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, but it wasn’t a biography of the painter, really. Seurat died at just 31 years old, and one biographer described him as inclined to secrecy and isolation. We know that the painting took over two years to complete, and that Seurat had a secret mistress, whom Sondheim obliquely worked into his musical, but the fictionalized Georges was almost entirely Sondheim’s invention, whether by dramatic necessity or want of available information. It couldn’t have been a simple matter to dramatize the internal inspiration and rigorous dedication needed to create a piece as singular as La Grande Jatte, but, as someone once said, art isn’t easy.

10 Most Beautiful & Interesting Places to Visit in Kenya

10 Most Beautiful & Interesting Places to Visit in Kenya By Heather Richardson A country of great diversity, both physically and culturally, Kenya is one of Africa’s most popular destinations for very good reason. With blissful Indian Ocean beaches, craggy mountains, lush forests and wildlife-rich savannahs, there are endless beautiful places to visit in Kenya. These are 10 of many… 1. Mt Kenya Mount Kenya At 5,199m/17,057ft high, the largest mountain in Kenya is also the second highest in Africa after Kilimanjaro across the border in Tanzania. The stratovolcano was created around three million years ago when the East African Rift (part of the Great Rift Valley) opened up. Today its lower slopes are covered in forests of bamboo and African rosewood trees and the mountain runoff provides water for over two million people. With its rugged snowy peaks and glaciers along the upper slopes, Mt Kenya is one of the most beautiful places to visit in Kenya. Travelers hoping to summit can either hike to Point Lenana, one of the three peaks, taking the world’s highest via ferrata route (iron way), or climb to the highest point, Batian Peak, though this requires experience of technical climbing.

Mt Kenya Tours 2. Ol Pejeta Lioness at Ol Pejeta. Photo by Ariadne van Zandbergen A Big Five conservancy in the foothills of Mt Kenya, Ol Pejeta Conservancy is known for its conservation initiatives. It was where the last male northern white rhino, Sudan, died in 2018; the last females of the sub-species still live at Ol Pejeta, protected around the clock. The Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary is in the Laikipia conservancy, too, providing a home for chimps rescued from the black market. One of the most interesting places to visit in Kenya, Ol Pejeta is a great destination to learn about the relationship between people and wildlife and the challenges faced in the conservation industry. Come for the day or enjoy a longer stay for lion tracking, bush walks and night drives.10 Most Beautiful & Interesting Places to Visit in Kenya By Heather Richardson A country of great diversity, both physically and culturally, Kenya is one of Africa’s most popular destinations for very good reason. With blissful Indian Ocean beaches, craggy mountains, lush forests and wildlife-rich savannahs, there are endless beautiful places to visit in Kenya. These are 10 of many… 1. Mt Kenya Mount Kenya At 5,199m/17,057ft high, the largest mountain in Kenya is also the second highest in Africa after Kilimanjaro across the border in Tanzania. The stratovolcano was created around three million years ago when the East African Rift (part of the Great Rift Valley) opened up. Today its lower slopes are covered in forests of bamboo and African rosewood trees and the mountain runoff provides water for over two million people. With its rugged snowy peaks and glaciers along the upper slopes, Mt Kenya is one of the most beautiful places to visit in Kenya. Travelers hoping to summit can either hike to Point Lenana, one of the three peaks, taking the world’s highest via ferrata route (iron way), or climb to the highest point, Batian Peak, though this requires experience of technical climbing. Mt Kenya Tours 2. Ol Pejeta Lioness at Ol Pejeta. Photo by Ariadne van Zandbergen A Big Five conservancy in the foothills of Mt Kenya, Ol Pejeta Conservancy is known for its conservation initiatives. It was where the last male northern white rhino, Sudan, died in 2018; the last females of the sub-species still live at Ol Pejeta, protected around the clock. The Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary is in the Laikipia conservancy, too, providing a home for chimps rescued from the black market. One of the most interesting places to visit in Kenya, Ol Pejeta is a great destination to learn about the relationship between people and wildlife and the challenges faced in the conservation industry. Come for the day or enjoy a longer stay for lion tracking, bush walks and night drives. Ol Pejeta Tours

3. Lake Nakuru Lake Nakuru National Park Lake Nakuru National Park is home to a vast number of bird species, most notably huge flocks of flamingos – they have been known to number in their millions, though the lake has seen a decrease in recent times. Lake Nakuru is one of the Rift Valley lakes, and the birds are attracted to the high levels of algae in the water. Pelicans, cormorants, the African fish eagles, Verreaux’s eagles, Goliath herons and hammerkops are also seen around the lake. In addition, you can spot black and white rhinos, Rothschild’s giraffes, lions and cheetahs throughout the national park.

Lake Nakuru Tours 4. Lamu Town Lamu town Kenya is not only noted for its safari reserves and savannah, but also its Indian Ocean coastline. The Lamu archipelago is amongst the most interesting places to visit in Kenya as an area brimming with history. Lamu town was founded around 1370 as a Swahili port that has since been inhabited by Europeans, Indians and Persians. As such, it’s a melting pot of multicultural influences. There are 23 mosques, a 19th-century fort and traditional dhow boats bobbing offshore. Then of course there are the surrounding peaceful and unspoilt beaches. The perfect place to unwind after a Kenyan safari tour.

Lamu Tours 5. Samburu Samburu National Park In northern Kenya, Samburu National Reserve is considered one of the best safari destinations in the country. This region is also home to the Samburu people, famed for their many strands of brightly colored beaded jewelry. Within the reserve you’ll find elephants, lions, leopards and cheetahs, plus over 450 species of birds. You might also spot rare sub-species such as the Grevy’s zebra, reticulated giraffe and East African oryx, as well as the gerenuk (a long-necked antelope) and spotted hyena.

Samburu Tours 6. Masai Mara Masai Mara National Reserve How can we not mention the Masai Mara National Reserve? It’s one of the most famous safari destinations on the continent, but you can escape the crowds by heading to a private concession on the edge of the reserve. Aside from not being accessible to the general public, concessions have the advantage of allowing activities not permitted in the national reserve: bush walks and night drives, for example. The Masai Mara is one of the best places in Africa for big cat sightings: lions, leopards and cheetahs are all easy to spot. Then of course, there’s the big-ticket draw: the year-round migration that sees nearly two million wildebeest, plus half a million antelopes and thousands of zebras, following the rains around Tanzania and Kenya. The most anticipated part of this journey is the dramatic Mara River crossings that occur between August and October as the animals enter Kenya.

Masai Mara Tours 7. Amboseli Amboseli National Park For iconic views, look no further than Amboseli National Park, close to the Tanzanian border and east of the Mara. With the mighty, snowcapped Mt Kilimanjaro, the world’s highest free-standing mountain, rising up across the border, the dramatic scenery is partly why it’s one of the most beautiful places to visit in Kenya. Another reason is its healthy elephant population, many with giant tusks. Then there are the park’s lions, cheetahs, hyenas, buffalo, giraffes, pelicans, martial eagles, blue-cheeked bee-eaters – and much more.

Amboseli Tours 8. Diani Beach Diani Beach Easily amongst the most picturesque shores in Africa, Diani Beach is about 30km/20mi south of Mombasa and a short flight from Nairobi. Its white sands are lapped by the brilliant Indian Ocean and backed by verdant forests, into which you can take nature walks when you tire of sunbathing or kite-surfing. Head out for a snorkeling tour, swim with whale sharks, enjoy a sunset dhow cruise – or simply kick back in a hammock with a good book.

Diani Tours 9. Chyulu Hills Chyulu Hills National Park In southeastern Kenya, Chyulu Hills is a mountain range that extends for 1,000km/620mi, peaking at 2,188m/7,178ft above sea level. They’re some of the world’s youngest volcanic mountains, at just 500 years old, and also where you can find the Leviathan Cave, one of the world’s longest lava tubes. In the scenic Chyulu Hills National Park, you might spot eland, klipspringer, giraffe and zebra, amongst other wildlife. Aside from wildlife-viewing safari drives, you can head out hiking, rock climbing and horse riding. The lush hills and big skies make this one of the most beautiful places to visit in Kenya.

Chyulu Hills Tours 10. The Aberdares Aberdare National Park In the cool highlands along the Great Rift Valley, Aberdare National Park is one of the most interesting places to visit in Kenya. Not only is it a lush mountainous region of valleys, rivers, waterfalls and forests, it is also home to extremely rare animals such as the black serval, the black leopard and the eastern bongo, the country’s most elusive antelope. This is the place where Elizabeth II heard of her father’s death, making her Queen of England; Treetops Hotel, where she was staying at the time, has since become a popular place for travelers to visit.

Aberdare Tours