13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. 750)

1. These incredibly vibrant portraits of 1930s High Society by Madame Yevonde

A forgotten master of her trade:

Yevonde Philone Middleton (née Cumbers; 5 January 1893, Streatham – 22 December 1975, London), English photographer, a pioneer in the use of color in portrait photography. She used the professional name Madame Yevonde or simply Yevonde in a career lasting over sixty years.

She took the official wedding portrait of Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, creating the earliest surviving color print of a member of the British royal family. Another major coup was being invited to take portraits of leading peers to mark the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1937. She had joined the Royal Photographic Society briefly in 1921 and then again in 1933, and became a Fellow in 1940. This highly creative period of her career would only last a few years; at the end of 1939, Colour Photographs Ltd closed, and the Vivex process was lost. It was a second great blow that year as her husband, the playwright Edgar Middleton, had died in April. She returned to working in black and white and continued to produce work up until her death, just two weeks short of her eighty-third birthday. The importance of her oeuvre and that of other experimental British photographers of the 1920s and 1930s had largely been forgotten at the time of her death. But there was a revival of interest in her work – chiefly her color photography of the 1930s – after this was the subject of an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in 1990. Downplaying her own artistry, but aligning with her early work as a Suffragette, in her 1940 memoir, In Camera, she had written, “I took up photography with the definite purpose of making myself independent. I wanted to earn money of my own.”

Find out more about the artist on Aware.

2. Old master painting looted by Nazis spotted in Argentinian property listing

Dutch newspaper AD says it has traced Giuseppe Ghislandi’s Portrait of a Lady to house near Buenos Aires. Read the news article on the Guardian.

3. Actor Jeremy Irons lives exactly where you imagine he would

In a secret 15th century Irish fortress called Kilcoe Castle, located on the southwest coast of Ireland, was a long abandoned 15th-century fortress before being purchased by actor Jeremy Irons in 1997 for £150,000. The structure had fallen into ruin, but Irons undertook a massive restoration project, carefully reviving the castle while preserving its historic character.

Though no longer abandoned, Kilcoe remains a striking example of what can become of forgotten places with time, care and vision. From crumbling walls to a fully restored residence, it’s a powerful reminder of the stories these place hold.

Originally published in Vanity Fair, more photographs available on Reddit.

4. Downton Abbey’s Big Auction

Browse the auction online, currently open for bidding.

5. Hand made brushes by artist Emily Gravett

And she has an “occasional art shop” online

6. Seventeenth Century Japanese Candy Designs

Wagashi (traditional Japanese sweets) illustrated design book, late 17th century Edo-period, Kyoto.

Found here.

7. A 17th century term for lesbians or transgender men

Found on the depths of Wikipedia.

8. In 1871, a woman from Quebec hired a hearse with the sole intention of riding around town smoking in the coffin-bed while enjoying the view

Very little is known about her, but a newspaper article published after the incident reads: “What will women do next to distinguish themselves, we wonder! A female in Quebec, the other day, perpetrated a ghastly joke, mocking death in His own domain by lying down in a hearse and smoking a pipe as the funeral chariot was driven through the street. If this exhibition had been made in the United States, our neighbors at the North would have made it the subject of very strong animadversions.”