Ivan Shishkin "The Mast-Tree Grove" 1898 - Istra, Russia

Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin was a Russian landscape painter closely associated with the Peredvizhniki movement. Ivan Shishkin owned a dacha in Vyra, south of St Petersburg. There he painted some of his finest landscapes. His works are notable for poetic depiction of seasons in the woods, wild nature, animals and birds. In 1891 he was appointed professor-director of the landscape class in the Academy's Advanced Art School. In 1898 he completed his painting The Pine Grove and died on 20 March in St Petersburg while working on his new painting.

 

#77 FOTW - Luxembourg City, Luxembourg

The national flag of Luxembourg consists of three horizontal stripes, red, white and light blue, and can be in a 1:2 or 3:5 ratio. It was first used between 1845 and 1848 and officially adopted in 1993. It is informally called in the country, «rout, wäiß, blo» ("red, white, blue"). The red, white, and light blue colours were derived from the coat of arms of the House of Luxembourg.

 

A pug on a couch - Magong, Taiwan

The island's Mazu temple was erected in the late 16th or early 17th century. The city of Magong'ao began to grow around 1887, during the rule of the Qing dynasty. Under Japanese rule, the settlement was renamed Makō and organized as a subprefecture of Hōko. The area was a major base of the Imperial Japanese Navy. It was an embarkation point for the invasion of the Philippines during the Second World War.

 

Large Letter Reprint - Fort Wayne, Indiana

Nickname: "The Hoosier State"

Motto: "Crossroads of America"

Indiana is America's largest source of sandstone, which was used in the construction of the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, the Pentagon, and 14 state capitols. The first gas station in the world was built in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

 

A summer girl - Odivelas, Portugal

The origin of the name Odivelas is caught up in a peculiar legend that developed from the reign of King Denis. In the legend, King Denis had a habit of travelling late at night to the area of Odivelas, to have liaisons with women. On one of these nights, the Queen (Elizabeth of Portugal) waited for her wandering husband, and confronted him about the nightly trips, asking him: "Ides vê-las senhor...?" (Going to see them, sir?)

The phrase was, therefore, corrupted into Odivelas, or "where the King went to see them [the ladies]". 

 

Greetings from Milano - Milan, Italy

Even though Milan is located in one of the most urbanised regions of Italy, it is surrounded by a belt of green areas and features numerous gardens even in its very centre. The farmlands and woodlands north (Parco Nord Milano since 1975) and south (Parco Agricolo Sud Milano since 1990) of the urban area have been protected as regional parks. West of the city, the Parco delle Cave has been established on a neglected site where gravel and sand used to be extracted, featuring artificial lakes and woods.

 

#81 GF - Hamilton, Bermuda

Bermuda is named after the Spanish sailor Juan de Bermúdez, who discovered the islands in 1505, while sailing for Spain from a provisioning voyage to Hispaniola in the ship La Garça.

In the early 20th century Bermuda became a popular destination for American, Canadian and British tourists arriving by sea. The US Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, which enacted protectionist trade tariffs on goods imported into the US, led to the demise of Bermuda's once-thriving agricultural export trade to America and encouraged development of tourism as an alternative source of income. The island was one of the centres for illegal alcohol smuggling during the era of Prohibition in the United States (1920–1933).

 

German beer glasses - Duisburg, Germany

A beer stein is either a traditional beer mug made out of stoneware or specifically an ornamental beer mug sold as a souvenir or collectible. An 1894 article on beer mugs in the American Vogue magazine that describes various types of steins stated: "And it is to this [i.e. German] nation that we owe Wagner's music and the apotheosis of the beer mug."

Such steins may be made out of stoneware, pewter, porcelain or even silver, wood or crystal glass; they may have open tops or hinged pewter lids with a thumb-lever. Steins usually come in sizes of a half litre or a full litre. Like decorative tankards, they are often decorated in a nostalgic manner with allusions to Germany.

 

Loupaper stationery - Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. Named for Francis Nash, a general of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, the city was founded in 1779 when this territory was still considered part of North Carolina. The city grew quickly due to its strategic location as a port on the Cumberland River and, in the 19th century, a railroad centre. 

 

Gerard Fromanger "La vie est une marchandise" 1974 - Brest, France

Gérard Fromanger was a French visual artist. A painter who also employed collage, sculpture, photography, cinema, and lithography, he was associated with the French artistic movement of the 1960s and 1970s, called Figuration Narrative (new figurative representation), somewhat like pop art. Fromanger was also associated with photorealism.

The Nouvelle Figuration movement is a reaction against abstract art, with a more political slant than American pop art. Fromanger has been described as a social critic who takes a political position without neglecting the poetic dimension.