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Pottery artist leaves gorgeous, handmade bowls in random places for people to stumble upon

Imagine coming across one of these gorgeous gifts.

By

Annie Reneau

By

Upworthy Staff

art, pottery, travel
Kim Press drops free art in random places for unsuspecting wanderers to find. – Photo credit: Sailing Adrift Studios/Instagram

Imagine you’re hiking out in the red rocks of Moab, Utah, or taking a stroll down the beach in Key West, Florida, when you come across a gorgeous piece of glazed pottery. No one is around, just a beautiful, hand-carved bowl sitting with an envelope next to it that reads:

FREE ART

This bowl was left here for someone to find and keep. If it doesn’t speak to you, leave it for someone else to find, or take it and give it to a friend. I only ask that it be enjoyed, and if you like, you can let me know where it ends up. (Contact details inside.)

Love, Kim

Kim Press is an artist from Texas who shares her pieces under the name Sailing Adrift Studios. When she travels, she takes a piece with her to leave for a random, unsuspecting person to find. Lucky wanderers in 36 states and two countries have come across Press’ pottery “free art drops” and gotten to take home an unexpected artistic treasure from their own travels.

And these aren’t any old bowls. Check out how absolutely stunning these pieces are:

Press recently shared a video highlighting some of the pieces she’s dropped, and every single one of them would be an incredible gift.

“To say that I am proud of these numbers is an understatement,” she wrote. “In my wildest dreams, I could never imagine how much taking a pottery class and playing in mud would change my life…. And it just goes to show that if you travel far enough, eventually you will find yourself.”

People who find Press’ pottery let her know where the pieces ended up, and half the fun of it is seeing how far they travel. She put a page on her website where she shares the pieces’ “found” stories, such as the bowl she left in Santa Monica, California, making its home in Spain, a bowl she left in Tucson finding its way to China and a piece found in Pennsylvania ending up in Mexico. Sometimes she leaves them in hiking spots in the wilderness. Sometimes she drops them in the middle of a city. Some pieces have stayed in the states she dropped them and others have traveled across the country or the world.

People who have found them have shared how much joy their discovery brought them:

“Just wanted to drop you a note to say that I picked up your ‘Free Art’ in the park in Fairhope during my last day of my Snowbird stay (January and February) in Orange Beach. While I was in Orange Beach, a dear friend fell and broke her hip and I wanted to get her something to take back. When I say your beautiful bowl, I knew it would touch her heart. Thank you so much for your generosity. She absolutely loved it.”

“Dear Kim , Today I found a wonderful surprise, we were at Ft. Zach for my grandson’s 5th birthday party and found this on our table, my first thought was ..why is this here? Then I read the card and was speechless… How incredibly lucky I am to have such a precious gift. You are an amazing , talented person. Thank you so much , this will be something I will pass on to my grandchildren. I wish you nothing but the best!”

“Found this incredible gem today. It makes me happy how people are so passionate about their gifts and talents that they would want to share it with the world. Thank you.”

Some people have even started looking for the pieces when Press does an art drop announcement, alerting friends and family if the drop is near where they live. A woman who found a bowl in Boise, Idaho, wrote:

“My friend follows you and today she shared your profile with our friend group. We all followed your page and on my way home from work she called me and sent me on an adventure. I squealed when I found it. Thank you so much!! Keep on keeping on.”

And a group in Lago Vista, Texas, shared:

“Our out of state guests were about to do a polar plunge in our pool when they saw your post and decided to go art drop hunting instead… so exciting!!!”

Everyone who found pieces shared how much gratitude they felt upon finding them.

Check out the Sailing Adrift Studios website to see where Press has left her free art so far, and follow her on Facebook and Instagram to see where the next art drop happens.

Thank you, Kim Press, for bringing joy not only to the people who happen upon your artwork, but also to those of us living vicariously through them. (I really need one of those bowls!)


This article originally appeared two years ago.

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  • Van Gogh painted his ‘Starry Night’ view dozens of times. Here are 5 most people have never seen.
    The famous view from "The Starry Night" was painted by Vincent van Gogh many times in lesser-known works. – Photo credit: Public domain/Wikimedia Commons
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    Van Gogh painted his ‘Starry Night’ view dozens of times. Here are 5 most people have never seen.

    There was one feature of the landscape that he initially said was “too beautiful for me to dare paint.”

    Evan Porter

    Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night is widely considered one of the most renowned paintings of all time, often uttered in the same breath as The Mona Lisa and The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, as well as Edvard Munch’s The Scream, among many others.

    It has been discussed at length in both art history and pop culture, yet there are still plenty of mysteries for the casual fan to uncover about this incredible work of art.

    The Starry Night was painted while van Gogh was voluntarily staying at the asylum of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France. He checked himself in shortly after cutting off part of his own ear in late 1888 and famously painting his iconic Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear. He continued to experience mental health challenges after the incident and sought help in May 1889.

    vincent van gogh, starry night, france, art, paintings, saint-remy, artists, perspective, master painters

    The Starry Night is van Gogh’s interpretation of the view from his room at the asylum. The Van Gogh Gallery notes, “Van Gogh lived well in the hospital; he was allowed more freedoms than any of the other patients. If attended, he could leave the hospital grounds; he was allowed to paint, read, and withdraw into his own room. He was even given a studio.”

    He lived there for about a year and created countless works. Fascinatingly, he painted variations of the same view many times over in works that would go on to achieve only a fraction of The Starry Night’s fame.

    Here are five lesser-known van Gogh paintings from nearly the same perspective as The Starry Night:

    1. Wheat Field with Cypresses (September 1889)

    Wheat Field with Cypresses was painted several months after van Gogh completed The Starry Night. The two works closely resemble one another, from the unique shapes of the cypress trees to the contours of the mountain range and the swirling clouds. Notably, this piece is painted in a much lighter palette than the darker tones van Gogh used earlier that summer, which the Van Gogh Gallery links to his struggles with mental health at the time. An earlier version of Wheat Field with Cypresses was darker than the September version.

    vincent van gogh, starry night, france, art, paintings, saint-remy, artists, perspective, master painters

    2. Mountainous Landscape Behind Saint-Paul Hospital (early 1889)

    Mountainous Landscape Behind Saint-Paul Hospital is a precursor to The Starry Night, predating it by an unknown amount of time. The view, however, is nearly identical. The central rolling hill, which gives way to the oddly shaped mountain ridge, is a dead ringer for how the landscape appears in van Gogh’s most famous work.

    vincent van gogh, starry night, france, art, paintings, saint-remy, artists, perspective, master painters

    3. At the Foot of the Mountains (June 1889)

    This painting was completed shortly before van Gogh began The Starry Night and offers a slightly different perspective. The sky is relatively cloudless, but the mountains are as distinctive as ever. The same, or a very similar, small cottage at the center of the painting shows up repeatedly in van Gogh’s works from Saint-Rémy.

    vincent van gogh, starry night, france, art, paintings, saint-remy, artists, perspective, master painters

    4. Wheat Field with Reaper and Sun (June 1889)

    Here’s a similar scene done closer to sunrise, casting a golden hue over the familiar landscape. Van Gogh would go on to paint the same reaper several more times. During this period, he repeatedly created studies of the same scenes and revisited them from multiple angles.

    vincent van gogh, starry night, france, art, paintings, saint-remy, artists, perspective, master painters

    5. Olive Trees with the Alpilles in the Background (June 1889)

    What’s fascinating about this one, besides showing an alternative perspective on the view from The Starry Night, is that it represents one of van Gogh’s greatest achievements. In a letter to his brother, the artist admitted that he found olive trees “too beautiful for me to dare paint.”

    At the asylum, he had plenty of time on his hands and finally worked up the courage to give it a try.

    “The olive trees are very characteristic, and I’m struggling to capture that,” he wrote. “It’s silver, sometimes more blue, sometimes greenish, bronzed, whitening on ground that is yellow, pink, purplish or orangeish to dull red ochre. But very difficult, very difficult.”

    vincent van gogh, starry night, france, art, paintings, saint-remy, artists, perspective, master painters

    Seeing van Gogh’s many attempts and perspectives during his stay at the asylum, and how his techniques and use of color evolved over time, is fascinating and adds texture and meaning to The Starry Night.

    It’s no wonder art lovers continue to make pilgrimages to Saint-Rémy to take in the views for themselves. Visitors can even tour van Gogh’s room and look out the very same window on a guided visit. While some of the scenery has changed, the landscape is very much the same. It really gives you a whole new appreciation for how he captured the magic of the mountains and sky and created something that continues to move people more than 125 years later.

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  • 92-year-old former ballet dancer with dementia wrote a poem that got us all wrecked
    "I am still a dancer made of song." – Photo credit: Canva
    , ,

    92-year-old former ballet dancer with dementia wrote a poem that got us all wrecked

    What a beautiful gut punch.

    Annie Reneau

    Upworthy Staff

    What makes poetry poetry? There are certain technical elements that a poem might include, like rhyme and meter, but plenty of poetry doesn’t follow any structural rules.

    Perhaps the best definition of poetry comes from Emily Dickinson, who wrote, “If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.” A good poem hits you in your brain, your heart, and your gut all at once. And one short poem that packs an incredibly moving punch has come from an unlikely source—an elderly woman with dementia.

    Poet Joseph Fasano shared a message from a fan who shared that they used one of Fasano’s poetry prompts with their mother, a 92-year-old former ballet dancer living with dementia. The mother was excited to write a poem, and they slowly worked through the prompt together aloud.

    This poem was the result:

    “Let the days be warm

    Let the fall be long.

    Let every child inside me find her shoes

    and dance wildly, softly, toward the world.

    I have a story I have never told

    Once, when I was small,

    I looked up at the sky and saw the wind

    and knew I was a dancer made of song.

    I am still a dancer made of song.”

    Wow. What a testament to the power of poetry to reach beyond our usual modes of communication, which dementia so cruelly disrupts. In a few simple lines, we’re able to see this woman as she might see herself, as the human living under the veils of age and disease: “I am still a dancer made of song.”

    Poetry prompts can help people express themselves in ways they otherwise couldn’t

    The person who shared the poem thanked Fasano for “helping people find their voices,” which is exactly what his book of poetry prompts, “The Magic Words: Simple Poetry Prompts That Unlock the Creativity in Everyone,“ was meant to do.

    magic words, joseph fasano, poetry prompts, poems, creativity

    In the book’s introduction, Fasano shares that he’d been invited to speak to a class of second graders in New Jersey in 2022 to share “the craft and magic of poetry.” As part of his efforts, he came up with a poetry prompt that could “help guide their imaginations” and “unlock the images, thoughts and feelings inside them, without asking them to worry about how to structure a poem.” He called the results “astonishing.” When he shared one of the students’ poems on social media, it and the prompt took off like wildfire, as people who never thought of themselves as poets felt empowered to share their imaginations within that framework.

    From 7-year-olds to 92-year-olds, anyone can benefit from the self-expression that poetry facilitates, but many people feel hesitant or intimidated by the idea of writing a poem. Fasano writes, “Poetry is what happens when we let ourselves be,” and this idea seems so clear in the former dancer’s poem above. Dementia can create roadblocks, but poetry provides a different avenue of communication.

    dementia, alzheimer's, elder care, caregiving, arts for dementia
    People with dementia are still themselves deep down. Photo credit: Canva

    The arts can be a powerful tool for people with dementia

    Using poetry to help dementia patients communicate and express themselves isn’t just wishful thinking. Studies have demonstrated that cultural arts interventions, including poetry specifically, can be beneficial for people with dementia. In fact, the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project (APP) aims to use poetry as a means of improving the quality of life of people living with dementia by facilitating creative expression. “We do not set boundaries in our beliefs in what possible for people with memory impairment to create,” the APP website states. “By saying to people with dementia, we value you and your creativity; we are saying we value all members of our community.”

    Poet Gary Glazner founded APP and shared a story with WXPR radio about how he came up with the idea while studying poetry at Sonoma State University:

    “I applied for a grant and got a grant to work at an adult care program. The moment I love to share with people is there was a guy in the group, head down, not participating and I said the Longfellow poem. ‘I shot an arrow into the air’ and his eyes popped open and he said, ‘It fell to earth I know not where.’ And suddenly he was with us and participating. It was just this powerful moment to see how poetry could be of use to elders but specifically with people with dementia.”

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    Caregivers try many different ways to communicate with people living with dementia. Photo credit: Canva

    Another initiative, Arts 4 Dementia, does poetry workshops with people in early stages of dementia.

    “‘Poetry allows freedom of expression and can add warmth and depth to what may start as prose,” Arts 4 Dementia CEO Nigel Franklin told the Alzheimer’s Society. “Through poetry, participants access certain images or memories from their lives, and build these fragments together. Older people living with dementia often learnt poems off by heart as a child, and many of these poems are still accessible. Our participants have early-stage dementia, so while short-term memory may be diminished, many skills can be retained. They are welcome to read poetry (at their own pace) or ask their companion to read and perhaps write what they have created. We give participants time to answer—we don’t answer for them—and above all, we show respect and we’re never patronising.”

    Whether we read it, write it, speak it, or hear it, poetry has the power to reach people of all ages and stages of life in all kinds of mysterious ways.

    You can follow Joseph Fasano on Twitter and Instagram, and find his books on Amazon.

    This article originally appeared two years ago and has been updated.

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  • The real-life Christopher Robin only accepted a tiny royalty from Disney and it’s still changing lives
    The real-life Christopher Robin accepted a tiny payment from Disney that's still changing lives. – Photo credit: Marcus Adams National Portrait Gallery (1928)/Wikimedia Commons
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    The real-life Christopher Robin only accepted a tiny royalty from Disney and it’s still changing lives

    Pooh would be proud.

    Jacalyn Wetzel

    Winnie the Pooh is a timeless children’s classic that transcends generations. But younger audiences may not know that the bear’s human friend, Christopher Robin, was based on an actual child by the same name. Author A.A. Milne wrote the children’s book Winnie the Pooh as a collection of stories in 1926 about a boy and his imaginary friends, who were all based on his son’s stuffed toys, except Owl and Rabbit (whom the elder Milne made up).

    Christopher Robin Milne was thrilled to be a character in his father’s popular book when he was six, but once he reached the age of 10, things took a turn. The young Milne wanted to be seen as separate from the imaginative little boy in the book, but the world wouldn’t let him, which led to deep resentment. His complicated relationship with the chubby little cubby fueled his estrangement from his famous father and resulted in him not wanting the royalties later in life.

    The estrangement with his family ran deep, extending far beyond his father for decades. According to a recent interview on Nostalgia Tonight, Gyles Brandreth, a friend of the late Christopher Robin, explains that the younger Milne’s perception began to change about being immortalized in a children’s book after he went to boarding school.

    Christopher Robin; Christopher Robin Milne; A.A. Milne; Winnie the Pooh; Disney buys Winnie the Pooh
    A.A.u00a0Milne in 1922 Unknown author, Library of Congressu00a0(1922)/Wikimedia Commons

    “Then, when he went away to boarding school people began to tease him. He was Christopher Robin, and then when he joined the army and after the Army and after University, and he was in his life, trying to get a job. He would go to interviews and people would say, ‘Oh, your name’s Milne. Are you by any chance related to the famous writer?’ or ‘Your initials are CRM. You must be Christopher Robin. How’s Winnie the Pooh?’ and that infuriated him,” Brandreth told Nostalgia Tonight. “He got to the stage where he really couldn’t stand it. And in fact, he accused his father of building his reputation by standing on a small boy’s shoulders. And the father and son eventually fell out. And there, the family became a divided family.”

    Christopher Robin’s relationship became more strained with his parents when he decided to marry his first cousin, Lesley de Selincourt. While the two didn’t know each other before dating, as their families were estranged, it still prompted intense criticism and more of a rift. The couple left London to live in the country away from everyone else, including the overshadowing presence of an imaginary bear obsessed with honey.

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    Christopher Robin'su00a0childhood stuffed animals Spictacular (talk u00b7 contribs)/Wikimedia Commons

    The young couple had no interest in the elder Milne’s money from the books, so when A.A. Milne died in 1956, Christopher Robin wanted nothing to do with Pooh Properties Trust set up by his father. Christopher Robin managed the trust and was one of the original five recipients. While he handled all of the royalties, he didn’t use any of it, including after Disney began paying royalties into the trust after acquiring licensing rights from Stephen Slesinger Inc., the company of an American literary agent Milne signed with. Slesinger purchased the merchandising rights for $1,000 in 1930. By 1961, nearly 10 years after Slessinger died, his wife sold the rights to Disney.

    The animation giant agreed to pay a portion of royalties to Stephen Slesinger Inc., while still paying royalties to Pooh Properties Trust. Pooh Properties didn’t sell the literary rights to Disney at the time, though Christopher Robin’s relationship with the bear remained complicated. All while dealing with business around the trust he didn’t want, the younger Milne and his wife were caring for their daughter, who was born with cerebral palsy. In 1980, the reluctant heir sold a portion of the estate to create a separate trust to care for his daughter, Clare.

    Christopher Robin; Christopher Robin Milne; A.A. Milne; Winnie the Pooh; Disney buys Winnie the Pooh
    A.A. Milne with his son Christopher Robin and Pooh Bear, at Cotchford Farm, their home in Sussex Howard Coster (1926)/Wikimedia Commons

    In 2001, Pooh Properties Trust agreed to sell the literary rights to Disney for $350 million. Though Christopher Robin sold his portion of the estate and no longer received royalties from Disney, the portion he set aside for Clare continues to provide today. The Clare Milne Trust supports people living with disabilities by providing charities that serve disabled individuals who live in Devon and Cornwall, England.

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  • A dad posted his 5-year-old’s paintings online. He never imagined a response this big.
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    A dad posted his 5-year-old’s paintings online. He never imagined a response this big.

    This is top notch parenting.

    Evan Porter

    Upworthy Staff

    One of the toughest things about being a parent has to be helping your child discover and nurture their talents. You seek to encourage them to try new things without overwhelming them. You want them busy with lots of enriching activities but not so busy they don’t have time to just be a kid. And when you do stumble on something they have a knack for, you tread lightly, wanting to give them every opportunity to pursue it without pushing too hard.

    It’s a really tricky balance to get right. Maybe that’s why we’re so fascinated with child prodigies, or even just talented kids whose parents have done a bang-up job of giving them the space and encouragement to explore their creativity.

    Joseph, a dad from Dublin, Ireland says he started drawing and painting in the evenings about a year ago to help him unwind from work. It’s a great idea, because adult coloring has been shown to have a ton of positive mental health effects. Plus, it’s fun! But one unintended and adorable side effect of Joseph’s coloring was that his young son, Philip, decided he wanted to emulate him.

    Philip had always loved coloring but, Joseph says, “I had to get him some pastels, and he started trying on the same drawings as I did,” Joseph says. “I found it absolutely adorable when he was seriously repeating the same movements as me: cleaning the tips of the pastels, blend the edges of colors, etc.”

    One thing quickly became apparent: Philip was much, much better than his old man.

    Last year, he made a painting that was so good he couldn’t resist sharing it on Reddit. Within two days, it generated over 100,000 views and 3000 likes.”

    The overwhelming response? “Uh, 5-year-olds can’t do that.”

    Have a look and see for yourself. Not bad, eh?

    kids, children, child prodigies, parenting, dads, painting, art, artists, creativity, family
    Philip painted this blue mountain lake piece with help from a YouTube tutorial. bruncvik/reddit

    The first piece Philip shared is wildly impressive. Some commenters couldn’t believe that a 5-year-old could have made it, but I think you can see it pretty clearly. It has just enough childlike crudeness, but the stylistic flair is just off the charts, from the whispy sky to the slightly foreboding trees. Redditors agreed that it was incredible.

    “Thats better than I can do now at 25,” one Reddit user wrote.

    Others questioned whether the boy might be related to Bob Ross.

    “I told [Philip] about it, and I guess that was his first big dopamine hit,” Joseph says of going viral. “Since then, he is asking to draw more often, and there’s often an intrinsic reward for him. One painting got submitted to a charity auction at his school … I don’t pressure him to draw; he’s coming to me to ask whether he can use my pastels”

    One critical part of the story is that Philip often follows along with YouTube videos that his dad finds for him. Lest you think this should diminish how impressive the painting is, quite the contrary. As someone with an almost-5-year-old of my own, I’ve seen the kind of stuff kids this age are capable of drawing — and it’s not this! No matter how much instruction they have.

    The structured YouTube videos were able to unlock Philip’s natural talent and guide him in a way that his dad never could.

    Here’s the finished painting he was following along with. Honestly? I like Philip’s better! It has a lot more personality.


    kids, children, child prodigies, parenting, dads, painting, art, artists, creativity, family
    Here's what the painting was She'z ART/YouTube

    The response to Philip’s first painting was so positive that his dad decided to post another piece.

    You gotta give the people what they want!

    I love this one, too. The youngster’s talent is on display again, with an excellent color palette and aggressive strokes giving it life. Remember — the kid is five years old! Five! Usually they can barely muster a convincing stick figure.


    kids, children, child prodigies, parenting, dads, painting, art, artists, creativity, family
    I love this haunting purple and orange piece Philip painted! bruncvik/reddit

    And again, here’s the model painting from YouTube. Joseph said his own versions of these paint-alongs come out looking a lot like the example, but that his son has an incredible way of making them his own.

    As you might expect from a 5-year-old, the brush strokes are a little more crude and dramatic — but they’re purposeful, as well! Philip’s renditions have a lot of energy and seem to leap off the page.

    But what do I know? I’m no art critic. However, the huge social media response definitely shows that Philip is onto something here.

    kids, children, child prodigies, parenting, dads, painting, art, artists, creativity, family
    A YouTube tutorial of a sunset river helped Philip learn to paint the scene. She'z ART/YouTube

    Philip’s dad gives a lot of thought to the right way to nurture his son’s talent without pushing too hard and snuffing it out.

    “He attended an afterschool art club, where they experimented with different media, but he found it too restrictive. He is still bringing home new art at least twice per week, but it’s something he does on his own,” dad says, not sure if pushing his son into formal art instruction is the right thing to do.

    Experts say that pushing too hard when your kid shows a flair for something, especially regarding longterm goals (like going to art school or becoming a professional artist one day), can backfire big time and make them feel overwhelmed and resentful.

    Believe it or not, the process of nurturing and teaching starts super early. Art teachers and experts agree that how you react to something as simple as your toddler’s nonsensical scribbles can have a big impact on their self-esteem and enjoyment of making art.

    @susanstrikeryoungatart

    Scribbles provide an important opportunity to talk to your toddler, provide vocabulary, and promote literacy! #reading #readiness #scribbles #Vocabulary #todddler #art #kidsart #childrensart #childrenspainting #goodartprojects #teachingontiktok #criticalthinking #fypシ #fypage #teachingart #artlessons

    ♬ original sound – Susan Striker’s Young at Art

    Heidi Hass Gable, a former gifted child, says in a TedX talk that prodigies and brilliantly talented children can be extremely sensitive.

    They often have to suppress their talents in a desire to fit in with all the other kids. That makes raising them and nurturing that talent a delicate high-wire act. Experts recommend making sure gifted kids get lots of downtime and to not place too much emphasis on achievements like grades, awards, contest wins, etc. Praise the hard work and the process but try to help them avoid attaching their self-worth to external validation.

    Joseph finds lots of subtle ways to encourage his son’s interest.

    “One thing I do with him, though, is to talk about painting when we are out and about. Last weekend, we went to watch the sunset, and I asked him what colors he’d use for the clouds. … Philip is just as obsessed with different shades (his current favorite word is ‘vermilion’ and his favorite color is ‘turquoise’), and how they mix.”

    Being the parent of a talented or gifted kid is no easy job. There are a lot of pitfalls and plenty of ways to bungle your attempts to nurture that talent. As impressive as Philip’s artwork is, especially for his age, the thoughtful parenting on display in this story is just as awesome.

    This article originally appeared in January. It has been updated.

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  • Historians explain why everyone was so darn pale in those Victorian-era portraits
    Historians explain why everyone was so pale in Victorian portraits. – Photo credit: Canva
    , , ,

    Historians explain why everyone was so darn pale in those Victorian-era portraits

    Consumption became something to be envious of.

    Jacalyn Wetzel

    When people think of portraits from the Victorian era, the images that come to mind are usually women in tight corsets with extremely pale skin. Children were also very pale and often appeared to have dark circles under their eyes. But why? It’s not because they had better sunscreen in the 1800s.

    The reason many people who posed for those portraits were as white as bleached cotton sheets is multifaceted. Portraits from the Victorian era generally depict wealthy people, which is likely the reason for the over-the-top dresses and hairstyles. Sitting for a formal portrait was an expensive luxury that poor people couldn’t afford. If they had been able to, we’d probably see a lot more color in the faces being captured.

    In the 1800s, especially during the European Victorian era, paleness indicated status. The paler you were, the more money you were assumed to have, signaling higher social status. It was believed that tan skin meant you did some form of outdoor manual labor, something associated with poorer people. Paintings from that era often show women enjoying the outdoors in multilayered dresses, carrying parasols to shield their fair skin from the sun. This belief that paleness displayed high status became a dangerous obsession, according to historians.

    Victorian Era; Romantic Period; pale portraits; beauty standards; unrealistic beauty standards; arsenic poisoning
    Vintage portraits of a woman and two children, showcasing elegant attire of their era. Photo credit: Canva

    The Johnston Collection explains that the Romantic period marked a shift toward paleness and extreme thinness as the ultimate signs of wealth and beauty, writing, “many of the beauty icons of the day were depicted as skeletal thin with ghostly pale skin, glistening eyes, flushed cheeks and perpetually red lips.” Those chasing this impossible beauty standard quickly noticed that contracting tuberculosis produced many of these highly sought-after features as the disease progressed.

    “If a lady wasn’t fortunate enough to suffer from such a glamorous illness, she could feign going into a decline – the desirable fragile look being simulated by drinking vinegar and dropping belladonna into the eyes,” The Johnston Collection notes.

    Belladonna is poisonous, but women of the era appeared unafraid to risk death for the privilege of being seen as beautiful. As the Romantic period faded, appearing sickly did not fall out of fashion. The Victorian era simply tied paleness to morality and social status, leading women to continue risking their lives to avoid being perceived as poor. Instead of trying to contract tuberculosis, women began ingesting arsenic, chalk, and even ground-up rocks to maintain a fair complexion.

    Victorian Era; Romantic Period; pale portraits; beauty standards; unrealistic beauty standards; arsenic poisoning
    Three friends enjoy a lively music session indoors. Photo credit: Canva

    History Facts shares:

    “In 1851, a Swiss physician published a report in a medical journal about the ‘toxicophagi,’ a group of people in modern-day Austria who routinely consumed arsenic; they knew it was poison, but thought they could develop an immunity to it by starting with small doses and gradually increasing the intake. The report’s author claimed that arsenic gave them great energy, sparkling eyes, and wonderful complexions, but noted that after long-term use, unsurprisingly, ‘most arsenic eaters end with an inevitable infirmity of the body.’”

    While there was some knowledge that consuming arsenic could be dangerous, it was still viewed as benign when used in other products. The chemical was used to create the color green in clothing, wallpaper, and other products. This led children to take on the same sickly look and eventually contributed to their deaths. Unintentionally, entire families were poisoned by their beautiful green wallpaper, dresses, baby blankets, and other household items.

    It took one family losing multiple children to what doctors believed was diphtheria before a leading physician and a chemist teamed up to uncover why the children kept dying. After noticing the green wallpaper in the home, the doctor asked to perform an autopsy on the child who had recently died. The results of the tests changed how society treated the dangerous chemical.

    If you ever find yourself gazing up at a portrait of a ghostly pale Victorian child or a wealthy Victorian woman, you’ll know that arsenic is likely the reason. Ingesting deadly chemicals to keep up appearances is a practice that should probably stay lost to history.

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  • The real reason famous men in old portraits always raised their right hands, but never their left
    This simple pose became an instant shorthand for leaders to signify their power and authority. – Photo credit: By Till Niermann/Wikimedia Commons & Jacques-Louis David/Wikimedia Commons
    ,

    The real reason famous men in old portraits always raised their right hands, but never their left

    What were they pointing at?!

    Evan Porter

    Posing in portraiture is an art in itself. In classical paintings of powerful figures such as royalty and generals, artists carefully considered not only likeness and features but also what the portrait would ultimately convey. Just as modern politicians on TV want their hair, teeth, makeup, and clothes just right, authority figures in the past were equally particular about how they appeared in portraits.

    A strange pose commonly seen in sculptures and portraits dating back to Ancient Rome shows the subject with one arm raised, always the right, and gesturing or pointing with a slightly open hand. The pose is known as adlocutio.

    One of the earliest and most famous examples appears in the sculpture Augustus of Prima Porta, completed in the 1st century AD by an unknown artist. It shows Augustus, the first Roman emperor, armor-clad and barefoot, with a baby Cupid riding a dolphin at his side. (Yes, really.)

    Augustus strikes the signature adlocutio pose, giving the sculpture a sense of life and movement and reinforcing his power and authority. But what is he pointing at?

    portraits, paintings, painters, poses, posing, photography, sculpture, ancient rome, napoleon, george washington
    The Emperor Augustus. The word adlocutio was used in Ancient Rome to describe a general or emperor addressing his soldiers. You can almost see it in the sculpture of Augustus; he is not pointing so much as gesturing animatedly while delivering a speech.By Till Niermann/Wikimedia Commons

    The word adlocutio was used in Ancient Rome to describe a general or emperor addressing his soldiers. You can almost see it in the sculpture of Augustus; he is not pointing so much as gesturing animatedly while delivering a speech.

    “In ancient Rome, gestures often spoke about one’s position or rank in society,” writes historian JP Kenwood. “One of the most common gestures in the visual language of Rome was the adlocutio, a posture and gesture that indicated the person—male citizens only, of course—was a person with authority giving a speech.”

    portraits, paintings, painters, poses, posing, photography, sculpture, ancient rome, napoleon, george washington
    Many politicians make use of specific hand gestures when making speeches. brooke from atlanta/Wikimedia Commons

    It’s easy to see, then, why the pose became a kind of shorthand in portraiture for power and leadership.

    A famous 1801 painting of Napoleon crossing the Alps is another prominent example of the pose in action.

    portraits, paintings, painters, poses, posing, photography, sculpture, ancient rome, napoleon, george washington
    Napoleon crossing the Alps. Jacques-Louis David/Wikimedia Commons

    A few years earlier, George Washington was immortalized in the Lansdowne portrait. The president sat only once for the life-sized, iconic portrait painted by Gilbert Stuart.

    portraits, paintings, painters, poses, posing, photography, sculpture, ancient rome, napoleon, george washington
    George Washington in the By Gilbert Stuart/Wikimedia Commons

    The pose, while old, is still as relevant as ever. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? A massive statue of Mao Zedong from 1970 features a strikingly similar gesture.

    portraits, paintings, painters, poses, posing, photography, sculpture, ancient rome, napoleon, george washington
    A famous statue of Mao Zedong in China. By Noel Hanna/Wikimedia Commons

    The adlocutio pose conveys authority and leadership by echoing an emperor’s or general’s address. That’s simple enough. But there is more to the pose than meets the eye.

    Crucially, subjects striking this pose always raise their right hand, never the left. The reason lies in subtle religious symbolism popular in Rome at the time the pose was established.

    “In antiquity, the right hand symbolized divinity; when it was raised, you were thought to be closer to the gods,” according to Meural. “And the left was the exact opposite, signifying the damned, the wrong, the befouled.”

    In times of limited sanitation, the right hand was often used for eating, while the left was reserved for bathroom tasks. As a result, it became known as the “unclean” hand, regardless of an individual’s dominant side. Lauren Julius Harris writes that children who favored their left hand for reaching, eating, grabbing, or playing were often corrected, a practice that persisted as recently as the 19th century.

    Raising the right hand was not only a symbol of power and status, but also of closeness to God. In fact, in portraits of men and women, the adlocutio pose was used deliberately to signal specific aspects of a subject’s status.

    portraits, paintings, painters, poses, posing, photography, sculpture, ancient rome, napoleon, george washington
    The iconic By Jan van Eyck – Gennadii Saus i Segura/Wikimedia Commons

    Today, with digital photography, we can take nearly unlimited photos of a subject in a wide range of poses, backgrounds, and lighting setups. Photographers can then select the portraits with the most potential and edit them to maximize the intended effect.

    Ancient painters did not have that luxury. With only a brief sitting from the subject, they often had a single chance to get a portrait right, making time-tested poses like adlocutio a critical tool.

    And while public portraits are far rarer today, adlocutio still works. Weirong Li, a leadership and communication expert who works with leaders and executives, tells Upworthy that “open elevated gestures boost confidence hormones… Ancient leaders discovered this instinctively—the raised palm signals ‘I’m confident but not threatening.’ I see this work in boardrooms constantly.”

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