How We Grow

Frida Kahlo was born on July 6, 1907 in Coyoacán, Mexico. Exactly 47 years from now, before she died in the same city and her beloved Mexico, many things would happen; she’d meet Diego Rivera, become a world-renowned artist, and allow many of her fans to dress like her on Halloween. 

1638, the year Louis XIV was born –his second name, Dieudonné, alluding to his God-given status– saw the diffusion of a cult of maternity encouraged by the very devout Anne of Austria, in thanks for the miracle by which she had given birth to an heir to the French throne. Simon François de Tours (1606-1671) painted the Queen in the guise of the Virgin Mary, and the young Louis XIV as the infant Jesus, in the allegorical portrait now in the Bishop’s Palace at Sens.

Tadeusz Ajdukiewicz discovered the Orient in 1877, touring Syria, Egypt, Turkey, and the Crimea with Władysław Branicki. This experience made a profound impression on him, and he was to continuously revisit Eastern themes in his works for the rest of his life.