Welcome to this week's links. Enjoy.
The Naked Truth
Excellent review of a new book about Manet's favourite model, Victorine Meurent, and how history has maligned her — far from being a drunk and prostitute who died young (as hostile earlier biographers of Manet have characterized her) art historian Eunice Lipton has discovered that she actually lived to be 83, was an artist in her own right, and fulfilled her painting ambitions. She even exhibited at the 1876 Salon, in the same year that Manet's work was rejected. The book, by VR Main, is called A Woman with No Clothes On and is published by Delancey Press. A fascinating woman who truly deserves to have her story told.
Miniature Pumpkin Breads
Summer of the wonderful bread & honey blog has a great recipe for lovely miniature pumpkin breads, and Alicia's beautiful photos of it will make you want to instantly rush into the kitchen to make it. Perfect with a cup of tea on a crisp fall afternoon.
Junk Drawers and Medicine Cabinets
Artist Paho Mann is fascinated by how junk drawers and medicine cabinets, semi-private personal spaces, offer clues to the character of the individual in the choice of the items selected and how they are arranged. It's surprising what you can infer from each photograph Mann has taken. Via things magazine.
Tech Tips for the Basic Computer User
David Pogue of the New York Times lists some great basic computer tips for both Mac and PC users. Be sure to check out the comments section, too — lots more good stuff to be found there. I just learned a couple of amazingly helpful keyboard shortcuts!
Identifying Fakes in the Fashion World
Cathrin Schaer has a look at how a new technology, out next year, will allow designers to quickly distinguish their own garments from copies.
Test Your Colour IQ
Jessica of How About Orange always finds fun stuff — this time, it's a colour IQ quiz. The object is to drag and drop the colours in each row to arrange them by hue order. Tricky.
How Do You Want to Read?
A look at why dedicated readers are still resisting eReaders — "... is it because eReaders cannot meet your reading needs, or because they're unaffordable and inelegant?" This article is accompanied by a great photo of Tom Stoppard with his travel bookcase, which is totally 19th century and genius — it makes me think of the golden age of train and boat travel. Via Polymeme.
Small Pleasures
Linda Grant, author of The Clothes on My Back (shortlisted for this year's Man Booker Prize), also has a great blog — The Thoughtful Dresser. She has a lovely post this week on appreciating small pleasures — an art particularly pertinent in these troubled economic times.
The elegant dining room was photographed by Petra Bindel. Via emmas designblogg.