Ladies of the Rijksmuseum - a selection of paintings

Girl with an Oil Lamp at a Window, by Gerrit Dou, circa 1645-75.

Marie Fargues, wife of the artist, in Turkish costume, by Jean-Étienne Liotard, circa 1756-58.

The Sick Woman, by Jan Havickszoon Steen, circa 1663-66.

Portrait of an Old Lady, Possibly Elisabeth Bas, attributed to Ferdinand Bol, circa 1640-45.

Hortense de Beauharnais, Queen of Holland, by Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson, circa 1805-09.

Seated Girl in Peasant Costume (the artist's sister Gesina), by Gerard ter Borch, circa 1650-60.

Marie de' Medici, consort of Henri IV, King of France, by Frans Pourbus the Younger (workshop of), circa 1590-1620.

Old Woman Saying Grace, also known as The Prayer without End, by Nicolaes Maes, circa 1656.

Johanna Henriette Engelen, second wife of Daniel Francis Schas, by Alexandre-Jean Dubois-Drahonet, 1826.

An Old Woman Reading, probably the Prophetess Hannah, by Rembrandt van Rijn, 1631.

Marie-Josèphe de Saxe, dauphine of France, by Jean-Étienne Liotard, 1749.

Girl Peeling an Apple, by Cornelis Bisschop, 1667.

Alida Christina Assink, by Jan Adam Kruseman, 1833.

The Anemic Lady, by Samuel van Hoogstraten, circa 1660-78.

When a Romanov puts on a swimsuit - le prince Théodore Alexandrovitch de Russie à la plage

All these photographs are believed to have been taken in the south of France, circa first half of the 1920s.

Prince Feodor Alexandrovich (23 December 1898, St. Petersburg - 30 November 1968, Ascain), the second son of Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna (elder sister of the last Tsar) and Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, he reached manhood just as Russia devolved into revolution, and his family was forced into exile. He was tall - more than six foot four inches - athletic and handsome; he had something of Gary Cooper about him, and something of Cooper's earnest, boyish charm. He was apparently a simple soul, liked to work with his hands. He was also probably not possessed of the most brilliant intellect. And he certainly was rather inept at making his way in the world; throughout his life he was rarely able to find and maintain steady employment or sufficient income. His only sister, Irina, was the wife of Prince Felix Yusupov, and Feodor spent much of the early Twenties living with the couple in Paris, traveling in Italy, Corsica, England. In 1923, he married his first cousin once removed, Princess Irina Pavlovna Paley, the morganatic daughter of the murdered Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich. The couple had a son the following year. But the marriage proved a failure; Irina had an affair with a French count, whose daughter she bore in 1934, and she and Feodor were divorced two years later. In the aftermath of the affair, Feodor went to America, was unhappy there and, after more professional disappointments, he returned to England where, heading into his forties, he settled with his mother. During World War II, still in England, he developed tuberculosis; by the end of the War, he was gravely ill. With the support of his sister and brother-in-law, he returned to France, arriving in Paris on a stretcher; the doctor's prognosis was that death might be imminent. Instead, he was sent to a little house in the Basque region where, supported by his family, he spent the next twenty years, surviving to the age of seventy.

With his wife, née Princess Irina Paley, and her sister, Princess Natalia Paley, later the wife of couturier Lucien Lelong.

With his brother (on the left) Prince Nikita Alexandrovich.

With his brother Nikita (center) and Nikita's wife, née Countess Maria Illarionovna Vorontsova-Dashkova.

Hold your horses - a selection of equestrian images

Adam-Franz, Fürst zu Schwarzenberg, later Herzog von Krumlov, performing a capriole, by Johann Georg von Hamilton, circa 1700-10.

El Cid, by Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington, 1927.

Model posing for El Cid (above), before 1927.

Equestrian portrait of mademoiselle Croizette, by Carolus-Duran, 1873.

Cavalier (Portrait équestre de M. Arnaud), by Édouard Manet (apparently finished by another hand), circa 1875.

Equestrian portrait of Prince Boris Yusupov, by Antoine-Jean Gros, 1809.

Unknown artist and subject, circa 1690.

Horse and female rider, Tang dynasty (618–907).

Mounted Trumpeters of Napoléon's Imperial Guard, by Théodore Géricault, 1813-1814.

Shah Jahan on Horseback, page from the Shah Jahan Album, portrait by Payag, circa 1630.

Jumping the Gate, by James Seymour, circa 1740-50.

Le Cauchemar (The Nightmare), by John Henry Fuseli (Johann Heinrich Füssli), 1782.

Prince Henry, Duke of Cumberland, by David Morier, 1765.

"Sacrifice", one of the two "Arts of War" sculptural groups flanking the Arlington Memorial Bridge, by Leo Friedlander, circa 1929-30, cast 1950-51.

Its pair, "Valor."

King George II, by Joseph Highmore, circa 1740s-50s.

Equestrian portrait of Saint Louis of France (King Louis IX), by Jacopo Ligozzi, circa last quarter of the 16th century-first quarter of the 17th.

 Louis-Eugène d’Etchegoyen, Calvary Officer, by Antoine-Jean Gros, 1810.

Spirit of Kansas, by Mary Bartlett Pillsbury Weston, 1892.

Sketch for Equestrian Portrait of Manuel Godoy, duque de la Alcudia, by Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, 1794.

Equestrian portrait of Count Anatole Demidoff, later 1st Prince of San Donato, by Karl Briullov, begun circa 1828 (?) and left unfinished.

King Henri II on horseback, by François Clouet and Studio, circa 1540s.

Thomas Cholmondeley, 1st Lord Delamere, on His Hunter, study for The Cheshire Hunt at Tatton Park, by Henry Calvert, circa 1839.

Equestrian Portrait of a Gentleman, by Barent Graat, circa 1660s.

Hand-painted souvenir postcard from the Moulin Rouge, circa 1890s.