This is not fabric. It's oil paint. No photography could do this yet. So Gavriil Yakovlev had to paint every single thread by hand. Look at it. The lace, the silk bows, the pearls sinking into skin, the tulle veil so thin you can see her shoulders through it. Even the cameo on her bracelet. This is Ekaterina Nikolaevna Volotskaya. She was 21 when she sat for this in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Gavriil Yakovlev, 1855

This is hands down one of the most romantic grave in the world, and most of people in Brussels walk past it without knowing. Right at the entrance of Laeken Cemetery there's a tiny Greek temple looking chapel. From the outside it looks normal, nothing special about it. Inside there's a stone woman grieving, with one arm outstretched toward a wall like she's reaching for something that's not there. This is the Evrard tomb. Léonce Evrard was a marble craftsman. His wife Louise Flignot died in 1916. He was destroyed. So he had architect Georges Ernest de Larabrie build this hexagonal chapel for her, completed in 1920. He died himself just 3 years after her, before it was even finished. They are both buried here. But here is the part that gives you chills. The roof has a small circular opening. And for 364 days a year, nothing happens. But around June 21st at exactly noon, when the sun is at its highest, a ray of sunlight enters through that hole and for about 20 minutes, it forms a perfect heart of light on the wall. Right above her outstretched hand, as if she's finally touching it. It only lasts a few minutes, then it's gone for another year. Was it intentional? Ofc, that's what we'd like to belive but in all the original construction plans, there is zero mention of a heart. No note from the architect or from Léonce. Some say it was just a coincidence and others think Léonce simply understood light and stone so well that he knew what would happen. I tend to believe the latter… that he made it so even if death took his wife, once a year, love would find a way back.