An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The long gallery in Elizabethan and Jacobean houses served many purposes including the display of art. Historically, art is displayed as evidence of status and wealth, and for religious art as objects of ritual or the depiction of narratives. The first galleries were in the palaces of the aristocracy, or in churches. As art collections grew, buildings became dedicated to art, becoming the first art museums.
65-643: Abbot Hall Art Gallery is an art gallery in Kendal , England . Abbot Hall was built in 1759 by Colonel George Wilson, the second son of Daniel Wilson of Dallam Tower , a large house and country estate nearby. It was built on the site of the old Abbot's Hall, roughly where the museum is today. Before the Dissolution of the Monasteries this was where the Abbot or his representative would stay when visiting from
130-402: A town house , Abbot Hall was converted into an art gallery in 1957–62. The building is in stone on a plinth , with quoins , a belt course , a modillioned eaves cornice , and a parapet . The central block has two storeys with cellars, and there is a symmetrical east front of seven bays . Curved steps lead up to a central round-headed doorway in an architrave with moulded imposts ,
195-542: A display about English writer Arthur Ransome . His desk , typewriter and other memorabilia are exhibited. The gallery is also the official address of The Arthur Ransome Society . 2019 2018 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 54°19′23″N 2°44′38″W / 54.32306°N 2.74389°W / 54.32306; -2.74389 Art gallery Among
260-431: A good husband to Ivy". They divorced in 1924. Ransome began writing books of biography and literary criticism on various authors; one on Edgar Allan Poe was published in 1910 and another on Oscar Wilde in 1912. However, the latter embroiled him in a libel suit with Lord Alfred Douglas . His wife attended the 1913 trial, sitting in the public gallery as Ransome would not let her sit beside him. Her apparent enjoyment of
325-467: A museum is the preservation of artifacts with cultural, historical, and aesthetic value by maintaining a collection of valued objects. Art museums also function as galleries that display works from the museum's own collection or on loan from the collections of other museums. Museums might be in public or private ownership and may be accessible to all or have restrictions on access. Although primarily concerned with visual art , art museums are often used as
390-649: A number of locations. Galleries selling the work of recognized artists may occupy space in established commercial areas of a city. New styles in art have historically been attracted to the low rent of marginal neighborhoods. An artist colony existed in Greenwich Village as early as 1850, and the tenements built around Washington Square Park to house immigrants after the Civil War also attracted young artists and avant-garde art galleries. The resulting gentrification prompted artists and galleries to move to
455-585: A projecting keystone , and an interlaced fanlight . This is flanked by two-storey canted bay windows , and outside these are recessed bays in one storey containing Venetian windows . The outermost two bays on each side are gabled , lower and further recessed, and have one storey. They contain two round-headed sash windows with an oval window in a pediment above. It has one of the most important collections of George Romney ’s paintings in Britain and several of his sketchbooks and drawings. Paintings from
520-489: A reviewer of new detective novels, using the pen-name of William Blunt . In 1913 Ransome left his first wife and daughter and went to Russia to study its folklore . In 1915, Ransome published The Elixir of Life (published by Methuen, London ), which was to be his only full-length novel apart from the Swallows and Amazons series. It is a gothic romance concerning a youth who chances upon an alchemist who has discovered
585-813: A threat because of their opposition to the Allied Intervention in the Russian Civil War . In October 1919, as Ransome was returning to Moscow on behalf of The Manchester Guardian , the Estonian foreign minister Ants Piip entrusted him to deliver a secret armistice proposal to the Bolsheviks. At that time, the Estonians were fighting their War of Independence alongside the White movement of counter-revolutionary forces. After crossing
650-837: A triptych of Lady Anne Clifford , entitled The Great Picture (currently (2011) in the ownership of the Lakeland Arts Trust) went on display. The Victorian art critic and social commentator, John Ruskin , lived in the Lake District and the gallery has one of the most comprehensive collections of his drawings and watercolours. The modern collection concentrates more on painting but has sculptures by Barbara Hepworth , Jean Arp , and Elisabeth Frink . There are also works by Ben Nicholson , Kurt Schwitters , Bryan Wynter , Sean Scully , David Hockney , LS Lowry , Graham Sutherland , Victor Pasmore , David Bomberg , Hilde Goldschmidt and many others. The gallery also has
715-531: A venue for other cultural exchanges and artistic activities where the art object is replaced by practices such as performance art , dance, music concerts, or poetry readings. Similar to a gallery, a kunsthalle is a facility that hosts temporary art exhibitions however does not possess a permanent collection . The art world comprises everyone involved in the production and distribution of fine art. The market for fine art depends upon maintaining its distinction as high culture , although during recent decades
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#1732792928430780-434: A year at Yorkshire College, he abandoned his studies and went to London to become a writer. He took low-paying jobs as an office assistant in a publishing company and as editor of a failing magazine, Temple Bar Magazine , while establishing himself as a member of the literary scene. Some of Ransome's early works were The Nature Books for Children , a series of children's books commissioned by Anthony Treherne. Only three of
845-657: Is a unique commodity, the artist has a monopoly on production, which ceases when the artist either dies or stops working. Some businesses operate as vanity galleries , charging artists a fee to exhibit their work. Lacking a selection process to assure the quality of the artworks, and having little incentive to promote sales, vanity galleries are avoided as unprofessional. Some non-profit organizations or local governments host art galleries for cultural enrichment and to support local artists. Non-profit organizations may start as exhibit spaces for artist collectives , and expand into full-fledged arts programs. Other non-profits include
910-614: Is best known for writing and illustrating the Swallows and Amazons series of children's books about the school-holiday adventures of children, mostly in the Lake District and the Norfolk Broads . The entire series remains in print, and Swallows and Amazons is the basis for a tourist industry around Windermere and Coniston Water , the two lakes Ransome adapted as his fictional North Country lake. He also wrote about
975-616: The Bolshevik cause, becoming personally close to a number of its leaders, including Vladimir Lenin , Leon Trotsky and Karl Radek . He met the woman who would become his second wife, Evgenia Petrovna Shelepina, who then worked as Trotsky's personal secretary. Ransome provided some information to British officials and the British Secret Intelligence Service , which gave him the code name S.76 in their files. Bruce Lockhart said in his memoirs: "Ransome
1040-463: The early modern period , approximately 1500 to 1800 CE. In the Middle Ages that preceded, painters and sculptors were members of guilds, seeking commissions to produce artworks for aristocratic patrons or churches. The establishment of academies of art in the 16th century represented efforts by painters and sculptors to raise their status from mere artisans who worked with their hands to that of
1105-462: The " Country Diary " column on fishing. On the Ransomes' return to England, Racundra was sold to the yachting author Kaines Adlard Coles , who sailed her back to England. By the late 1920s, Ransome had settled in the Lake District because he had decided not to accept a position as a full-time foreign correspondent with The Guardian newspaper. Instead he wrote Swallows and Amazons in 1929 –
1170-516: The Bohemian circle of Pamela Colman Smith , an artist best known for illustrating the Rider–Waite tarot deck . Ransome married Ivy Constance Walker in 1909 and they had one daughter, Tabitha. It was not a happy marriage; Ransome found his wife's demands to spend less time on writing and more with her and their daughter a great strain; his biographer Hugh Brogan writes that "it was impossible to be
1235-647: The Foreign Office's Political Intelligence Department , who required Ransome privately to submit his articles and public speaking engagements for approval. Ransome's response was "indignant". Unbeknown to Leeper, Ransome's "near treason[ous]" articles were written to buttress his exceptional access to the Bolshevik leadership. MI5 , the British Security Service, was suspicious that Ransome and his fellow journalist, M. Philips Price , were
1300-413: The adjacent neighborhood "south of Houston" ( SoHo ) which became gentrified in turn. Attempting to recreate this natural process, arts districts have been created intentionally by local governments in partnership with private developers as a strategy for revitalizing neighborhoods. Such developments often include spaces for artists to live and work as well as galleries. A contemporary practice has been
1365-511: The age of 70, was to be Ransome's last long passage. Ransome married twice, first to Ivy Constance Walker in 1909, with whom he had a daughter, Tabitha Ransome; the couple divorced in 1924. His second marriage, that same year, was to Evgenia Petrovna Shelepina. Although MI5 appeared satisfied with Ransome's loyalty to Britain by 1937, KGB files that were opened following the end of the Soviet Union suggest that Evgenia Ransome, at least,
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#17327929284301430-409: The arts as part of other missions, such as providing services to low-income neighborhoods. Historically, art world activities have benefited from clustering together either in cities or in remote areas offering natural beauty. The proximity of art galleries facilitated an informal tradition of art show openings on the same night, which have become officially coordinated as " first Friday events " in
1495-473: The battle lines on foot, Ransome passed the message, which, to preserve secrecy, had not been written down and depended for its authority only on the high personal regard in which he was held in both countries, to diplomat Maxim Litvinov in Moscow. To deliver the reply, which accepted Piip's conditions for peace, Ransome had to return by the same risky means, but now, he had Evgenia with him. Estonia withdrew from
1560-562: The boat below decks from the standard production model, the boat was launched on 1 April 1952. Ransome's health problems delayed their first sail to 15 April. In December 1952, he sold Lottie Blossom to Sir William Paul Mallinson on condition that he (Ransome) retained the name. Lottie Blossom II followed early the next year, using the same design of hull, but with aft cockpit and tiller steering. They had two very happy seasons in her, sailing her comfortably on their own, including two voyages to Cherbourg . The second voyage, in 1954, at
1625-520: The books, and Ransome started using the real landscape and geography of East Anglia, so that one can use the maps printed in the books as a guide to the real area. Ransome's own interest in sailing and his need to provide an accurate description caused him to undertake a voyage across the North Sea to Flushing in the Netherlands. His book We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea reflects that, and he based
1690-420: The boundary between high and popular culture has been eroded by postmodernism . In the case of historical works, or Old Masters this distinction is maintained by the work's provenance ; proof of its origin and history. For more recent work, status is based upon the reputation of the artist. Reputation includes both aesthetic factors; art schools attended, membership in a stylistic or historical movement,
1755-447: The category of Post-war art; while contemporary may be limited to the 21st century or "emerging artists". An enduring model for contemporary galleries was set by Leo Castelli . Rather than simply being the broker for sales, Castelli became actively involved in the discovery and development of new artists, while expecting to remain an exclusive agent for their work. However he also focused exclusively on new works, not participating in
1820-430: The characters as original creations. Letters also indicate that conflict arose between Ransome and the family. Ransome's writing is noted for his detailed descriptions of activities. Although he used many actual features from the Lake District landscape, he invented his own geography, mixing descriptions of different places to create his own juxtapositions. His move to East Anglia brought a change of location for four of
1885-491: The classical arts such as poetry and music, which are purely intellectual pursuits. However, the public exhibition of art had to overcome the bias against commercial activity, which was deemed beneath the dignity of artists in many European societies. Commercial art galleries were well-established by the Victorian era , made possible by the increasing number of people seeking to own objects of cultural and aesthetic value. At
1950-705: The conflict, and Ransome and Evgenia set up home together in the capital Tallinn . After the Allied intervention, Ransome remained in the Baltic states and built a cruising yacht, Racundra . He wrote a successful book about his experiences, Racundra's First Cruise . He joined the staff of The Manchester Guardian when he returned to Russia and the Baltic states. Following his divorce, he married Evgenia and brought her to live in England, where he continued writing for The Guardian , often on foreign affairs, and also writing
2015-468: The door commemorating his birthplace. Ransome's father was professor of history at Yorkshire College (now the University of Leeds ). The family regularly holidayed at Nibthwaite in the Lake District, and he was carried up to the top of Coniston Old Man as an infant. His father's premature death in 1897 had a lasting effect on him. His mother did not want him to abandon his studies for writing, but
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2080-619: The eighteenth century include a pair of views of Windermere by Philip James de Loutherbourg . There is also an important group of work by another local artist, Daniel Gardner . It has a significant collection of watercolours, mainly from the second half of the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth centuries. Many of the greatest watercolourists of the period are represented, including John Robert Cozens , David Cox , Peter De Wint , John Sell Cotman , John Varley and Edward Lear as well as J. M. W. Turner 's watercolours The Passage of Mount St. Gotthard and Windermere (1821). In 2011
2145-623: The eldest of four children: he had two sisters Cecily and Joyce, and a brother Geoffrey who was killed in the First World War in 1918. Joyce married into the Lupton family , well-connected industrialists and politicians; she named one of her sons Arthur Ralph Ransome Lupton (1924–2009). Ransome was born in Leeds ; the house at 6 Ash Grove, in the Hyde Park area, has a blue plaque beside
2210-436: The end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century there were also the first indications of modern values regarding art; art as an investment versus pure aesthetics, and the increased attention to living artists as an opportunity for such investment. Commercial galleries owned or operated by an art dealer or "gallerist" occupy the middle tier of the art market , accounting for most transactions, although not those with
2275-468: The expertise of the gallery owner and staff, and the particular market, the artwork shown may be more innovative or more traditional in style and media. Galleries may deal in the primary market of new works by living artists, or the secondary markets for works from prior periods owned by collectors, estates, or museums. The periods represented include Old Masters , Modern (1900–1950), and contemporary (1950–present). Modern and contemporary may be combined in
2340-416: The fictional Goblin on his own boat Nancy Blackett (which in turn took its name from a character in the series ). Two or three of the Swallows and Amazons books have less realistic plots. The original concept of Peter Duck was a story made up by the children themselves, and Peter Duck had appeared in the preceding volume, Swallowdale , as a character whom the children created, but Ransome dropped
2405-648: The first of the series that made his reputation as one of the best English writers of children's books. Ransome apparently based the Walker children (the "Swallows") in the book partly on the Altounyan family. He had a long-standing friendship with the mother of the Altounyans, and their Collingwood grandparents. Later, he denied the connection, claiming he simply gave the Altounyans' names to his own characters; it appears to have upset him that people did not regard
2470-531: The foreword of explanation from Peter Duck before it was published. Although relatively straightforward, the story, together with its equally unrealistic ostensible sequel Missee Lee , is much more fantastic than the rest of the series. A trip to China as a foreign correspondent provided Ransome with the imaginative springboard for Missee Lee , in which readers find the Swallows and the Amazons sailing around
2535-404: The highest monetary values. Once limited to major urban art worlds such as New York, Paris and London, art galleries have become global. Another trend in globalization is that while maintaining their urban establishments, galleries also participate in art fairs such as Art Basel and Frieze Art Fair . Art galleries are the primary connection between artists and collectors . At the high end of
2600-458: The legal action. Ransome had also been working on a similar literary biography of Robert Louis Stevenson , but that was abandoned with the manuscript in the first draft and not rediscovered until 1999. It was subsequently edited and finally published almost a century later in 2011 as Arthur Ransome's Long-lost Study of Robert Louis Stevenson . As an enthusiast for detective fiction , between 1939 and 1940 Ransome contributed to The Observer as
2665-541: The literary life of London, and about Russia before, during, and after the revolutions of 1917 . His connection with the leaders of the Revolution led to him providing information to the Secret Intelligence Service , while he was also suspected by MI5 of being a Soviet spy. Ransome was the son of Cyril Ransome (1851–1897) and his wife Edith Ransome (née Baker Boulton) (1862–1944). Arthur was
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2730-645: The manuscript to Ransome in March 1937, and he persuaded his publisher, Jonathan Cape , to produce it, characterising it as "the best children's book of 1937". After the sale of Racundra in 1925 (in Coles' ownership she became Annette II ), Ransome went on (in addition to the occasional charter, loan or trial sail) to own five further cruising yachts. His next yacht was the Hillyard-built Nancy Blackett , which he owned from 1935 to 1938. She
2795-408: The market, a handful of elite auction houses and dealers sell the work of celebrity artists; at the low end artists sell their work from their studio, or in informal venues such as restaurants. Point-of-sale galleries connect artists with buyers by hosting exhibitions and openings. The artworks are on consignment, with the artist and the gallery splitting the proceeds from each sale. Depending upon
2860-412: The modern reasons art may be displayed are aesthetic enjoyment, education , historic preservation , or for marketing purposes. The term is used to refer to establishments with distinct social and economic functions, both public and private. Institutions that preserve a permanent collection may be called either "gallery of art" or "museum of art". If the latter, the rooms where art is displayed within
2925-462: The mother house of St Mary's Abbey, York . The architect is unknown. During the early twentieth century the Grade I listed building was dilapidated and has been restored as an art gallery. As of January 2021 Abbot Hall was closed to the public while Lakeland Arts carried out a redevelopment of the building and grounds. The reopening is on 20 May 2023 with an exhibition by Julie Brook . Originally
2990-492: The museum building are called galleries. Art galleries that do not maintain a collection are either commercial enterprises for the sale of artworks, or similar spaces operated by art cooperatives or non-profit organizations . As part of the art world , art galleries play an important role in maintaining the network of connections between artists, collectors, and art experts that define fine art . The terms 'art museum' and 'art gallery' may be used interchangeably as reflected in
3055-518: The names of institutions around the world, some of which are called galleries (e.g. the National Gallery and Neue Nationalgalerie ), and some of which are called museums (e.g. the Museum of Modern Art and National Museum of Western Art ). However, establishments that display art for other purposes, but serve no museum functions, are only called art galleries. The distinctive function of
3120-505: The obvious publicity value. Adding to Ransome's "wretched" 13 months waiting for the case to come to trial was the action of his publisher, Charles Granville . Oscar Wilde, a critical study had been prepared under the guidance of publisher Martin Secker , but Granville had promised better returns and a guaranteed and steady income. Secker agreed to release the rights, and Ransome handed Poe and Wilde over to Granville. The work on Wilde
3185-477: The opinions of art historians and critics; and economic factors; inclusion in group and solo exhibitions and past success in the art market. Art dealers, through their galleries, have occupied a central role in the art world by bringing many of these factors together; such as "discovering" new artists, promoting their associations in group shows, and managing market valuation. Exhibitions of art operating similar to current galleries for marketing art first appeared in
3250-459: The public notoriety the case attracted added to the stress on their marriage. The publisher Daniel Macmillan dined with the couple every day during the trial so that Ivy could not quarrel with Arthur. Ransome won the suit, supported by Robbie Ross , the editor of De Profundis . Douglas was bankrupted by the failed libel suit. Ransome did, however, remove the offending passages from the second edition of his book and refused all interviews, despite
3315-434: The resale of older work by the same artists. All art sales after the first are part of the secondary market, in which the artist and the original dealer are not involved. Many of these sales occur privately between collectors, or works are sold at auctions. However some galleries participate in the secondary market depending upon the market conditions. As with any market, the major conditions are supply and demand. Because art
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#17327929284303380-588: The series, Great Northern? (1947) was set in Scotland, and while the plot and action appear realistic, the internal chronology does not fit the usual run of school holiday adventures. Myles North, an admirer of Ransome, provided much of the basic plot of the book. Swallows and Amazons was so popular that it inspired a number of other authors to write in a similar vein. Most notably, two schoolchildren, Pamela Whitlock and Katharine Hull, wrote The Far-Distant Oxus , an adventure story set on Exmoor . Whitlock sent
3445-638: The six planned volumes were published before the publisher went bankrupt. They are available on the All Things Ransome website. In his first important book, Bohemia in London (1907), Ransome introduced the history of the city's Bohemian literary and artistic communities and some of its current representatives. A curiosity in 1903 about a visiting Japanese poet, Yone Noguchi , led to an ongoing friendship with Japanese painter (and Chelsea neighbour) Yoshio Markino , who in turn introduced him to
3510-474: The southern Lake District. The Autobiography of Arthur Ransome , edited by Rupert Hart-Davis , was published posthumously in 1976. It covers his life only to the completion of Peter Duck in 1931. Ransome won the inaugural Carnegie Medal from the Library Association , recognising Pigeon Post in the Swallows and Amazons series as the year's best children's book by a British subject . He
3575-403: The stories, and provided illustrations for new editions of the first two books of the series as of 1938, replacing images by Clifford Webb (whose illustrations for Swallows and Amazons had themselves replaced Steven Spurrier's first edition drawings. Ransome had disliked Spurrier's images and only the maps drawn by Spurrier were retained for the end paper and dust jacket). The final book of
3640-645: The titular elixir of life , whose powers must be renewed by the spilling of human blood. He published Old Peter's Russian Tales , a collection of 21 folktales from Russia, the following year. After the start of the First World War , in 1914, he became a foreign correspondent and covered the war on the Eastern Front for a radical newspaper, The Daily News . He also covered the Russian Revolutions of 1917 and came to sympathise with
3705-477: The use of vacant commercial space for art exhibitions that run for periods from a single day to a month. Now called "popup galleries", a precursor was Artomatic which had its first event in 1999 and has occurred periodically to the present, mainly in the Washington metro area . Arthur Ransome Arthur Michell Ransome CBE (18 January 1884 – 3 June 1967) was an English author and journalist. He
3770-470: The world in the schooner Wild Cat from Peter Duck . Together with Captain Flint (the Amazons' uncle Jim Turner), they become the captives of Chinese pirates. Peter Duck was illustrated by Ransome himself using pen and ink, although the frontispiece claims that the book is "Based on information supplied by the Swallows and Amazons and illustrated mainly by Themselves." Ransome then continued to illustrate
3835-568: Was a Don Quixote with a walrus moustache, a sentimentalist who could always be relied upon to champion the underdog, and a visionary whose imagination had been fired by the revolution. He was on excellent terms with the Bolsheviks and frequently brought us information of the greatest value." Nonetheless, in March 1919, on one of his return visits to the United Kingdom, the authorities interviewed him and threatened him with exposure as an agent. In October 1919, Ransome met Reginald Leeper of
3900-602: Was appointed CBE in 1953. Durham University made him an honorary Master of Arts (which he told Cape to ignore) and Leeds University made him an honorary Doctor of Letters in 1952. Translations of his books have been published in several languages and he became popular in many countries. Thriving Ransome appreciation societies exist in the Czech Republic , and in Japan where the Arthur Ransome Club
3965-654: Was involved in smuggling diamonds from the USSR to Paris to help fund the Comintern . This is examined in the 2009 book The Last Englishman: the Double Life of Arthur Ransome by Roland Chambers. Ransome and his second wife are buried in the same grave. Ransome died in Cheadle Royal Hospital on 3 June 1967. He and his wife Evgenia are buried in the churchyard of St Paul's Church, Rusland, Cumbria , in
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#17327929284304030-690: Was later supportive of his books. She urged him to publish The Picts and the Martyrs in 1943, although his second wife Evgenia hated it, and was often discouraging about his books while he was writing them. Ransome was educated first in Windermere and then at Rugby School (where he lived in the same study room that had been used by Lewis Carroll ) but did not entirely enjoy the experience, because of his poor eyesight, lack of athletic skill, and limited academic achievement. He studied chemistry at Yorkshire College, where his late father had worked. After
4095-577: Was originally named Spindrift when launched in 1931. After this came Selina King , a 35 ft 12 ton cutter with a canoe stern, designed by Frederick Shepherd and built at Harry Kings Yard in Pin Mill in 1938. She was laid up during the war and (on medical advice) they sold her in 1946. After the war, he commissioned a ketch from Laurent Giles , again built in Pin Mill by Harry King: Peter Duck . He owned her from 1947 to 1949; her design
4160-473: Was the basis for a class of which over 40 were built. In July, 1951, he saw Norvad , a Hillyard five-and-a-half ton centre-cockpit yacht. With Evgenia, he had a trial sail in Norvad the following month in a hard offshore wind. They decided to get one, which he had decided should bear the name Lottie Blossom , and put in an order for that year's Boat Show model. With a list of things they wanted done to modify
4225-400: Was well received and successful, running to eight editions, but Ransome saw little in return; in 1912 Granville was charged with embezzlement and fled the country, leaving Ransome to struggle even to register himself as a creditor of Granville's ruined company. Furthermore, his neglect of his health (he suffered from piles and a stomach ulcer ) had been exacerbated by the pressure of defending
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