Karl Marx, the original Marxist but (as far as I'm aware) no relation to Groucho Marx and his various brothers, died 130 years ago today. He's best known for his collaboration with Friedrich Engels in publishing The Communist Manifesto and for his famous quote: "Workers of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains". It was he who paved the way for visionaries such as Trotsky, Lenin, Stalin and Wolfie Smith, but as well as encouraging the working classes to rise against the yoke of Capitalism a little known side of Marx was the support he gave to artists who often struggled to sell enough of their works to maintain a reasonable standard of living. He was particularly fond of the Post-Impressionists, and it's said that this painting:
led him to declare: "Artists of the world unite! You have nothing Tolouse but Lautrec".
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