Artiste
“Genius has no gender” - Eugénie de Montijo Hailed by her contemporaries as the most popular animal-painter, male or female, of the nineteenth century, the French artist Rosa Bonheur (1822-99) lived to see her name become a household word. In a century that did its best to keep women" in their place," Bonheur, like George [...]
"Former model, single, independent woman, Victorine Meurent is one of the many forgotten women artists neglected by history." Valeryia Morozov Victorine-Louise Meurent (also Meurant; February 18, 1844 – March 17, 1927) was a French painter and a model for painters. Although she is best known as the favorite model of Édouard Manet, she was an artist in her own right who regularly [...]
As a continuity with last week's post about the book Letters of Note, here is a much smaller book, without images this one, Letters of Note : Love, a collection of love letters compiled by Shaun Usher. "First published in 2020, Letters of Note: Love is a compulsive collection of the world's most entertaining, inspiring and powerful letters with [...]
THEN ...Then came the night and brought your dream In the quiet blaze of stars. And the smiling day went marching by Where the wild, breathless roses are. I long now for a May of dreams, The moment when your love appears. I'd like to blaze upon your mouth A dream-time of a thousand years. [...]
“Mirrors are the doors through which Death comes; look long enough in a mirror and you will see Death at work.” Orpheus a 1950 French film directed by Jean Cocteau and starring Jean Marais. It is the central part of Cocteau's Orphic Trilogy, which consists of The Blood of a Poet (1930), Orpheus (1950), and Testament of Orpheus (1960). Over the course of thirty years, [...]
“Faith is a torment, did you know that? It is like loving someone who is out there in the darkness but never appears, no matter how loudly you call.” The Seventh Seal is a 1957 Swedish historical fantasy film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. It is considered a classic of world cinema, as well as one of the greatest [...]
« The piano as a medium for expression is a whole world by itself. No other instrument can fill or replace its own say in the world of emotion, sentiment, poetry, imagery and fancy » Leopold Godowsky was born in the village of Soshly near Vilna (then Russian Poland) on February 13, 1870, and died in New [...]
"The world doesn't like independent woman, why, I don't know, but I don't care." Berenice Abbott (1898-1991), born in Springfield, Ohio, American photographer, best known for her documentary images of New York City in the 1930s and 1940s. After graduating from Lincoln High School in Springfield, the young Abbott had a barber cut off the long, thick [...]
“To be immortal and then die” Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard has always considered himself as much a critic as a filmmaker -indeed, the two functions are inseparable for him- and in both areas he has made it his mission to shake up established formulas as radically as possible. "We have to fight the audience," he told [...]
“I've never done anything but dream. This, and this alone, has been the meaning of my life. My only real concern has been my inner life.” The Book of Disquiet is a work by the Portuguese author and poet Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935). Published posthumously, The Book of Disquiet is a fragmentary lifetime project, left unedited by the author, who [...]
“Greenish water on my face: I will drink from you until the night opens. No one can save me. I'm invisible even to myself.” A Musical Hell (Excerpt) 1. THE SHAPES OF A PREMONITION COLD IN HAND BLUES and what is it you're going to say i'm just going to say something and what's this [...]
"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it." Isaac Albeniz Iberia Iberia is a collection of twelve independent works for piano solo by Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909). It was composed in London, paris, and Nice in the years 1905-1907. Iberia is considered not only its composer's masterpiece, but also the "corner-stone, the Koran, of the modern [...]
"There is nothing more marvelous or madder than real life." E. T. A. Hoffmann Today I should be writing about James Joyce's Ulysse as it is the author's birthday but it is a book I have yet to read, I have it in my library, waiting for me to discover it's treasures. I told myself [...]
"The dream was marvellous but the terror was great; we must treasure the dream whatever the terror; for the dream has shown that misery comes at last to the healthy man, the end of his life is sorrow." The Epic of Gilgamesh Mathis der Maler (Matthias the Painter) is among the most famous orchestral works [...]
"And with dream awakened eyes she saw all the beauty around her, saw the sea, felt the sun, and knew she had to vanish for a while from the human surface and make every sacrifice in order to create her world anew out of the depths. And from that came Life or Theatre???" When German [...]
As my studio work brings me to study the works of Gustav Klimt, I decided to talk about one of his paintings Hope 1 (Hoffnung 1), an oil painting created in 1903. Currently located in the National Gallery of Canada, the main subject of this work is a pregnant, nude female. She is holding her hands together above her stomach [...]
I have never read Michel Houellebecq. He recently published a new novel, Anéantir, and around here it seems like it is the only thing everyone is talking about in literary circles. I decided to get a copy and read it for myself. I am not sure it is the right novel to start reading Houllebecq's [...]
(Extraits de "Les petits chants") X celui qui m'aime éloigne mes doubles ouvre la nuit, mon corps, voir tes rêves mon soleil amour XI oh ces yeux que tu as ces yeux fulgurants XII corbeaux dans mon esprit au-dessus de son cher corps c'est le grand froid de la nuit le noir passion de nos [...]
Work progression of the skirt and some of the shawl. I have not been able lately to pack in all the hours I wished I would in the studio. Nevertheless, my work has progressed a little. I always estimate it will take me less time to paint and once I am in the process, I [...]
I purchased this beautiful book showcasing some of Cy Twombly’s work (paintings, photographs, sculptures...). Twombly moves me, in a poetic way. I am very sensible to the chaos he creates on his canvases, to the blurred settings of his photographs, not to mention that his subject of choice is very often the rose, and if [...]
I have started the paintings of Carnaval, my third movement. I have been working on the first painting which depicts a faceless woman in a dress from the baroque era. The clothing and fabric is a lot of work, since it is quite an elaborate drapé. Here are some pictures of the progression of the [...]
“I woke up as the sun was reddening; and that was the one distinct time in my life, the strangest moment of all, when I didn't know who I was - I was far away from home, haunted and tired with travel, in a cheap hotel room I'd never seen, hearing the hiss of steam [...]
Because it all just breaks apart, and the pieces scatter andrearrange without much fanfare or notice. Because you can’t and don’t remember the step that kicked updust and left this planet—you’d give up even more now. Because the body itself—the heart’s not dead but deeper, wrapped up in curtains, a different color,among the railings and [...]
We at the height are ready to decline.There is a tide in the affairs of menWhich, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;Omitted, all the voyage of their lifeIs bound in shallows and in miseries.On such a full sea are we now afloat,And we must take the current when it serves,Or lose our ventures.William [...]
Behind this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea, Mr Creedy... and ideas are bulletproof.- Alan Moore, V for Vendetta Clara Schumann Letter to Doppler July 14, 1838, p. 2 Misc. Ms. 372, Miscellaneous Letters and Documents File Gilmore Music Library, Yale University.
Élévation Au-dessus des étangs, au-dessus des vallées,Des montagnes, des bois, des nuages, des mers,Par delà le soleil, par delà les éthers,Par delà les confins des sphères étoilées, Mon esprit, tu te meus avec agilité,Et, comme un bon nageur qui se pâme dans l'onde,Tu sillonnes gaiement l'immensité profondeAvec une indicible et mâle volupté. Envole-toi bien loin [...]
On vient de mourir mais je suis vivant et cependant je n’ai plus d’âme. Je n’ai plus qu’un corps transparent à l’intérieur duquel des colombes transparentes se jettent sur un poignard transparent tenu par une main transparente. Je vois l’effort dans toute sa beauté, l’effort réel qui ne se chiffre par rien, peu avant la [...]
With fire she shines all round, but in the midst More blue than black appears a maiden’s face And moisten’d cheeks, that blush to meet the gaze. - Plutarch, On the face which appears on the Orb of the Moon
“If you love a flower that lives on a star, it is sweet to look at the sky at night. All the stars are a-bloom with flowers...” ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince "Si tu aimes une fleur qui se trouve dans une étoile, c'est doux, la nuit, de regarder le ciel. Toutes les étoiles sont fleuries..."― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Le petit prince
Time is infinite, but the things in time, the concrete bodies, are finite. They may indeed disperse into the smallest particles; but these particles, the atoms, have their determinate numbers, and the numbers of the configurations which, all of themselves, are formed out of them is also determinate. Now, however long a time may pass, [...]