I reached into the box of 40+ Horizon: A Magazine of the Arts magazines and pulled out three volumes thinking that I could clickedy clack rattle off a table of topics, contents, authors, and subjects which interested artsy cultured folks in what by chance turned out to be 1962. Can’t be done. Too much. Can’t
From “Lecture II: Traffic” in John Ruskin’s The Crown of Wild Olive: Four Lectures on Work, Traffic, War and the Future of England (ca. 1895). John Ruskin was an interesting chap. A writer, poet, artist, art critic and later social critic. According to that infallible source, his work influenced Tolstoy, Gandhi, and Proust. The final sentence
Currier & Ives Chronicles of America (1968, p191; reproduced here from the Library of Congress archives). “A Cotton Plantation…” was first published in 1884.
I mentioned earlier that today is Nathaniel Currier’s birthday. Currier opened his print publishing business in 1834. James Ives joined him in 1852 and became his partner in 1857. Currier was a trained lithographer. Ives was a businessman with “a shrewd insight into the public’s taste.” From that infallible source: Lithography originally used an image
Today is the anniversary of Nathaniel Currier’s birth in 1845. I’ve got a crappy old book for that! Stay tuned.
Alternate title: This, my friends, is why we have crappy old books Not long ago I picked up The World’s Great Madonnas: An Anthology of Pictures, Poetry, Music, and Stories Centering in the Life of the Madonna and Her Son (1947; which can be yours for one shiny penny). The largest portion of the book deals
Louis-Maurice Boutet de Monvel was a famous illustrator of children’s books. That’s the title page to his first book, (trans.) Old Songs and Rounds for Small Children. From that infallible source (citations removed): In 1895, however, he published an illustrated children’s history of Joan of Arc which has been regarded as his masterpiece. Working epic scenes in
Sistine Chapel Ceiling: Creation of Adam— Michelangelo Buonarroti 1510 (from Wikiart.org) Michelangelo was born this date in 1475. He began planning the ceiling in 1508. He finished it in 1512. I cannot think of words to describe the work, or the work. Others try: The Creation of Adam is so famous that it is almost
This ignorant. Today is the anniversary of Vincent Van Gogh’s birth (1893), an anniversary noted in the Second Edition of Anniversaries and Holidays but not the first. (I’ll return to this some other time.) I asked myself, what better way to commemorate this anniversary than to post “Sunflowers”? Did you know there are like 107
“So Long till Next Year” Grandma Moses (1960); from Grandma Moses (Otto Kallir, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. Publishers, New York, 1973. Today’s the day I began putting Christmas away. I won’t finish, of course, until Epiphany, but today’s the day I began. Except for the Bible still open to Matthew, the Christmas books were the
“Catching the Turkey” Grandma Moses 1940 More in the “Catching the Turkey” series here. Though I know little about Grandma Moses, primitivism, or art, I am a fan of Anna Mary Robertson, and enjoy looking at her work. “A Blizzard” 1956
“Mom?” “Mom? Where’s that deer skull?” “Ummm… . In that chest in the foyer.” Right side. Top shelf. Because, like, doesn’t everyone have a deer skull in a chest in the foyer? The steer mandible is in the garage near the Area 51 rock. The goat skull is on top of one set of encyclopedias– I
Lots going on today! Since tomorrow is Good Friday, lots of businesses and such will be closed– even State!– so today substitutes for Friday-go-to-town-day. But first I have to get the first coat on. But before that I must post at least a little something. So I turned to a crappy old book, Christ and the
The final still. It ain’t great, photo-wise, but it was a lot easier to upload.Happy Birthday, Miss M. We all hope you had a great day.Love you!
I loved it!BIG LIFE!
Courtesy Wikipaintings.org I have a new essay out in our little weekly newspaper. It’s online at the paper’s site but behind a paywall– you may want to subscribe so you so you can keep up with what’s happening. (Extra! Extra! There was an arrest made in the school flag theft!)The essay is also available
My photographs– I didn’t have my camera on me, I had to rely on my iThingy’s “camera”– do not do this work justice. It’s fascinating. It’s a bunch of loops. Zillions of them. There is no texture. As it appears there is. It’s just a bunch of loops. My first Country Mouse thought was
Subject line of an email Mr. Big Food’s Dad passed along.Here’s a sampling of the attached images. Hoping American Grouch will enjoy them.
Luc-Olivier Merson (1897) It matters not that his Bethlehem with its unpaved street, its houses of plaster and thatch, looks more like Brittany than Palestine; the setting is only a background for a very human story that concerns three people– helpless and desperate Mary, helpless and exasperated Joseph, and a hard-hearted woman. It is the
“The Sistine Madonna” Rafael (1512-14) [click to enlarge] This art stuff is awfully complicated for a little country mouse such as myself. Seems everyone has an opinion about how to interpret this painting. At what, for example, is the guy on the left pointing? Why does the Christ Child appear to shrink back– be afraid?