Spring by Joan Lennon

One of my sons is living in Indonesia now, and though he is very happy about it, there are a few things that he misses.  (One is IrnBru, but we won't dwell on that.)  In a country where lushness is a steady, year-round phenomenon, he is finding that he misses the changing seasons he grew up with in Scotland.  Which made me think how much I too appreciate the way the year is punctuated by change.  Which sent me on a gentle stroll through wikicommons to look at historical paintings of spring.  Which now I share with you.  (Click on the images to make them bigger.)    

The Limbourg Brothers (Herman, Paul and Johan) 

Tres Riches Heures du duc de Berry: April (circa 1412-1416)

 Sandro Botticelli Primavera (1482)

Pieter Breughel the Younger (1564-1638) 

The Four Seasons: Spring

Vincent van Gogh 

The Pink Peach Tree (1888)

These will be old friends to many of you, but I'd like to add one more that was a) new to me and b) still sneaks in under the "historical" wire, by the Polish artist Leon Wyczolkowski -

Spring (1933)

If you have a favourite historical painting of spring which you would like to add to the gallery, pop a link to it into the comments below.
  


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Silver Skin.

19th Century Snow by Joan Lennon

By the time you read/look at this, the weather will be different - that's a thing you can count on, pretty much.  But on the day I set myself to write my post, it snowed.  Now, because I live near the coast, snow rarely lies long, so I quickly took some pictures, partly to give the impermanent a sort of permanence, and partly to send to my son in Indonesia who was asking for photos of home.  Which made me think about the snow that home has carried on its roof from time to time over the years, and because it is a 19th century house I thought about 19th century paintings of snow and then because I was feeling a bit lonely, I thought of Emily Dickinson.  And that is why my post today is the way it is.

Claude Monet Train in the Snow 1875

J.M.W. Turner Snow Storm: Steamboat off a Harbour's Mouth 1842

Paul Gaugin Winter Landscape 1879

Vincent Van Gogh Two Peasant Women Digging in a Snow-covered Field 1890

Utagagawa Kunisada Snow Scene 19th century

It sifts from Leaden Sieves —
It powders all the Wood.
It fills with Alabaster Wool
The Wrinkles of the Road —

It makes an Even Face
Of Mountain, and of Plain —
Unbroken Forehead from the East
Unto the East again —

It reaches to the Fence —
It wraps it Rail by Rail
Till it is lost in Fleeces —
It deals Celestial Vail

To Stump, and Stack — and Stem —
A Summer's empty Room —
Acres of Joints, where Harvests were,
Recordless, but for them—

It Ruffles Wrists of Posts
As Ankles of a Queen —
Then stills its Artisans — like Ghosts —
Denying they have been —

Emily Dickinson The Snow 1891



Joan Lennon's website.
Joan Lennon's blog.

Victorian Photographs and Women Reading by Joan Lennon

This is a post in two parts.

Part the first:  There is a wonderful exhibition on at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, running till the 22nd November, titled Photography: A Victorian Sensation.  I highly recommend it if you find yourself within striking distance - but beware - we were there for 1 1/2 hours and only got half way round before being politely booted out at closing time.  (I'll try to go again.)

It was dimly lit and the photographs were small in their beautiful cases, but the curators had cunningly provided electronic display thingies where you could enlarge each portrait to your heart's content.  And that was where the time went.  Being able to look closely at the faces, read the stories behind the lines and the expressions.  The majority were full face and because they had to hold their poses for so long, it wasn't possible to hide behind created persona smirks or "Everything's fine!" animation.  They were vulnerable and open.

Now, a good number of the men's portraits had them with a finger in a book, but very few of the women were shown this way.  As we weren't allowed to take photographs of the photographs, I found this one of the fabulous Julia Margaret Cameron elsewhere in that pose (she is a heroine of mine and, irritatingly, in the part of the exhibition I got "encouraged" out of.  It was my own fault, of course.)

But what those images made me think of was ...

Part the second - paintings of women reading.  There is a similar stillness and lack of defence - the viewer sees the reader's face in repose, but this time without making eye contact.  You will not be surprised to learn I've never been an artist's model, but if I were, I've always thought the best pose to go for would be reading.  With all my clothes on.  This would help with the boredom and goosebumps.  And here are some that I like a lot -

Woman reading a letter by Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675)

Reading “Le Figaro” by Mary Cassatt (1844-1926)

Woman Reading by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1798-1861)

La Lecture by George Croegaert (1848-1923)

Elisabeth Allan Fraser by Patrick Allan Fraser (1812-1890) 

(She is reading in the dining room at Hospitalfield House, just up the coast from where I live - an amazing place.) 

Do you have a favourite portrait of a woman reading?  If so, I'd love to see it - share a link to it in the comments.  Thank you!  (And go to that exhibition if you possibly can - )

Joan Lennon's website.

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