My mother-in-law was a big fan of ginger, and always had some crystallised ginger in the pantry. Ginger Jar is written with her in mind. I remember her elsewhere on this website, too, specifically through her foolproof casserole, which has…
poem
Oranges and Goblet of Wine – A Poem
A lovely detail about this painting is that there’s an inscription on the back by the artist’s daughter, Helen Peto Smiley, that simply reads, “Painted by my father”. It makes it even more relevant that I’m using it on a…
When the Soldiers are Coming – A Poem
Richard Redgrave was an artist, arts educator, arts administrator, historian, and curator. He was Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures (cataloguing the Royal Collection), and he was awarded France’s highest order of merit, the Légion d’honneur in 1855. He also found…
Girl Bundling Asparagus – A Poem
An interesting point about asparagus. According to Nicholas Culpeper’s The Complete Herbal (1653), asparagus roots boiled in wine “taken fasting several mornings together stirreth up bodily lust in man or woman, whatever some have written to the contrary” (pg 34)….
For a Minute There, the Internet was a 17th-Century Coffee House – A Poem
If you ever want to fall down an internet hole, then may I recommend the coffee houses of old London? Here are some of the links I poured through to get a feel for what life may have been like…
My Bae’s Eyes are Nothing like the Sun – A Poem
Well, this was fun. Marcellus Laroon the Younger was trained in painting by his father, Marcellus Laroon the Elder, a portraitist and history painter. Apparently, the Younger, who specialised in genre scenes and conversation pieces, was “a colourful character who…
Delivering Grapes to a Prospective Lover – A Poem
There’s not a lot to be said about this glorious painting of abundance – enjoy! The form is Italian, a stornello, which I though appropriate for the Italian artist, Luca Forte, who was an innovator, introducing landscapes as backdrops for…
Just Right – A Poem
William Rickarby Miller was a watercolorist, a magazine illustrator, and also a painter of still life. He particularly loved to paint peaches. I enjoyed looking at this foray into apples. For Just Right, I was particularly interested in the old…
Morning, Noon, Night – A Poem
The idealised English cottage scenes in Morning, Noon and Night were painted the same year that saw the end of the French Revolution (1789-99), not that long after the American Revolution (1763-83). Britain was at war with France (1793-1815); in…
Brothers – A Poem
Susan C. Waters was not just a portrait artist, who also painted animals and still lifes, but a woman who supported herself and her husband with her paintings, and an animal activist and suffragette. More on the artist, and her…
Woman and Dog at Table – A Poem
I love dogs, and there was something about the expression in this dog’s face in Woman and Dog at Table that I recognised well. As for the painting, it, too, appears to be a real scene from artist Pierre Bonnard’s…
Woman Walking in an Exotic Forest – A Poem
In Woman Walking in an Exotic Forest, Henri Rousseau takes a woman, better suited for promenading in Parisian parks, and places her tropically, and absurdly, out of her element. “Gazing at the viewer with a look of vague surprise, the…
