Victor Hugo’s “Les Misérables” was published in 1862. The Siege of Paris occurred from 1870 – 1871. This painting is dated 1875. Les Misérables the musical premiered in 1980 in Paris. I had a little fun trying put them all…
poetry
Watermelon 1597 – A Poem
The original phrases in the poem here date back to 1597 and John Gerard’s The Herball or, Generall historie of plantes. The Herball was revised in a later publication of 1633 which is my main source document. You can see…
Self-Taught Artist – A Poem
For women, professional art school was out of the reach until relatively recently. Painting and drawing, however, were considered basic accomplishments for the well-bred Victorian lady. If you had the money you took lessons or engaged a teacher. For a…
Cézanne’s Model – A Poem
My inspiration for this poem came from The Met description of Dish of Apples. The Met pointed out that the napkin in this painting is shaped like Mont Sante-Victorie near Aix-en-Provence in southern France. Cézanne’s father had a house in…
Blackberries – A Poem
The internet is divided on the name of the painter here. The National Gallery of Art and Christie’s call him “Carducius”, but he is referred to as “Cadurcis” here, and by the Illinois Historical Art Project. Wikipedia uses both, as…
Homestead by the Sea – A Poem
Jean-Charles Cazin (1841-1901) was a major figure in French landscape painting. I was drawn to Homestead by the Sea not just because of the peachy, dreamy atmosphere, but because it was like a story – a glimpse into this other…
Vodka – A Poem
The artist Natalia Goncharova said: “Colours have an effect on one’s psychological makeup.” In this painting Goncharova used bold Fauvist colours and curved lines to show the peasants’ joyful movement, and borrowed stylized techniques from woodcuts and iconography for the…
Baked Pears in Duane Park – A Poem
This poem was inspired by The Met Museum’s description accompanying William P. Chappel’s Baked Pears in Duane Park. Writing in the 1880s, one New Yorker fondly reminisced about the black women who stood in the streets tempting passersby with a…
Dining Room Chair from the Speaker’s House, Palace of Westminster – A Poem
There was something so steadfast, and slightly pompous, about this dining room chair, that called for closer examination. In 1859, this chair was carved for the Speaker’s House, which was opened that same year. The House had been rebuilt after…
The Harvesters – A Poem
I find it hard to imagine The Harvesters was painted four-hundred-and-sixty years ago! It still teems with life. Pieter Bruegel was nicknamed “peasant Bruegel” because he was one of the first artists to focus on painting the common people as…
Entwined – A Poem
This painting is a little bit out of left field for my ekphrastic series, as it doesn’t really depict food, or eating. However, hummingbirds do like to sup on red passionflowers. And red passionflowers do bear a fruit, with apparently…
The Wife of Robert Gordon – A Poem
There is so much going on here, not only in this painting, but in this painting’s title: The Contest for the Bouquet: The Family of Robert Gordon in Their New York Dining-Room. Robert Gordon was a banker, merchant, and art…
