måndag 30 november 2009

Reading today

A Pleasant Corner, 1865
John Callcott Horsley
1817-1903

söndag 29 november 2009

Reading today

The Actor Maximilian Korn
in a Landscape, 1828
Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller
1793-1865

1828

lördag 28 november 2009

fredag 27 november 2009

Reading today

Poem - The Pleasure of Memory
Claude Raguet Hirst, 1855-1942

torsdag 26 november 2009

At present

Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer
an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all.
....................................................... Anonymous
This years mosaic isn't very bright, but if you take the time to look at each piece in the mosaic there is much beauty to be found.

I haven't written for quite some time. Not that I lack things to write about — but I lack the energy to transfer the thoughts from the head to the paper — screen.
That is also the reason that I'm slow in answering comments and mail.
I know that many of you have been waiting VERY long for mail and/or letters. Hold out — I dare not promise any anything but I do think of you all.
It has been a strange year in many respects — and I have a feeling that I have to get used to it, as it isn't likely to change.





Reading today

A Good Book
Wybrand Hendriks
1744-1831

onsdag 25 november 2009

Reading today

Study in a Wood
Daniel Huntington
1816-1906

tisdag 24 november 2009

Reading today

Ballet Class
Edgar Degas, 1834-1917

måndag 23 november 2009

Reading today

A Reading
Thomas Wilmer Dewing
1851-1938

söndag 22 november 2009

Reading today

Girl Reading
Frank Duveneck
1848-1919

lördag 21 november 2009

Reading today

Among Friends
Arthur Wardle, 1864-1949

fredag 20 november 2009

Reading today

The Fairy Tale
Thomas Pollock Anschutz
1851-1912

torsdag 19 november 2009

Reading today

Girl in a Pink Dress Reading, with a Dog
Charles Chaplin, 1825-1891

onsdag 18 november 2009

November

November Moonlight
John Atkinson Grimshaw
1836-1893
.
I know, it sounds as I detest November, which I don't. But I do miss the sun — we didn't see much of it during the summer, and I just heard on the radio that so far in November our area has had one (1) hour of sun!
Yes, I know, you get better photos in this kind of weather — but I don't care, I rather have sunshine and get photos that are smarmy...

Reading today

Old Woman Reading a Lectionary
Gerrit Dou, 1613-1675

tisdag 17 november 2009

Reading today

Scholar with his Books
Gerbrand van den Eeckhout
1621-1674

måndag 16 november 2009

November


Morning in November
Sir George Clausen
1852-1944
.
For some reason I find November in a painting so much more appealing than November in real life.


It has been misty all day and I can see the beauty in it even if I don't appreciate it.

Reading today

Das Lesende Mädchen
Johann Georg Meyer von Bremen
181113-1886

söndag 15 november 2009

Reading today

In The Woods At Giverny —
Blanche Hoschede Monet At Her Easel
With Suzanne Hoschede Reading
Claude Monet

lördag 14 november 2009

Afternoon Tea with Claude Monet

The Tea Set
Claude Monet
.
It is Claude Monet's birthday today, so why not take tea with him. I found this recipe for Madeleines in "The Easiest Way in Housekeeping and Cooking Adapted to Domestic Use or Study in Classes" by Helen Campbell.
.
Madeleines.—Four ounces of butter, four ounces of the best flour, three ounces of sugar, a teaspoonful of orange-flower water, the yolks of four eggs, and rind of a lemon. Beat butter, sugar, and yolks of eggs together, then add the other ingredients; grate in the rind of half a lemon, and add the well-beaten whites of eggs last of all. Fill little moulds that have been buttered with washed butter, cover the tops with split almonds and sifted sugar; bake from thirty to forty minutes in a moderate oven. These cakes are sometimes served hot with apricot sauce.

Miss Henry's Shrewsbury cakes comes from "My Pet Recipes, Tried and True" Contributed by the Ladies and Friends of St. Andrew's Church, Quebec

SHREWSBURY CAKES.
Rub to a cream six ounces of sugar, with six ounces of butter, add two well beaten eggs and work in twelve ounces flour, adding a teaspoonful of rose water. Roll out thin and cut into small cakes.

The Galettes
Claude Monet
.
If you still are hungry I suggest you make a galette. There are quite a few recipes on the web, this is one of them.

Sunflowers
Claude Monet

And don't forget the flowers!

Reading today

St Catherine Reading a Book
Carlo Dolci, 1616-1686

fredag 13 november 2009

Reading today

Elizabeth Siddall in a Chair
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
1828-1882

torsdag 12 november 2009

Reading today

St Antony Reading
Marcantonio Bassetti, 1588-1630

onsdag 11 november 2009

Autumn

.
GATHERING LEAVES
.
Spades take up leaves
No better than spoons,
And bags full of leaves
Are light as balloons.
.
I make a great noise
Of rustling all day
Like a rabbit and deer
Running away.
.
But the mountains I raise
Elude my embrace,
Flowing over my arms
And into my face.
.
I may load and unload
Again and again
Till I fill the whole shed,
And what have I then?
.
Next to nothing for weight;
And since they grew duller
From contact with earth,
Next to nothing for color.
.
Next to nothing for use.
But a crop is a crop,
And who's to say where
The harvest shall stop?
........... Robert Frost


I might be absent for a while, the computer and I are going to town tomorrow — and I don't know if the computer will be ready when I'm ready to go back home.

Reading today

Reading a Book
Rudolf Ernst, 1854-1932

tisdag 10 november 2009

Reading today

Hojeando un libro
(Leafing through a book)
Benjamín Palencia
1894-1980

måndag 9 november 2009

Reading today

Sophia Kramskaya Reading
Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy
1837-1887

söndag 8 november 2009

Reading today

Dropping off
Eastman Johnson
1824-1906

lördag 7 november 2009

Saturday with Gutenberg


I've always enjoyed reading William Hazlitt, so I consider his "Table-Talk, Essays on Men and Manners", that I found today, a find.
I read the first paragraph:
'There is a pleasure in painting which none but painters know.' In writing, you have to contend with the world; in painting, you have only to carry on a friendly strife with Nature. You sit down to your task, and are happy. From the moment that you take up the pencil, and look Nature in the face, you are at peace with your own heart. No angry passions rise to disturb the silent progress of the work, to shake the hand, or dim the brow: no irritable humours are set afloat: you have no absurd opinions to combat, no point to strain, no adversary to crush, no fool to annoy—you are actuated by fear or favour to no man. There is 'no juggling here,' no sophistry, no intrigue, no tampering with the evidence, no attempt to make black white, or white black: but you resign yourself into the hands of a greater power, that of Nature, with the simplicity of a child, and the devotion of an enthusiast—'study with joy her manner, and with rapture taste her style.' The mind is calm, and full at the same time. The hand and eye are equally employed. In tracing the commonest object, a plant or the stump of a tree, you learn something every moment. You perceive unexpected differences, and discover likenesses where you looked for no such thing. You try to set down what you see—find out your error, and correct it. You need not play tricks, or purposely mistake: with all your pains, you are still far short of the mark. Patience grows out of the endless pursuit, and turns it into a luxury. A streak in a flower, a wrinkle in a leaf, a tinge in a cloud, a stain in an old wall or ruin grey, are seized with avidity as the spolia opima of this sort of mental warfare, and furnish out labour for another half-day. The hours pass away untold, without chagrin, and without weariness; nor would you ever wish to pass them otherwise. Innocence is joined with industry, pleasure with business; and the mind is satisfied, though it is not engaged in thinking or in doing any mischief.
Charles Lamb, by William Hazlitt

My first thought was that he either must have been a very skilled painter or never tried to paint or draw. I realized that I knew very little about him, so I made a detour on the web and learned that he indeed knew how to paint.
Today's other find was "All the Way to Fairyland, Fairy Stories" by Evelyn Sharp and with illustrations by Mrs. Percy Dearmer. I knew her mainly as a suffragette and although I've read some of her books for girls, I didn't know that she had written fairy tales.

788787878
"London ... where all people under
thirty find so much amusement."
............................ Gray.

THE (REPUTED) "OLD CURIOSITY SHOP.
.
"There is also a book from 1903 about "Dickens' London by Francis Miltoun. But this is a book I have to return to — and also a book that probably is of more interest to someone who knows London better than I do.

DICKENS' STUDY AT GAD'S HILL PLACE.
From a painting by Luke Fildes, R. A.

fredag 6 november 2009

Reading today

Young Man with Candle
Michel Gobin, 1681-?

torsdag 5 november 2009

Reading today

Reading in the Morning Light
Carl Vilhelm Holsoe, 1863-1935

onsdag 4 november 2009

November

It is so much much November — inside and out.
It has been snowing tonight — so far only a thin layer of white on the ground, and I hope that's all we get!
I'm a terrible grouser, when I'm not sleeping I'm complaining. Which probably is my main reason for not blogging much.

I thought I'd picked all currents — but there still are a few on the bushes.

Reading today

Andre Henri Dargelas
Playing Marbles
1828-1906
Not exactly reading.......

tisdag 3 november 2009

Reading today

In the Library
John Watkins Chapman
1832-1903

måndag 2 november 2009

Reading today

Portrait of the Painter Benno Becker
Lovis Corinth, 1858-1925