The Mouse Metamorphosed into a Maid, by Jean de La Fontaine (IX.7)

Jean de La Fontaine‘s Cat Metamorphosed into a Woman (II.18) belongs to the second of six books of fables he published in 1668. As we have seen, it is a Aesopic fable. However, La Fontaine’s immediate source was Névelet’s 1610 Latin edition of Aesop’s Fables, the Mythologia Æsopica Isaaci Nicolai Neveleti (Frankfurt, 1610) where the same fable, by Aesop, is entitled Venus and the Cat. The moral of The Cat Metamorphosed into a Woman is Horatian:

The Delights of Nature (Horace, Epistles, Book I. x, lines 1-25)

Drive Nature off with a pitchfork, she’ll still press back,

And secretly burst in triumph through your sad disdain.

(lines 24-25)

Limit your desires (Horace, Epistles, Book I, ii, lines 55-71)

A jar will long retain the odor of what it was

Dipped in when new.

(lines 69-70)

La Fontaine’s Second Collection of Fables (1678)

In Book IX:vii of his second volume of fables (1678), Jean de La Fontaine published La Souris métamorphosée en fille (The Mouse Metamorphosed into a Maid). The Mouse Metamorphosed into a Maid is not rooted in the Aesopic corpus, but finds its origin in the Panchatantra (3rd century BCE, or earlier), where it is entitled The Mouse Turned into a Maid or The Transformed Mouse Seeks a Bridegroom.

La Souris métamorphosée en fille

ne, he drew his fable[i] from Le Livre des lumières ou la conduite des roys (The Book of Enlightenment or the Conduct of Kings), published in 1644 by Gilbert Gaulmin (1585-1665) who used a pseudonym. He called himself David Sahid d’Ispahan. Le Livre des lumières ou la conduite des roys contains fables by storyteller Bidpai or Pilpay (FR), the storyteller featured in both the Sanskrit Panchatantra, by Vishnu Sharma, and its Arabic version, Kalīlah wa-Dimnah, written by Persian scholar Ibn Al-Muqaffa’. The Panchatantra was well-known and it migrated to both Eastern and Western countries. According to Edgerton (1924), who translated the Panchatantra into English,

…there are recorded over two hundred different versions known to exist in more than fifty languages, and three-fourths of these languages are extra-Indian. As early as the eleventh century this work reached Europe, and before 1600 it existed in Greek, Latin, Spanish, Italian, German, English, Old Slavonic, Czech, and perhaps other Slavonic languages. Its range has extended from Java to Iceland… [In India,] it has been worked over and over again, expanded, abstracted, turned into verse, retold in prose, translated into medieval and modern vernaculars, and retranslated into Sanskrit. And most of the stories contained in it have “gone down” into the folklore of the story-loving Hindus, whence they reappear in the collections of oral tales gathered by modern students of folk-stories.

(See Panchatantra, Wikipedia.)

Although both The Cat Metamorphosed into a Woman (II.xviii) and The Mouse Metamorphosed into a Maid feature a metamorphosis gone awry. Yet, not only are their source different, but so are their narratives. La Fontaine’s La Souris métamorphosée en fille (The Mouse Metamorphosed into a Maid) is a rather long fable. One may read it in full by clicking on the title on the fable. However, I will provide a summary.

A mouse falls from an owl’s mouth. The storyteller does not pick her up, but a Brahmin does and this Brahmin knows a sorcerer. The sorcerer transforms our mouse into a Maid. She grows up as a maid, but when she turns fifteen and time has come for her to marry, the Brahmin seeks a husband for her. Suddenly problems arise. The girl wants a powerful husband but she is rejected by the son of Priam, the Sun, a Cloud, the Wind, and a Mountain. However, our lovely maid is not disappointed because she herself is not interested in the suitors who have rejected her. She finally expresses a degree of satisfaction when she hears the word “rat.” The rat rejects her as do a cat, a dog, a wolf… The sorcerer reappears, nearly fifteen years later, and states that one chooses a mate among one’s kind and one’s kind share the same soul. Consequently, metempsychosis, the migration of a soul, is not possible. In other words, as is the case in The Cat Metamorphosed into a Woman, although the mouse has grown into a beautiful girl, her human form is skin-deep. She has the soul of a mouse, not that of a human being.

La Fontaine does not tell us what happens to the mouse metamorphosed into a maid (she is turned back into a mouse), but here is his moral:

In all respects, compared and weighed,

The souls of men and souls of mice

Quite different are made,

Unlike in sort as well as size.

Each fits and fills its destined part

As Heaven does well provide;

Nor witch, nor fiend, nor magic art,

Can set their laws aside.

La Fontaine (IX.vii)

Parlez au diable, employez la magie,

Vous ne détournerez nul être de sa fin [destined part].

La Fontaine (IX.vii)

As mentioned above, The Mouse Metamorphosed into a Maid is rooted in the Panchatantra and its Arabic version, Kalīlah wa-Dimnah. It has the same moral as The Cat Metamorphosed into a Woman: “Nature will out.” But its narrative differs, to a greater than lesser extent, from that of The Cat Metamorphosed into a Woman (II.xviii). Finally, both are listed as Aarne-Thompson type 2031C. However, Professor D. L. Ashliman does not include La Fontaine’s two fables in his list of “cumulative tales.”

Aarne-Thompson or Aarne-Thompson-Uther types 2000-2100 are all cumulative or chain tales. As indicated above, when writing The Mouse Metamorphosed into a Maid, La Fontaine drew his material from the Sanskrit The Mouse Turned into a Maid or The Transformed Mouse Seeks a Bridegroom, which is a cumulative tale and is listed under: Chains Involving Other Events 2029-2075. According to D. L. Ashliman, The Mouse Turned into a Maid or The Transformed Mouse Seeks a Bridegroom (The Panchatantra, India) shares affinities with the following stories or narratives:[ii]

The Husband of the Rat’s Daughter or The Rats and Their Daughter (Japan)

A Bridegroom for Miss Mole (Korea)

The Story of the Rat and Her Journey to God (Romania)

The Most Powerful Husband in the World (France and French North Africa)

Conclusion

Reason vs Instinct

La Fontaine’s moral is very clever. He does not deny that animals have a soul, but he states clearly that animals have a soul, but that it is a soul of their own.

The souls of men and souls of mice

Quite different are made[.]

The Primacy of Reason challenged

The primacy of reason was challenged almost as soon as René Descartes published his Discourse on Method (Discours de la méthode) in 1637.[iii] According to Descartes, animals function much as clocks do. They were looked upon as machines. But, Blaise Pascal (19 June 1623 – 19 August 1662) argued that humans are endowed with both reason and instincts: Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connaît point. (Les Pensées, published posthumously). Instincts are a characteristic humans share with animals, yet it was Pascal’s conviction that reason needed the support of instincts or le coeur, the heart: c’est sur ces connaissances du coeur et de l’instinct qu’il faut que la raison s’appuie (reason must lean on knowledge gleaned from the heart and instinct). See Pierre Magnard. In my opinion, such was also La Fontaine’s view. I have written a post on this subject: The Two Rats, Fox and Egg: The Soul of Animals.

So two little fables about a cat and a mouse transformed into a woman or girl contain the wisdom of their century as does The Two Rats, Fox and Egg: The Soul of Animals. Moreover, both the The Cat Metamorphosed into a Woman and The Mouse Metamorphosed into a Maid deny metempsychosis by featuring an attempted and partly successful metamorphism or metempsychosis.

From Mouse to Mouse

Ironically, the sorcerer is the character who says that sorcery does not work fully, which is contrary to his transforming the mouse into a maid. The structure of this fable therefore resembles that of The Cat Metamorphosed into a Woman (II.xviii) and Venus and the Cat. So the moral of La Fontaine’s The Mouse Metamorphosed into a Maid is expressed not only in words, but through form.

The very thing the wizard did

Its falsity exposes

If that indeed were ever hid.

In other words, the story or narrative could be summed up in a short phrase. It is “from mouse to mouse” as it is “from ashes to ashes.” As powerful as he was, Louis XIV could no more escape death than the humblest of his nation’s impoverished peasants: memento mori.

______________________________

[i] He acknowledged he did, see Bidpai (Wikipedia).

[ii] Different folktales may have the same title and the same folktale may have different tiles. Moreover, a folktale (fables, fairy tales, etc.) may belong to more than one AT type. Finally, various animals can play the same role. That role is then called a function.

[iii] The Discours de la méthode (1637) is The Project Gutenberg’s [EBook #13846].

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791)

Variations in C Major on the French Song “Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman,” K. 265

Walter Klien, piano

Gerbil, by

Jacopo Ligozzi (1547–1627)

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

July 29, 2013

WordPress

“The Cat Metamorphosed into a Woman,” by Jean de La Fontaine (II.18)

28 Sunday Jul 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Fables

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

Aarne-Thompson-Uther, Aesop's Fables, folklore, Horace, La Fontaine, metamorphoses, motif, Nature will out, Perry Index, Venus

La Chatte métamorphosée en femme (II.18)

Aarne-Thompson-Uther type 2031

The Perry Index (#050)

Æsop’s Fables: Venus and the Cat (The Project Gutenberg [EBook #11339])

Fables d’Ésope: La Chatte et Aphrodite

La Fontaine: La Chatte métamorphosée en femme (II. 18)

La Fontaine: The Cat Metamorphoses into a Woman (II. 18)

Photo credit: The Project Gutenberg [EBook #25433], p. 46

Metamorphoses: Ovid, Horace, Apuleius and Æsop

According to the editors[i] of my collection of La Fontaine‘s Fables, the moral this fable (Book II: 18), The Cat Memorphosed into a Woman (La Chatte métamorphosée en femme), finds its roots in Horace‘s (8 December 65 BCE – 27 November 8 BCE) Epistles, Book I. ii, lines 69-71.[ii] The moral is Horatian, but the source of La Fontaine’s fable is an Æsopic fable entitled Venus and the Cat and Æsop‘s (c. 620 – 564 BCE) Fables predate Horace’s Epistles. However, metamorphoses are a theme linked with Ovid (20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), the author of Pygmalion, one of the metamorphoses, and with Lucius Apuleius (c. 125 – c. 180 CE), the author of The Golden Ass, an entertaining story, which contains the Tale of Cupid and Psyche.

Interestingly, in Jean de La Fontaine’s La Chatte métamorphosée en femme (II. 18), a metamorphosis is used to show that metamorphoses are not possible, at least not altogether. In other words, in The Cat Metamorphosed into a Woman, La Fontaine uses a metamorphosis, his exemplum, to demonstrate that nature is mostly immutable. A cat is cat and remains a cat, despite appearances, and a woman is a woman and remains a woman, despite appearances.

Seventeenth-Century France

In seventeenth-century France, particularly after the Fronde, the aristocrats and honnêtes hommes[iii] who gathered in the salons of refined women gave free rein to fantasy and would eventually create children’s literature, but nature reigned supreme, not to mention Cartesian reason and absolutism. Absolutism had taken their power away from the highest- ranked aristocrats. It was a time when one had to heed Horace’s advice: “Limit your desires” (Epistles, Book I, ii, lines 55–71), but the cast of our fable seems not to have known Horace.

La Fontaine’s fable, entitled La Chatte métamorphosée en femme (II. 18), is about a metamorphosis — a cat is “successfully” transformed into a woman — the purpose of which, i.e. the metamorphosis, is to tell that a metamorphosis is not possible, which is somewhat paradoxical. The metamorphosis that has occurred goes amiss. In other words, the exemplum shows that, if taken away, what nature has ordained, le naturel, will always return. As the French proverb goes: Chassez [chase away] le naturel, il revient au galop [it comes galloping back]. So our cat has been turned into a woman, but the woman’s instincts, the core, are those of a cat. Let us read the fables.

La Fontaine: The Cat Metamorphosed into a Woman

In The Cat Metamorphosed into a Woman (simply click on the title to read the fable) (La Chatte métamorphosée en femme II. 18), a man so loves his cat that he wants to transform her into a woman using every trick: from tears and prayers, to charms and magic. This man succeeds in transforming his cat into a woman, but the moment she hears mice, our newly fashioned woman is crawling on the floor chasing them, but without instilling fear in the mice. Our former cat looks like a woman, so the mice have no reason to fear her in the least. Appearances are deceptive.

La Fontaine, however, does not tell us the rest of the story, i.e. what happens to the cat-woman. He simply writes a moral according to which one cannot change: “Old habits die hard.” It is as Horace wrote:

Limit your desires (Horace, Epistles, Book I, ii, lines 55-71)

A jar will long retain the odor of what it was

Dipped in when new.

(lines 69-70)

The Delights of Nature (Horace, Epistles, Book I. x, lines 1-25)

Drive Nature off with a pitchfork, she’ll still press back,

And secretly burst in triumph through your sad disdain.

(lines 24-25)

Æsop: Venus and the Cat

La Fontaine’s narrative resembles its source, Æsop‘s fable entitled Venus and the Cat or The Cat and Venus. This time, however, the cat herself wishes to be metamorphosed into a woman because she is in love with a man. Roles have therefore been reversed: the man is a cat. Consequently, La Fontaine’s fable is a mirror image of its sources which would be, first, Névelet or Isaaci Nicolai Neveleti’s Mythologia Æsopica (Frankfurt, 1610), a retelling of Æsop, and, second, Æsop’s own Venus and the Cat.

In Venus and the Cat, our enamoured cat so wishes to become a woman that she asks Venus, the goddess of love, called Aphrodite in Roman mythology, to turn her into a woman. The goddess Venus obliges but, when night falls or “one day,” curiosity leads her to the bride’s chamber where she places a mouse in the middle of the room. The woman leaps out of bed and goes chasing after the mouse. Contrary to La Fontaine, Æsop provides a full narrative, leaving little to the imagination. A disappointed Venus turns the woman back into a cat, which seems a form of punishment. V. S. Vernon Jones’ translation of Venus and the Cat is as follows:

Æsop: Venus and the Cat

Gutenberg (EBook #11339)

V. S. Vernon Jones, Translator

G. K. Chesterton, Introduction

Arthur Rackham, Illustrator

“A Cat fell in love with a handsome young man, and begged the goddess Venus to change her into a woman. Venus was very gracious about it, and changed her at once into a beautiful maiden, whom the young man fell in love with at first sight and shortly afterwards married. One day Venus thought she would like to see whether the Cat had changed her habits as well as her form; so she let a mouse run loose in the room where they were. Forgetting everything, the young woman had no sooner seen the mouse than up she jumped and was after it like a shot: at which the goddess was so disgusted that she changed her back again into a Cat.”

Æsop (c. 620–564 BCE)

La Fontaine’s Moral: Horace, Epistles Book I. x, 1-25

The editor of my copy of La Fontaine, Fables et Contes is quite right. The moral of La Fontaine’s fable is linked with Horace’s first book of Epistles or Letters. However, it is related to both Book I, ii, 55-71, and Book 1, x, 1-25. We may in fact have a translation for “Chassez le naturel, il revient au galop[,]” which would be: “Drive Nature off with a pitchfork, she’ll still press[.]” (Horace Epistles, Book I, x, line 24). The two relevant morals are the above-mentioned Horatian:

A jar will long retain the odor of what it was

Dipped in when new.

Drive Nature off with a pitchfork, she’ll still press back,

And secretly burst in triumph through your sad disdain.

Æsop’s Moral: “Nature will out”

In La Fontaine’s version of Æsop’s Venus and the Cat or The Cat and Venus, the moral is largely implicit, yet clear. However, some translations of Æsop’s version and the source of La Fontaine’s fable end with an explicit moral. As he concludes his 1887 Cat and Venus, author-translator George Fyler Townsend writes that “Nature exceeds nurture.” Similarly, Joseph Jacobs‘ 1894 The Cat-Maiden ends on the proverbial: “Nature will out.”[iv]

Aarne-Thompson type 2031C

Alishman does not include La Fontaine’s Cat Metamorphosed into a Woman in his list of fables classified as Aarne-Thompson-Uther Type 2031. Type 2031’s chief fable is The Mouse Who Was to Marry the Sun. La Fontaine’s cat is changed into a woman and the mouse, into a woman, but this motif is that of another fable by entitled The Mouse metamorphosed into a Girl (IV.7), published in La Fontaine’s 1678 collection of fables, his second volume of fables a volume that reflects the influence of Le Livre des lumières ou la conduite des roys (The Book of Enlightenment or the Conduct of Kings), a French translation of fables by Bidpai, originating in the Sanskrit Panchatantra (Pañcatantra) and Arabic Kalīlah wa Dimnah, written by Persian scholar Ibn al-Muquaffa’. This one fable is in fact taking us all the way to Japan.

______________________________

[i] René Groos et Jacques Schiffrin, La Fontaine, Fables et Contes (Paris: Gallimard, collection La Pléiade, 1954), p. 688.

[ii] Epistles are letters. Horace was born on 8 December 65 BCE and died on 27 November 8 BCE.

[iii] “honnête homme.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 27 Jul. 2013.

<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/271056/honnete-homme>.

[iv] To read other translations of Æsop’s fable, click on The Cat and Venus.

Arthur Rackham (19 September 1867 – 6 September 1939)

Book cover, 1912 edition, by Arthur Rackham

Photo credit: The Project Gutenberg

17 July 2013

WordPress

Alex Colville: Artist and Car & The Skater

25 Thursday Jul 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Art

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Abstract art, Alex Colville, Apartment, Canada, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Personal space, Wolfville, World War II

Artist and Car, by Alex Colville, 2008

Dog and Priest, 1978 (below)

July 25, 2013

July 28, 2013 (updated)

WordPress

Dear Readers,

Matters have not improved. I cannot even use the “Add Media” feature. I copied and pasted the pictures in this message. “Add Media” doesn’t work, nor do the “tags.” However, WordPress’ Happiness Engineers will fix the problem. I will also contact the computer company. Just in case. In the meantime, I feel totally abandoned. I miss reading your posts and writing my blog is now part of my daily routine. Life is quite the challenge.

The weather is glorious. I own one ninth of a small apartment building and my personal space is a large apartment facing various backyards. My neighbours have lovely gardens and I can see mature trees. Moreover, on this side of the building, one does not hear cars.

I have inserted videos featuring Alex Colville speaking about his art. In my earlier posts, I did not mention that Mr Colville was very meticulously in his work. He drew lines, a grid, and then made his sketch. The results were magnificent, but his perfect renditions have sometimes been interpreted as realism. There is no doubt that the “Skater” is a perfect drawing and that it is a representational painting, i.e. it’s not an abstract painting. Nor is it a realist painting. We see a skater, or rather, the back of a skater, but why did he chose to paint the skater in reverse? At times, he paints a mundus inversus, a world in reverse. Colville’s “realism” is therefore deceptive, but his compositions are stunning.

Video dated 24 July 2013

The video dated 24 July 2013, the video I inserted in my last post, is like an exhibition. It includes a few artworks that depict World War II. Please click on the following link to view it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUkokSs3JR4.

Love to all of you,

Micheline

Alex Colville Speaks (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation)

Skater, by Alex Colville, 1964

Alexander Colville (1920 – 2013)

22 Monday Jul 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Art

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

Alex Colville, Canada, Colville, Mount Allison University, Roy Campbell, St. Catharines, Stanley Royle, Toronto

Dog and Fireplace, 1950 (graphite and gouache on watercolour board)

From Coast to Coast the Iron Horse.1

From Coast to Coast the Iron Horse.2

On Artist Alexander Colville

Photo credit: Colville House & Colville Website, unless otherwise indicated

Alexander Colville (1920 – 2013)

Artist Alex Colville PC CC ONS (24 August 1920 – 16 July 2013) passed away last week, a month shy of his 93rd birthday. I wrote two posts featuring artist Alex Colville’s 1954 “Horse and Train” (glazed tempera). When Colville created “Horse and Train,” he was inspired by Anglo-African poet and satirist Roy Campbell (2 October 1901 – 22 April 1957) who wrote (see Alexander Colville, Wikipedia):

Against a regiment I oppose a brain

And a dark horse against an armored train.

Roy Campbell

I also wrote a post on Alexander Colville, the artist: Artist Alexander Colville. At the top of this post, I showed an exceptional painting of a hound, “Hound in Field” (casein tempera [cocaine a tempera]), created in 1958 by Alexander Colville, and wrote comments on this painting. At the bottom of that post, I featured the painting shown at the top of the current post: “Dog and Fireplace.” That particular post included biographical notes. These require editing, after which I will insert them in this post.

Biographical Notes

Alex Colville was born in Toronto, in 1920. In 1929, the Colville family had moved to Amherst, Nova Scotia, after living in St. Catharines, Ontario for nearly three years. In Amherst, Colville took art lessons from Sarah Hart, a member of the Fine Arts faculty at Mount Allison University. These were extension classes organized by Stanley Royle. It is at this point that Stanley Royle, Head of the Fine Arts Department at Mount Allison, discovered Colville’s artistic potential and encouraged him to study the fine arts, which led him to enter Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick

Mount Allison University is one of Canada‘s finest small universities and, for a long time, the finest. Colville studied at Mount Allison from 1938 to 1942, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. That year, 1942, Alex Colville married Rhoda Wright, whom he had met in an art class where there were only ten students. That same year, 1942, Colville enlisted in the Canadian Army, in the infantry. His first son was born on 15 July 1944 when Colville was overseas and, since May 1944, had been working as official war artist, one of 31 artists chosen by the Canadian Government. Among other assignments, he was tasked with “depicting the horrors of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.” (See Alexander Colville, Wikipedia)

Colville was posted to Ottawa until completion of his duties as war artist. He then returned to New Brunswick and taught art at Mount Allison University from 1946 until 1963. As of 1963, he devoted his life to his paintings. In 1965 (see Colville House), he painted “To Prince Edward Island,” perhaps his best-known painting. In the early 1970s, the Colville family moved to Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Rhoda Wright’s hometown. They settled in the house Rhoda’s father had built and where Rhoda was born. For ten years, beginning in 1981, Alex Colville was Chancellor of Acadia University, in Wolfville. He lost one of his sons on 22 February 2012 and, a few months later, on 29 December 2012, his wife Rhoda passed away. Colville died of a heart condition on 16 July 2013. He is survived by two sons and a daughter.

For further information and to see several paintings by Colville, visit Colville House and the Colville Website.

Horse and Train, 1954 (glazed tempera)

Hound in Field, 1958 (casein tempera [cocaine a tempera])

Comments

Incongruity

Alexander Colville was and will remain an internationally renowned master of his art, but I would prefer not to pigeon hole him. However, I will note a degree of incongruity in his art. In “To Prince Edward Island,” the woman looks at the person(s) looking at the painting. I am reminded of Denis Diderot‘s (5 October 1713 – 31 July 1784) Paradoxe sur le comédien (written between 1770 and 1778; first published posthumously in 1830). Who is the spectator? Is it the actor (comédien)?

In “Dog and Child,” 1952 and “Woman and Terrier,” 1963, the artist focusses on the dogs. This is particularly true of “Woman and Terrier.” That painting seems a re-ordering of human beings and animals, not to say a re-ordering of the great chain of beings. To a certain extent, it would be legitimate to compare a painting such as “Horse and Train” (1954) to Édouard Manet‘s “Déjeuner sur l’herbe” (“The Luncheon on the Grass”). Both artworks feature elements that do not seem to belong. The horse does not seem to belong, except symbolically. Colville’s “Woman with Gun” and his “Pacific” also give expression to incongruity. Guns do not belong in those “settings,” except symbolically.

But I would prefer not to associate Colville with a School. All I can say is that Colville’s art is a perfectly crafted and controlled expression of a personal unconscious and personal world view, which probably reflects his experience as official war artist. What Alex Colville saw and depicted at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was an instance of inconceivable inhumanity. Could this explain the juxtaposition in “Woman with Gun” and in “Pacific,” of a human being and a gun, a gun that does not seem to belong? It may and it may not.

Woman with Gun, 1987 (acrylic polymer emulsion on hardboard)

Pacific, 1967 (acrylic polymer emulsion on hard board)

The Brain

Yet, “Horse and Train” may also depict the superiority of the human brain and human imagination. The human brain created trains and cars, horse-power, and the human brain created technologies of all kinds. Artificial intelligence is the product of the human brain. So, the human brain and the brain of animals are superior to all the technologies currently available.

Conclusion

Yes there is incongruity in Alex Colville’s paintings. However not only does his art depict the human condition in its broadest acceptation, but Colville’s paintings also portray very ordinary moments, moments that do not usually constitute a successful subject matter for a painting, unless one is Alexander Colville. The “Refrigerator,” 1977, is an example of an ordinary moment transformed into a work of art. We have just seen Japonisme, ukiyo-e prints rendered in flat colours. There is a degree of that flatness, but a textured flatness, in the manner Colville applies his colours. From both the point of view of composition and that of colouring, his “Hound in Field” is an example of Japonism, down to the diagonal line. This, he may not, and need not, have realized.

Alexander Colville’s art is contained just as his life was contained and stable. There is considerable drama to his “Horse and Train,” to his “Woman with Gun” and “Pacific.” And there is drama emanating from the juxtaposition of a large dark dog and a pale naked child. However, that dog is domesticated. That dog is the dog depicted at the top of this post. He is spleeping peacefully in front of an unadorned yet beautifully designed fireplace. So I will close here. It’s comfortable.

Gallery

ca011pr-alex-colville_woman-and-terrier-1023x1024

Holland and Germany, 1944

Infantry at Nijmegen, 1946 (The Canadian War Museum, Ottawa)

Dog and Child, 1952

Woman and Terrier, 1963 (Photo credit: Kerrisdale Gallery)

To Prince Edward Island, 1965

The River Spree, 1971

Refrigerator, 1977

Cat and Artist, 1979 (Photo credit: Bert Christensen)

Seven Crows, 1980

July 22, 2013

WordPress

Cecil Aldin’s “Sleeping Partners:” Dog Days

19 Friday Jul 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Art

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Cecil Aldin, Charles Dickens, Illustrated London News, Lance Thackeray, London Sketch Club, Rudyard Kipling, Walter Dendy Sadler, William Frank Calderon

Photo credit: Wikipedia (all images)

(Please click on the small images to enlarge them.)

The “Dog Days” have come. Most Canadians inhabit winter, which is not a mere season. As the people of Regina, Saskatchewan put it, “it’s not a season, it’s an occupation.” I spent a year in Regina and loved my stay in the middle of the Interior Plains of Canada.

So, dog days having begun, I am inserting pictures of dogs, drawn and sometimes coloured by British artist Cecil Charles Windsor Aldin (28 April 1870 – 6 January 1935). Aldin used pastels, watercolours and made etchings.

Vulpes Libris & Cecil Aldin

WordPress has an Aldin specialist in Vulpes Libris, the author of an article entitled The Life and Sleeping Partners of Cecil Aldin (1870 – 1935). Vulpes Libris is one of WordPress’ most talented writers. I therefore wish to salute this colleague. I call WordPress writers my “colleagues” and consider us a Publishing House. It makes me happy to be part of a team and I agree with Blaise Pascal that we humans seek happiness, including those who commit suicide.

Cecil Alvin was born in Slough, England. Cecil started drawing at a very young age. He studied art at the studio of Albert Moore and then the National Art Training School which later became The Royal College of Art. He was also trained by animal painter William Frank Calderon (1865, London – 21 April 1943). In 1891, The Graphic published some of his drawings. Aldin was 21. Aldin became a regular contributor to The Illustrated London News. However, as Vulpes Libris suggests, between the lines, at first, Alvin was not an invited contributor; he “inundated” The Illustrated London News. However, he was a genuine guest of genre painter Walter Dendy Sadler and stayed at Chiddingstone where he met other artists: Phil May, John Hassall, Lance Thackeray and, along with them, Dudley Hardy and Tom Browne, he founded the London Sketch Club.

Cecil Aldin’s First Series

During this period of his life, he made series of prints:

Fallowfield Hunt,
Bluemarket Races,
Harefield Harriers, and
Cottesbrook Hunt prints.

The birth of a son and daughter also led him to execute Nursery Pictures. This gentleman is the embodiment of versatility, but not altogether. Fox hunting was a main interest. Cecil Aldin was a Master of the Hunt. Fox hunting is a favourite English sport.

Aldin became very popular with the public and his fame spread when, in 1909, he exhibited in Paris, France. At that time in the history of art, room had been made for such talented artists as Cecil Aldin. We have already witnessed the last days of academicism.

Cecil Aldin as Illustrator

Alvin was a successful illustrator. He illustrated Rudyard Kipling‘s

1894 Second Jungle Book;
the 1910 edition of Charles Dickens‘ The Pickwick Papers; and
the 1932 Bunch Book (about Bunch, a Sealyham Terrier), by James Douglas.

Cecil Aldin on his Own, Mostly

Aldin had so creative a mind that he also published his own independent series. His 1920’s Old Inns and Old Manor Houses, originally published by Heinemann, are available online. Simply click on the titles. A Dog Day: Or the Angel in the House is also online.

When the First World War erupted, Aldin was put in charge of the Army Remount Service, not a pleasant task as he was sending horses to their almost certain death on battlefields. However, in this capacity, he met Lionel Edwards, Alfred Munnings and G. D. Armour.

Cecil Aldin was enormously saddened by the death of his son Dudley, at Vimy Ridge in 1917. The loss of a son is excruciating and the emotional consequences, often dire ones. Dudley’s death affected Aldin’s career, but he never gave up.

Cecil Aldin’s Books, Mostly

Mr Aldin’s most successful personal books are A Dog Day (narrated by Walter Emanuel), Sleeping Partners, and Puppy Dog’s Tales. But he also loved old inns, old manor houses and cathedrals. His rural scenes are irresistible. Here is a list of his personal books and links you could use to read their online editions. Although A Dog Day was narrated by Walter Emanuel, it is a personal book. Here is a list of Aldin’s best-known personal books. The titles of books written in bold characters are online publications:

A Dog Day: Or the Angel in the House, 1902;
Sleeping Partners;
Puppy Dog’s Tales;
Dogs of Character;
Old Inns, 1921;
Old Manor Houses, 1920.

Subject Matter: Cracker and Micky, Again Mostly

Aldin and his wife had two dogs Cecil simply loved: Cracker, his Bull Terrier, and an Irish Wolfhound called Micky. The two were forever featured in British illustrated periodicals and their story is linked with that of a couch, which is not surprising, except that Aldin was fortunate. It seems his dogs did not eat the couch.

The Move to Majorca

Cecil suffered from arthritis. So, at one point, he and his wife Rita moved to Majorca, but Cecil died during a trip to London. His wife Rita tells a most extraordinary story. I will quote my colleague Vulpes Libris:

“In January 1935 while Aldin was away on a visit to London, Cracker – back home in Majorca – started to howl in a most extraordinary and unprecedented fashion. It was several hours later that the news reached Rita Aldin that her husband had died from a heart attack in the London Clinic.”

Telepathy: It’s All Too True

This is a story I believe. Our animals become part of us and when we die, they too lose a part of their life. It is quite possible to be at once both alive and dead, in Quebec literature particularly. Besides, the above narrative can be told in reverse. There can be so close a bond between an animal and his “master” that telepathy is possible. I once had a little cat, Mouchette, who could let me know she was at the back door, waiting to get in. She was able to wake me up in the middle of the night. Mouchette died about two days after I arrived in Quebec. That was a bad omen.

“Unpacking a Carriage,”

by Cecil Aldin

19 July 2013

WordPress

Chiddingstone & Oxwell Manor, Berkshire

The Life and Sleeping Partners of Cecil Aldin (1870 – 1935) (vulpeslibris.wordpress.com)
Coming up on Vulpes Libris (vulpeslibris.wordpress.com)
Coming Up on Vulpes Libris (vulpeslibris.wordpress.com)

Twelve Hours of the Green Houses (1795), by Kitagawa Utamaro

17 Wednesday Jul 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Japonisme

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Animals, anthropomorphism, Bijingua, Books of Hours, Canonical Hours, Hours, Japanese clocks, Kitagawa Utamaro, Meisho, Ukiyo-e

midnight-the-hour-of-the-rat

Kitagawa Utamaro (ca. 1753 – 31 October 1806)

Twelve Hours of the Green Houses (1794–1795)

(Photo credit: Wikipaintings)

These are Utamaro’s depiction of each of the twelve hours of the traditional Japanese clock. The Hours constitute a series of ukiyo-e (“pictures of the floating world”) prints. Utamaro is the first of the three Japanese artists I have featured. His bijinga (“beautiful person picture”) earned him fame.

Animals

Each hour is named after an animal. Japan has its bestiary, except that the symbolism attached to Oriental animals often differs from the symbolism attached to animals inhabiting the Western bestiary. The significance of each animal has little to do with the “real” or mythical animal. These animals are anthropomorphic, i.e. humans in disguise.

Hours

In the Western world, we have Books of Hours based on the Liber Usualis and the Rule of Benedict. The Liber Usualis is a compendium of Gregorian chants rooted in Western monasticism. There are eight Canonical Hours observed by monks.

As for Books of Hours, they are religious in spirit, but were made for lay Christians. Les Riches Heures de Jean de France, Duc de Berry features exquisite illuminations, from enluminures (FR), and fine calligraphy. The Fitzwilliam Book of Hours is also an exceptional work of art.

Human beings have chronicled time, beginning with hours. However, months are also chronicled as are seasons: soltices and equinoxes. Meisho (“famous places”) prints show not only famous places, but people going about their everyday activities or domestic duties and some are divided according to seasons. Utagawa Hiroshige‘s series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo is divided into seasons.

The Hour of the Rat: 23 – 1h
The Hour of the Ox: 1 -3h
The Hour of the Tiger: 3 – 5h
The Hour of the Hare: 5 – 7h
The Hour of the Dragon: 7 – 9h (alternate image)
The Hour of the Snake: 9 – 11h (alternate image)
The Hour of the Horse: 11 – 13h (altermate image)
The Hour of the Sheep: 13 – 15h (alternate images)*
The Hour of the Monkey: 15 – 17h
The Hour of the Rooster: 17 – 19h (alternate image)
The Hour of the Dog: 19 – 21h
The Hour of the Boar: 21 – 23h

The Hour of the Ramin

(Twelve Hours of the Green House)

*Twelve Hours of the Yoshiwara (to my knowledge, an alternate title)

& Twelve Hours of the Yoshiwara

Image at the foot of this post

‘Midori of the Hinataka’

from The Hour of the Rat

RELATED ARTICLES

Utamaro’s Women & Japonisme (michelinewalker.com)
Utagawa Hiroshige: a “Human Touch” (michelinewalker.com)
Katsushika Hokusai: Beauty (michelinewalker.com)
Manet, “Japonisme” and Modernism (michelinewalker.com)

1. (above) 2. 3. 4. (below)

5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

midori-of-the-hinataka-from-the-hour-of-the-rat

17 July 2013

WordPress

Mary Cassatt: an Intimate Japonisme

16 Tuesday Jul 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Japonisme

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Japanese art, Japonism, Mary Cassatt, Toulouse-Lautrec, Wikipedia, William Merritt Chase

The Child’s Bath, by Mary Cassatt, 1893 (Photo credit: Wikipaintings)

Part of this post is borrowed from an earlier post that featured Mary Cassatt (22 May 1844 – 14 June 1926). At the time I wrote my earlier post, we had not discussed the influence of Japanese art on Western artists. However, we have now opened that door by showing how Japonism had an impact on the art of Toulouse-Lautrec. But Japonism also influenced other artists, one of whom is Mary Cassatt.

Nude Child, aquatint, drypoint, 1890-1891 (Photo credit: Wikipaintings)

Mother’s Kiss, drypoint, etching, 1891-1891 (Photo credit: Wikipaintings)

The Visit, aquatint, drypoint, 1890-1891 (Photo credit: Wikipaintings)

The Lamp, aquatint, drypoint, etching, 1891 (Photo credit: Wikipaintings)

Two Forms of Japonisme

Japonism left its imprint in many ways, but we will focus on two ways: subject matter and style. James Abbott McNeill Whistler (11 July 1834 – 17 July 1903) and William Merritt Chase (1 November 1849 – 25 October 1916) featured an oriental subject matter: kimonos, blue and white porcelain, folding screens, fans, etc. As for Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, his “Japonisme” was, to a large extent, a matter of composition. Theretofore, artists had usually arranged their subject matter using the Greek “Golden Section.” (See Golden ratio, Wikipedia.) Without stating that beauty is an absolute, the Greeks had noticed that an artwork was considered more beautiful by a large number of people if a certain template was used. This template is the Golden Section, which looks like an off-centre crucifix and it does indeed characterize the composition of a large number of drawings, prints and paintings.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Given that Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was a trained artist, I would presume he was familiar with the Golden Section. However, in Lautrec’s works, one of the two intersecting lines of the Golden Section, is a diagonal line, which is a departure from the usual vertical line intersecting an horizontal line. That is a feature of Japonism.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec‘s Japonisme was therefore expressed in his compositional technique. As for colour, it is a flat colour, which is consistent with printmaking. If one looks at the dress worn by May Belfort in Jardin de Paris, May Belfort (1883; Art Nouveau) (please click on the link to see the artwork), one notices that May’s dress is evenly red. Lautrec rendered dimensionality by using lines, which is also a feature of Japonisme. His Moulin Rouge, La Goulue with her Sister (1892; Art Nouveau) is an example of linearity. There is a line on one side of La Goulue’s dress. Which takes us to Mary Cassatt.

The Coiffure Study, drypoint, 1890-1891 (Photo credit: Wikipaintings)

The Bath, 1890-1891 (Photo credit: Wikipaintings)

Mary Cassatt’s Japonisme

Mary Cassatt (22 May 1844 – 14 June 1926) was an American artist of French descent born to an upper-middle-class family in what was becoming Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She was educated in the United States and various European countries: Spain, Italy and Holland. However, although she began studying the fine arts in the United States, at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, it would not be long before she moved to Paris and became a permanent “expat.” She did so in 1871, but returned to the United States almost immediately, the Franco-Prussian War (19 July 1870 – 10 May 1871) having erupted.

Mary Cassat’s Japonisme shows affinities with that of Toulouse-Lautrec in that it is our second type of Japonism, Japonism revealed in the manner an artist creates his or her work rather than in his or her choice of subject matter. From the point of view of composition, the art of Mary Cassatt resembles that of Lautrec. We have an off-centre Golden Section and one of the intersecting lines is a diagonal line, a discreet diagonal line.

Moreover, her colours are flat colours whose dimensionality is expressed mostly through the use of lines. The art of Mary Cassatt is otherwise unrelated to that of Toulouse-Lautrec. Mary Cassatt did not make posters showing the Moulin Rouge and can-can dancers. Moreover, compared with Toulouse-Lautrec, her colours are subdued.

Although I have stated that Mary Cassatt’s subject matter was not Oriental, she sometimes featured a woman holding a fan. However, her main subject matter are the Madonna and Child of the Renaissance, women and genre painting, depictions of people going about their daily activities. Genre painting was introduced by artists of the Dutch Golden Age and is a characteristic of Japanese meisho “famous places” prints, but in a context so different from Western art as to be a negligible similarity.

The Paris Japanese Arts Exhibition of 1890

Mary visited the Paris Japanese Arts Exhibition of 1890 and so loved the works she saw that she devoted the following year to making prints. She had an admirer and close friend in Edgar Degas (19 July 1834 – 27 September 1917). He was impressed with her work and encouraged her to show it at Impressionist exhibits, which she did eventually. Degas, whose pastels she loved, taught her how to make etchings. To this day, artists often learn to make prints as several copies of their art are produced which makes their artwork more affordable. But, in the case of Mary Cassatt’s work, learning to make etchings benefitted her Japonism probably more than it benefitted her clients. She could and did produce prints that may well be our best example of Japonisme.

According to Germaine Greer, “[t]he exhibition of Japanese art at the Palais des Beaux-Arts had revealed [to Mary Cassatt] the lightness and grace of the alternative aesthetic, beside which the pompous works of recognized artists seemed all the more laboured, explicit, heavy and lustreless.”[i] Mary was so impressed by the prints she saw and studied that she devoted the year 1891 to making prints, working in drypoint. Having traced her drawing on copper, as is the practice in etchings, she “laid in a soft ground over the part that she wished to colour and applied the colours all at once, by a technique that she called ‘à la poupée’ (doll-like), working with rags tied over little sticks. She and her printer then ran the plates by hand through the press.” (Greer, p. 112).

These prints were shown and Mary’s friend Degas was astonished: “I will not admit that a woman will draw so well.” Using the technique she devised, artist Mary Cassatt drew lines and put in a flat colour, in which her art resembles that of Toulouse-Lautrec. Moreover, from the point of view of composition, Mary also used Lautrec’s diagonal lines, albeit discreetly. Grace permeates not only the prints created in 1990-1991, but it also does all of her paintings.

For instance, although the work featured at the top of this post is not a print, we can observe readily the influence of Japanese woodblock printing and, more precisely, that of ukiyo-e, “pictures of the floating world,” prints. As is the case with Toulouse-Lautrec’s prints, Mary’s prints are linear and the colour, mainly flat. However, to return to the painting featured at the top of this post, the manner in which artist Mary Cassatt depicted the lady’s hair reflects Western art. The lady’s hair is not a flat black, but her hairdo shows Japonism. This Japonism is one of subject matter, our first form of Japonism, but marginally.

Germaine Greer writes that, “[Mary Cassatt’s] designs are as deceptively simple and self-effacing as a haiku.” (Greer, p. 112). A haiku is a very short Japanese poem, usually 17 on in three phrases of 5, 7 and 5 on respectively. Such poetry expresses an “essence,” and can therefore be associated with Impressionism, or an attempt to capture the evanescent moment when light touches and molds the subject, giving it constant newness. (See Impressionism, Wikipedia.)

Biographical Notes

In nineteenth-century France, women were denied access to the Paris École des Beaux-Arts, not to mention the right to vote, a cause Mary Cassatt would embrace especially in her later years, when cataracts all but blinded her. Therefore, given the exclusion of women from the Paris École des Beaux-Arts, Mary Cassatt studied privately under academicist Jean-Léon Gérôme.

Toward the end of 1866, Mary also joined a painting class taught by Charles Chaplin, a noted genre artist. As well, in 1868, Cassatt studied with artist Thomas Couture and showed A Mandoline Player (please click on the title to see the artwork), dated 1872 in Wikipaintings, at the Paris Salon of 1868. Cassatt’s Two Women Throwing Flowers During Carnival was also exhibited and purchased at the Paris Salon of 1872.

The above were “realist” works that showed the influence of Gustave Courbet (10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877). However, as of 1877, Cassatt’s work would no longer be accepted by the Paris Salon. At Degas’s request, Mary therefore showed eleven of her works at the Impressionist exhibit of 1879. She then joined the Impressionists in shows that took place in 1880, 1881, and 1886.[ii] Yet, Mary Cassatt’s Japoniste prints and paintings cannot be associated with Impressionism, except by date. Let us say that Cassatt had a Japoniste period.

As mentioned earlier, once she returned to France, via Italy,[iii] in 1874, Cassatt also received guidance from painter, printmaker, and sculptor. Edgar Degas (19 July 1834 – 27 September 1917). Moreover, she was inspired by the art of Camille Pissarro (10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903). Degas and Pissarro were forerunners of Impressionism. As do many apprentices, Mary went to the Louvre on a daily basis and copied the masters. These visits to the Louvre also allowed her to meet other artists.

The Madonna and Child: Feminity and Motherliness

Mary decided not to marry. She felt she could not combine the duties of a wife and mother and the demands of a career as artist. However, as I have noted, her artwork are depictions of the Madonna and Child, particularly as of 1890. So there is femininity and motherliness in her art. Mary Cassatt also painted children and women and did genre work, depictions of domesticity. The Visit (please click on the title to see the artwork) and The Lamp, prints shown above, are examples of her genre painting. So are The Coiffure Study and The Bath. Intimacy pervades Cassatt’s art. This art cannot be associated with Impressionism, except by date.

Post-Impressionism, Fauvism (Henri Matisse) and Cubism (Georges Braque, Picasso, etc.), movements that followed Impressionism, were not to Mary’s liking. Besides, she developed various health problems, including cataracts. She continued to paint despite poor eyesight and, according to Wikipedia, “she took up the cause of women’s suffrage and, in 1915, she showed eighteen works in an exhibition supporting the movement.” She died eleven years later, on 14 June 1926, at Château de Beaufresne.

Mary Cassatt’s Japonisme, an intimate, feminine and motherly Japonisme, reached excellence as did most of her work. She was a fine artist who earned the of her peers. In 1894, she was described by Gustave Geffroy as one of “les trois grandes dames” of Impressionism along with Marie Bracquemond and Berthe Morisot. Very few women are ever called “grandes dames.” (See Mary Cassatt, Wikipedia.)

RELATED ARTICLES

Letter From Paris | Tokyo on the Seine (tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com)
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec: the Can-can (michelinewalker.com)
William Merritt Chase: Japonisme in America (michelinewalker.com)

______________________________

[i] Germaine Greer, The Obstacle Race, The Fortunes of Women Painters and Their Work (New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1979), p. 112.

[ii] “Mary Cassatt”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 15 Jul. 2013
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/98098/Mary-Cassatt>.

[iii] She was commissioned by the Archbishop of Pittsburgh to paint two copies of paintings by Correggio in Parma, Italy.

15 July 2013

WordPress

The Bath, n.d.

(Photo credit: Wikipaintings)

(Please click on the image to enlarge it.)

Dear Readers

16 Tuesday Jul 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Art

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Cassatt, Gabriel Fauré, Impressionism, Mary Cassat, Mary Cassatt, United States

Lilacs in a Window by Mary Cassatt, 1880 (Photo credit: Wikipaintings)

Dear Readers,

WordPress is still making my life difficult. My last post was dated 12 July. I had then written a draft of the post on 12 July. However, I did not complete the post until 15 July. I have republished it. In order to read, it is no longer necessary to go back to July 12. It’s a long post; yet it is not really complete. It required at least one more comment on motherhood in Cassatt. I must also point out that Cassatt Japoniste prints cannot be associated, except by date, with Impressionism. These two elements have been included in the post dated 16 July 2013.

I am still unable to access my Reader and look at your posts. If necessary, I will beg WordPress’s Happiness Engineer.

Allow me to wish you an excellent day.

Love to all.

The Fitting, by Mary Cassatt (1891)( Photo credit: Wikipaintings)

Gabriel Fauré (12 May 1845 – 4 November 1924

Gabriel Fauré – Élégie for cello and orchestra Op. 24

15 July 2013

WordPress

The Boating Party, 1893-1894

(Please click on the image to enlarge it.)

Mary Cassat: an Intimate Japonisme (michelinewalker.com)
William Merritt Chase: Japonisme in America (michelinewalker.com)

Lac-Mégantic: Comments

13 Saturday Jul 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Uncategorized

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

Harding, Lac-Mégantic, Lac-Mégantic Quebec, Montreal, Nantes, Quebec, Sherbrooke, The Globe and Mail

The Scream, by Edvard Munch, 1893 (Photo credit: Wikipaintings)

Schools: Symbolism and Expressionism

The Globe and Mail

CBC News

Lac-Mégantic

The vigils have begun all over the province. People have been asked not to converge on Lac-Mégantic itself as the little community cannot accommodate crowds. Quebecers are therefore praying and lighting candles where they live.

A Story in Progress

I have some information, but what happened has yet to be determined.

For the last several months, the same cab driver picked up Mr Harding, the conductor, in Nantes, where he parked the train, 10 kilometres (6 to 7 miles) outside Lac-Mégantic. This cab driver, André Turcotte, has said that he is not ready to “crucify” Tom Harding. Moreover, when he got to his hotel, L’Eau Berge (from “auberge”), a local inn, Mr Harding would often share a beer with François Durand, another customer, before going to his room. He is a quiet, but likeable fellow. I now gather, from watching various videos, that Mr Harding has been “suspended” without pay and that his mobility is restricted. This is, therefore, a story in progress.

The Locomotive and the Brakes

It could be that Mr Harding did not tighten the brakes sufficiently. However, I have read (La Tribune, 12 July, p. 2) that when a fire started in the locomotive, 10 kilometers away from Lac-Mégantic, in Nantes, firefighters turned off the motor of the locomotive, which may have caused the brakes to loosen up and the convoy of tankers to go down hill on its own.

In other words, did Mr Harding not tighten the brakes or could it be that firefighters inadvertently caused the brakes to malfunction by turning off the motor of the locomotive? This was a heavy convoy and there was a hill. The brakes may have failed because of the weight of the convoy and sheer gravity. Besides, were these brakes adequate and in good order?

At any rate, the tankers went downhill and derailed when they arrived in Lac-Mégantic, which is where the explosions occurred. According to his taxi driver, when Mr Harding left the train, there was smoke, always. However, during the night of July 5-6, there was more smoke than was normally the case.

When Mr Harding emerged from the hotel, where he spent one or two nights every week, Catherine Pomerleau-Pelletier, a waitress at afore-mentioned l’Eau Berge, noticed that the engineer looked aghast. He had left his convoy parked, unattended, 10 kilometers away from Lac-Mégantic, but it was exploding in the middle of Lac-Mégantic.

The tankers were not safe, nor was the locomotive. There was smoke all the time. Moreover, the conductor or engineer was the only person operating the locomotive. In short, this tragedy is starting to look like a case of negligence. What are the rules and regulations?

The Ice-Storm

Quebec has teams of persons trained to deal with disasters. The North-American Ice-Storm of 1998 was a major disaster and an eye-opener. Some localities were without electricity for three weeks and millions of persons were affected. Quebec chose the expensive option. It made sure no ice-storm would cut off the electricity.

So, I hope Quebec chooses the expensive option once again: re-route the tracks, make them safer, impose stiff regulations on railway companies, i.e. safe tankers, safe locomotives, more employees—Mr Harding worked alone! Moreover, if a train carries crude oil and there is no way of re-routing the railway, that train should not run through a populated area, near houses and businesses.

About Trains

Trains are a precious commodity. They can travel rapidly if the tracks are properly built. Entering or leaving Montreal can be a serious undertaking. A few years ago, friends and I waited four hours before we could cross the Champlain bridge. Montreal is an island. We need a fast and secure train linking Montreal and Sherbrooke. There are too many heavy trucks travelling on our highways, not to mention too many cars.

Four more bodies have been extricated from the débris and there will be more.

I wish all of you a good weekend.