• Aboriginals in North America
  • Beast Literature
  • Canadiana.1
  • Dances & Music
  • Europe: Ukraine & Russia
  • Fables and Fairy Tales
  • Fables by Jean de La Fontaine
  • Feasts & Liturgy
  • Great Books Online
  • La Princesse de Clèves
  • Middle East
  • Molière
  • Nominations
  • Posts on Love Celebrated
  • Posts on the United States
  • The Art and Music of Russia
  • The French Revolution & Napoleon Bonaparte
  • Voyageurs Posts
  • Canadiana.2

Micheline's Blog

~ Art, music, books, history & current events

Micheline's Blog

Tag Archives: art

Wickanninish Inn, Vancouver Island

02 Thursday Jan 2020

Posted by michelinewalker in Sharing

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

a Honeymoon, art, Emily Carr, The Tonquin, Vancouver Island, Wickanninish Inn

Emily Carr, The Indian Church, 1929. Lawren Harris bought the painting and showcased it in his home. He considered it Carr's best work.

The Indian Church by Emily Carr, 1928 (Photo credit: Wiki2.org)

I want to wish you all a Happy New Year. May it be generous and kind.

A Coincidence

Ironically, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex spent their holidays on the west coast of Vancouver Island, which brought back gilded images from the past. My husband and I spent our honeymoon on the west coast of Vancouver Island, but north of the area the Royals chose for their holidays. We were at Wickanninish Inn, before the Trans-Canada Highway reached that far. Therefore, it was the end of an era. Hundreds of people now travel to a formerly desert beach.

We had Long Beach to ourselves: 13.6 kilometers, but much longer… The only live beings we met were sea lions and a dog.

Other guests had flown in, but we had used loggers’ roads. It was a bumpy, but relatively short ride, and well worth the inconvenience. The chef was from New York and the food, excellent.

The Inn was beautiful and smaller than it is today, but it was Paradise. At night we could see an impressive display of stars.

Emily Carr, Blunden Harbour, 1930
Emily Carr, Blunden Harbour, 1930
Emily Carr, Kitwancool, 1928
Emily Carr, Kitwancool, 1928

 

Artist Emily Carr (1871 – 1945) had spent time in that area. We explored in the hope of finding signs of her presence. She was everywhere.

Some of you may remember who gave his name to the Inn. It was Amerindian Chief Wickanninish who destroyed the Tonquin, a boat built for John Jacob Astor, the owner of the American Fur Trade Company. It carried voyageurs from New York to the “Oregon country.”

I will always remember the Wickanninish Inn.

RELATED ARTICLES

  • Gabriel Franchère’s Narrative of a Voyage (Part Two) (10 June 2015)
  • Gabriel Franchère’s Narrative of a Voyage (Part One) (6 June 2015) 

Sources and Resources

  • https://www.wickinn.com/

 

King regards to everyone 💕

I have been sick for several days, but the illness has turned into simple sinusitis.

Wickanninish Inn (brochure)

© Micheline Walker
2 January 2020
WordPress

 

 

 

 

 

 

bitmap.400x0

Wickanninish Inn (1968)

45.404160 -71.914291

Micheline's Blog

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

A Short Post

06 Thursday Oct 2016

Posted by michelinewalker in Orientalism, Sharing, The Ottoman Empire

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

art, Bellini Carpets, Gentile Bellini, motifs, nationhood, The Ottoman Empire

Safavid Courtiers Leading Georgian Captives

Safavid Courtiers Leading Georgian Captives

http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/451092
mille-fleurs motif
Safavid dynasty

I have erased the beginning of this post. It contained information on an event of extreme cruelty that led to severe losses and still causes episodes of disabling fatigue and life-threatening anxiety. During such episodes, I cannot write or look after myself properly. My blog suffers. It’s a short post.

29f063cf1d33c2eab187990525f3763f

A Seated Scribe by Gentile Bellini, (Isabella Stewart Gardner Collection)

6223

http://www.gardnermuseum.org/collection/browse?filter=artist:3157

However, I have done more investigative work on Muslims, Armenians and the concept of nationhood. Religion is a factor in nationhood, but it is not as significant as the use of a common language. Even in the Islamic world, countries accepted plurality. The millet system is a proof of religious tolerance. For instance, in the case of the genocide of Armenians, the Ottomans feared Armenians would enter into an alliance with Christian Russia.

Nationhood is rooted in several factors, but langage overrides faith. State and speech is a product of the Renaissance and a result of Johannes Gutenberg‘s invention, in 1439, of the movable type printing press. Constantinople was defeated in 1453 and its Greek scholars fled to Italy carrying books. The printing press had just been invented when Byzantine scholars inaugurated the Renaissance. Literacy spread, creating a middle class, and it brought the validation of the vernacular, and the writing of songs in the mother tongue, or madrigals, but polyphonic, mixing voices. This is a subject we have covered, but not in the context of nationhood and nationalism.

A colleague told me about the Bellini knot, so I looked at the Metropolitan’s collection and found four Bellini rugs. I also found a Safavid dynasty tapestry or rug featuring the mille-fleurs motif. Keeping fabrics in good condition is difficult. Flanders may therefore have influenced the East. The Franco-Flemish lands were the cultural hub of ‘Europe’ before the Renaissance, in music especially, but tapestries and rugs were made in Flanders, as well as the illuminations of Books of Hours and other illuminated manuscripts. There were exchanges.

bellini-2-carpet

Venice and the Islamic World, 828 – 1797: Bellini carpets

Particularly interesting is the position of Venice. It was very close to the Ottoman Empire. Trading led to use the of a lingua franca. A simplified Italian was the lingua franca when Bellini travelled to Constantinople. In 2007, the Metropolitan had an exhibition on Venice and the Islamic World, 828 – 1797.

I will close here, but this discussion will be continued.

Love to everyone. ♥

Aram Khachaturian
David Oïstrakh plays Khachaturian’s Violin Concerto, mvt 1

29f063cf1d33c2eab187990525f3763f

© Micheline Walker
5 October 2016
WordPress

Micheline's Blog

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

A. Y. Jackson: Nature Untamed

08 Tuesday Sep 2015

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Canadian wilderness

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

A.Y. Jackson, art, Canada, Canadian wilderness, Group of Seven, Toronto

118bd6f8-f8aa-497b-a467-b503581dd1ca

Grey Day, Laurentians by A. Y. Jackson, 1928 (Photo credit: wikiart.org)

It is still summer in Sherbrooke. In fact, summer did not begin until late July, if not later. Yet, we will soon be fascinated by autumn’s palette of colours: shades of red, yellow, purple, burgundy: a study in vibrant colours. This type of scenery was depicted by members of the Group of Seven (see Group of Seven, Canadian Encyclopedia). And so was winter. Above is A. Y. Jackson’s Red Maple (1914), an early painting, but most of the paintings I am showing are winter landscapes depicting Quebec. Jackson was born in Montreal, and it would appear we all belong to the land of our youth.

The Red Maple by A. Y. Jackson, 1914 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Red Maple by A. Y. Jackson, 1914 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Alexander Young Jackson

  • Montreal
  • Chicago
  • Paris

Born and raised in Montréal, A.Y. Jackson CC CMG (October 3, 1882 – April 5, 1974) first apprenticed taking evening classes at the Monument-National and the Conseil des arts et manufactures (Internet Archive) under Edmond Dyonnet (1896-99). He then studied at the Art Institute of Chicago (1906-07) and at the Académie Julian in Paris, under Jean-Paul Laurens (1907). He joined the Étapes art colony, a productive stage in his career. One of his paintings, “Paysage embrumé,” was accepted by the Paris Salon.

Therefore, A. Y. Jackson was an unlikely member of the Group of Seven, of which he was a founding member all of whom portrayed Canada’s wilderness. Matters changed, when Jackson exhibited his Edge of the Maple Wood (1910), shown below. The painting drew the attention of the Group of Seven’s only wealthy member, Lawren Harris, who purchased it. Jackson could not earn a living in Montreal.

Saint-Tite-des-Caps by A. Y. Jackson (Photo credit: Google Images
Saint-Tite-des-Caps by A. Y. Jackson (Photo credit: Google Images
Barns by A. Y. Jackson (Photo credit: wikiart.org)
Barns by A. Y. Jackson (Photo credit: wikiart.org)
A Quebec Village (Photo credit: Heffel Gallery)
A Quebec Village (Photo credit: Heffel Gallery)

The Group of Seven

Recognition worked its magic and induced A. Y. Jackson to move to Toronto where he first shared a studio with Tom Tompson (Canadian Encyclopedia), the artist featured in my last post.

“Jackson taught Thomson aspects of technique, especially colour, while Thomson taught Jackson about the Canadian wilderness (see A. Y. Jackson, Canadian Encyclopedia).”

Jackson visited Algonguin Park, where Thomson built his cabin, loved its scenery and  chose to be a landscape artist. He also went west, to the Rocky Mountains, but by and large, he worked in Ontario areas associated with the Group of Seven such as Algonguin Park, the Algoma district, Georgian Bay and the North Shore (Lake Superior), etc. But Jackson also painted Quebec.

Career …

A. Y. Jackson was a war artist (1917-1919). He taught at the Ontario College of Art, the current Ontario College of Art and Design and the Banff School of Fine Arts (1943-1949). Later, he was artist-in-residence at the McMichael Gallery in Kleinburg, Ontario, where he died at the age of 91.

Members of the Group of Seven were Franklin Carmichael, Lawren Harris, A. Y. Jackson, Franz Johnston (replaced by A. J. Casson), Arthur Lismer, J. E. H. Macdonald and F. H. Varley. The group was formerly established in 1924 and 1925, but had held its first exhibition in 1920 at the Art Gallery of Toronto, now the Art Gallery of Ontario.

The video we will view shows Tom Thompson, the Group’s precursor, as well as Emily Carr and David Milne, celebrated artists who also loved nature untamed.

My kindest regards to all of you. ♥

Sources and Resources

  • Group of Seven
    http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/canadian/The-Group-of-Seven.html
  • Emily Carr
    http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/canadian/Emily-Carr.html
  • Conseil des arts et manufactures de la province de Québec (Internet Archive)
    https://archive.org/details/cihm_54407
The Edge of the Maple Wood by A. Y. Jackson, 1910 (Photo credit: wikiart.org)

The Edge of the Maple Wood by A. Y. Jackson, 1910 (Photo credit: wikiart.org)

Maple Wood

Maple Wood, Algoma by A. Y. Jackson, 1920 (Courtesy the Canadian Encyclopedia and the NGC)

The Group of Seven, David Milne and Emily Carr
Jane Coop plays Claude Debussy‘s “Clair de Lune”

ay-jackson-411_jpg© Micheline Walker
8 September 2015
WordPress

Micheline's Blog

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

The Fox, by “Universal Popular Consent”

25 Thursday Sep 2014

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Beast Literature, Bestiaries

≈ Comments Off on The Fox, by “Universal Popular Consent”

Tags

Aarne-Thompson-Uther, Abstemius, art, Jan M. Ziolkowski, John Fyler Townsend, Laura Gibbs, playing dead, Pliny the Elder, Reynard the Fox cycle, the Perry Index, the theft of fish, to lick into shape

 
img4499

British Library, Sloane MS 278, Folio 53r

“A fox [above] pretends to be dead to deceive two birds into coming close enough to catch.” (fol. 53r) (Photo credit: The Medieval Bestiary) (Aarne-Thompson Classification Index, 56A)[1]

“The lion’s cubs [below] are born dead; after three days the father comes and roars over them, and brings them to life.” (fol. 96v) (Photo credit: The Medieval Bestiary)

Bodleian Library, MS. Douce 308, Folio 96v

Bodleian Library, MS. Douce 308, Folio 96v

In his Preface to Æsop’s Fables, its translator, George Fyler Townsend,[2] states that “[t]he introduction [in fables] of the animals or fictitious characters should be marked with an unexceptionable care and attention to their natural attributes, and to the qualities attributed to them by universal popular consent. The Fox should be always cunning, the Hare timid, the Lion bold, the Wolf cruel, the Bull strong, the Horse proud, and the Ass patient.” (Bold characters are mine.)

Bodleian Library, MS. Douce 366, Folio 71v

Bodleian Library, MS. Douce 366, Folio 71v

“A fox [above] runs off with a cock, while a woman carrying a distaff gestures angrily.” (fol. 71v) (Photo credit: The Medieval Bestiary)

Medieval Animal Lore

The Fox as the Devil, etc.

Townsend’s statement reflects an anthropomorphic vision of animals (humans in disguise), as in George Orwell‘s 1945 Animal Farm). In fables and in beast epics, such as Le Roman de Renart, animals are anthropomorphic. But Townsend’s comment also reflects a will to stereotype animals and transform them into allegorical creatures. In Medieval Bestiaries, they are symbols.

Medieval writers were fond of allegories, hence the questionable, but poetical, qualities bestowed on medieval beasts. The Lion is God and the Lamb, Jesus Christ. Only a virgin can catch the legendary or mythical Unicorn. (See Unicorn, Wikipedia – the free encyclopedia). The Beaver[3] eats its own testicles to avoid being caught by hunters. The fox is not only devious, but the devil himself:

“The fox represents the devil, who pretends to be dead to those who retain their worldly ways, and only reveals himself when he has them in his jaws. To those with perfect faith, the devil is truly dead.” (See David Badke or The Medieval Bestiary [bestiary.ca].)

British Library, Harley MS 4751, Folio 9r

British Library, Harley MS 4751, Folio 9r

“Hunted [above] for its testicles, it castrates itself to escape from the hunter.” (fol. 9r) (Photo credit: The Medieval Bestiary)

Exceptions to the lore, but…

There are exceptions to the lore. The real Dog is a very loyal animal. It can sniff out nearly anything or anyone. However, a real Dog does not let go of the prey it holds for the prey it might catch. In other words, the fanciful and the fantastic suffuse Medieval Bestiaries, such as the Aberdeen Bestiary or the Ashmole Bestiary (or Bestiaries). The same is true of several extraordinary medieval beasts, not to mention qualities attributed to birds, stones, and other aspects of nature. The merveilleux FR characterizes more than a thousand years of Natural Histories. It is often called le merveilleux chrétien, a Christian magical realism (the fantastic).

Writers of Medieval Bestiaries used Natural Histories such as Claudius Alienus‘ (170 CE – 235 CE) On the Nature of Animals (17 books) as their reference. Yet, these works were rooted in earlier texts, such as Herodotus‘ Histories and Pliny the Elder‘s (c. 23 CE –  24 or 25 August 79 CE) Historia Naturalis.[4] However, as we have seen, the preferred source of writers of Medieval Bestiaries was the anonymous Physiologus, which cannot be considered “scientific.” (See Manuscript shelf.)

The Naming of Reinardus/Renart

This depiction of animals seems all the more anthropomorphic when the animal is given a name. In the Ysengrimus, the Fox is called Reinardus, a Latin form of Renart, the Fox’s name in the Roman de Renart, and La Fontaine’s Renard, the current spelling. The Fox is all too human. Professor Jan M. Ziolkowski[5] writes that animals featured in the Roman de Renart are

so highly individualized that they have names, like human beings.

This comment reminds me of T. S. Eliot‘s “The Naming of Cats,” Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats (1939). “The Naming of Cats” was a source for Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s   immensely successful musical entitled Cats (1981). (See Cats, Wikipedia – the free encyclopedia.)

Reinardus and Renart

The naming of the Roman de Renart‘s animal cast begins with the Ysengrimus (1148-1149), the birthplace of Reinardus (Latin) who becomes Renart beginning in 1274-1275, when the first “branches” of the Roman de Renart, written in “Roman,” the vernacular, were published. Animals in the Medieval Bestiary are seldom presented with animal attributes, with the probable exception of illuminations (enluminures FR).

Intertextualité

In other words, beasts inhabiting the Medieval Bestiary are stereotypes, or archetypes. Deviousness is the Fox’s main attribute, but it is a literary attribute, by “universal popular consent.” In fact, Medieval Beast literature is an example of intertextuality EN, a term coined by Julia Kristeva in 1966. Intertextuality is a theory according to which texts are rooted in an earlier text or earlier texts. One could also use the word palimpsest.

Bodleian Library, MS. Ashmole 1511, Folio 21r
Bodleian Library, MS. Ashmole 1511, Folio 21r
British Library, Royal MS 12 C. xix, Folio 6r
British Library, Royal MS 12 C. xix, Folio 6r

“Bear cubs are born as shapeless lumps of flesh, so their mother has to lick them into their proper shape.” (fol. 21r) (Photo credit: The Medieval Bestiary)

“The lion is the king of beasts.” (fol. 6r) (Photo credit: The Medieval Bestiary)

Bodleian Library, MS. Bodley 764, Folio 22v

Bodleian Library, MS. Bodley 764, Folio 22v

“Bear cubs are born as formless lumps of flesh; here [above] the mother is licking the cub into shape.” (fol. 22v) (Photo credit: The Medieval Bestiary)

British Library, Harley MS 4751, Folio 15r

British Library, Harley MS 4751, Folio 15r

“A mother bear [above] licks her cub into shape.” (Photo credit: The Medieval Bestiary)

Bibliothèque Nationale de France, fr. 1951, Folio 18r

Bibliothèque Nationale de France, fr. 1951, Folio 18r

“‘le lyon [above] qui fait revivre ses lyonciaus’ – The lion revives its dead cubs. In the Bestiaire d’amour the man says that in the same way the woman can revive him from his love-death.” (fol. 18r) (Photo credit: BnF)

The Fox: “Licking into Shape”

natural histories
licking into shape (Pliny the Elder)
 

Pliny the Elder

In fables and the Reynard the Fox cycle, Renart’s main fictitious characteristic is his devious nature, an attribute bestowed upon him by humans and which he possesses in fables, beast epics, medieval bestiaries, and in Natural Histories, by “universal popular consent.”

Licking into Shape

Pliny the Elder, however, does not mention deviousness with respect to the fox. What Pliny reveals is the birth of incomplete offspring that have to be licked into shape. I have yet to find an image of the Fox licking its offspring into shape, but Bears and Lions also lick their incomplete progeny into shape. (See Fox, in The Medieval Bestiary.) Although this characteristic, i.e. licking into shape, was noted in Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia, or Natural History (published c. 77– 79 CE), it may have entered animal lore long before Pliny was born.

As noted above, I have not found an image of the Fox licking unfinished foxes into shape, but I have found images of Bears licking their cubs into shape and Lions breathing life into lions born dead.

fr_1580_048

Le Roman de Renart, Renart et Tiécelin le corbeau (Reynard and Tiécelin the crow), br.II, Bibliothèque nationale de France (you may click this link)

The Fox Playing Dead to Obtain Food

Renart et les anguilles (br. III) (Reynard and the eels)
Æsop’s “The Dog and the Fox Who Played Dead” (ATU 56A)
Laurentius Abstemius 146 
 

Animal “lore” also presents a second image of the Fox. We have seen that in “The Crow and Fox” (« Le Renard et le Corbeau, » (La Fontaine I.3) the fox flatters the crow into singing and dropping its dinner. But the literary fox also plays dead to catch food, which is yet another manifestation of the fox’s deceptive literary “nature.” The theft of fish is motif number 1 in the Aarne-Thompson-Üther classification system.

Previously, Isidore of Seville (7th century CE) had written about foxes that they were “deceptive animals.” As for Bartholomeus Anglicus (13th century), he had described the fox as “a false beast and deceiving” that “makes believe it is dead in order to catch food.” (ATU 105)

The fox also plays dead in Laura Gibbs’ Bestiaria Latina:

  • Æsop’s “The Dog and the Fox Who Played Dead,” (ATU 5A) and in
  • Abstemius 146, the pseudonym of Lorenzo Bevilaqua.

On Abstemius

Abstemius is the author of the Hecatomythium (A Hundred Fables). Abstemius’ real name was Lorenzo Bevilaqua. He was a professor of literature at Urbino in the 15th century. He published the Hecatomythium, (A Hundred Fables) in 1495, followed by 97 fables, the content of his 1499 Hecatomythium Secundum, published in Venice in 1499. Hecatomythium is a Greek word, but Abstemius wrote in Latin. (See Laurentius Abstemius, Wikipedia – the free Encyclopedia.)

Conclusion

Several Natural Histories were written in Greco-Roman Antiquity, going back to Herodotus‘ Histories. Herodotus described the crocodile, the hippopotamus and phoenix. Many Natural Histories were also published in the early Middle Ages.

However, animals dwelling in

  1. fables;
  2. in beast epics, such as the Reynard the Fox cycle;
  3. in Medieval Bestiaries;
  4. and in Natural Histories are not zoological creatures, but the denizens of literature.

They possess qualities attributed to them “by universal popular consent,” which, in the Middle Ages, may have been the consent of Christian “naturalists,” some of whom were monks and scribes.

The fox, a beloved rascal, was the devil himself. Besides, we owe fox “lore” at least two English expressions: to “lick into shape” and “sour grapes.”

I apologize for my tardiness and send all of you my kindest regards. ♥

RELATED ARTICLES

  • Dogs, a long time ago… (12 September 2014)
  • The Dog that dropped the Substance for the Shadow (10 September 2014)
  • Aesop & La Fontaine Online…  (8 September 2014) list
  • Aesop’s “The Boy Bathing” (5 September 2014)
  • La Fontaine’s the “Fox and Grapes” (20 September 2013)
  • Another Motif: The Tail-Fisher (29 April 2013)
  • Another Motif: Playing Dead (20 April 2013)
  • Reynard the Fox, the Itinerant (24 October 2011)

Sources and Resources

  • Aarne-Thompson-Üther classification system (motif index)
  • Perry Index: index of Æsop’s Fables
  • Le Roman de Renart (Renart et les anguilles [Renart and the eels]) (br. III; ATU 1)
  • Mythologia Æsopica (mythfolklore.net)
  • Bestiaria Latina (Laura Gibbs)
  • The Bern Physiologus Codex Bongarsianus 318
  • The Medieval Bestiary (http://bestiary.ca) (David Badke)

____________________

[1] The Aarne-Thomson classification system (motif index) was modified by Hans Jorge Üther, hence the initials ATU.

[2] George Fyler Townsend, Æsop’s Fables, Project Gutenberg [EBook #21]. Third paragraph.

[3] Æsop’s fables have been indexed by Ben Edwin Perry (1892–1968). “The Beaver” is Perry Index 118.

[4]  Pliny the Elder died in the eruption of Vesuvius.

[5] Jan M. Ziolkowski, Talking Animals: Medieval Latin Beast Poetry, 750 – 1150 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993), p. 3.

 Museum Meermanno, MMW, 10 B 25, Folio 13v

Museum Meermanno, MMW, 10 B 25, Folio 13v

© Micheline Walker
25 September 2014
WordPress

Micheline's Blog

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

A Bouquet of Flowers, by Eugène Delacroix

13 Thursday Feb 2014

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Music

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

art, Chopin, Eugène Delacroix, music, Nocturne E-Flat Major, Romanticism

Bouquet of Flowers, by Eugène Delacroix

Bouquet of Flowers, by Eugène Delacroix (Photo credit: Wikipaintings)

I have been trying to work, but I am not feeling well enough to do so. Therefore, please accept this lovely bouquet of flowers painted by one of France’s finest artists: Eugène Delacroix (26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863), rumored to be the illegitimate son of Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (1754 – 1838), a French prince and one of the most enigmatic diplomats in the history of Europe.

My kindest regards to all of you,

Micheline

Chopin, by Eugène Delacroix

Chopin, by Eugène Delacroix (Photo credit: Wikipaintings)

Eugène Delacroix (Romanticism)
 

0:20 – Liberty Leading the People
0:40 – Ovid Among the Skythen
0:50 – Frédéric Chopin (Unfinished)
1:00 – George Sand (Amandine Aurore Lucille Dupin – Unfinished)
1:15 – The Massacre of Chios
1:25 – The Barque of Dante
1:35 – Andromeda
1:55 – The Sultan of Morocco and His Entourage
2:05 – Tiger (Drawing)
2:15 – Aspasia (Drawing)
2:25 – Mounay ben Sultan
2:35 – Christ on the Lake of Gennesaret
2:45 – Tasso in the Madhouse
2:50 – Cleopatra and the Peasant
3:00 – An Arab Horseman at the Gallop
3:30 – The Death of Sardanapalus
3:35 – Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi
3:45 – Girl Seated in a Cemetery
3:55 – Self-Portrait

Nocturne in E-Flat Major, Op. 9 No.2
Frédéric Chopin
1810 – 1849
Philip Scott Johnson 
 

bouquet-of-flowers-1843(1)

© Micheline Walker
13 February 2014
WordPress

Micheline's Blog

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Belaud the Cat Writes a Post

22 Tuesday Oct 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Sharing

≈ 22 Comments

Tags

Alix de France, art, Belaud, crises, Fantin-Latour, Joachim du Bellay, larkspur, lilacs, peonies, the United States

Lilas, by Fantin-Latour, 1872

Lilacs, by Fantin-Latour, 1872

Larkspur (1888)

Larkspur, 1888

Vase pf Peonies, 1902

Vase of Peonies, 1902

I am Belaud (pronounced ‘below’), the little fur person who shares Micheline’s life. She has asked me to write a note on her behalf. She somehow got interested in “The Fox and the Crow” and started writing a post she could not finish.  

She is lucky to be able to count on me when such “accidents” occur. The best remedy, I told her, is to slash and slash. She explained that there were times when one could not slash and slash. Since the Syrian crisis and the debt-ceiling crisis, one nearly overlapping the other, she has not been her usual self. What would she do without me?

Micheline is now returning to her post. The arrangement is that she will discuss the moral in one post and will provide additional information in a separate post. I explained that she may run out of pictures, but this does not appear to be the case.

About me, Belaud

I am a pure-bred chartreux and, as we will see, a celebrated cat, but Micheline does not take me to shows. The two of us stick to a humble lifestyle. She says class is irrelevant. After all, she is, on her maternal grandmother’s side, a descendant of Alix de France, one of Eleanor of Aquitaine‘s (1122 or 1124 – 1 April 1204) two daughters by King Louis VII.

During the years she spent in Nova Scotia, she didn’t know this and knowing has not improved her life. She cannot play a musical instrument in this apartment and selling it, the apartment that is, would not buy her a little house or a townhouse however humble.

Joachim du Bellay

Joachim du Bellay, by Jean Cousin

Joachim du Bellay  (c. 1522 – 1 January 1560; aged 37) was the first French author who felt French could be a literary language.  He was a member of the Pléiade, an informal academy.  He wrote their manifesto: Défense et illustration de la langue française (La Deffence, et Illustration de la Langue Francoyse, 1549.)

There is one poem Micheline loves: Heureux qui, comme Ulysse, a fait un beau voyage,… (Happy is he who, like Ulysses, has gone on a beautiful trip,…).  Du Bellay was in Rome, but missed la doulceur angevine, gentle Anjou.

Despite lineage, no great author has made Micheline into a celebrity. But Joachim du Bellay eulogized his cat Belaud, one of my ancestors: Sur la mort de Belaud. I don’t think anyone will eulogize Micheline, not even me, except modestly, if I’m still alive. Public speaking scares me.    

RELATED ARTICLES

La Pléiade: Du Bellay (michelinewalker.com)
Belaud the Cat (michelinewalker.com)
Belaud the Cat’s Suite (michelinewalker.com)
 

Henri Fantin-Latour (14 January 1836 – 25 August 1904)

Belaud

Belaud

 
© Micheline Walker
21 October 2013
WordPress

Micheline's Blog

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

A Portrait by Picasso

03 Wednesday Apr 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Art

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

art, Arts and Entertainment, Germany, Pablo Picasso, Paint, Picasso, SAC Capital Advisors, Visual Arts

portrait-of-paulo-artist-s-son-1923_jpg!Large

Portrait of Paulo, the Artist’s Son, Pablo Picasso, 1923 (Photo credit: Wikipaintings)

Pablo Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973)

Yesterday, searching through works by Picasso, I found this portrait.  I went looking for it today and could not find it until I watched a short video by Philip Scott Johnson.

I therefore looked at several works by Picasso.  Many show distortions and metamorphoses.

The video is very revealing.  It is like a key to a mystery.

This is such a short post.  I apologize.

picasso peace© Micheline Walker
April 2, 2013
WordPress

Micheline's Blog

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

The Art of Albert Bierstadt

11 Friday Jan 2013

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, United States

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Albert Bierstadt, American West, art, Fitz Hugh Ludlow, Frederick W. Lander, German American, Painting, Who Will Comfort Me

Giant Redwood Tress of California, by Albert Bierstadt
Giant Redwood Trees of California, by Albert Bierstadt

Photo credit: Albert Bierstadt Org & Wikipedia

German-American artist Albert Bierstadt (7 January 1830 – 18 February 1902) studied painting at the Düsseldorf school of painting from 1853 to 1857.  He was a member of the Hudson School, a rather informal group of artists.  The artwork of members of the Hudson School is characterized by luminism or the use of glowing light.  However Bierstadt is also grouped with the Rocky Mountain School because of his interest in Westward Expansion.  He is the foremost painter of the American West.  He was a prolific and financially successful artist.

“In 1859, he traveled westward in the company of Frederick W. Lander, a land surveyor for the U.S. government, returning with sketches that would result in numerous finished paintings.” (Albert Bierstadt, Wikipedia)

Bierstadt went back West in 1863, traveling with author Fitz Hugh Ludlow, whose wife he would later marry.

When my family moved to British Columbia, I was seduced by the beauty of snow-capped mountains and Giants among trees.  I decided I would never leave so beautiful an environment.  But destiny had other plans.  I am writing a long article and suffering from a bout of myalgic encephalomyelitis.  I am, therefore, a little late.  My longer blog be will posted today, but I wanted to send you a progress report and a short post.  My research took me to Albert Bierstadt.

—ooo—

© Micheline Walker
11 January 2013
WordPress
 
artist: Albert Bierstadt  (7 January 1830 – 18 February 1902)
singer: Connie Dover‘s “Who Will Comfort Me“
 
 
Albert Bierstadt

Albert Bierstadt

Micheline's Blog

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Alphonse Mucha

16 Monday Jul 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Canada

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

Alphonse Mucha, art, Art Nouveau, Ferdinand Hodler, Le Devoir, National Post, New York Times, WordPress

alphonse-mucha-dusk

Dusk by Alphonse Much

 

45.408358 -71.934658

Micheline's Blog

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Castiglioni by Rembrandt & a Note to my Readers

24 Sunday Jun 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Sharing

≈ Comments Off on Castiglioni by Rembrandt & a Note to my Readers

Tags

art, Baldassare Castiglione, Book of the Courtier, Drawing, New York, Rembrandt, sprezzatura, Vienna

Rembrandt

Baldassare Castiglione, by Rembrant van Rijn (1606-1669)
(pen and ink drawing)
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna, Austria
Used with permission from Art Resource, in New York.
 

To my Readers

I receive comments I do not always have time to answer, but I read all of them and wish to thank you for your encouraging words.  It touches me that you should appreciate blogs about people who lived a long time ago.  They were a little different, but not altogether.  Human nature is human nature and that fact overrides the years that may separate us from an “ancestor.”  At any rate, I thank you.

If that’s fine with you, I will continue to write about French-Canadian /Quebecois history and literature.  But sometimes an event happens that forces me to write about another subject or not to write.

Moreover, there are times when I need to speak about an artist or a musician or a great work of literature.  This week, courtly behaviour came up.  How reassuring to know that it was not altogether superficial, or a mask.

Some of my readers have asked for longer blogs, such as sprezzatura.  Such blogs are useful to students of all ages.  Sprezzatura has to do with the behaviour of the courtier.  It is described as nonchalance, but it is in fact a certain reserve, or retenue, on the part of Castiglione’s perfect courtier.

I believe people prefer short blogs.  A mixture might be my best option.

Have a good weekend.

Micheline Walker©
June 24, 2012
WordPress
 
45.408358 -71.934658

Micheline's Blog

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...
← Older posts

Europa

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 2,507 other subscribers

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Categories

Recent Posts

  • Epiphany 2023
  • Pavarotti sings Schubert’s « Ave Maria »
  • Yves Montand chante “À Bicyclette”
  • Almost ready
  • Bicycles for Migrant Farm Workers
  • Tout Molière.net : parti …
  • Remembering Belaud
  • Monet’s Magpie
  • To Lori Weber: Language Laws in Quebec, 2
  • To Lori Weber: Language Laws

Archives

Calendar

February 2023
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728  
« Jan    

Social

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • WordPress.org

micheline.walker@videotron.ca

Micheline Walker

Micheline Walker

Social

Social

  • View belaud44’s profile on Facebook
  • View Follow @mouchette_02’s profile on Twitter
  • View Micheline Walker’s profile on LinkedIn
  • View belaud44’s profile on YouTube
  • View Miicheline Walker’s profile on Google+
  • View michelinewalker’s profile on WordPress.org

Micheline Walker

Micheline Walker
Follow Micheline's Blog on WordPress.com

Create a website or blog at WordPress.com

  • Follow Following
    • Micheline's Blog
    • Join 2,475 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Micheline's Blog
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: