son of the sun

With the longest day of the year coming tomorrow, it seemed appropriate to note Henri Matisse’s love of the sun and beautiful use of light and color in so many of his paintings. This recollection by Georges Duthuit is from an interesting little book on Matissse by Anette Robinson and Isabelle Breda, published as part of the Key Art Works series from the Centre Georges Pompidou.

"During Matisse’s funeral the weather was cloudy and rather dull in Nice. But when, after the service, the cortege reformed to take his body to its last resting place…the sun’s rays suddenly split the grey canvas and blooded the sky with exactly the same radiance, the same welcoming glow that Matisse had struggled to catch and reflect throughout his whole life…."

Duthuit also described the sun’s sudden appearance on that November day in 1954 when Matisse was buried as being like the sun's own “tribute of sympathy to his most faithful servant….”

(Featured Painting: Interior with Phonograph -- Henri Matisse, 1924)

men in red

Top Image -- Dr. Pozzi at Home, John Singer Sargent - 1881

Bottom Image -- Portrait of Leonid Andreyev, Ilya Repin - 1905

painting of the month

The Tangled Garden -- J.E.H. MacDonald, 1916

athena and athene

I wrote an article for Suite101.com on Modern Art & Mythology a few weeks ago and came across a pretty fascinating 1898 painting of the goddess Athena by Gustav Klimt (first image). Athena, the Greek counterpart of Minerva, presided over matters of war, intelligence and the arts, and in Klimt's case Athena had been named as the patron goddess of Klimt's Vienna Secession artistic movement. His Athena is all pale and glittering, with a beautiful golden sheen to her shield and helmet.

The other portrait here is from the William Blake Tarot, wherein Blake's artwork was adapted for a tarot deck and Athene -- not Athena -- represents the Woman of Painting card. (The William Blake Tarot has creative or mentally-inclined Suit cards, like Poetry for Wands, Music for Cups, Science for Swords and Painting for Pentacles.) Blake's Athene is bright and colorful and seems to be less at war and more focused on the arts in this particular scene. Draped in red, she's described in the deck as representing "elegance combined with usefulness," and she awards "her sacred olive wreaths to several artists for their industry, competence, and trustworthiness."

Blake's Athene always reminds me a little of Isabella Rossellini, who interestingly enough played Athena in Andrei Konchalovsky's version of The Odyssey. Konchalovsky's Odyssey was on TV back in the late 1990s and is worth investigating as a DVD rental -- if it's even on DVD -- with Isabella R. of course, and Armand Assante enduring all the wild travels and trials of Odysseus.

green glory

Top image -- The Green Sash,

Frederick Carl Frieseke (1904)

Bottom image -- Lady in a Green Jacket,

August Macke (1913)

American Impressionism (Frieseke), German Expressionism (Macke), and girls in green. It's hard to believe that the two paintings are only nine years apart chronologically.

his vinegar prayer

Knopf's Borzoi Reader Poem-A-Day e-mails during National Poetry Month offer choice morsels of daily poetry, reintroducing us to great masters as well as opening the door to poets and poems we might not yet have heard of. One of my favorites so far has been Kevin Young's "Ode to Pepper Vinegar," (click on the title to read the actual poem) which transforms a simple Mason jar full of a family recipe into an epic entity. This ode is part of a food-related series of poems which Kevin Young wrote following the death of his father, with distinct tastes reflecting upon cultural and personal heritage. His latest collection is called Dear Darkness, and his other work is very much looking into.

painting and poet of the month

Often described as "mad, bad, and dangerous to know" -- a phrase coined by spurned lover Lady Caroline Lamb -- the great poet and adventurer Lord Byron (1788-1824) was always a study in contrasts. Notably handsome and virile yet afflicted with a clubfoot, he was also a womanizer who wrote poetry of depth and beauty while managing to avoid heavy sentiment. There is further speculation that Byron was bisexual and even slept with his own half-sister Augusta, with some reported personal anxiety on Byron's part that he might be the father of Augusta's child. While certain people brought out a sarcastic cruelty in Byron, he could be quite caring toward animals, especially his beloved dog Boatswain. Boatswain contracted rabies and eventually died from the disease, but Lord Byron kept vigil by his side until Boatswain passed away, despite warnings that he might be endangering his own life in being so close to a fatally rabid dog.

Byron traveled often and died in Greece on April 19, 1824, while joining the Greeks in fighting their war of independence against the Ottoman Empire. This portrait of Byron in Albanian native costume was done by Thomas Phillips, and while it represents Byron as he looked circa 1813, the painting itself wasn't completed until 1835. Phillips' work can be found at the National Portrait Gallery, where Byron is very well-represented. And though he wrote verse of a much greater magnitude, this short self-reflective George Gordon Byron poem is one of my favorites:

Through life's road, so dim and dirty,

I have dragg'd to three and thirty.

What have these years left to me?

Nothing - except, thirty-three.