Website alert: I have blogged in the past about Marie Bashkirtseff, on whom I based my character La Russe. Today, I wish I'd called her The Ukrainian. She was in her teens when she posed in this costume of her native Poltava. For another photo from the same session and more, wonderful images, see the excellent essay
"I Am My Own Heroine": How Marie Bashkirtseff Rewrote the Route to Fame by Sonia Wilson.
Image via Wikipedia.
Picturing a World
Bashkirtseff, Ukrainian
February 28, 2022
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Double portrait
February 22, 2022
This striking double portrait caught my attention mostly because it's beautiful, but I lingered over it because it falls in the period of my work-in-very-slow-progress, "Anonymity." I checked, and, sure enough, Edmund Charles Tarbell (1862–1938) was an almost exact of the real Jeanette Smith whose story prompted my delve into the experience of women art students in Paris. (Surprise, surprise! Tarbell also studied at the Académie Julian.)
Bombed library
February 20, 2022
This morning, I ran across this photograph in a fascinating new book, Gothic: An Illustrated History by Roger Luckhurst. What interests me is not its connection to all the permutations of sensibility collected under the term Gothic. No, as the world fears a new war in Ukraine, it was the image of horrific destruction that hit me first. Then wonder at the books still so neatly shelved, then a smile at the calm, plucky Englishmen (those hat!) perusing books. But wait, it's probably staged.
Altar of love?
February 14, 2022
I admit I don't know a thing about Martin Le Franc's Book of the Ladies' Champion and forgot to research it for today's post, but isn't this a delicious image for Valentine's Day?
Via Jesse Hurlburt's Manuscript Art.
Jacket design and the text
February 9, 2022
Edmund Dulac, jacket design (1929)
When I was editing books at Harvard, an author came in one time and asked that a piece of antique Japanese silk be used for the jacket design. "Do you have one we can borrow?" my boss asked politely. That put an end to that and taught me that authors, by and large, should leave book production up to the pros.
Artists' dust jackets
February 6, 2022
While I was Buchaning around the web recently, Rockwell Kent's art for Mountain Meadow landed me in The Illustrated Dust Jacket, 1920–1970 by Martin Salisbury. I borrowed a copy from the library. As soon as I opened it, I was bowled over by the feel of its paper, the beauty of its page design, the clarity of its reproductions—not to mention the quality of the jacket designs it reproduces.
Medieval woman rides astride
February 3, 2022
Not much point to posting this image from the bottom of a medieval Book of Hours, except that it's interesting to see a 14thC woman depicted riding astride. I'll add that I like the quizzical look on her face, the big-headed horse who seems to have thoughts of his own, and the preening merlin (the hunting hawk appropriate for a lady). Make of it what you will!