Thursday, September 6, 2018

Nineteenth-Century Things of Beauty

Unknown Artist
Bell Jar with Wax Fruit and Dessert Arrangement
 ca. 1860-80
wax, paraffin, tempera, glass
Philadelphia Museum of Art

René Lalique
Necklace
ca. 1897-99
enameled-gold, opals, amethysts
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

 
John La Farge
Vase of Flowers
1864
oil on gilded panel
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

John La Farge
Firescreen
1884
leaded opalescent glass and brass
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Gradus Ad Parnassum

Oh I know
If I'd practiced the piano
I'd never be so low
As I now am

Where's Sylvia Beerman?
Married, rich and cool
In New Rochelle
She was nobody's fool,

She didn't write in verse
She hardly wrote at all
She rose she didn't fall
She never gave a damn

But got up early
To practice Gradus
Ad Parnassum – she
Feels fine.  I know.

– Muriel Rukeyser, from Breaking Open (Random House, 1973)

John La Farge
Wild Roses in an Antique Chinese Bowl
1880
watercolor
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Martin Johnson Heade
Lotus Blossom
ca. 1885-1900
oil on canvas
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Martin Johnson Heade
Magnolias
ca. 1883-1900
oil on canvas
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Martin Johnson Heade
Hummingbird and Apple Blossoms
1875
oil on canvas
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

John Frederick Peto
The Old Cremona
ca. 1887-90
oil on canvas
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

XIV

So I became very dark very large
a silent woman this time given to speech
a woman of the river    of that song
and on the beach of the world in storm given
in long lightning seeing the rhyming of those scenes
that make our lives.
Anne Sexton the poet saying
ten days ago to that receptive friend,
the friend of the hand-held camera:
"Muriel is serene."
Am I that in their sight?
Word comes today of Anne's
of Anne's long-approaching
of Anne's over-riding over-falling
suicide.    Speak for    sing for    pray for
everyone in solitary
every living life.

– Muriel Rukeyser, from The Gates (McGraw-Hill, 1976)

John Haberle
The Slate
ca. 1895
oil on canvas
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

John Haberle
A Bachelor's Drawer
ca. 1890-94
oil on canvas
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

John Frederick Peto
Office Board
1885
oil on canvas
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

John Frederick Peto
Student's Materials
ca. 1890-1900
oil on canvas
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

John Frederick Peto
The Poor Man's Store
1885
oil on canvas
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston