Sunday, January 30, 2022

French Portrait Painters Producing Workaday Likenesses

Suzanne Valadon
Portrait of Lily Walton
1923
oil on canvas
Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago

Édouard Vuillard
Madame Vuillard in profile
ca. 1888
oil on canvas
Art Institute of Chicago

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Portrait of Jeanne Wenz
1886
oil on canvas
Art Institute of Chicago

Édouard Manet
Portrait of Georges Clemenceau
1879-80
oil on canvas
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Camille Pissarro
Portrait of Paul Cézanne
1874
oil on canvas
National Gallery, London

Paul Cézanne
The Lawyer (Uncle Dominique)
1866
oil on canvas
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Louis Jacquesson de la Chevreuse
Portrait of my sister, Amynthe
1865
oil on canvas
Musée du Vieux Toulouse

François-Joseph Navez
Portrait of painter Jacques-Louis David
1817
oil on canvas
Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels

Jean-Louis Laneuville
Portrait of Louis-François Bertin
1796-97
oil on canvas
Vallée aux Loups, Châtenay-Malabry, Hauts-de-Seine

Jean-Laurent Mosnier
Portrait of a Young Gentleman
ca. 1790-95
oil on canvas
Holburne Museum, Bath

Anonymous French Artist
Portrait of a Woman
18th century
oil on canvas
Musée des Augustins de Toulouse

Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun
Portrait of sculptor Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne the Younger
1772
oil on canvas
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio

Hilaire Pader
Portrait of Jean de Bernuy
1664
oil on canvas
Château de Merville

Nicolas Mignard
Portrait of Scipion du Roure
1658
oil on canvas
private collection

attributed to Mathieu Le Nain
Portrait of a Youth
ca. 1650
oil on canvas
Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels

Dear Bryan Wynter

1

This is only a note
To say how sorry I am
You died. You will realize
What a position it puts
Me in. I couldn't really
Have died for you if so
I were inclined. The carn
Foxglove here on the wall
Outside your first house
Leans with me standing
In the Zennor wind.

Anyhow how are things?
Are you still somewhere
With your long legs
And twitching smile under
Your blue hat walking
Across a place? Or am
I greedy to make you up
Again out of memory?
Are you there at all?
I would like to think
You were all right
And not worried about
Monica and the children
And not unhappy or bored.


2

Speaking to you and not
Knowing if you are there
Is not too difficult.
My words are used to that.
Do you want anything?
Where shall I send something?
Rice-wine, meanders, paintings
By your contemporaries?
Or shall I send a kind
Of news of no time
Leaning against the wall
Outside your old house.

The house and the whole moor
Is flying in the mist.


3

I am up. I've washed
The front of my face
And here I stand looking
Out over the top
Half of my bedroom window.
There almost as far
As I can see I see
St Buryan's church tower. 
An inch to the left, behind
That dark rise of woods,
Is where you used to lurk.


4

This is only a note 
To say I am aware
You are not here. I find
It difficult to go
Beside Housman's star
Lit fences without you.
And nobody will laugh
At my jokes like you.


5

Bryan, I would be obliged
If you would scout things out
For me. Although I am not
Just ready to start out.
I am trying to be better,
Which will make you smile
Under your blue hat.

I know I make a symbol 
Of the foxglove on the wall.
It is because it knows you. 

– W.S. Graham (1975)