Maes - Scully - Sievers - Goya

Nicolaes Maes
Portrait of Agatha Bicker
(wife of Dirck Frederiksz Alewijn)
ca. 1675
oil on panel
Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, California

Nicolaes Maes
Portrait of Dirck Frederiksz Alewijn
(husband of Agatha Bicker)
ca. 1675
oil on panel
Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, California

Nicolaes Maes
Portrait of a Woman
ca. 1680-90
oil on canvas
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

Nicolaes Maes
Self Portrait at age 22
1656
oil on panel
Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston, Ontario

Sean Scully
Wall of Light, Peru
2000
oil on canvas
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh

Sean Scully
Colored Stacked Frames
2017
painted stainless steel
New Orleans Museum of Art

Sean Scully
Doric Yellow Crimson
2020
oil on canvas
McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas

Sean Scully
Doric Brown
2009
oil on aluminum
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

Wolfgang Sievers
Match Making, Bryant and May Factory
1939
gelatin silver print
Heide Museum of Modern Art, Bulleen, Australia

Wolfgang Sievers
Advertising Image for Stockings, Berlin
1938
gelatin silver print
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

Wolfgang Sievers
Old Cottages at Aldinga, South Australia
1976
C-print
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

Wolfgang Sievers
Old Frankfurt-am-Main before its Destruction in the War
1937
gelatin silver print
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

Francisco Goya
Venus and Adonis
ca. 1771
oil on canvas
Museo de Zaragoza

Francisco Goya
Portrait of Bernardo de Iriarte
1797
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg

Francisco Goya
Portrait of Martín Zapater
(merchant and friend of Goya)
1797
oil on canvas
Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao

Francisco Goya
Penitent St Jerome
1798
oil on canvas
Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, California

from The Sea and the Mirror

[Prospero to Ariel]: 

     When I am safely home, oceans away in Milan, and
Realize once and for all I shall never see you again,
     Over there, maybe, it won't seem quite so dreadful
Not to be interesting any more, but an old man
     Just like other old men, with eyes that water
Easily in the wind, and a head that nods in the sunshine,
     Forgetful, maladroit, a little grubby,
And to like it. When the servants settle me into a chair
     In some well-sheltered corner of the garden,
And arrange my muffler and rugs, shall I ever be able
     To stop myself from telling them what I am doing, –
Sailing alone, out over seventy thousand fathoms – ?
     Yet if I speak, I shall sink without a sound
Into unmeaning abysses. Can I learn to suffer
     Without saying something ironic or funny
On suffering? I never suspected the way of truth
     Was a way of silence where affectionate chat
Is but a robbers' ambush and even good music
     In shocking taste; and you, of course, never told me.
If I peg away at it honestly every moment,
     And have luck, perhaps by the time death pounces
His stumping question, I shall just be getting to know
     The difference between moonshine and daylight . . .
I see you starting to fidget. I forgot. To you
     That doesn't matter. My dear, here comes Gonzalo
With a solemn face to fetch me. O Ariel, Ariel,
     How I shall miss you. Enjoy your element. Good-bye.

– W.H. Auden (1942-44)