Sunday, June 16, 2024

Made in 1939

Tempe Manning
Self Portrait
1939
oil on canvas
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

Rita Angus
Self Portrait
1939
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Alfred Eisenstaedt
Fashion Model in Lace Dress
1939
gelatin silver print
San Diego Museum of Art

Gisèle Freund
Vita Sackville-West
1939
dye transfer print
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

James Montgomery Flagg
Way Down East Apple Pie
1939
oil on canvas
(magazine illustration)
New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut

James Montgomery Flagg
San Francisco Treasure Island Salad
1939
oil on canvas
(magazine illustration)
New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut

Martin Munkácsi
Katherine Hepburn and her two sisters
1939
gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Leon Gilmour
Cement Finishers
1939
wood-engraving
New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut

Sam Tata
The Arrow
1939
gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

Graham Bell
Whitfield Street Baths
1939
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

Richard Rathbone
Boys Swimming in the Ohio River
1939
watercolor on paper
Lyman Allyn Art Museum, New London, Connecticut

Max Ernst
Cassandra leaves the Stage
1939
lithograph
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

John Wardell Power
L'Homme Calculateur
1939
linocut
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Henry Landon Parkhurst
Illustration to Spicy Western Stories Magazine
1939
oil on canvas
New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut

Frank Rudolph Paul
Illustration to Science Fiction Magazine
1939
oil on canvas
New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut

from The Quest

They noticed that virginity was needed
To trap the unicorn in every case,
But not that, of those virgins who succeeded,
A high percentage had an ugly face.

The hero was as daring as they thought him,
But his peculiar boyhood missed them all;
The angel of a broken leg had taught him
The right precautions to avoid a fall.

So in presumption they set forth alone
On what, for them, was not compulsory,
And stuck half-way to settle in some cave
With desert lions to domesticity,

Or turned aside to be absurdly brave,
And met the ogre and were turned to stone. 

– W.H. Auden (1940)