Monday, September 29, 2025

Eric Fischl

Eric Fischl
The Funeral
1980
oil on canvas
Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC


Eric Fischl
Self Portrait with April at the Beach
1983
oil on canvas
Seattle Art Museum

Eric Fischl
Slumber Party
1983
oil on canvas
Art Institute of Chicago

Eric Fischl
A Visit To / A Visit From / The Island
1983
oil on canvas
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Eric Fischl
Untitled
1986
oil on paper
Minneapolis Institute of Art

Jack Mitchell
Eric Fischl
1986
gelatin silver print
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Eric Fischl
Untitled (Beach)
1989
aquatint
Milwaukee Art Museum

Eric Fischl
Untitled (Group in Water)
1992
monotype
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Eric Fischl
Untitled (Jump Rope)
1992
solar-plate intaglio
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Eric Fischl
Untitled (Sweater)
1992
solar-plate intaglio
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Eric Fischl
Untitled
2001
watercolor on paper
San Jose Museum of Art, California

Eric Fischl
Krefeld Project, Dining Room, Scene #2
2003
oil on canvas
Seattle Art Museum

Eric Fischl
The Clemente Family
2005
oil on linen
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Eric Fischl
Untitled
2006
watercolor on paper
Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany

Eric Fischl
Scenes from Late Paradise: The Parade
2006-2007
oil on linen
Hall Collection, Schloss Derneburg, Germany

Eric Fischl
Ten Breaths - Tumbling Woman
2007-2008
bronze
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

from Pharsalia

No festoons, no plaited garlands were draped from the lintel;
No white strands of wool ran twisting down on the doorposts;
No traditional torches were flaring; no ivory ladder
Led to a nuptial bed with coverlet richly embroidered;
There was no turreted crown, no stepping over the threshold
Taking care not to touch it; no sign of the veil of yellow
Worn as a delicate screen for a bride to cover her shyness,
Hiding the bashful features; no sign of the jewelled girdle
Clasping a flowing robe, no sign of a beautiful necklace;
No light stole was arranged to cling to the undraped shoulder.
Marcia stayed as she was, in the solemn garments of mourning.
Cato's embrace from his wife was like a son's from his mother;
Leaning over, she covered his purple with folds of her sackcloth.
None of the bawdy fun or the Sabine ritual taunting
Greeted the somber bridegroom, no family party assembled.
Wordlessly they were wedded – the single presence of Brutus
Well contented them for the auspices. Cato continued
Keeping the beard untrimmed on his reverend features, permitting
Not a hint of joy to soften his stern expression,
(Ever since he had witnessed the first belligerent gestures,
Fatal for Rome, he had let the hair grow over his forehead,
Grey and unkempt, and allowed the beard of a mourner to straggle
Over his cheeks: for he was the one man free from allegiance,
Free from attachment and hatred, the only man who could freely
Mourn for the human race), and he made no attempt at renewing
Bonds of the marriage bed: his iron nature resisted
Even legitimate love.

– Lucan (AD 39-65), translated by P.F. Widdows (1988)

Sunday, September 28, 2025

Ottawa

Carlo Caliari (Carletto, son of Paolo Veronese)
Anatomical Studies
ca. 1595
drawing
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa


Cornelis van Haarlem
Susanna and the Elders
ca. 1599
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

Giulio Cesare Procaccini
Drapery Studies
before 1625
drawing
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

Mauro Gandolfi
Eight Heads
ca. 1805
drawing
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

Felice Giani
Pan and Syrinx at the Triumph of Priapus
ca. 1805-10
drawing
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

Louis-Léopold Boilly
Portrait of a Young Woman
ca. 1820
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

Adolph Menzel
Boy sketching in a Landscape
ca. 1840-50
drawing
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux
Spring
(derived from Triumph of Flora statue group)
1873
marble
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

Paul Gauguin
Quarries of La Chou near Pontoise
1882
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

Alexander Henderson
Bank of Montreal and new Post Office
after 1886
albumen silver print
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

James Dickson Innes
Arenig
1911
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

Christopher Wood
Landscape near Vence
1927
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

Pegi Nicol Macleod
School in a Garden
ca. 1934
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

Fritz Brandtner
Whither Bound, Kleiner Mann? 
1934
oil on panel
Ottawa Art Gallery, Ontario

Arthur Dove
Rising Tide
1943
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

Katherine Knight
Crypt of the Congregation of Notre Dame
1980
gelatin silver print
Ottawa Art Gallery, Ontario

Robert Hyndman
Portrait of Miss Brydie Hyndman
1984
oil on canvas
Ottawa Art Gallery, Ontario

    No poor and pitiful mortal confined on the globe of earth who hath never seen but sorrow, or interchangeably some painted superficial pleasures, and had but guesses of contentment, can rightly think on, or be sufficient to conceive, the termless delights of this place.  So many feathers move not on birds, so many birds dint not the air, so many leaves tremble not on trees, so many trees grow not in the solitary forests, so many waves turn not in the ocean, and so many grains of sand limit not those waves as this triumphant court hath variety of delights and joys exempted from all comparison.  Happiness at once here is fully known and fully enjoyed, and as infinite in continuance as extent.  Here is flourishing and never-fading youth without age, strength without weakness, beauty never blasting, knowledge without learning, abundance without loathing, peace without disturbance, participation without envy, rest without labour, light without rising or setting sun, perpetuity without moments; for time (which is the measure of motion) did never enter in this shining eternity.  Ambition, disdain, malice, difference of opinions cannot approach this place, resembling those foggy mists which cover those lists of sublunary things.  All pleasure, paragoned with what is here, is pain, all mirth mourning, all beauty deformity: here one day's abiding is above the continuing in the most fortunate estate on the earth many years, and sufficient to countervail the extremest torments of life.  

– William Drummond of Hawthornden, from A Cypress Grove (London: Hawthornden Press, 1919, reprinting the original edition of 1623)

Forthright

Rolf Winquist
Portrait of Eva Marie Brandt
1950
gelatin silver print
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Édouard Chantalat
Portrait of poet Paul Verlaine
1898
oil on canvas
Musée de la Cour d'Or de Metz

Marianne Wiig Storaas
Portrait of politician Karen Platou
2022
oil on canvas
Stortingets Kunstsamling, Oslo

JĂłzef Grassi
Portrait of the Marquis de Llano,
Spanish Envoy in Vienna

1790
oil on canvas
Belvedere Museum, Vienna

Judy Dater
Portrait of art historian and curator Peter Bunnell
1977
gelatin silver print
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Émile Friant
Self Portrait
1887
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nancy

Isaac GrĂĽnewald
Self Portrait
ca. 1915
oil on panel
Malmö Konstmuseum, Sweden

Maarten van Heemskerck
Portrait of Machtelt Suijs
ca. 1545
oil on panel
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio

Gerhard Henning
Self Portrait
ca. 1900
oil on canvas
Göteborgs Konstmuseum, Sweden

Jan Jordens
Self Portrait
1920
woodcut
Groninger Museum, Netherlands

Oskar Kokoschka
Portrait of Elisabeth Reitler
1909
oil on canvas
Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal

Nicolas de Largillière
Portrait of Jean Pupil de Craponne
1708
oil on canvas
Musée de Grenoble

Siri Meyer
Self Portrait
ca. 1965
oil on canvas
Göteborgs Konstmuseum, Sweden

Hans Holbein the Younger
Portrait of Duisburg merchant Dirck Tybis
1533
oil on panel
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

John Singer Sargent
Portrait of the Honourable Clare Stuart Wortley
1923
drawing
Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

Charley Toorop
Self Portrait
1953-54
oil on canvas
Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands

Chorus:  Woman unfortunate in so many ways and also wise in so many ways, you have spoken at length; but if you truly have foreknowledge of your own death, how comes it that you are walking boldly towards it like an ox driven by god to the altar?

Cassandra:  There is no escape, friends, none, for any longer time.  

Chorus:  But people put special value on the last bit of time they have.

Cassandra:  That day has come.  I shall gain little by running away.

Chorus:  Well, I tell you, your resolution comes from a courageous heart.

Cassandra:  That's something that's never said about anyone who is happy.

Chorus:  But it's a gratification to any mortal, you know, to die creditably.

Cassandra:  IĂł, my father, for you and your noble sons!  Now I shall go to bewail, even within the house, my own fate and Agamemnon's.  Enough of life!  [She makes to go inside, but suddenly recoils and cries out.]  Help, friends!

Chorus:  What's the matter?  What fear is making you turn away?

Cassandra:  Ugh, ugh!

Chorus:  Why are you going "ugh" like that?  Unless it's some mental horror.

Cassandra:  The house breathes blood-dripping murder!

Chorus:  What on earth do you mean?  That's the smell of sacrifices at the hearth.

Cassandra:  The scent is very plain – just like the whiff of a grave!

Chorus:  You can't be talking about the Syrian fragrance which is adding splendour to the palace!

Cassandra:  I am not shying away out of empty terror, as a bird does from a bush.  Bear me witness of this after my death, when a woman dies in return for me, a woman, and a man falls in return for a man who had an evil wife.  As one about to die, I claim this as my guest-right.

Chorus:  Unhappy one, I pity you for the death you have foretold.

Cassandra:  I wish to make one more speech – or should I say dirge, my own dirge for myself.  Looking on my last sunlight, I pray that my enemies may pay to my master's avengers the penalty for my murder as well – for the death of a slave, an easy victim.  Alas for the fortunes of mortals!  When they prosper, one may liken them to a shadow, and if things go badly, a few strokes of a damp sponge wipe their image out.  And I pity the latter much more than the former.  [She goes inside.]

– Aeschylus, from Agamemnon (458 BC), translated by Alan H. Sommerstein (2008)

Howard Finster

Howard Finster
Howard in 1944
ca. 1990
screenprint
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York


Howard Finster
God is Love
after 1970
oil on panel
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Howard Finster
And The Moon Became As Blood
1976
enamel on panel
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Howard Finster
The Lord Will Deliver His People Across Jordan
1976
enamel on panel
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Howard Finster
Biblical Narrative Painting
1978
enamel on panel
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Howard Finster
Man of Vision Found in Hosea 12:10
1978
enamel on panel
Smithsonian American Art Museum,
Washington DC

Howard Finster
The Model of Super Power Plaint
1979
"folk art made from old TV parts"
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Howard Finster
Vision Of A Great Gulf On Planet Hell
1980
enamel on panel
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Howard Finster
Talking Heads: And She Was
1985
offset-lithograph (album sleeve)
Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, New York

Howard Finster
Talking Heads: Little Creatures
1985
offset-lithograph (album sleeve)
Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, New York

Michael O'Brien
Howard Finster
1988
inkjet print
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Howard Finster
Untitled
1988
painted glass bottle
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Howard Finster
Henry Ford
1988
screenprint
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Howard Finster
Mona Lisa
1988
screenprint
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Howard Finster
Mytrant
1991
screenprint
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Chuck Rosenak
Howard Finster's Coca-Cola Bottle Sculpture
2001
color slide
Archives of American Art, Washington DC

Chuck Rosenak
Howard Finster's Casket
2001
color slide
Archives of American Art, Washington DC

from Pharsalia

    All great things crush themselves, such end the gods,
    Allot the height of honor, men so strong
    By land, and sea, no forreine force could ruine:
    O Roome thy selfe art cause of all these evils,
    Thy selfe thus shivered out to three mens shares,
    Dire league of partners in a kingdome last not.
O faintly join'd friends with ambition blind,
Why joine you force to share the world betwixt you?
While th'earth the sea, and ayre the earth sustaines;
While Titan strives against the worlds swift course;
Or Cynthia nights Queene waights upon the day;
Shall never faith be found in fellow kings.
Dominion cannot suffer partnership;
This need no forraine proofe, nor far fet story:
Roomes infant walles were steept in brothers bloud;
Nor then was land, or sea, to breed such hate,
A towne with one poore church set them at oddes.

– Lucan (AD 39-65), translated by Christopher Marlowe (before 1593)