Deathbeds

Sebald Beham
The Hour of Death
1522
woodcut
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Melchior Feselen
Death of the Virgin
1531
oil on panel
Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht

Bernardo Cavallino
Death of St Joseph
ca. 1635-40
oil on canvas
Musée Fabre, Montpellier

Giovanni Battista Langetti
Death of Cato
ca. 1665-75
oil on canvas
Kunstmuseum Basel

workshop of Gianlorenzo Bernini
Blessed Ludovica Albertoni on her Deathbed
ca. 1675-1700
terracotta
(reduced-size studio copy of marble tomb effigy)
Musée Magnin, Dijon

Henry Fuseli
Death of Cardinal Beaufort
(scene from Shakespeare's King Henry VI, part 2)
ca. 1769
drawing
Huntington Library and Art Museum,
San Marino, California

Laurent Pécheux
Death of the Virgin
1768
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon

Jacques-Louis David
Drapery Study for The Death of Socrates
ca. 1787
drawing
Musée Bonnat-Helleu, Bayonne

Jean-François-Pierre Peyron
The Death of Socrates
1788
oil on canvas
Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha

Christiaan Julius Lodewijk Portman
Death of Admiral Tromp
1824
oil on canvas
Teylers Museum, Haarlem

Paul Delaroche
Study for The Death of Elizabeth I of England
1827
drawing, with added watercolor
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon

Mathieu Ignace Van Brée
Death of artist Peter Paul Rubens
1827
oil on canvas
Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp

Louis Asher
Portrait of artist Erwin Speckter on his Deathbed
1835
oil on canvas
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Friedrich Olivier
Portrait of Franca Schnorr von Carolsfeld on her Deathbed
1846
drawing
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Nicaise De Keyser
Peter Paul Rubens at the Deathbed of Marie de' Medici
ca. 1850
drawing
Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp

Maria Lassnig
Drawn by Death
2011
oil on canvas
Museum Ludwig, Cologne

Sous le même reflet de la vitre à côté de Carnot, Prieur, officier et poète élégiaque sans audience à Mâcon et Prieur, l'autre, avocat et poète épique sans audience à Châlons. Puis l'éclat jaune, la chaise, qui jamais n'a rien écrit. Au beau milieu de l'éclat jaune Couthon, dont on a un drame plein de sensibilité et de larmes (vous en avez déjà oublié le titre, Monsieur, que pourtant vous avez lu dans la petite antichambre), larmes et sensibilité prodiguées pour rien dans la noire Clermont d'Auvergne, pour des publics de basalte: sur sa chaise de couleur citron au Louvre au cœur du tableau, sur sa chaise de paralytique, citrine, soufrée, solaire, avec des larmes il se redit la chute noire de son drame, parmi des éboulis de basalte. 

– Pierre Michon, from Les Onze (Verdier, 2009)

Larry Rivers

Larry Rivers
Portrait of Frank O'Hara
1952
oil on linen
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Larry Rivers
Berdie in a Red Shawl
1953
oil on linen
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

 

Larry Rivers
Berdie Seated, Clothed
1953
bronze
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Larry Rivers
O'Hara
1954
drawing
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

Larry Rivers
Still Life with Grapefruit and Seltzer Bottle
1954
oil on canvas
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Larry Rivers
Double Portrait of Berdie
1955
oil on linen
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Larry Rivers
Berdie in Blue Tea Towel
1955
oil on canvas
Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York

Larry Rivers
The Studio
1956
oil on canvas
Minneapolis Institute of Art

Larry Rivers
The Athlete's Dream
1956
oil on canvas
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Larry Rivers
Washington Crossing the Delaware
1960
oil on linen
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Larry Rivers
Portrait of Sunny Norman: Parts of the Face
1963
oil on canvas
New Orleans Museum of Art

Larry Rivers
Identification Manual
1964
mixed media and collage on board
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Larry Rivers
100-Franc Note
1965
graphite and crayon on paper
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

Larry Rivers
French Money
1965
screenprint and collage on plexiglas
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Larry Rivers
Stravinsky II
1966
lithograph
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Gerard Malanga
Larry Rivers
ca. 1971
gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Larry Rivers
Untitled
1973
lithograph and screenprint
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Arnold Newman
Larry Rivers
1975
gelatin silver print
San Diego Museum of Art

Larry Rivers
Public and Private
1983-84
oil on paper, mounted on foamcore
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
Larry Rivers
1981
gelatin silver print
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Pastoral

The sun rises over the mountain.

Sometimes there's mist

but the sun's behind it always

and the mist isn't equal to it.

The sun burns its way through,

like the mind defeating stupidity.

When the mist clears, you see the meadow.

No one really understands 

the savagery of this place,

the way it kills people for no reason,

just to keep in practice.

So people flee – and for a while, away from here,

they're exuberant, surrounded by so many choices –

But no signal from earth

will ever reach the sun. Thrash

against that fact, you are lost.

When they come back, they're worse.

They think they failed in the city,

not that the city doesn't make good its promises.

They blame their upbringing: youth ended and they're back,

silent, like their fathers.

Sundays, in summer, they lean against the wall of the clinic,

smoking cigarettes. When they remember,

they pick flowers for their girlfriends –

It makes the girls happy.

They think it's pretty here, but they miss the city, the afternoons

filled with shopping and talking, what you do

when you have no money . . .

To my mind, you're better off if you stay;

that way, dreams don't damage you.

At dusk, you sit by the window. Wherever you live,

you can see the fields, the river, realities

on which you cannot impose yourself –

To me, it's safe. The sun rises, the mist

dissipates to reveal

the immense mountain. You can see the peak,

how white it is, even in summer. And the sky's so blue,

punctuated with small pines

like spears –

When you got tired of walking

you lay down in the grass.

When you got up again, you could see for a moment where you'd been,

the grass was slick there, flattened out

into the shape of the body. When you looked back later,

it was as though you'd never been there at all.

Midafternoon, midsummer. The fields go on forever,

peaceful, beautiful.

Like butterflies with their black markings,

the poppies open. 

– Louise Glück (2009)

Triptychs

Anonymous German Artist
The Annunciation
flanked by St Felicitas and St James the Lesser
ca. 1520
painted lindenwood relief
Bode Museum, Berlin

Bernardo Daddi
Coronation of the Virgin
flanked by the Nativity and the Crucifixion
ca. 1338-40
tempera on panels
Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Bernardo Daddi
The Virgin
flanked by St Thomas Aquinas and St Paul
ca. 1335
tempera on panels
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Master of the Osservanza Triptych
Christ in the Tomb
flanked by the Virgin and St John the Evangelist
ca. 1435
tempera on panel
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon

Peter Paul Rubens
Lamentation Triptych
1618
oil on panels
Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp

Goswijn van der Weyden
Crucifixion Triptych
ca. 1510
oil on panels
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon

Goswijn van der Weyden
Triptych of Abbot Antonius Tsgrooten
1507
oil on panels
Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp

Rogier van der Weyden
Middleburg-Altarpiece
ca. 1440-50
oil and tempera on panels
Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Rogier van der Weyden
Miraflores Altarpiece
ca. 1435-45
oil and tempera on panels
Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Rogier van der Weyden
Seven Sacraments Triptych
ca. 1440-45
oil on panels
Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp

Cima da Conegliano
Virgin and Child enthroned
flanked by St George and St James the Greater
ca. 1500
oil on panels, transferred to canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen

Duccio di Buoninsegna
The Nativity
flanked by prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel
ca. 1308-1311
tempera on panels
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

attributed to Ventura di Moro
Virgin and Child enthroned with Saints
1420
tempera on panels
Yale University Art Gallery

Lucas Cranach the Elder
Electors of Saxony
(Friedrich der Weise, Johann der Beständige, Johann Friedrich der Grossmütige)
ca. 1533
oil on panels
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Johannes Leemans
Still Life with Hunting Tackle
ca. 1660
oil on canvas
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Philip Pearlstein
Sepik River Triptych
1995
oil on canvas
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

Allez, Monsieur, poursuivez: Carnot, qui fut de la société poétique des Rosati d'Arras avec Robespierre, et dans cette concurrence de jeunes poètes aux Rosati commença à aimer et haїr Robespierre; qui eut sa première célébrité pour des églogues à Bacchus, à Liber, à Pomone, les petits dieux romains; qui n'avait pas vraiment pour vocation d'ensanglanter l'Europe, de hacher au canon les sapinières du Nord, les chênaies du bocage, de placer les généraux de quatorze armées devant la très simple alternative de la victoire ou du couperet, mais de se promener l'après-midi l'été dans de grands jardins sous la fraîcheur des feuilles avec sous le bras son petit calepin, d'y convoquer les êtres de fraîcheur, Bacchus, Liber, pour que Bacchus et Liber consacrent dans la langue des dieux sur le petit calepin l'immortalité de Carnot: qui est connu pour le reste, le couperet, le canon, pas Liber.

– Pierre Michon, from Les Onze (Verdier, 2009)