Petrus van Schendel Mary Magdalen in Prayer ca. 1830-50 oil on panel Musée de la Vie Romantique, Paris |
Petrus van Schendel Fish Seller 1843 oil on panel Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin |
Petrus van Schendel Portrait of Adriana Johanna van Wijck 1829 oil on canvas Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Hendrik Jan van Amerom Gentleman Reading ca. 1810 watercolor on paper Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Willem Bartel van der Kooi The Love Letter 1808 oil on canvas Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Willem Bartel van der Kooi Piano Practice Interrupted 1813 oil on canvas Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Willem Bartel van der Kooi Portrait of Adriaen Pieter Twent 1809 oil on copper Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Woutherus Mol The Young Draughtsman ca. 1822 oil on canvas Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
Pieter Christoffel Wonder Staircase of the London Residence of the Painter 1828 oil on canvas Centraal Museum, Utrecht |
Pieter Christoffel Wonder Kitchen Maid ca. 1835 oil on canvas Centraal Museum, Utrecht |
Pieter Christoffel Wonder Self Portrait 1803 oil on canvas Amsterdams Historisch Museum |
Johannes Christiaan Schotel Storm at Sea ca. 1824 oil on canvas Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
Jan Hendrik Weissenbruch Beach Scene 1887 oil on canvas Gemeentemuseum, The Hague |
Vincent van Gogh after Jean-François Millet The Siesta 1889-90 oil on canvas Musée d'Orsay, Paris |
Vincent van Gogh Self Portrait 1887 oil on cardboard Art Institute of Chicago |
Adam's Task
And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air,
and to every beast of the field . . . GEN. 2:20
Thou, paw-paw-paw; thou, glurd; thou, spotted
Glurd; thou, whitestap, lurching through
The high-grown brush; thou, pliant-footed
Implex; thou, awagabu.
Every burrower, each flier
Came for the name he had to give:
Gay, first work, ever to be prior,
Not yet sunk to primitive.
Thou, verdle; thou, McFleery's pomma;
Thou; thou; thou – three types of grawl;
Thou, flisket; thou, kabasch; thou, comma-
Eared moshawk; thou, all; thou, all.
Were, in a fire of becoming,
Laboring to be burned away,
Then work, half-measuring, half-humming,
Would be as serious as play.
Thou, pambler; thou, rivarn; thou, greater
Wherret, and thou, lesser one;
Thou, sproal; thou, zant; thou, lily-eater.
Naming's over. Day is done.
– John Hollander (1971)