Visions of Strife, Flight and Annihilation

Cavaliere d'Arpino (Giuseppe Cesari)
Figures fleeing Soldier
before 1640
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Michel Corneille the Younger
Goddess Diana concealing Nymph in Flight
ca. 1660-70
drawing
Musée du Louvre

George Dance
A Ghost Appearing to a Group of Figures
ca. 1775
drawing, with watercolor and gouache
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Frank Dicksee
Young Woman in Flight
ca. 1892
drawing
(study for painting, Startled)
Royal Academy of Arts, London

James O'Connor
A Vision
1813
drawing
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Antonio Molinari
Monarch chastising a Subject,
with Cupid attending
before 1704
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Richard Redgrave
The Outcast
1851
drawing
(study for painting)
Royal Academy of Arts, London

John Deare
Assassination Attempt on Edward I
before 1798
drawing
(study for painting)
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Benjamin West
St Michael and Lucifer
before 1820
drawing
Yale Center for British Art

Agostino Tassi
Ship in Stormy Sea
before 1644
drawing
Musée du Louvre

John Gilbert
Destruction of Trees in Greenwich Park in High Winds
1868
drawing, with watercolor
Royal Academy of Arts, London

William Holman Hunt
Claudio and Isabella
(scene from Measure for Measure)
1850
drawing
(study for painting)
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Jean-Baptiste Greuze
Youth Kneeling in Grief
ca. 1777
drawing
(study for painting, The Father's Curse)
Musée du Louvre

Robert Medley
Preparation for Execution
ca. 1994
oil on canvas
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Anthony Whishaw
Bullfight with Falling Picador
1951-52
oil on canvas
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Robert Buhler
The Anatomy Lesson, or, The Death of Art Schools
ca. 1960-70
drawing
Royal Academy of Arts, London

from In the Name of the Tyrant

                . . . disoriented and dizzy as crows

swarming the corpses of our own hearts,

in the aisles of the department stores

filled with the glitter of plenty, we kept

spilling coffee on ourselves. Why 

are we forever afraid of bathtubs, of water

hitting us in the face like the invisible

stoning of an anonymous crowd, why does buying

makeup make us feel guilty, why do we

eat our food like thieves? Why do we

sneak our friends in the back door

and make our love climb up a tree? Why

do our lies nest within one another like

diminishing dolls? Why do we jump

when the smallest child pushes open a door?

– Rebecca Seiferle (2007)

Scenic Interiors

Anna Alma-Tadema
The Drawing Room, Townshend House
1885
watercolor
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Samuel Butler
Interior of the Artist's Studio at 15 Clifford's Inn, London
1865
oil on canvas
St John's College, University of Cambridge

Hugh Casson
Grand Staircase, Burlington House
ca. 1977
drawing, with watercolor
Royal Academy of Arts, London

William Chambers
Design for Window Wall,
Queen Charlotte's Music Room, Windsor
1794
drawing, with watercolor
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Louis-Jean-Jacques Durameau
Two Gentlemen and a Lady playing Cards
1767
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Solomon Alexander Hart
Interior of a Larder
1841
watercolor
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Solomon Alexander Hart
Interior at Hobbard's Farm
1841
watercolor
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Solomon Alexander Hart
Interior with Open Door, Windsor
ca. 1840
watercolor
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Solomon Alexander Hart
Study of Stone and Brickwork in a Rustic Interior
ca. 1835
watercolor
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Arthur Hughes
Banqueting Hall at Penkill, Ayrshire
ca. 1880
oil on canvas
National Museums Collection Centre, Edinburgh

Jean-Baptiste Lallemand
Abbaye de Cluny, Romanesque Nave
ca. 1779-80
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Ralph Lillford
Pottery
1961
oil on panel
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Hubert Robert
Corridor at the Louvre with Paintings being moved
ca. 1800-1803
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Hubert Robert
Washerwomen in Antique Vaulted Building
1760
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Gabriel de Saint-Aubin
La Boutique de Mademoiselle Saint-Quentin,
Marchande de Modes
1777
drawing, with watercolor
Musée du Louvre

Leonard Rosoman
Portrait of the Artist painting the Ceiling
ca. 1966
oil on board
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Vanishing Interiors

Little patches of grass disappear

In the jaws of lusty squirrels

Who slip into the spruce. 

Cars collapse into parts.

Spring dissolves into summer,

The kitten into the cat.

A tray of drinks departs from the buffet

And voilà! the party's over.

All that's left are some pickles

And a sprig of wilting parsley on the rug.

When I think of all those

Gong-tormented Mesozoic seas

I feel a ripple of extinction

And blow a smoke ring through the trees.

Soon there will be nothing left here but sky.

When I think about the fact

I am not thinking about you

It is a new way of thinking about you.

– Suzanne Buffam (2010)

from Byzantium

At midnight on the Emperor's pavement flit

Flames that no faggot feeds, nor steel has lit,

Nor storm disturbs, flames begotten of flame,

Where blood-begotten spirits come

And all complexities of fury leave,

Dying into  a dance,

An agony of trance,

An agony of flame that cannot singe a sleeve.

Astraddle on the dolphin's mire and blood,

Spirit after spirit? The smithies break the flood,

The golden smithies of the Emperor!

Marbles of the dancing floor

Break bitter furies of complexity.

Those images that yet

Fresh images beget,

That dolphin-torn, that gong-tormented sea. 

– William Butler Yeats (1930)

20th-Century Renditions at the Royal Academy, London

John Armstrong
Still Life
1961
oil on canvas
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Elizabeth Blackadder
Vase of Flowers
1976
oil on canvas
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Frank Brangwyn
Sunflowers
ca. 1910
oil on board
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Gerald Brockhurst
Fruit Basket: Still Life
ca. 1960-70
oil on canvas
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Robert Buhler
Flowers: Chrysanthemum Bush
ca. 1970-80
oil on cardboard
Royal Academy of Arts, London

George Clausen
Still Life with Patterned Bowl and Oranges
ca. 1920-40
oil on canvas
Royal Academy of Arts, London

William Gillies
Still Life on a Cupboard
ca. 1966
oil on canvas
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Allan Gwynne-Jones
Roses, Buttercups and Cow Parsley
1964
oil on board
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Colin Hayes
Interior
ca. 1961
oil on canvas
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Richard MacDonald
Autumn Still Life
ca. 1956
oil on canvas
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Charles Mahoney
Auriculas in Pots
1956
oil on canvas
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Philip Matthews
Still Life on Striped Cloth
1983
oil on cardboard
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Dod Procter
Autumn Flowers
1946
oil on canvas
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Leslie Prothero
Aquarium
ca. 1971
oil on canvas
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Ruskin Spear
Mackerel
1943
oil on paper, mounted on board
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Jose Suarez
Still Life
ca. 1970-80
oil on canvas
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Fish or like Fish

He startled to see a statue of blind

justice really did loom over the courtroom. But

remained determined to scorn symbolism.

She needed a quarter to call her lover –

the docket was full, she'd be late for lunch –

and he gave her one. It was not a taunt,

acquiescence, wager, or plea. It was

a quarter. The fact that they had done this –

even this! – together and cordially,

late nights at the dining room table with 

a bottle of cabernet, sharp pencils,

A Love Supreme, and an "E-Z Workbook"

from the well-reviewed – the fact that they'd read

reviews! – Don't Pay an Attorney! series,

as if they were learning Portuguese or 

origami, was not "as if" or "like" 

anything, but just that, a fact, and not

to be pressed for further significance. This

was part of the agreement. They filled out

the forms. Asked lawyer friends for language.

Made stacks of books and towels. Cooked dinner

together, said "excuse me" passing

in the hallway, and even remembered

each other's mother's birthdays. As if. Not

as if. Waiting for their case to be called,

they got hungry. The bailiff pointed toward 

the snack bar in the basement, which was packed

with a class trip from the school for the blind.

In illo tempore such a gift would have

caused them to turn to each other in love

and wonder. Now, no. They didn't even

look to see. She asked for fish sticks, and he

wondered if fish sticks were fish or like fish. 

The children chewed their chicken fingers

with calm deliberation, staring out at what

they saw, then conveyed their limp paper plates

with startling grace to the hinged swinging mouths

of the trash cans which swallowed everything

offered saying THANK YOU THANK YOU.

– Joel Brouwer (2005)

20th-Century Views at the Royal Academy, London

John Aldridge
Leyden
ca. 1954
oil on panel
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Robert Buhler
Market Garden
ca. 1965-70
oil on canvas
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Frederick Cuming
Dungeness from Hythe
ca. 1975
oil on board
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Andrea Dykes
March Hedgerow
ca. 1944
oil on canvas
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Charles Gere
The Mill Pool at Painswick
1945
oil on board
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Sydney Lee
The House with Closed Shutters
ca. 1926
oil on canvas
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Alphonse Legros
Burgundy Landscape
1905
drawing
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Ben Levene
London Park
ca. 1980
oil on board
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Jack Millar
Gardens
1967
oil on canvas
Royal Academy of Arts, London

John Nash
The Lake, Little Horkesley Hall
ca. 1958
oil on canvas
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Anne Redpath
Cliffside, Portugal
ca. 1965
oil on board
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Harry Rutherford
Camden Town Street
1935
oil on canvas
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Christopher Sanders
Wire
ca. 1947
oil on canvas
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Ruskin Spear
The Old Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, 1943
1979
oil on board
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Gilbert Spencer
Sussex Landscape
1956
oil on canvas
Royal Academy of Arts, London

John Titchell
Summer
ca. 1977
oil on panel
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Edward Wakeford
The Mall
ca. 1950-60
oil on canvas
Royal Academy of Arts, London

Aquarium

The fish are drifting calmly in their tank

between the green reeds, lit by a white glow

that passes for the sun. Blindly, the blank

glass that holds them in displays their slow

progress from end to end, familiar rocks

set into the gravel, murmuring rows

of filters, a universe the flying fox

and glass cats, Congo tetras, bristle-nose

plecostomus all take for granted. Yet

the platys, gold and red, persist in leaping

occasionally, as if they can't quite let

alone a possibility – of wings,

maybe, once they reach the air? They die

on the rug. We find them there, eyes open in surprise.

– Kim Addonizio (1994)