Sunday, April 13, 2025

Models Traditionally Posed

Alfred George Stevens
Half-Length Study of Model
ca. 1854
drawing
Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, New Brunswick


Constantin Hansen
Model with flute among ruins
ca. 1826-27
oil on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

attributed to William Young Ottley
Figure wielding Club
ca. 1800-1825
drawing
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Jean-Léonard Lugardon
Mariner gathering Ropes
ca. 1827
drawing
Cabinet d'Arts Graphiques
des Musées d'Art et d'Histoire, Genève

Théodore Géricault
Study of the model Joseph
ca. 1818-19
oil on paper
(study for painting, The Raft of the Medusa)
Musée Ingres Bourdelle, Montauban

Théodore Géricault
 Studies of Model
ca. 1818-19
drawing
(study for painting, The Raft of the Medusa)
Musée Bonnat-Helleu, Bayonne

Hippolyte Flandrin
Académie
ca. 1830-40
drawing
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Henri Lehmann
Figure Studies
1858
drawing
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

Hans von Marées
Figure Studies
ca. 1884-85
drawing
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

George Minne
Figure Study
1888
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

George Minne
Figure Study
1888
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

George Wilson
Académie
ca. 1870-80
drawing
British Museum

Eugen Eduard Schäffer
Half-Length Study of Model
ca. 1825
drawing
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

William Edward Frost
Three Figures
ca. 1835-40
watercolor and ink on paper
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

William Edward Frost
Figure Studies
ca. 1835-40
watercolor and ink on paper
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

William Edward Frost
Two Figures
ca. 1835-40
watercolor and ink on paper
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

William Edward Frost
Figure Study
ca. 1835-40
watercolor and ink on paper
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

Three Sketches for Europa

1 / The Tourist

Now Henry (said his Aunt) take care.
She may not realize who you are.
And if her speech is less than lucid
Try to remember always that in
Her day she spoke, not counting Latin,
Nine languages. Think what she did,
Or meant to do, before the war.
Was there anyone like her?

Palermo lay at her feet. Madrid
Trembled, a moonstone from her ear.
Avoid all mention of your Grandfather.
Poor soul, she's peevish now, an invalid,
Has lost her beauty, gets things wrong.
Go now. But do not stay too long.


2 / Geography

The white bull chased her. Others said
All interest vanished. Anyhow, she fled,

Her mantle's flowing border torn
To islands  by the Golden Horn,

Knee bared, head high, but soon to set
One salty cheek on water, let

Flesh become grass, and high heart stone,
And all her radiant passage known

Lamely as Time by some she dreamt not of.
Who come to pray remain to scoff

At tattered bulls on shut church doors
In black towns numberless as pores,

The god at last indifferent
And she no longer chaste but continent.


3 / At the Bullfight

Deep in the gaunt mask arenas blaze.
To creaking music now appear
Champions of her honor, with fixed gaze
And slow parading through a maze
Where the thing waits. Just once in fear
She stiffens, wonders that her people cheer
Pelting down roses and berets.
Then on the mask a smile plays, absent, queer.

In a fringed shawl of blood the bull
Moans and kneels down. His huge eye glazes
On the confusing candor of her gauzes
Who called, who of her own young will
Hung him with garlands, tickled his nostril
And urged him into the foam with gentle phrases. 

– James Merrill (1959)