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| Eileen Agar Seated Figure 1956 oil on canvas Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam |
-Alto-Pluto-1956-oil-on-panel-Wichita-Art-Museum-Kansas.jpg) |
| Josef Albers Homage to the Square: Alto Pluto 1956 oil on panel Wichita Art Museum, Kansas |
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| Diane Arbus Woman on the Street with her Eyes Closed 1956 gelatin silver print Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Francis Bacon Figure in Mountain Landscape 1956 oil on canvas Kunsthaus Zürich |
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| Isabel Bishop Lunch Break 1956 etching Wichita Art Museum, Kansas |
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| Wendell Brazeau Study for Still Life with Calendar 1956 colored pencils on paper Seattle Art Museum |
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| Frederick Brill Quarry Face, Worth Matravers, Dorset 1956 oil on canvas Tate Britain |
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| Reginald Brill Rest 1956 oil on canvas Tate Britain |
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| Gray Foy Bulbs 1956 drawing Menil Collection, Houston |
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| Ivon Hitchens Wood Landscape no. 2 1956 oil on canvas Fralin Museum of Art, Charlottesville, Virginia |
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| Edward Hopper Sunlight on Brownstones 1956 oil on canvas Wichita Art Museum, Kansas |
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| Rockwell Kent Resurrection Bay 1956 oil on canvas Portland Museum of Art, Maine |
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| Frank Paulin Belmont Races 1956 gelatin silver print Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York |
-1956-gelatin-silver-print-North-Carolina-Museum-of-Art-Raleigh.jpg) |
| Frank Paulin Untitled (Man with Traffic Light) 1956 gelatin silver print North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh |
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| Pablo Picasso Femme nue devant le jardin 1956 oil on canvas Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam |
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| Josef Sudek Egg and Carafe 1956 gelatin silver print Moderna Museet, Stockholm |
from Dichtung und Wahrheit (An Unwritten Poem)
XLII
Of the many (far too many) love poems written in the first person which I have read, the most convincing were, either the fa-la-la's of a good-natured sensuality which made no pretence at serious love, or howls of grief because the beloved had died and was no longer capable of love, or roars of disapproval because she loved another or nobody but herself; the least convincing were those in which the poet claimed to be in earnest, yet had no complaint to make.
XLIII
A soldier in battle who knows his Homer well may take the deeds of Hector and Achilles (which are possibly fictitious) as a model and thereby be inspired to fight bravely himself. But a would-be lover who knows his Petrarch well cannot thereby be inspired to love: if he takes the sentiments expressed by Petrarch (who was a certain real person) as a model and attempts to imitate them, then he ceases to be a lover and becomes an actor playing the role of poet Petrarch.
XLIV
Many poets have attempted to describe the experience of Romantic Love as distinct from vulgar desire. (Suddenly abashed, I should like to say, aware of having irreverently blundered like a chattering monkey or an unwashed stableboy into a Sovereign Presence, tongue-tied, trembling, afraid to stay yet loath to go, for here, if anywhere, it is good to be . . .) But has one not had similar experiences (of a numinous encounter) in non-human contexts? (I remember coming unexpectedly upon a derelict iron foundry in the Harz Mountains.) What makes the difference in the human context? Vulgar desire?
XLV
I should like to believe that it is some evidence of love when I can truthfully say: – Desire, even in its wildest tantrums, can neither persuade me it is love nor stop me wishing it were.
– W.H. Auden (1959)