Mirror

Édouard Manet
Before the Mirror
1876
oil on canvas
Guggenheim Museum, New York

Anonymous French Makers
Salt Cellar shaped as Fortification
15th century
agate bowl mounted in gold
(collection of Louis XIV)
Musée du Louvre

Mark Rothko
Untitled
1952
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Anna Atkins
Enteromorpha intestinalis
ca. 1853
cyanotype
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Sylvia Gosse
Self Portrait reflected in a Mirror
1918
watercolor and graphite on paper
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Anonymous French Makers
Cup
ca. 1650
brecciated jasper with silver-gilt mounts
(collection of Louis XIV)
Musée du Louvre

Mark Rothko
Untitled
1953
oil and glue on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Anna Atkins
Ptelea trifoliata
ca. 1845
cyanotype
Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York

Claes Oldenburg
Side-view Mirror:
Proposed Colossal Monument for End of Navy Pier, Chicago
1967
watercolor and crayon on paper
Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York

Anonymous French Makers
Bowl
ca. 1655
sardonyx with enameled-gold mount
(collection of Louis XIV)
Musée du Louvre

Mark Rothko
Untitled
1955
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Anna Atkins
 Rhodomenia polycarpa
ca. 1853
cyanotype
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Matt Saunders
Hanna and Mirror
2003
oil on plastic
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Anonymous French Makers
Cup
ca. 1685
agate with silver-gilt stem of harpies
(collection of Louis XIV)
Musée du Louvre

Mark Rothko
Untitled
1955
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Anna Atkins
Spiraea aruncus (Tyrol)
ca. 1851-54
cyanotype
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Fairfield Porter
The Mirror
1966
oil on canvas
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri

Maude Stanley to Maria Josepha, Lady Stanley                                                                 

[describing preparations to attend the wedding of Queen Victoria's eldest daughter Vicky to the Crown Prince of Prussia]

                                                                            Dover Street, January 22nd, 1858

Dear Grandmamma,

    There has certainly been a great deal to do in the clothing line, all nearly settled now.  Mama has had to imagine so many different dresses & colours: a red with black lace for the ball, a lilac with white lace for the wedding, a white with red velvet bows for the concert, & blue brocade for the drawing room.  My gowns have required less consideration being more easily concocted  . . .   

– from The Stanleys of Alderney, edited by Nancy Mitford (1939)

Precious

Reliquary in Crown Form
ca. 1250-1300
silver-gilt panels set with rock crystal, pearls and gems
Musée du Louvre

L'Ordre du Saint-Esprit
ca. 1740-50
diamonds and ruby mounted in silver
(membership badge)
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous French Jeweler
Dragon
ca. 1600-1615
baroque pearl mounted in enameled gold
Musée du Louvre

Châtelaine
elements acquired and assembled by several users
ca. 1640-1850
gold, enamel and gems
Musée du Louvre

La Côte de Bretagne
spinelle of 108 carats inherited by François I, 1524
carved into dragon-shape for Louis XV, 1749
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous French Jeweler
Brooch
ca. 1830
diamonds and sapphires set in gold
(restored Bourbons resetting Napoleonic gems)
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous Italian Jeweler
Ring
16th century
partly-enameled gold, cabochon sapphire
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous French Jeweler
Mirror
ca. 1630-35
rock-crystal mirror purchased by Louis XIV
gold frame (partly enameled) set with cameos, hardstone panels and gems
Musée du Louvre

Alexandre-Gabriel Lemonnier
Crown for Empress Eugénie
1855
gold, diamonds, emeralds, leather
Musée du Louvre

Paul-Nicolas Menière
Pair of Bracelets
1816
rubies and diamonds mounted in gold and silver
(restored Bourbons resetting Napoleonic gems)
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous French Jewelers
Earrings of Empress Josephine
ca. 1805-1810
pear-shaped pearls mounted in gold with diamonds
Musée du Louvre

Le Regent
rough diamond mined in India in 1698
cut in London to 140 carats ca. 1704-1706
purchased by the Regent for young Louis XV in 1717
Musée du Louvre

Le Sancy
diamond of 55 carats cut in Paris ca. 1550-1600
purchased by Cardinal Mazarin ca. 1645
bequeathed to Louis XIV in 1661
Musée du Louvre

Diamant Hortensia
rose diamond of 21 carats
purchased in the Netherlands ca. 1670-80
acquired by Louis XIV and inventoried 1691
Musée du Louvre

Le Tessier de Montarsy
Presentation Box with portrait of Louis XIV
ca. 1680
enamel miniature, silver, gold, and diamonds
Musée du Louvre

Jacques Evrard Bapst
Diadème de la duchesse d'Angoulême
1819-20
diamonds and emeralds set in silver
Musée du Louvre

Augustin Duflos
Crown of Louis XV - made for his Coronation
1722
partly-gilt silver, embroidered satin, false stones
(genuine stones sold in 1793 during the Revolution)
Musée du Louvre

    I have read such perfunctory descriptions in other writers, too, even writers who are much admired.  The writer seems to say to herself, I need to describe a desolate city landscape because my character is driving through it on his way somewhere else, to a more important scene.  And so the writer quickly puts down the first images that come to mind, useful, appropriate images, but she does not truly enter that landscape for that moment: she does not stop to consider, in a loving manner, the exact qualities of a vacant lot or an old brick tenement that interest her.  After all, she seems to say, I just need it for my character to drive through, I don't care about it. 

– Lydia Davis, from Into the Weeds (Yale University Press, 2025)

Gazing - III

Per Christian Brown
Alchemical Study 1
2014
C-print
KORO (Public Art Norway), Oslo

Edgar Degas
After the Bath - Woman combing her Hair
ca. 1895-1900
pastel on paper
Ordrupgaard Art Museum, Copenhagen

Ferdinand Bol
Portrait of Catharina van der Voort and her brother Jan
1661
oil on canvas
Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp

Anonymous French Artist
Venus with a Mirror
16th century
oil on panel
Musée des Ursulines de Mâcon

Hans Rudi Erdt
Conrad Jacobsberg - Damenmoden, Königsberg
1911
lithograph (poster)
Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Hans Ryggen
Sunday Afternoon
1939
oil on canvas
Trondheim Kunstmuseum, Norway

Francisco de Zurbarán
St Andrew
ca. 1635-40
oil on canvas
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

Privat-Livemont
La Réforme (newspaper)
1895
lithograph (poster)
Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Francisco Goya
Francisco Téllez Girón, 10th Duke of Osuna
1816
oil on canvas
Musée Bonnat Helleu, Bayonne

Christian Krohg
Braids
1888
oil on canvas
Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo

William Tylee Ranney
The Retrieve
1850
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Master FP after Parmigianino
Personification of Astrology
ca. 1530-50
etching
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Bernardo Strozzi
St John the Baptist Preaching
ca. 1644
oil on canvas
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Jean Lecomte du Nouÿ
Bird Charmer
1870
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de, Reims

Mikkel McAlinden
Milk
1984
C-print
Lillehammer Kunstmuseum, Norway

B.A. Huseby
Søren (Eye)
2015
C-print
KORO (Public Art Norway), Oslo

With that he fell from complaining into such a passion, as weeping and crying were never in so wofull a perfection, as now in him; which brought as deserved a compassion from the excellent Shepherdesse, who already had her heart so tempered with griefe, as that it was apt to take any impression that it would come to seale withall.  Yet taking a brave courage to her, shee stept unto him, kneeling downe by his side, and gently pulling him by the arme, she thus spake.

"Sir," said she, "having heard some part of your sorrowes, they have not only made me truly pitie you, but wonder at you; since if you have lost so great a treasure, you should not lie thus leaving her and your love unrevenged, suffering her murderers to live, while you lie here complaining; and if such perfections be dead in her, why make you not the Phoenix of your deeds live againe, as to new life rais'd out of the revenge you should take on them? then were her end satisfied, and you deservedly accounted worthie of her favour, if shee were so worthie as you say."  

– from The Countesse of Mountgomeries Urania, by the right honourable the Lady Mary Wroath, daughter to the right noble Robert, Earle of Leicester, and neece to the ever famous and renowned Sʳ Phillips Sidney knight, and to ye most excellant Lady Mary Countess of Pembroke, late deceased (London: John Marriott and John Grismand, 1621)