Rendering Water

Johann Reger
War Galleys Advancing
1496
woodcut and letterpress
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Ignaz Raffalt
Boat Trip after the Rain
1849
oil on panel
Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna

Albert Pinkham Ryder
Homeward Bound
ca. 1883-84
oil on canvas, mounted on panel
Phillips Collection, Washington DC

Georges Seurat
Study of the Seine from La Grande Jatte
1888
oil on panel
Musée Fin-de-Siècle, Brussels

Arthur Rackham
In the Austrian Tyrol
1901
watercolor on paper
Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston, Ontario

Antoine Ponchin
Houses on the Water at Martigues
ca. 1905
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nîmes

Tom Thomson
A Northern Lake
1914
oil on panel
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto

Donna Schuster
Garden Reflections
ca. 1925
oil on canvas
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California

Williams, Brown & Earle (Philadelphia)
Garden Fountain, Château de Courances
1936
hand-colored lantern slide
Archives of American Gardens, Washington DC

Angelo Pinto
Icarus
ca. 1944
painted glass
Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia

Arthur Tress
Boy Under Bridge, Queens N.Y.
1970
gelatin silver print
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Michaele Vollbracht (designer)
Shopping Bag from Bloomingdale's, New York
ca. 1978
screenprint on paper bag
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Joanne Tod
Chapeau Entaillé
1989
oil on canvas
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto

Hiroshi Sugimoto
Tasman Sea, Ngarupupu
1990
gelatin silver print
Guggenheim Museum, New York

Ed Pien
Pond #6
1993
oil on canvas
Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston, Ontario

Jack Stuppin
Window Rock
1995
acrylic on canvas
San Jose Museum of Art, California

Lucas Samaras
Conflict 23
2003
inkjet print
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Large Bad Picture

Remembering the Strait of Belle Isle or

some northerly harbor of Labrador,

before he became a schoolteacher

a great uncle painted a big picture.

Receding for miles on either side

into a flushed, still sky

are overhanging pale blue cliffs

hundreds of feet high,

their bases fretted by little arches,

the entrance to caves

running in along the level of a bay

masked by perfect waves.

On the middle of that quiet floor

sits a fleet of small black ships,

square-rigged, sails furled, motionless, 

their spars like burnt match-sticks.

And high above them, over the tall cliffs'

semi-translucent ranks,

are scribbled hundreds of fine black birds

hanging in n's in banks.

One can hear their crying, crying,

the only sound there is

except for occasional sighing

as a large aquatic animal breathes.

In the pink light

the small red sun goes rolling, rolling,

round and round and round at the same height

in perpetual sunset, comprehensive, consoling,

while the ships consider it.

Apparently they have reached their destination.

It would be hard to say what brought them there,

commerce or contemplation.

– Elizabeth Bishop (1946)

Disposable

Anonymous American Designer
Shopping Bag - Emilio Pucci, New York
1970
offset-print on paper bag
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous American Designer
Shopping Bag - McCreedy & Schreiber, New York
ca. 1970
offset-print on paper bag
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous American Designer
Shopping Bag - Scribner Book Stores, New-York
ca. 1970
offset-print on paper bag
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous American Designer
Shopping Bag - B, Altman & Co, New York
ca. 1972
offset-print on paper bag
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous American Designer
Shopping Bag - Brentano's Literary Emporium, New York
ca. 1975
offset-print on paper bag
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous American Designer
Shopping Bag - Henri Bendel, New York
ca. 1975
offset-print on paper bag
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous American Designer
Shopping Bag - Abercrombie & Fitch, New York
1979
offset-print on paper bag
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous American Designer
Shopping Bag - Chanel, New York
1979
offset-print on paper bag
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous American Designer
Shopping Bag - Book Bar Inc, Port Authority Bus Terminal, New York
ca. 1980
offset-print on paper bag
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous American Designer
Shopping Bag - Halston, New York
ca. 1980
offset-print on paper bag
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous American Designer
Shopping Bag - Barnes & Noble Bookstore, New York
1986
offset-print on paper bag
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous American Designer
Shopping Bag - Conran's, New York
1987
offset-print on paper bag
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous American Designer
Shopping Bag - Booksellers Row, Chicago
1987
offset-print on paper bag
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous American Designer
Shopping Bag - Oshkosh, New York
ca. 1990
offset-print on paper bag
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous American Designer
Shopping Bag - Knoll Textiles, New York
ca. 1990
offset-print on paper bag
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous American Designer
Shopping Bag - Lord & Taylor, New York
ca. 1995
offset-print on paper bag
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous American Designer
Shopping Bag - Tiffany & Co, New York
ca. 2015
offset-print on paper bag
National Museum of American History, Washington DC

from Hell Gate

    Once he looked, and halted straight,

Set his back against the gate,

Caught his musket to his chin,

While the hive of hell within

Sent abroad a seething hum

As of towns whose king is come

Leading conquest home from far

And the captives of his war,

And the car of triumph waits,

And they open wide the gates.

But across the entry barred

Straddled the revolted guard,

Weaponed and accoutred well

From the arsenals of hell;

And beside him, sick and white,

Sin to left and Death to right

Turned a countenance of fear

On the flaming mutineer.

Over us the darkness bowed,

And the anger in the cloud

Clenched the lightning for the stroke;

But the traitor musket spoke.

    And the hollowness of hell

Sounded as its master fell,

And the mourning echo rolled

Ruin through his kingdom old.

Tyranny and terror flown

Left a pair of friends alone,

And beneath the nether sky

All that stirred was he and I.

    Silent, nothing found to say, 

We began the backward way;

And the ebbing lustre died

From the soldier at my side,

As in all his spruce attire

Failed the everlasting fire.

Midmost of the homeward track

Once we listened and looked back;

But the city, dusk and mute, 

Slept, and there was no pursuit.

– A.E. Housman (1922)