Showing posts with label staircases. Show all posts
Showing posts with label staircases. Show all posts

Friday, September 19, 2025

Clarence John Laughlin

Clarence John Laughlin
The Unborn
1941
gelatin silver print
National Museum of American History, Washington DC

Clarence John Laughlin
Untitled (Victoriana)
1944
dye transfer print
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Clarence John Laughlin
Untitled (Girl in Window)
ca. 1945
gelatin silver print
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Clarence John Laughlin
The Brick Maze
1950
gelatin silver print
National Museum of American History, Washington DC

Clarence John Laughlin
Last Paradise for Dead Birds
1951
gelatin silver print
National Museum of American History, Washington DC

Clarence John Laughlin
Clock in Suspended Time
1951
gelatin silver print
National Museum of American History, Washington DC

Clarence John Laughlin
Language of Light
1953
gelatin silver print
National Museum of American History, Washington DC

Clarence John Laughlin
Flowers of the Nightland
1955
gelatin silver print
National Museum of American History, Washington DC

Clarence John Laughlin
Mars in the House of Time
1956
gelatin silver print
National Museum of American History, Washington DC

Clarence John Laughlin
Smithsonian Castle Interior, North Stairs
1967
gelatin silver print
National Museum of American History, Washington DC

Clarence John Laughlin
Arts and Industries Building, Stairs to South Tower
1967
gelatin silver print
National Museum of American History, Washington DC

Clarence John Laughlin
Tree of Immensity (Baton Rouge, La.)
1973
gelatin silver print
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Clarence John Laughlin
Language of American Victorianism (Chicago, Ill.)
1973
gelatin silver print
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Clarence John Laughlin
Fairyland in Iron and Glass
1973
gelatin silver print
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Clarence John Laughlin
Door of the Strong-Headed Cherub (Chicago, Ill.)
1973
gelatin silver print
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Clarence John Laughlin
Around a Hole in Space (Circus World Museum)
1973
gelatin silver print
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Clarence John Laughlin
Architecture of Light (Galveston, Texas)
1973
gelatin silver print
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

O barbarous Corsica* locked in by crags,
Rugged and vast where endless deserts stretch,
Fall brings no fruit, and summertime no crops,
No Attic olives bend the winter's branch;
From rainy spring no new births lure a smile,
And no grass grows on this ill-omened earth;
No bread, no taste of water, no fire in hearth:
Only two things – the exiled and exile.

– Seneca (4 BC-AD 65), translated by J.P. Sullivan (1991)

*the Emperor Claudius exiled Seneca to Corsica, AD 41-49

Wednesday, July 23, 2025

Flights

Artur Boström
Staircase of the Giants, Palazzo Ducale, Venice
ca. 1950
gelatin silver print
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Domenico Fetti
Parable of the Ungrateful Servant
ca. 1619-21
oil on panel
Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden

Eduard Gaertner
Staircase in the Berlin Palace
1825
oil on canvas
Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin

François-Marius Granet
Interior of a Roman Convent
ca. 1830
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Pau

Francesco Guardi
Palace Courtyard with Staircase
ca. 1780
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

Robert Haglund
Staircase of the Riddarhuset
1891
etching
Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde, Stockholm

Anonymous Italian Artist
Interior of a Barn
ca. 1800-1850
drawing
Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan

Anonymous Italian Artist
Stage Design with Abduction of Sabine Women
ca. 1750-1800
drawing, with added watercolor
Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan

Juan de Flandes
Ecce Homo
ca. 1500
tempera on panel
Národní Galerie, Prague

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
The Sitting Room
1923
oil on canvas
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Arild Kristo
Four on Steps by the Seine
1962
gelatin silver print
Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo

Peder Severin Krøyer
Loggia in Ravello
1890
oil on panel
Hirschsprung Collection, Copenhagen

Alexandre Lunois
Laundresses
1893
engraving
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Pau

Constant Moyaux
Propylaea, Acropolis, Athens
1864
watercolor on paper
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Valenciennes

Giovanni Maria dalle Piane (il Molinaretto)
Portrait of Carlos de Borbón, Duke of Parma
1732
oil on canvas
Palacio Real de La Granja de San Ildefonso

Fleury Richard
Michel de Montaigne
visiting Torquato Tasso in Prison

1822
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon

Theagenes entreated her to keep her tongue from blasphemy and advised her to set even greater store by piety than by chastity, but Charikleia continued her tirade until she suddenly broke off to exclaim: "Heaven have mercy upon us!  Such a dream I dreamed last night – if dream it was, and not reality!  At the time it somehow slipped from my thoughts, but now it comes back to me.  The dream was in the form of a line of verse, and it came from the lips of Kalasiris, most blessed among men.  Either I fell asleep without realizing, and he came to me in a dream, or else I saw him in the very flesh.  It went something like this, I think:

If you wear pantarbe fear-all, fear not the power of flame:
Miracles may come to pass: for Fate 'tis easy game.

Theagenes shook like a man possessed and, so far as his chains permitted, sprang to his feet. "May heaven look kindly upon us!" he cried. "Memory is making a poet of me too!  I have an oracle from the selfsame prophet; be it Kalasiris or a god in Kalasiris's shape, he appeared to me and seemed to speak these words:

Ethiopia's land with a maiden shalt thou see: 
Tomorrow from Arsake's bonds shalt thou be free.

– Heliodorus, from The Aethiopica, or, Theagenes and Charikleia (3rd or 4th century AD), translated from Greek by J.R. Morgan (1989)

Friday, May 23, 2025

Appearing to Recede/Advance - III

Félix Vallotton
Interior with Woman in Red
1903
oil on canvas
Kunsthaus, Zürich

Heinrich Hübner
Interior, Schloss Paretz
ca. 1908-1909
oil on canvas
Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Lars Jorde
Kitchen at Smestad
ca. 1903-1904
oil on canvas
Lillehammer Kunstmuseum, Norway

Ida Lorentzen
Room with a View II
ca. 1989-90
oil on canvas
Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo

Henri van Dyck
Interior of the Academy Museum, Antwerp
1886
oil on canvas
Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp

Karl Bennewitz von Löfen the Younger
Interior, Alte Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
ca. 1880-84
oil on canvas
Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Gunnar Sundgren
Untitled (Antique Sculpture)
ca. 1950
gelatin silver print
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

David Douglas Duncan
Picasso in the Studio
1957
gelatin silver print
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Eugène Atget
Staircase in the Rag Pickers' Quarter, Paris
ca. 1926
albumen print
Museum Folkwang, Essen

Andrea di Bartolo
Nativity of the Virgin
ca. 1400-1405
tempera on panel
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Carl Grossberg
Still Life - The Elements
1931
oil on canvas
Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal

Hugo Paul Harrer
Theater of Marcellus in Rome
1876
oil on canvas
Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Boris Ignatovich
The Hermitage, Leningrad
ca. 1929
gelatin silver print
Museum Ludwig, Cologne

Helge Krøvel-Velle
Sheet 5
1973
lithograph
Sogn og Fjordane Kunstmuseum, Norway

Georgi Selma
Exercising in Red Square
1931
gelatin silver print
Museum Ludwig, Cologne

Arthur Tress
Girl in Mask, Rhinebeck, New York
1975
gelatin silver print
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

They Are Wicked

They are wicked, I'm sure of that, 
but they are gentle. Some of them
sit with me every day in my boat
holding their rods over the side.

They never show me what they pull
up from the deep dark under us
although I ask them many clever
questions. Then they beach my boat
on the dry sand and climb out.

No, no, they murmur, please
don't get up.  And they walk away.

– Ernest Sandeen (1977)

Sunday, January 19, 2025

Contained Space

David Vestal
Carroll Street, Brooklyn, New York
1968
gelatin silver print
Loeb Art Center, Vassar College,
Poughkeepsie, New York

Alfred Stieglitz
Lake George, Oaklawn
1912-13
gelatin silver print
Art Institute of Chicago

Richard Nickel
Untitled
(Republic Building stairway)
ca. 1950-60
gelatin silver print
Art Institute of Chicago

David Ottenstein
Lorenzo Webber House #1
2006
pigment print
New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut

Orest Semchishen
Judge's Suite, Court House, Hanna, Alberta
1980
gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

Humphrey Spender
Opening Time
ca. 1937-38
gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Rodney Smith
Gary descending Stairs, Parc de Sceaux
1995
gelatin silver print
Portland Museum of Art, Maine

Tokihiro Sato
Breath Graph no. 21
1988
gelatin silver print
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane

Arthur Streeton
Among the Flies, Theatre Royal
1890
gouache on paper
(illustration)
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Lowell Nesbitt
Room with Open Door
1966
oil on canvas
Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, North Carolina

Dirk Hidde Nijland
Stable Interior
ca. 1920
oil on canvas
Dordrechts Museum, Netherlands

Mats Nordstrom
Spaces
1987
C-print
Museum London, Ontario

Jeffrey Stockbridge
48th & Sansom
2005
inkjet print
Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington

Matthias Weischer
Corridor
2006
oil on canvas
Kunstmuseum, The Hague

Andrew Wyeth
Blue Door
1952
watercolor on paper
Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington

Carl Zimmerman
Lost Hamilton Landmarks: Wading Pool
1997
gelatin silver print
Museum London, Ontario

Unwritten Law 

Interesting how we fall in love:
in my case, absolutely. Absolutely, and, alas, often –
so it was in my youth.
And always with rather boyish men –
unformed, sullen, or shyly kicking the dead leaves:
in the manner of Balanchine.
Nor did I see them as versions of the same thing.
I, with my inflexible Platonism,
my fierce seeing only one thing at a time:
I ruled against the indefinite article. 
And yet, the mistakes of my youth
made me hopeless, because they repeated themselves,
as is commonly true.
But in you I felt something beyond the archetype –
a true expansiveness, a buoyance and love of the earth
utterly alien to my nature. To my credit,
I blessed my good fortune in you.
Blessed it absolutely, in the manner of those years.
And you in your wisdom and cruelty
gradually taught me the meaninglessness of that term.

– Louise Glück (1999)