Books and Art

Hermia and Helena (c.1818). Washington Allston (American, 1779-1843). Oil on canvas. Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Hermia and Helena were two childhood friends from Shakespeare’s comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Their friendship was so close that they shared all the same tastes and predilections; they even loved the same man. In Act III of the play, Helena describes their similarities and says,

So we grew together,
Like to a double cherry:
seeming parted,
But yet a union in partition,
Two lovely berries 
moulded on one stem.

Atelier. Kees Van Dongen. On the wall is early version of Tango of the Archangel, 1922.

Photograph was part of the the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco at Villa Sauber exhibition dedicated to Van Dongen. The artist lived and worked in Monaco from 1949 to 1968 and some of his works have been acquired by the Principality from a legacy of the family.

Ballet dancers in their dressing room (1923). Zinaida Serebriakova (Russian, Art Nouveau, 1884-1967).

Serebriakova managed to get her daughter enrolled at the prestigious ballet school of the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre, the home of the Russian Ballet. Much of Zinaida’s time was absorbed by the theatre and she produced a series of exquisite pastels on the balletic life at the theatre.  Many of her works showed young ballerinas in their dressing room preparing to go on stage.

Poster. Phantom of the Opera. USA 1925 / Restoration 1929. Directed by Rupert Julian.

Beneath the splendid riches of the Paris Opera House lie ancient catacombs once used as torture chambers to satisfy the blood lust of a crazed population. Rumors abound that the Opera Ghost lives there still, vowing vengeance.

Julian declared: “Lon Chaney, or it can’t be done!” For the film, Chaney became the menacing Phantom who lurks in Box 5 of the Opera - and in the dark cellars below.

Le Conseil Confidentiel (1889). Georges Croegaert (Belgian, 1848-1923). Oil on panel.

Croegaert’s works are highly narrative with objects in the background which contribute to the scene. Croegaert had a marvellous eye for detail and his pictures have a tapestry effect, with different strands and textures woven together. He used a rich variety of colours – delighting in warm reds, yellows, deep bottle-green and gold.

Kith. P.H. Newby. Faber and Faber, 1977. Jacket design by Nicolas Bentley. First edition. Original dust jacket.

On arrival as a medical orderly at Suez in 1941, Faulkes is surprised and alarmed to be greeted by a ghost from his family’s past. In a deft, stylish and intelligent comedy, Newby evokes all the mystery, farce and splendour of the wartime Egypt that he knew so well.

Portrait of A. and V. Gagarin (1802). Vladimir Borovikovsky (Russian, Rococo, 1757-1825). Oil on canvas. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.

The portrait depicts the daughters of Actual Privy Councilor Gavriil Petrovich Gagarin. On the right, with the musical score is Anna Gavriilovna Gagarina (1782—1856). On the left, with a guitar is Varvara Gavriilovna Gagarina (1784—1802).

Dancing in silk gown with flower emblem, price upon request at Roberto Cavalli.

Float Like a Butterfly by Andreas Sjödin. New York Magazine, Feb 8, 2008. Featuring dancers Devon Teuscher and Melanie Hamrick of the American Ballet Theatre. Styling by Harriet Mays Powell.

In the Cafe (2008). Jerry Salinas (USA, 1967-).

Salinas began to study painting at the Art Institute of Chicago, going to America Academy of Art where he majored in Illustration and Painting. He is dedicated to a wide variety of topics as well as a variety of techniques ranging from painting to digital.

Bookplate, 1902. Robert Hall, an avid collector of Kemscott Press books.

On the library table are Kelmscott works, including William Morris’s The Glittering Plain and his 1895 translation of Beowulf. All the books are clearly bound in the distinctive Kelmscott full limp vellum tied with silk ribbons. The Wood Beyond the World is open to show a Morris-designed woodcut border and frontispiece. Leaning against the bookcase is a copy of the 1896 edition of Chaucer. 

Princess Charlotte of Belgium as a Child (1864). Franz Xaver Winterhalter (German, Neo-Rococo, 1805-1873). Oil on canvas. Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

Carlota of Mexico, born Charlotte of Belgium (1840–1927), empress consort of Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico, the former Archduke of Austria.

In the early 1860s, the ambitious Napoleon III initiated the French intervention in Mexico and placed Maximilian as the figurehead to serve as the nominal emperor of Mexico.

Our Alphabet of Toys. Mary B. Grubb. Harter Publishing Company, Cleveland, 1932. Illustrator: Carolyn S. Ashbrook. In publisher’s black color printed pictorial wrappers that have been repaired.

“V’s for velocipede, come take your ride, I’ll put on my skates and go by your side.”

Peaceful Reading. Fernand Toussaint (Belgian, 1873-1956). Oil on panel.

According to Mario de Monchi, Toussaint was the “incontestable master of the grace and charm of the woman.” His classical artistic schooling in drawing gave his work a certain precision, but it was Toussaint’s travels and friendships that influenced his choice of palette and the tender sensuality with which he endowed the paintings he most loved creating, his portraits of women.

Jane Russell reading at home.

At the height of her career, Russell started the “Hollywood Christian Group,” a weekly Bible study at her home which was attended by many of the leading names in the film industry. In 1953 she tried to convert Marilyn Monroe during the filming of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes; Monroe later said “Jane tried to convert me (to religion) and I tried to introduce her to Freud.”

The Bust (1919). Georges Jules Auguste Cain (French, 1856–1919). Oil on canvas.

Cain was a historical painter, and writer who found inspiration in the history of Paris, its theaters and its monuments. A square in Paris is named after him: the Square Georges Cain, at the 8 Pagan Street, in the Marais, in the 3rd district, against the Carnavalet Museum to which he devoted much of his life.