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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.
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LIFE. Theatre Number, October 5, 1922. W.T. (Wladyslaw Theodor) Benda (Polish-American, 1873-1948).
Benda studied art in Kraków and in Vienna before coming to the US in 1899. He is best remembered for his masks, which were used in theatre and dance performances throughout the world. Benda wrote the book Masks (1944).
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At the Breakfast Table. Carl Vilhelm Holsøe (Danish, 1863-1935). Oil on canvas.
Holsøe is a very much respected artist of the Danish school. His interiors are painted with quick and virtuoso brushwork and a sure sense of power.He painted landscapes, genre scenes and interiors and in this respect is very similar to Vilhelm Hammershøi and was, at times, called the poor man’s Hammershøi.
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Nightmare Town. Dashiell Hammett. Dell #379, 1948. Contains four stories: Nightmare Town, The Scorched Face, Albert Pastor at Home, and Corkscrew.
Each of the stories is high quality, full of Hammett’s inimitable character descriptions and clean action prose. All four work very well together, exposing the corruption and crime that lay hidden beneath the seemingly banal surface of Western towns and small cities.
“The ebony stick swung swifter in his hand…Spun to the clicking tune of wood on bone, on metal weapons; to the duller rhythm of wood on flesh.”
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The Pink Dancers, Before the Ballet (1884). Edgar Degas (French, Impressionism, 1834-1917). Oil on canvas. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen.
Degas likened the dancers’ training to his work as an artist. Just as he sketched the dancers’ every gesture and position to make his paintings as authentic as possible, the dancers performed countless repetitions to perfect their movements.
Degas sketched as he wandered the Opera House, filling his notebooks with drawings of dancers and then returning to his studio to compose and paint.
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The star of Time Out of Mind (1947), Phyllis Calvert, reads the original novel.
Servant girl Kate Ferald (Calvert, in her first Hollywood film) falls in love with Christopher Fortune (Robert Hutton), the scion of a wealthy New England sailing family. Chistopher is likewise smitten by Kate, but the class structure of the 19th century precludes their marriage. Aware that their union is not to be, Kate renounces Christopher and encourages him to wed someone from his own social class.
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Reading (1890). Ilya Galkin (Russian, 1860-1915).
“To read is to fly: it is to soar to a point of vantage which gives a view over wide terrains of history, human variety, ideas, shared experience and the fruits of many inquiries.” -- A C Grayling, Financial Times (in a review of A History of Reading by Alberto Manguel)
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Flamin’ Mamie is a 1925 jazz classic composed by Paul Whiteman and Fred Rose. Written as a “Fox Trot Song” on Jazz Age themes relying on the 1920s image of the vamp: “A Red Hot Stepper.” It was one of the top hits of 1925.
The lyrics describe Mamie as a Roaring Twenties vamp: “Flamin’ Mamie, a sure-fire vamp / When it comes to lovin’ / She’s a human oven / Come on you futuristic papas / She’s the hottest thing he’s seen since the Chicago fire.”
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Young Boy Playing Flute At The Edge Of The Woods. Haynes King (British, 1831-1904). Oil on canvas.
King was born on the island of Barbados, then in the British Empire. In 1854 he moved to London where he studied art at the Leigh Academy. Many of his paintings were exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts.
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Cherry Ames, Visiting Nurse (Cherry Ames #8). Helen Wells. Grosset & Dunlap, 1946. First edition. Original dust jacket.
Cherry reunites with her old Spencer classmates when they all decide to take an apartment together in New York City, and work for the Visiting Nurse Service. Greenwich Village is a far cry from Hilton, Illinois, and farm-raised Bertha is ready to mutiny when she tries to cook in their tiny kitchen.
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A Pleasant Afternoon/Portrait of a Young Woman Reading. Lilian Matilda Genth (American, 1876-1953). Oil on canvas.
Genth worked as a dress designer before winning the Elkins Scholarship, which allowed her to study with J.A.M. Whistler in Paris for a year. Upon her return to the US, she began painting female nudes in landscapes, for which she became well known. Later in her career, she abandoned the nude in favor of scenes from her travels across Europe and Asia.
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Alessandra Ferri performs Manon. Photo by Fabrizio Ferri.
Ferri is a retired Italian prima ballerina assoluta. She danced with the Royal Ballet, American Ballet Theatre and La Scala Theatre Ballet and as an international guest artist, before retiring on 10 August 2007, aged 44.
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The Secret Admirer. Etienne Adolphe Piot (French,1850-1910). Oil on canvas.
As a painter of the female face, Piot had few equals. His idealized depiction of women and girls are full of sentimentality yet possess a technical skill that is of the highest level. Piot was a student of Leon Cogniet, at his Paris atelier, in the late 1870’s. Cogniet instilled within the young artist a love for the human form.
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Illustration by George Ditton for the story Charter To Danger. Written by Eliot Reed. From John Bull magazine, week ending 19th June, 1954.
Eric Ambler OBE (1909–1998) was an influential British author of spy novels who introduced a new realism to the genre. Ambler also used the pseudonym Eliot Reed.
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The Love Letter. Jessie Elliot Gorst (British, fl. 1889-1899). Oil on canvas.
“I wake filled with thoughts of you. Your portrait and the intoxicating evening which we spent yesterday have left my senses in turmoil.” — from Napoleon Bonaparte love letter
