Books and Art

Penning A Letter. George Goodwin Kilburne (English. 1839-1924). Oil on canvas.

Kilburne was a London genre painter, watercolourist and engraver. His work is mostly genre set in 17th Century costume, or charming scenes of Victorian life. Many of his pictures became popular through prints.

Poster for the Ballets Russes. Anna Pavlova in Chopiniana. Théatre du Châtelet, Paris. Illustration by Valentin Serov. 1909. V&A.

Serge Pavlovich Diaghilev (1872-1929) was a ballet impresario and founder of the Ballets Russes. Called dictator, devil, charlatan, sorcerer, charmer - all names of a single man whose unique character and driving ambition caused a ferment in European culture. Diaghilev’s greatest achievement was his dance company - the Ballets Russes.

Young Woman with Lowered Eyes (1869). Jean Frédéric Bazille (French, Impressionism, 1841-1870).

Admired by artists, critics, and scholars for the freshness and directness of his canvases and for the way in which he assimilated both radically new and academic techniques, Bazille may have become one of the greatest artists of the Impressionist generation had he lived longer.

The Wonder Book of Wonders. Edited by Harry Golding. Ward,Lock & Co, London, 1934.

An illustrated children’s book to excite interest in various world wonders. Cover by G.H. Davis of diver engaged in underwater salvage. The Majestic at 56,551 tons is the largest “British” liner and “the most famous ship in the world” (it was confiscated from the Germans, like the Berengaria and the Leviathan).

The Penitent Magdalen (1835). William Etty (Britain, 1787-1849). Oil on panel. Ashmolean Museum.

Etty’s reputation suffered with the moral disapproval that often greeted his work. His later works illustrate his increasing interest in Catholic visual and material culture, notably those depicting the penitent Mary Magdalen. The religious and the erotic should not be seen as incompatible phenomena. Rather, Etty should be regarded as an exponent of 19th-century attempts to create contexts of erotic desire that were also morally pure.

Should a gentleman offer a Tiparillo to a librarian? Advertisement from Playboy, October 1968. 

If she accepts your Tiparillo, remember to fumble with the matches until she decides to light it herself. That way, she’ll have to put down the book.

Merchant of Images (c.1862). Alexandre Antigna (French, 1817-1878). Oil on canvas. Bordeaux, Museum of Fine Arts.

Until 1845 Antigna’s paintings were generally religious scenes and portraits. Yet, after living in the poor quarter of the Île Saint-Louis in Paris he would incorporate images of the suffering and burden of urban poor into his works. By the 1848 Revolution Antigna was devoted to the Realist style, and continued to paint in this manner until c.1860 when he began to produce paintings in the Naturalist vein.

Distant Thoughts (A young woman reading by the sea), 1892. Arthur Hopkins, RWS, RBC (British, 1848-1930). Watercolour.

Hopkins’ genre scenes of country life are in much the style of Helen Patterson Allingham. He was a member of the rising generation of illustrators influenced by du Maurier and William Small, and, as Forrest Reid remarks, was “a good draughtsman,” with “a strong dramatic sense, to which is added a sense of character.”

The Annunciation (1785). Francisco Goya (Spanish, Romanticism, 1746-1828). Oil on canvas.

Luke 1:34-38: “How can this happen?” Mary asked the angel. “I am a virgin.” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come to you. The power of the Most High God will cover you. So the holy one that is born will be called the Son of God…” Mary answered, “I serve the Lord. May it happen to me just as you said it would.”

The Razor’s Edge. W. Somerset Maugham. Doubleday, 1944. First edition. Original dust jacket. “The sharp edge of a razor is difficult to pass over; thus the wise say the path to Salvation is hard.”

Tells the story of Larry Darrell, an American pilot traumatized by his experiences in WW I, who sets off in search of some transcendent meaning in his life. His rejection of conventional life and search for meaningful experience allows him to thrive while the more materialistic characters suffer reversals of fortune.

Fanny Cerrito as Ondine in ‘Ondine, ou La Naïade’ by Jules Perrot (1843). G. A. Turner. Oil on canvas. V&A.

The pas de l’ombre was performed by Cerrito at the moment when Ondine, having changed places with Giannina, leaves the sea, and sees her shadow in the moonlight, and the subsequent dance expressed “all the caprice, vivacity, and joyousness of her naiad temperament.” 

Allison DeBona in Emeralds by George Balanchine.

DeBona joined Ballet West in 2007 and was promoted to Demi-Soloist in 2011. She trained at the Parou Ballet Company under Debbie Parou, followed by the Pittsburgh Youth Ballet under Jean Gedeon. 

The Cumean Sibyl (c.1450). Andrea del Castagno (Italian, 1423-1457). Fresco transferred to wood. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.

The Sibylline Books were offered to Tarquinius Superbus by the Cumaean sibyl. He refused to pay her price, so the sibyl burned six of the books before finally selling him the remaining three at the price she had originally asked for all nine. The books were thereafter kept in the temple of Jupiter to be consulted only in emergencies.

Bookplate (1922). Owner:? A. D. Artist: Franz von Bayros (Austrian, 1866-1924). Don Quixote looks down on nude woman with books.

Franz von Bayros was a commercial artist, illustrator, and painter best known for his controversial “Tales at the Dressing Table” portfolio. Von Bayros belonged to the Decadent movement in art, often relying on erotic themes and phantasmagoric imagery.

Saint Cecilia Playing the Spinet (c.1620). Gentileschi Orazio (Italian, 1563-1639). Oil on canvas. Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, Perugia.

He painted in the Mannerist style until c. 1600 when he was exposed to the art of Caravaggio. His Saint Cecilia Playing the Spinet and other works show mundane figures, pushed so close to the foreground that they occupy most of the pictorial space, with dramatic chiaroscuro — all Caravaggist elements