O-O-O-Ophelia

Another contemporary of Mucha (among hundreds of others, of course) was Joseph Kirkpatrick. While he is one of those not particularly associated with the Art Nouveau, his work was romantic and lyrical as was the case of so many other artists of the time. Perhaps because that was what the art academies and exhibitions were fond of, artists gravitated to similar subjects and manners — Hamlet's Ophelia being a favorite fantasy.

  

Joseph Kirkpatrick — Ophelia — 1896

Bloggy Blog Blog

This image is totally out of season, totally unrelated to anything—who cares? Right? Bloggy blog blog. Images, images, we're all hungry for images.

Sorry, I'm a little hyper. We're moving home and studio over the next couple of days, and then I pick up my new super-duper, top of the line, dee-luxe, 800 hundred horsepower, slick-trick magic machine. Yes, it's a Mac and I'm proud to say it.

Good golly, why am I so hyper. I moved a truck-load of furniture today and I'm dead tired. But change is exciting and I'm almost done with my 3 years in the making deadlines for 3 separate clients! And then what . . . I dunno.

Okay, this image is slightly related to something relevant. This is, of course, from a Mid-Summer Night's Dream, and we saw a terrific performance of same while we were in London! You just can't go to London and not do something Shakespeare related.

From an old print, don't know the artist, date or anything else. 
But look close at the elegant engraving lines— 
somewhat like paper currency.

Ariel's Song

This Shakespeare guy has inspired one or two artists over the centuries, even reaching into the world of pulp magazines.

Virgil Finlay — September 1942

Mooncalf

This image is another from my image morgue that has no data attached. I could make several guesses about the artist — Robert Bell, Walter Crane, John Batten, etc—but they're only guesses.

I further guess that this subject may be Caliban, from Shakespeare's Tempest, half-man, half-beast. Referred to as a mooncalf, he is forced into servitude to Prospero.

In Act 3, Scene 2, Caliban intones these words:

Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,

Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.

Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments

Will hum about mine ears; and sometimes voices

That, if I then had waked after long sleep,

Will make me sleep again; and then in dreaming,

The clouds methought would open, and show riches

Ready to drop upon me, that when I waked

I cried to dream again.

A lovely speech by Caliban, but considering the context within the play, it was an odd choice for Kenneth Branagh to deliver within his context of the Olympic opening ceremony in London, with "absolutely no relationship" to Shakespeare or the Tempest.

As James Shapiro, a Columbia University English professor and expert on Shakespeare was quoted, "The lines are quite beautiful, and I guess they wanted to rip them out of context and talk about how magical a place the British Isles are . . . Why give him the lines Shakespeare wrote for a half-man, half-beast about to try to kill off an imperial innovator who took away his island? I don't know. You would probably have to ask the people who designed the opening Games ceremony what their thinking was."

Among other things, sez I.

The Goddess on Whom These Airs Attend

If the Summer Olympics can quote The Tempest in their mish-mash of an opening ceremony, then by golly so can I, in the mish-mash of my pictorial arts blog. Hey Jude!

Walter Crane — The Tempest — Act I Scene II — ca 1900

One in a Thousand

There must be a thousand renditions of poor sweet dead Ophelia created over the years with probably 99% created in Victorian times. This is one of them.

Paul Albert Steck — Ophelia — ca 1895

Paul Albert Steck — Ophelia — preliminary drawing

For a Charm of Powerful Trouble

A very cool version of the ol' EC Witch by ol' William Stout:

William Stout — The Old EC Witch — 1994

And to refresh our memory of how it went in the original source:

1 WITCH. Round about the caldron go;

In the poison'd entrails throw.—

Toad, that under cold stone,

Days and nights has thirty-one;

Swelter'd venom sleeping got,

Boil thou first i' the charmed pot!

ALL. Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn, and caldron bubble.

2 WITCH. Fillet of a fenny snake,

In the caldron boil and bake;

Eye of newt, and toe of frog,

Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,

Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,

Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing,—

For a charm of powerful trouble,

Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

ALL. Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn, and caldron bubble.

3 WITCH. Scale of dragon; tooth of wolf;

Witches' mummy; maw and gulf

Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark;

Root of hemlock digg'd i the dark;

Liver of blaspheming Jew;

Gall of goat, and slips of yew

Sliver'd in the moon's eclipse;

Nose of Turk, and Tartar's lips;

Finger of birth-strangled babe

Ditch-deliver'd by a drab,—

Make the gruel thick and slab:

Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,

For the ingrediants of our caldron.

ALL. Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn, and caldron bubble.

2 WITCH. Cool it with a baboon's blood,

Then the charm is firm and good.

A Line that Shakespeare Would Have Envied

Here is an interesting theatrical character study of 'Cardinal Richelieu', from the 1839 play Richelieu: Or the Conspiracy by English author Edward Bulwer-Lytton.

John Hassall — The Conspiracy — ca 1900

Famous lines that the Cardinal intones in Act II, scene II:

True, This!—

Beneath the rule of men entirely great,

The pen is mightier than the sword. Behold

The arch-enchanters wand! — itself a nothing! —

But taking sorcery from the master-hand

To paralyse the Cæsars, and to strike

The loud earth breathless! — Take away the sword —

States can be saved without it!

In 1870, literary critic Edward Sherman Gould wrote that Bulwer "had the good fortune to do, what few men can hope to do: he wrote a line that is likely to live for ages."

Light and Substance

Robert Huskisson's faerie paintings are remarkable for their staging of light and substance, as in this case framed by the beautiful trompe l'oeil arch, creating a theatrical portal to another world. The faeries are voluptuous figures, yet innocent in their portrayal from Ariel's song in Act I of The Tempest. The floating upside down figure is remarkably evocative of weightlessness, especially for the time period that this was painted.

Robert Huskissson — Come Unto These Yellow Sands —1847

Act III Scene 1

Henry Justice Ford is another favorite of many people, and is most oft associated with Andrew Lang's fairy tale books. So it's fun to find a fanciful example of his work away from that well-known body of work, such as this frontis piece to a 1901 edition of The Tempest—the only illustration in this edition.

HJ Ford — The Tempest — 1901

Great Victorian Themes

Shakespeare and mythology, two great Victorian era themes.

Madeleine Lemaire — Ophelia

Madeleine Lemaire — Selene

A MidSummer-Night's Dream—part 5

Another folio of some of William Heath Robinson's finest work.

Oberon. Flying between the cold moon and the earth,

Cupid all arm'd.

Helena. I'll follow thee, and make a heaven of hell,

To die upon the hand I love so well.

A MidSummer-Night's Dream—part 3

Some more William Heath Robinson ink illustrations from probably my favorite book ever, A MidSummer Night's Dream.

Hermia. Emptying our bosoms of their counsel sweet.

A MidSummer-Night's Dream—part 2

Another folio of illustrations by W.H. Robinson from maybe my favorite illustrated book ever, A MidSummer Night's Dream. More to come.

Hippolyta: "Four days will quickly steep themselves in night."

Egeus: "This man hath bewitch'd the bosom of my child."

One of Thousands

There are thousands of artistic interpretations of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Here's one by Edwin Landseer from 1848.

Midsummer Madness

I just realized that I missed posting something for Midsummer Eve, on the solstice as reckoned by tradition. But really Midsummer's exact dates vary between different cultures. As it so happens in Great Britain from the 13th century, Midsummer was celebrated on Midsummer Eve (St John's Eve, June 23) AND St. Peter's Eve (June 28)---that's toDAY.

So what better than this sparkling scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream: The Meeting of Oberon and Titania, by Arthur Rackham.

I posted this scan from a print early last year, but the cyber-sprites seemed to have dropped it from the blog archives. Cheeky little hobgoblins . . .

Rescue of Sorts

This book is falling apart, barely holding on to its existence. Scanning and posting is a rescue of sorts, spreading its treasure around the globe, waiting to be discovered by someone anew.