Quercus virginiana

This morning the winds on the great river [St. John] were high and against me; I was therefore obliged to keep in port a great part of the day, which I employed in little excursions round about my encampment. The Live Oaks are of an astonishing magnitude, and one tree contains a prodigious quantity of timber....The trunk of the Live Oak is generally from twelve to eighteen feet in girt, and rises ten or twelve feet erect from the earth, some I have seen eighteen or twenety; then divides itself into three, four, or five great limbs, which continue to grow in nearly an horizontal direction, each limb forming a gentle curve, or arch, from its base to its extremity. I have stepped above fifty paces, on a straight line, from the trunk of one of these trees, to the extremity of the limbs. (90)

Les Incroyables and Les Merveilleuses

La Longue Paume des Champs Elises [sic]

This past spring I purchased a nineteenth-century "Directoire" or "Empire" print for $5 at a rummage sale at a frame shop. I'm still trying to locate information on the artist and publisher of the print (I know that it was included in a book, because I have seen one with a plate number). It is printed on laid paper and is beautifully hand-tinted, particulary evident in the scarlet coat in the foreground and the dove-grey trousers of the man at the right.

Based on the Empire line of the woman's dress and the tight, high waisted pants, simple stocks, and high conical hats piled in the foreground of the men suggest a date for the depiction to c. 1800. (The image at right, "Les Modernes Incroyables," provides a satirical look at male fashions from Caricatures Parisiennes, published in 1810. The original "Incroyables" were males who followed cutting-edge fashions in the 1790s; their female counterparts were the "Merveilleuses".)


The print depicts early-eighteenth century French aristocrats engaged in the game of Longue Paume, a version of lawn tennis, that is still played in the Picardy region of France today. According to a French website, Longue Paume is played outdoors on a long playing field and should not be confused with 'jeu de paume" or just "paume" which is played indoors. The objective of the sport is to let the ball "die" in the opponents' court, c'est à dire, to make the ball land in the opponents' court in such a way that they are unable to return it to the opposing side.

A history of tennis from the French perspective:

http://tcwisches.free.fr/histoiretennis.htm

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Why do we still have this at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, when we could have this.....

More to come later. I'm researching the German print of the Presidential Manse and can't wait to dive into the Mies van der Rohe Farnsworth House research.

School Leaving Portrait

Painted by Thomas Lawrence in 1799 as a "school-leaving" portrait, the romantic likeness of eighteen year old Andrew Reid (1783-1801) was painted during the artist's finest period in the 1790s when he was living at Greek Street in Soho. Shown in three-quarter length, the sitter wears a cutaway black coat, white vest, white stock (with red trim?), and tan trousers. He was the eldest son of Andrew Reid of Lionstown, Barnet, and his first wife Harriet Gildard. Andrew's father was a famous brewer of London stout who was the founder of Reid's Brewery on Liqourpond Street. Andrew's mother was granddaughter of Richard Gildart, who was twice mayor of Liverpool. Andrew entered Harrow school in 1793 and left in 1799, at which time this portrait was commissioned Lawrence executed a best-length portrait of the elder Reid, and a full-length portrait of Harriet. Andrew died in 1801 on board the Lady Jane Dundas bound for India.

Sir Thomas Lawrence, R.A.

Portrait of Andrew Reid, c. 1799

oil on canvas, 49" x 39 1/4"

Published in: Kenneth Garlick, Sir Thomas Lawrence (1989), p. 257, as no. 673

On Mottling.............

This past Sunday, I spent the day visiting the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Of all of the wonderful things that I saw, this sculpture by Paul Manship particularly caught my attention. Although I find the subject matter charming and like the idealized forms and stylized treatment of the work--Manship was interested in Near Eastern art, hence the Assyrian-inspried mane of the dog--I was especially enthralled with the beautiful brown-black-green mottled patina (evident most clearly on the hunter's thigh and rump-click on image for better viewing). I have seen many patinated surfaces. Some patinas are evenly applied and entirely opaque, others are evenly applied but create a somewhat waxy effect, and some are evenly applied, but then rubbed, exposing the bronze at areas of high relief on the surface. But I think that this kind of mottled artist applied patina (which I've seen on a medium-sized Renoir sculpture as well) is one of the most beautiful. It creates a rich varigated color surface and an appearance of translucency that is not possible with an all over opaque patina. Indian Hunter and His Dog was cast by the Alexis Rudier foundry in Paris and was maintained in the collection of the artist, which perhaps, affirms the particular high-quality of the piece, both in terms of its casting and patina.

Apparently there is another cast of this size at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, but I bet it's not out....

Paul Manship (American, 1885-1966)
Indian Hunter and His Dog, 1926
Marked: Alexis Rudier Fondeur Paris
23" x 23" x 7"
Smithsonian American Art Museum
One of 12 bronze casts of this size

On "Place"
I ran across this painting by the Italian artist Ludovico Marchetti (1853-1909) in an old auction catalogue. It's a typical nineteenth century genre scene executed by a second tier artist, whose most important claims to fame are that he apprenticed with the Spanish artist Mariano Fortuny (probably in Rome) and worked and exhibited at the Salon in Paris. I was attracted to this picture for several reasons, the most overwhelming being the artist's indication of place with a minimum of means. A simple visual reference to a canal and a glimpse of the prow of a gondola is all that is necessary for the informed viewer to instantly identify the location of the painting as Venice. There is a difference between "location" and "place." Location indicates a specific point on the earth's surface, relayed using a latitudinal and longitudinal reading. Place, on the other hand, involves the subjective experience of the cultural and geographical features of a particular location. These include architecture, flora and fauna, ethnic groups, cadence of language, cuisine, local customs, weather patterns, etc. Place is what we think about when we remember a location.

On attempting to discuss Venice, Henry James, acknowledges the redundancy of the object, stating, "Venice...It is a great pleasure to write the word; but I am not sure there is not a certain impudence in pretending to add anything to it...There is nothing left to discover." James does, however, add something, I think, to the discourse on Venice. He suggests that a visitor can only discover the true Venice--"place"--by becoming weary of its attractions and slowly absorbing the quotidian rhythms, senses, and sites of the city. "It is by living there from day to day that you feel the fullness of its charm; that you invite its exquisite influence to sink into your spirit...Tenderly fond you become; there is something indefinable in those depths of personal acquaintance that gradually establish themselves The place seems to personify itself, to become human and sentient, and conscious of your affection."

Returning to the picture, it is not the subtle implied narrative that attracted me, but rather certain formal elements, including the faded Pompeiian red of the hotel sign, the sheen of the woman's indigo bodice, the contrast of the gilding and ebony on the prow of the gondola, and the transparency of the turquoise waters of the canal. Of further interest to me is the handsome gentleman and his typical late nineteenth-century attire, including his bowler, the tawny kidskin gloves, and his tan spats, visible beneath the cuff of his pants. Spats are a shoe accessory that became fashionable in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They are stiff fabric covers that cover the top of the shoe and extend up the lower part of the leg, covering the ankle. Spats evolved from eighteenth century "spatterdashes" also known as gaiters that prevented water from getting into walking boots. They were worn by soldiers, farmers, and others who were exposed to rain and mud. Spats were usually white, tan, grey, or black.

Travels by William Bartram

...as I was never long satisfied with present possession, however endowed with every possible charm to attract the sight, or intrinsic value to engage and fix the esteem, I was restless to be searching for more, my curiosity being insatiable (54)

I am currently reading Travels by William Bartram. Bartram was the son of noted English botanist and naturalist John Bartram and was the first native-born American naturalist. In 1773, he was commissioned by the British botanist John Fothergill to undertake an expedition through the southeastern portion of the colonies of the Carolinas, Georgia, and northeastern Florida to locate and collect unknown and useful specimens of the "vegetable kingdom." His account of his travels is a compendium of thoughtful travel reportage, poetic musings on nature's sublimity, and an exuberant yet somewhat amateurish description of the terrain, flora and fauna, and European and native inhabitants of the region. Travels was published in Philadelphia in 1791 and became a huge international success. His evocative descriptions caught the fancy of armchair travelers, including the poets Chateaubriand, Coleridge, Emerson and Wordsworth. Interestingly, the introduction to the re-issuance of Travels was written by one James Dickey, author of that American classic Deliverance, which also documented, albeit in a more anthropological manner, the region traversed and discussed by Bartram.

On the American turkey, an especially "painterly" observation:
"I saw here a remarkably large turkey of the native wild breed; his head was above three feet from the ground when he stood erect; he was a stately beautiful bird, of a very dark dusky brown colour, the tips of the feathers of his neck, breast, back, and shoulders, edged with a copper colour, which in a certain exposure looked like burnished gold, and he seemed not insensible of the splendid appearance he made." (39)

On the setting sun:
"The glorious sovereign of day, clothed in light refulgent, rolling on his gilded chariot, hastened to revisit the western realms. Grey pensive eve now admonished us of gloomy night's hasty approach..." (65)

A link to the Library of Congress's copy of Travels: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/images/vc112.2p2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trr052.html&h=1103&w=640&sz=89&hl=en&start=4&tbnid=oy15xWD7xgV_FM:&tbnh=150&tbnw=87&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2522william%2Bbartram%2522%26gbv%3D2%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den