sibling poetry

In honor of National Poetry Month, just a quick artistic spotlight on the Victorian brother and sister poetic pair of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) and Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-1894).  D.G. Rossetti is well-known for both his paintings and his poetry, and he was a founding member of the rebellious and prolifically creative Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.  Christina's poetry is highly regarded in England and beyond, and she was also her brother's model in his 1848/49 painting The Girlhood of Mary Virgin.  The pictured portraits of Rossetti were done by fellow artists William Holman Hunt and George Frederic Watts, while the portraits of Christina Rossetti were done by Dante Gabriel.

Portrait of Dante Gabriel Rossetti at 22 Years of Age -- William Holman Hunt

Portrait of Dante Gabriel Rossetti -- George Frederic Watts (ca. 1871)

 

Look in my face; my name is Might-have-been;

I am also call'd No-more, Too-late, Farewell;

Unto thine ear I hold the dead-sea shell

Cast up thy Life's foam-fretted feet between;

Unto thine eyes the glass where that is seen

Which had Life's form and Love's, but by my spell

Is now a shaken shadow intolerable,

Of ultimate things unutter'd the frail screen . . . .

The House of Life: 97.  A Superscription (excerpt) -- D.G. Rossetti

 

Somewhere or other there must surely be

The face not seen, the voice not heard,

The heart that not yet—never yet—ah me!

Made answer to my word.

Somewhere or other, may be near or far;

Past land and sea, clean out of sight;

Beyond the wandering moon, beyond the star

That tracks her night by night.

Somewhere or other, may be far or near;

With just a wall, a hedge, between;

With just the last leaves of the dying year

Fallen on a turf grown green.

Somewhere or Other -- Christina Rossetti

artist birthday

Today was once the birthday of British artist John Linnell (June 16, 1792 - 1882), known for his portrait work and landscape painting.  Linnell studied with Benjamin West and John Varley and entered the Royal Academy at the impressive age of just thirteen.  Linnell was also a friend and patron of William Blake, and unlike more conservative artists was supportive of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood when they first came upon the scene.  His career was prolific and successful, and he was additionally prolific as the father of nine children.

Pictured:  John Linnell -- Self Portrait (1860); St. John the Baptist (1867); A River Landscape, Sunset; Lady Torrens and Her Family (1820); William Blake Portrait (1825).  

All images from Wikimedia Commons

all in the family

 

Today would have been the birthday of Irish artist John Butler Yeats (1839-1922), who with his wife Susan brought to life six children, one of whom just happened to be poet William Butler Yeats and another the painter Jack B. Yeats.  The passion and words of William Butler Yeats sparked the Irish Literary Revival, and W.B. Yeats also was the first Irishman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923.  Jack B. Yeats developed a distinct artistic style during his long career while remaining strongly attached to his native Ireland.  John Butler Yeats' daughters Lily and Lolly were creative forces as well, Lily for needlework and textiles, and Lolly for art education, bookbinding and printing.  So without accusations of bosh or blarney, it can be claimed that the Yeats family truly did have quite an impact on Ireland's cultural heritage.

That said, a Happy Saint Patrick's Day to all....

I made my song a coat
Covered with embroideries
Out of old mythologies
From heel to throat;
But the fools caught it,
Wore it in the world’s eyes
As though they’d wrought it.
Song, let them take it,
For there’s more enterprise
In walking naked.

William Butler Yeats, "The Coat" (1914)

Pictured:  Portrait of William Butler Yeats -- John Butler Yeats, 1900 and The Swinford Funeral -- Jack B. Yeats, 1918 (The Walters Art Museum)

all about the benjamins

Benjamin Franklin -- politician, diplomat, author, inventor, sage, kite flyer and musician -- was born on January 17th, 1706 and lived a most impressive 84 years.  His best known and eagerly desired portrait is on the American $100 bill, but it should be of no surprise that many other artistic representations of Franklin were made throughout his lifetime (click on any of the paintings for a larger view).  Pictured here are Franklin's first portrait by Robert Feke in 1748, with young Ben seeming a bit dandified in his hand pose and sporting ruffly cuffs -- this in contrast to Benjamin Wilson's 1759 likeness of a more confident and assured Franklin, and if you look closely you can see a flicker of lightning in the background.  (The wild bolt is about to hit a church steeple, but the church is likely grounded by a Franklin lightning rod.)  The subtlety of Franklin's electrical experiment in Wilson's painting is the complete opposite of Benjamin West's 1816 Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky, with our departed forefather in the midst of cherubs and divine guidance like a conduit between the heavens and earth. 


British artist David Martin's 1767 portrait of Franklin places America's wise man in a setting of lush knowledge, amid tones of red and gold and blue along with books and papers and a bust of Sir Isaac Newton looking on with further inspiration and approval.  Perhaps Franklin was pondering his 13 Virtues in Martin's painting, though Franklin was human enough to admit that even he had trouble putting all of the ideals into action simultaneously.  And finally, the elderly Franklin appears in Charles Wilson Peale's 1785 portrait, around the time that various health problems began to take their toll on Frankin's otherwise hearty being. 


I wish the Bald  Eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country; he is a bird of bad moral character; like those among men who live by sharping and robbing, he is generally poor, and often very lousy. The turkey is a much more respectable bird.  (Benjamin Franklin,  1784)