About Elizabeth Simcoe:
Elizabeth Simcoe (September 22, 1762 – January 17, 1850) was an artist and diarist in colonial Canada. She was the wife of John Graves Simcoe, the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada.
She was born Elizabeth Posthuma Gwillim in the village of Whitchurch, Herefordshire, England, daughter of Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Gwillim and Elizabeth Spinckes. Her father died before her birth, and her mother died shortly afterwards. After her baptism, which was on the same day as her mother's burial, she was taken into the care of her mother's younger sister, Margaret. In commemoration of her mother, Elizabeth was given the middle name Posthuma. Margaret married Admiral Samuel Graves on June 14, 1769 and she grew up at Graves's estate, Hembury Fort near Honiton in Devon.
On December 30, 1782, Elizabeth married John Graves Simcoe, Admiral Graves' godson. They had four daughters and one son, Francis Simcoe, for whom they named Castle Frank. Katherine Simcoe, their only daughter to be born in Upper Canada, died in childhood of pneumonia; she is buried at Fort York Garrison.
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Elizabeth Simcoe left a diary that provides a valuable impression of life in colonial Ontario. First published in 1934, there was a subsequent transcription published in 1965 and a paperback version issued at the turn of the 21st century, more than 200 years after she wrote it. Lady Elizabeth Simcoe's legacy also includes a series of 595 water-colour paintings that depict the town of York. She was responsible for the naming of Scarborough, an eastern Toronto district, after Scarborough, England. The townships of North, East and West Gwillimbury, just south of Lake Simcoe in central Ontario, are also named for the family.
...the deliverance of the Jewish people in the ancient Persian Empire where a plot had been formed to destroy them...Rembrandt painted a series of paintings depicting Esther. Below are what I think it is a complete list:
According to the Book of Esther, Haman, royal vizier to King Ahasuerus...planned to kill all the Jews in the empire, but his plans were foiled by Mordecai and his cousin and adopted daughter Esther who had risen to become Queen of Persia. The day of deliverance became a day of feasting and rejoicing [more here].
The Wilton Diptych in the National Gallery takes its name from Wilton House, near Salisbury, Wiltshire, where it was housed between 1705 and 1929. The name of the artist and the place where it was made are unknown. It has been suggested that the painter came from Italy or Bohemia, but it is probable that the diptych was made on behalf of Richard II himself and that it was painted in England or northern France around the time of Richard's second marriage in 1396. Surviving panel paintings from northern Europe dating from the late fourteenth century are very rare.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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On the other panel is a white hart, Richard II's badge. Around its neck is a crown with a chain attached. The antlers stand out from the gold ground through the effect of light and shadow created in pointillé. The hart lies in a grassy meadow strewn with flowers and mingled with rosemary thought to be in remembrance of Richard's first wife, Anne of Bohemia. The green pigment has discoloured with age.
[Source: Richard II's Treasure]
Every day I discover more and more beautiful things. It’s enough to drive one mad. I have such a desire to do everything, my head is bursting with it.Bob wrote:
Marvellous, reminds me of Monet's "Everyday I see more and more beautiful things"This is a wonderful compliment.
Thank you!
Every day I search for beautiful things.In these days of the disappearance of beauty from our daily lives, beauty has gone into hiding (or has been swept aside in some corner). So rather than discovering beauty we have to search for it, hidden in museums, books, the still-standing architecture, classic films, gardens. I have provided a long list (fortunately, the list is still long) of places we can get started with this quest.
"There is something appealing about your semi flow-of-associations writing. Not everything needs to be big and important. What you provide is a feeling of your life, of yourself."-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is a fascinating artist, in that he has convinced himself that he is doing something "beautiful" or I should say artistic. He is giving us banality, bleak ordinariness, and dejected and disappointed human beings. The writer, Maureen Mullarkey, is quite taken in by it all, as is the case with contemporary critics of art, who don't critique paintings as much as eulogize the painters.But, Mullarkey is also a painter. And it is no wonder she is so taken by Uglow. Her style, stark and bleak, is very similar to Uglow's.
Uglow was predominantly a painter of the human figure, although he also painted still lifes and landscapes. His method was meticulous, involving a great deal of measuring and correction to create images that are not hyper real, but appear almost sculptural. Writing in 1990, Tim Wilcox said "[Uglow's] staple is the traditional studio nude but set in relation to an artificial space contrived by the artist himself with geometrical markings and the odd prop used as if by a minimalist stage designer."[Source: Wikipedia]The telegraph's obituary says this about his style:
Although a high proportion of his relatively small body of work consists of portraits, landscapes and still life paintings, Uglow was thought of principally as a painter of nudes. These he attempted to paint as he saw them, a devotion to truth rather than to beauty which led him to develop an unusually rigorous method of working...It is interesting that the most critical writing on Uglow's work is found in his obituary by a nameless writer. This supports my observation that contemporary art critics are afraid to express their dislike of contemporary painters.
The results, much influenced by Piero della Francesca, Cézanne and Giacometti, were in the classical tradition, though curiously flat on the canvas and stripped of extraneous emotion or sensuality. [Source: The Telelgraph]
Rather than using paint like De Kooning to express conceptual truths through the application of paint, Uglow is using paint to illustrate observable truths. That is the difficulty with these paintings, they do not offer that personality and come off as a little analytical and cold.But then he capitulates soon after:
The formal aspects of his work would inspire any formal junkie or figurative painter with its nuanced observations and Uglow’s visible handy work despite this criticism. However, his work should be taken with a grain of salt. Uglow’s method of painting evolved from the idea of concept before form, that is what makes it personal. He is one of those rare painters which forces you to reevaluate your own aesthetic, because the paintings are so visually compelling.And the best (most clear-sighed) critique is from Adrian Searle at the Guardian, who writes:
Uglow was a student at the Slade of William Coldstream, whose own life paintings had about them a chilling air of self-denial, and Uglow went on to develop Coldstream's approach through his own years of teaching in the same art-college life room. To me, it always smelled like a death room; every year a new crop of belated Euston Road painters would emerge from it, their pallid painted figures nicked with little registration points and tiny painted crosses, like so many torture victims, done-over in shades of umber and grey.The rest of the article is worth reading,and it is here.
A style like any other, this was and is a look masquerading as a moral quest. About it all hangs an air of futility, and a sense of something murdered... Here, the act of looking and recording is presented as a joyless test.
There is a frisson of the trans-gressive about Caravaggio's art, a morbidity as much spiritual as it is - to modern eyes - sexual and social. It's difficult not to come over a bit queer looking at Caravaggio, whatever one's sexual orientation or habits; whatever, even, one's actual sex...I wont go into this much, excpet to say how irritatingly unimaginative and unlearned he is, despite his professed erudition. For example, David was a young man when he confronted Goliath:
But there are so many metaphors and symbols here for the modern eye. Look at the sexualised massiveness of Christ's torturers in The Flagellation (click here to see the work), and the homoerotic aspects of earlier Caravaggio, as well as of the ephebe-like St John The Baptist (click here to see the work). Think in particular of the androgynous David with the Head of Goliath (click here to see the work); the lovely sag of David's diaphanous shirt, his beardless face a foil to the bloody gurning head of Goliath (supposedly a self-portrait of the artist), which he proffers. David gazes at his victim's squinting head not as a trophy but with something like compassion. He holds the slender blade of his sword against his own crotch, at an angle that mimics a male erection. Above the blade a gape in his clothing looks very like the folds of a vagina.
Meanwhile, the Philistine [Goliath], with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David. He looked David over and saw that he was little more than a boy, glowing with health and handsome, and he despised him. [1 Samual 17: 41-42]It was precisely the bravery of the young David, "little more than a boy," which set him apart from, and eventually earned him a place in the Bible.
David then cut off Goliath’s head and presented it to King Saul. You would think this would be a moment of triumph, or maybe triumph mixed with disgust, but instead we see what I can only call stern regret.But I suspect Searle is one of those post-modern, atheist artists who believes that man should be glorified, rather than God. I would conclude that's his reason for having such a visceral dislike for Uglow's paintings, who has reduced man to dreary, banal everyday-ness.
Of course it has all of Caravaggio’s hallmarks: the murky shadows from which the figures emerge into stark light, the masterful modeling of the human body, the touch of gore...
David with the Head of Goliath is a double self-portrait. The young Caravaggio has slaughtered and decapitated the old, dissolute Caravaggio and holds the head of his victim with a mix of sorrow and disgust...
It’s easy to think of Caravaggio as simply a bully. A jerk with a taste for violence. But I think this painting more than any other makes it clear he was more than that. He knew who he was, he knew his sin and his guilt; he knew the depths he had fallen. That beautiful youth was still inside of him, and he looks at the wreck he has made of his own life and sits in judgment at his own choices.
This tree will grow to 130 feet in height and when in bloom perfumes its whole neighbourhood. The leaves are obliquely heart-shaped, dark green above, paler below, from 2 1\2 to 4 inches long and sharply toothed. The yellowish-white flowers hang from slender stalks in flattened clusters. They have five petals and five sepals. The original five stamens have each developed a cluster, and there is a spoon-shaped false petal opposite each true one.
Linden tea is much used on the Continent, especially in France, where stocks of dried lime-flowers are kept in most households for making 'Tilleul.'
The honey from the flowers is regarded as the best flavoured and the most valuable in the world. It is used exclusively in medicine and in liqueurs.
The wood is useful for small articles not requiring strength or durability, and where ease in working is wanted: it is specially valuable for carving, being white, close-grained, smooth and tractable in working, and admits of the greatest sharpness in minute details. Grinley Gibbons did most of his flower and figure carvings for St. Paul's Cathedral, Windsor Castle, and Chatsworth in Lime wood.
It is the lightest wood produced by any of the broad-leaved European trees, and is suitable for many other purposes, as it never becomes worm-eaten. On the Continent it is much used for turnery, sounding boards for pianos, in organ manufacture, as the framework of veneers for furniture, for packingcases, and also for artists' charcoal making and for the fabrication of wood-pulp.
The inner bark or bast when detached from the outer bark in strands or ribands makes excellent fibres and coarse matting, chiefly used by gardeners, being light, but strong and elastic. Fancy baskets are often made of it. In Sweden, the inner bark, separated by maceration so as to form a kind of flax, has been employed to make fishing-nets.
The sap, drawn off in the spring, affords a considerable quantity of sugar.
The foliage is eaten by cattle, either fresh or dry. The leaves and shoots are mucilaginous and may be employed in poultices and fomentations. [Source: Botanical.com]
Family TiliaceaeHere are some well-known perfumers who have used the pungent, sweet linden blossom scent:
Tilia americana L. var. americana
American basswood, American linden, basswood
Status: Native
Plant: Perennial tree to 130' tall
Flower: Inflorescence a stalked cluster of fragrant, yellowish flowers
Fruit: Nutlike, hairy, roundish
Leaf: Oval to round, heart-shaped to flat unequal base, edges sharply toothed
Habitat: Rich woods
[Source: Robert W. Freckmann Herbarium]
| DER LINDENBAUM Am Brunnen vor dem Tore Da steht ein Lindenbaum; Ich träumt in seinem Schatten So manchen süßen Traum. Ich schnitt in seine Rinde So manches liebe Wort; Es zog in Freud' und Leide Zu ihm mich immer fort. Ich mußt' auch heute wandern Vorbei in tiefer Nacht, Da hab' ich noch im Dunkel Die Augen zugemacht. Und seine Zweige rauschten, Als riefen sie mir zu: Komm her zu mir, Geselle, Hier find'st du deine Ruh'! Die kalten Winde bliesen Mir grad ins Angesicht; Der Hut flog mir vom Kopfe, Ich wendete mich nicht. Nun bin ich manche Stunde Entfernt von jenem Ort, Und immer hör' ich's rauschen: Du fändest Ruhe dort! | THE LINDEN TREE Near the well before the gate, a linden tree stands. I dreamed in its shade many beautiful dreams. And in its bark I carved many words of love; My pleasures and my sorrows were drawn into the tree itself. Today I had to pass it, in the depths of night - and still, in all the darkness, my eyes closed. Its branches bent and rustled, as if they called to me: Come here, companion, here you will find peace! The icy winds were blowing, straight in my face they ground. My hat flew off my head, yet I did not turn back. Now I many hours away from where the linden tree stands, and still I hear it whisp'ring: "Here you will find peace!" |
This large painting shows a match being played on the Old Course at the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, St Andrews. The centre of everybody's attention is a decisive moment in a match between Sir David Baird and Sir Ralph Anstruther against Major Hugh Lyon Playfair and John Campbell of Glen Saddel. Lee carefully composed this complex scene, which includes over fifty individual portraits, using photographs of some of the golfers to help him.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kristor,Kristor:
BI: I am surprised to find you spouting such modern sentiments.
K: So long as society is so ordered as to promote or encourage or reward vice, there will be vice.BI: NO. There was sin even in Eden.
K: And indeed, they are not altogether useless, or they would never have succeeded at what they do.BI: A thief has no social goodness altogether, even though he promotes lock-making industry.
K: The control of vice and the promotion of virtue therefore depends, not on the elimination of the vicious – who are, after all, only responding rationally (if amorally) to the vicious environment in which they find themselves, and who if eliminated will be replaced – but of the weakness and perversity of the system itself.BI: Isn’t this what Progressives say?. The individuals are good but the system is bad and must be reformed. The the usage of the word “rationally” jars – you are using it in the sense of economists – a purely instrumental thing. A thief is never rational.
Bedarz, you aren’t making sense here.Bedarz Iliaci:
BI: There was sin even in Eden.K: That there was sin even in a pure society does not mean that there is no sin in a perverted society. Indeed, that there can be sin even in Eden makes sin in a perverted society seem all the more likely. You make my argument.
BI: A thief has no social goodness.K: Really? None? He is no good at all to anyone? What about Jean Valjean?
BI: A thief is never rational.K: Really? The thieves are all wandering about gibbering and drooling like maniacs, with their flies open and their shoes on backwards? How on earth, then, do they ever get it together to steal anything?
That a thing is deformed does not mean it is altogether evil. The zero of goodness is the zero of being. Even Satan retains the glory, power and intelligence of a seraph.
As to whether I am saying something the Progressives say: no. The progressives say that what we do is not our responsibility at all, and that we are wholly the products of our environments. I am saying that while we are certainly influenced by our environments, we are responsible for what we do. Only thus could any of our acts be characterized as either good or evil.
A thief has no social goodness.[My notes: Yes, exactly right. It is like liberalism, which appears to be doing us good, but the system inherently leads to destruction, even if some of its manifestations (early on) appear to do us some good.]
Means that as a thief, a man has no goodness. That is, the essence of stealing is bad for the City. Surely, you would not disagree. Thus, the vices, even greed are not conducive to the good of the City even though they may lead to material growth, but inevitably the social bonds are weakened. And thus contra 18C economists private vices do not make for public good.
A thief is never rational.
Simply, it is not rational to steal. You have modern instrumental view of rationality. I take the view that being rational implies having correct premises.
Your point may be recast as - Man is largely formed by his City. We see the acts but God sees the heart.
I think I see what you are getting at. The thievery of a man is bad, even though the man himself, qua man rather than qua thief, may not be all bad. Likewise, the thievery of a man, being inherently irrational, vitiates his rationality, even though he might be quite rational in many other respects. Agreed.I searched for the image that the Orthosphere blog has put up as its masthead. The painter is Guido Reni, from 17th century Italy and the painting, Archangel Michael Defeating Satan. This is an apt figurehead for the blog, although we have not yet defeated Satan.
Thus, the vices, even greed are not conducive to the good of the City even though they may lead to material growth, but inevitably the social bonds are weakened.
Yes. This was a prominent secondary theme of the post. You are saying the same thing I did.
The story of an enduring love match between two intelligent and forceful personalities. Clementine gave great strength to Britain's great war leader and helped him to weather the storms of his changeable political career.There is a lot we already know about Churchill, including his persistence in fighting Hitler, which the documentary outlined. But I didn't know that he introduced the term "The Iron Curtain" to the world. He did so in a speech in 1946 at Westminster College, in Fulton, Missouri where he came to receive an honorary degree. Here is part of his speech:
From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia, all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and, in some cases, increasing measure of control from Moscow. Athens alone -- Greece with its immortal glories -- is free to decide its future at an election under British, American and French observation. The Russian-dominated Polish Government has been encouraged to make enormous and wrongful inroads upon Germany, and mass expulsions of millions of Germans on a scale grievous and undreamed-of are now taking place. The Communist parties, which were very small in all these Eastern States of Europe, have been raised to pre-eminence and power far beyond their numbers and are seeking everywhere to obtain totalitarian control. Police governments are prevailing in nearly every case, and so far, except in Czechoslovakia, there is no true democracy.A good part of the video showed Churchill's home, the beautiful Chartwell House. It was his paradisaical sanctuary, where he could work out his thoughts and ideas. "A day away from Chartwell is a day wasted," he said.
