Rococo artist Jean-François de Troy 1679-1752

Moses Cast Into the Nile

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Fran%C3%A7ois_de_Troy

English artist Ralph Hedley 1848-1913

A Good Read

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Hedley 

I love snuff

and all its accoutrement.

Up for auction: a bronze snuff bottle with watch and barometer mounts, circa 1890; 3 inches high; has an estimated value of $40,000 to $60,000. 

This is some high-end snuff stuff here:

http://www.thecityreview.com/f10scsnuff.html 

Polish-born German painter Simon Glücklich 1863–1943

The Reading Lesson

The Homework

http://tinyurl.com/88yvkc2

French painter Jean-Jacques-Raoul Jourdan 1880-1916

In the Garden

Jourdan might have died in World War I.

I cannot find a biography for him.

Attack of the Puppet People 1958

Directed, produced and written by Bert I. Gordon

for American International Pictures

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_of_the_Puppet_People

Two cultures, two elongated skulls: coincidence?

Ancient Mayan skull

Ancient Egyptian skull

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_cranial_deformation

Finnish painter Albert Edelfelt 1854-1905

Portrait of a Parisienne Reading 

1880

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Edelfelt

French realist Gustave Courbet 1819-1877

La belle Irlandaise (Portrait of Jo) 1866

Portrait of Joanna Hiffernan

 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Courbet

We all wear masks

every minute of every day.

You are never truly yourself
until you are alone.

Contemporary Scottish artist Ken Bushe

Cloudscape

http://www.kenbushe.co.uk/index.html

French painter Jean Béraud 1849-1935

Outside the Vaudeville Theatre, Paris

Béraud was an Impressionist painter of Parisian life during the fabulous Belle Epoque period.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_B%C3%A9raud

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belle_%C3%89poque

German painter Rudolf Epp 1834-1910

 

 In The Room

http://tinyurl.com/7apwtj8 

Painter Bill Sharp

 

Willie

2008

ink and watercolor

http://billsharp.wordpress.com/category/animal-painting/ 

Australian painter Peter Kownacki 1957-

Still Life

http://www.etsy.com/listing/85700425/flowers-abstract-still-life-original

http://www.etsy.com/people/PeterKownacki?ref=ls_profile

Danish painter Carl Vilhelm Meyer 1870-1938

The Broken Doll

Happy Birthday George Harrison

1943-2001

He would have been 69 today.

I've been marking George's 

birthday since 1972.

http://www.georgeharrison.com/

German-American photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt 1898-1995

English children watching a puppet show

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Eisenstaedt

Art Nouveau artist Alphonse Mucha, Paris 1860-1939

Literal founder of the Art Nouveau period in French culture (Mucha Style). His posters for Sarah Bernhardt in Paris in 1895 had worldwide influence.

Studied at the famous Académe Julian, Paris.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphonse_Mucha

http://www.muchafoundation.org/MHome.aspx

Dutch painter Charles Leickert 1816-1907

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Leickert

Venezuelen painter Arturo Michelena 1863 – 1898

La joven madre (The Young Mother)

Studied at the famous Académie Julian in Paris.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arturo_Michelena

On hiatus — be back soon

Dutch Painter Jan Lievens 1607-1674

Still Life with Books

1628

Rembrandt House Museum, Amsterdam

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/31/arts/design/31liev.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Lievens

Communication breakdown

Man was condemned to wander the Earth 
like hordes of leper telephones.  

Patti Smith, Babel, 1974

Salvadore Dali

Inside a vintage timepiece

Mechanical engineering is a lost science.

No one knows how to do this anymore.

Someday it will be forgotten.

Belgian landscapeist Frederik Marinus Kruseman 1817-1882

Figures in a Winter Landscape

http://www.burlington.co.uk/artist-biography/fredrik-marinus-kruseman.html

Why carry your purse to a soirée when you can just wear it?

French painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard 1732-1806

 

Young Girl Reading

1776

National Gallery of Art

Washington, D.C.

Fragonard was a prolific Rococo artist.

http://www.nga.gov/

http://tinyurl.com/5pfoxd

Chinese painter Chen Yong

Snow Horses

http://www.orientaloutpost.com/proddetail.php?prod=2sh33-6

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheng_Yong

Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance.
Carl Sandburg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Sandburg 

Contemporary artist Aaron Shikler 1922-

Little Reader

Shikler chose American statesmen and celebrities as his subjects,
such as the Kennedys, the Reagans and the Clintons.

http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/art/common/generic/Artist_Biography_Shikler_Aaron.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Shikler

Van Gogh's symbolic fascination with shoes

Painted between 1880-1888

http://www.amazon.com/Shoes-Van-Gogh-Spiritual-Artistic/dp/0824521420

http://www.vangoghgallery.com/

Contemporary landscape painter Richard Lindenberg

Winter Aspens, Lake Tahoe

http://richardlindenberg.com/ 

 

British painter Frederic Lord Leighton 1830-1896

Flaming June

Leighton was a Pre-Raphaelite painter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederic_Lord_Leighton

These people are perfect strangers, 

and yet I wonder about them.

Old barn doors in winter

Roger Crowley

Montpelier. Vermont

http://www.crowleyphotos.com/?page_id=72 

Osborne House, Isle of Wight, England

 

Built by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as a summer home, Osborne House was constructed between 1845-1851 in the Italian Renaissance style. The Queen died here in 1901. Today it is maintained by English Heritage and is open to the public.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_House

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Heritage

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_wight 

 

In the News

A homeless man in Albuquerque NM was stranded waist deep in mud for three days before students on a field trip heard his cries for help and called authorities. Police later discovered the man was wanted for a felony and arrested him.

A toaster that was bought in 1953 has been named the oldest working toaster in England.

A 41-year-old public employee in Cicero IL, wearing a City of Cicero embroidered jacket, twice used a city car to steal $300 of beer from a local grocery during his lunch break. He is the mayor's nephew.

A 6-year-old elementary student in Meriden CT told his teacher at snack-time that he wanted to share. He surprised the teacher when he pulled out nine bags of marijuana from his pants pocket.

T-shirts that say "Get Back on Board, Damn It" have become a fashion hit in Italy. Spoken by the Coast Guard officer who ordered the captain of the capsized Costa Concordia to return to his ship, the command is now the new slogan for Italy's economic austerity program.

Saving the best for last:
A jail inmate in Syracuse NY is in trouble for trying to fraud the IRS out of nearly $9 million in tax refunds between 2006 and 2010. The man was serving a 4-year sentence for receiving stolen property, but now faces 11 counts of filing false IRS claims, and one count of helping another inmate file one. The penalty could be five years' imprisonment and a $250,000 fine for each count against him.