Post 43 of my favorite works of art

~

~

Nighthawks
Edward Hopper, 1942
Oil on canvas
84.1 cm × 152.4 cm (33.1 in × 60 in)
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

I find something so beautiful and so melancholy about this painting… I think it is the idea of loneliness and isolation that Hopper plays with. Maybe it is the gloominess of the night and the city outside of the diners lights. Each patron seems so inside themselves, lost to the night inside their own heads. I would love to see this painting in person one day.

Who’ll save the poor little girl?
Henry Darger, Henry Darger
Who’ll save the poor little girl?
Henry, Henry
Oh Henry Oh
Henry, Henry

Who’ll tell the story of her?
Henry Darger, Henry Darger
Who’ll tell it to all the world?
Henry, Henry
Oh Henry Oh
Henry, Henry

Who’ll buy the carbon paper now?
Henry Darger, Henry Darger
Who’ll trace the lines of her mouth?
Henry, Henry
Oh Henry Oh
Henry, Henry

Who will conquer foreign worlds searching for the stolen girls?
Princesses you’ll never fear the patron saint of girls is here!
Who will draw the cavalry in and risk his very own precious skin
To make our Angelina a free and peaceful land again?

Who’ll love a poor orphan child
Henry Darger, Henry Darger
Lost, growing savage and wild?
Henry, Henry
Oh Henry Oh
Henry, Henry..

(lyrics by Natalie Merchant)

~

“Here you have a night painting without black, with nothing but beautiful blue and violet and green and in this surrounding the illuminated area colours itself sulfur pale yellow and citron green.” —van Gogh

This graceful bust is from a series portraying the elements. I find something very evocative in this head; it suggests somehow the magic and charm you would expect of a water-nymph, from the scalloped headpiece to the lush set of the chin. Its calm mystery makes you want to plunge into the briskly chilled waters of some fast-flowing stream to find out if these deities are real . . .

This is from a series of “Character Thieves” photo-portraits by Sieber, documenting various individuals who engage in “cosplay” conventions, donning the garb of various superheroes and sci-fi protagonists. The young woman here is portraying Ulala, who (wikipedia tells me) is the heroine of the dance-video game “Space Channel 5.” The juxtaposition of fantasy extravagance and the familiar makes for a whimsical frisson, as does the model’s abstract gaze in this juxtaposition of escapism and everydayism.

This portrait dates from the post-Napoleonic period of David’s exile in Belgium, when his sitters too were obviously somewhat ‘out of favor.’ The daughters of Joseph, Napoleon’s brother and sometime King of Spain, clasp each other while reading a letter from their father, then in exile in Philadelphia (!). Its the mixture of imperiousness and fragility in the sitters that really impresses me, along of course with David’s masterful use of line and iconic minimalism. This painting is also remarkable as one of relatively few in which David renders women exclusive of the masculine presence, though of course these as Bonapartes, so they’re still sitting in the context of imperial power (note the Bonaparte bees on that Empire sofa)! I’m curious as to whether David has exaggerated their resemblance to their uncle or not—these Bonaparte princesses could be in training for global rule.

No, I am NOT a Rembrandt fan, thank you very much people!: to me, there are any number of candidates for the “world’s greatest painter” gig more qualified than him, and I’m not going to concede beauty and brilliance in the many paintings of his that seem to me about as glowing as a side of rotting beef (thanks to Ayn Rand for the inspiration for THAT insult!).

But there are some Rembrandts I can take, and he’s often at his best when portraying events on or about a body of water. Here both water, air, and shore are all luminous and full of mystery. His Europa herself isn’t much to look at, unless you consider that he was going for the psychology of terror (which does seem to be the case) rather than any kind of Titianesque erotic ecstasy, but she’s also just one small component of the overall canvas, which is impressive and haunting considered as a whole.