No.6

The Education of the Princess (Marie de' Medici)

1622/5

Oil on Canvas

394 cm x 295 cm 

Peter Paul Rubens

1577-1640

Nationality - Flemish

The Three Graces, the daughters of Zeus and Hera, are Aglaia (Brightness), Euphrosyne (Joyfulness) and Thalia (Bloom).
There are three gods in the painting, Apollo with his musical instruments and paint brushes, next to him is Athena 
who has clearly caught the attention of the princess, and above is Hermes the messenger of the gods bringing fluency and an understanding of language.

For comparison, here is a 1917 painting featuring
The Three Graces

This was the work of the French painter
Emile Vernon
1872-1920

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THREE POEMS BY THOMAS HARDY

A DREAM OR NO

Why go to Saint-Juliot? What's Juliot to me?
I was but made fancy
By some necromancy
That much of my life claims the spot as its key.

Yes. I have had dreams of that place in the West,
And a maiden abiding
Thereat as in hiding;
Fair-eyed and white-shouldered, broad-browed and brown-tressed.

And of how, coastward bound on a night long ago,
There lonely I found her,
The sea-birds around her,
And other than nigh things uncaring to know.

So sweet her life there (in my thought has it seemed)
That quickly she drew me
To take her unto me,
And lodge her long years with me. Such have I dreamed.

But nought of that maid from Saint-Juliot I see;
Can she ever have been here,
And shed her life's sheen here,
The woman I thought a long housemate with me?

Does there even a place like Saint-Juliot exist?
Or a Vallency Valley
With stream and leafed alley,
Or Beeny, or Bos with its flounce flinging mist?

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A CIRCULAR

As "legal representative"
I read a missive not my own,
On new designs the senders give
For clothes, in tints as shown.

Here figure blouses, gowns for tea,
And presentation-trains of state,
Charming ball-dresses, millinery,
Warranted up to date.

And this gay-pictured, spring-time shout
Of Fashion, hails what lady proud?
Her who before last year was out
Was costumed in a shroud.

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A WIFE WAITS

Will's at the dance in the Club-room below,
Where the tall liquor-cups foam;
I on the pavement up here by the Bow,
Wait, wait, to steady him home.

Will and his partner are treading a tune,
Loving companions they be;
Willy, before we were married in June,
Said he loved no one but me;

Said he would let his old pleasures all go
Ever to live with his Dear.
Will's at the dance in the Club-room below,
Shivering I wait for him here.

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QUOTES FROM THE WISE AND THE WITTY

David Mellor - Lawyers are like rhinoceroses: thick-skinned, short-sighted and always ready to charge.

Benjamin Franklin - Life's tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.

G.K. Chesterton - A good novel tells us the truth about its hero, but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.

Mark Twain - A classic is something everyone wants to have read and nobody wants to read

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This is a great view of Multnomah Falls in Oregon, showing the footbridge and the upper and lower falls.

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DUST IF YOU MUST
Rose Milligan

Dust if you must, but wouldn't it be better
To paint a picture, or write a letter,
Bake a cake, or plant a seed;
Ponder the difference between want and need?

Dust if you must, but there's not much time,
With rivers to swim, and mountains to climb;
Music to hear, and books to read;
Friends to cherish, and life to lead.

Dust if you must, but the world's out there
With the sun in your eyes, and the wind in your hair;
A flutter of snow, a shower of rain,
This day will not come around again.

Dust if you must, but bear in mind,
Old age will come and it's not kind.
And when you go (and go you must)
You, yourself, will make more dust.

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COUPLE UNDER ONE UMBRELLA
Palette knife, Oil on Canvas
75 cm x 90 cm
Leonid Alfremov b.1955
Nationality - Russian-Israeli

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NEXT POST FRIDAY 1st FEBRUARY

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