Monday Morning Museum: Édouard-Denis Baldus

Self Portrait, 1853 by Edouard-Denis Baldus

Édouard-Denis Baldus – Saturday 5 June 1813 Grünebach, Prussia to Sunday 22 December 1889 Arcueil, France

French Photographer

Avignon, Pont St. Bénezet, circa 1864

Medium: Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions: Image: 21.1 x 28.5 cm (8 5/16 x 11 1/4 in.) Mount: 46 x 60.5 cm (18 1/8 x 23 13/16 in.)
Inscription: Printed in ink on mount, recto BL below image: "AVIGNON. PONT St BENEZET"; facsimile signature stamped in ink on mount, recto BR below image: "E. Baldus" – Metropolitan Museum of Art

Last Monday’s Artist – Lewis Carroll
Next Monday’s Artist – Gustave Courbet

“Monday Morning Museum” logo created by Adrean Darce Brent

Monday Morning Museum: Lewis Carroll

Posthumous Portrait of Lewis Carroll, after 14 January 1898 by Sir Hubert von Herkomer

Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) – Friday 27 January 1832 Daresbury, Halton, Cheshire, England to Friday 14 January 1898 Guildford, Surrey, England
English Writer and Photographer

Alice Liddell As “The Beggar Maid”, circa 1859

“For Carroll, Alice was more than a favorite model; she was his "ideal child-friend," and a photograph of her, aged seven, adorned the last page of the manuscript he gave her of "Alice's Adventures Underground." The present image of Alice was most likely inspired by "The Beggar Maid," a poem written by Carroll's favorite living poet, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, in 1842. If Carroll's images define childhood as a fragile state of innocent grace threatened by the experience of growing up and the demands of adults, they also reveal to the contemporary viewer the photographer's erotic imagination. In this provocative portrait of Alice at age seven or eight, posed as a beggar against a neglected garden wall, Carroll arranged the tattered dress to the limits of the permissible, showing as much as possible of her bare chest and limbs, and elicited from her a self-confident, even challenging stance. This outcast beggar will arouse in the passer-by as much lust as pity. Indeed, Alice looks at us with faint suspicion, as if aware that she is being used as an actor in an incomprehensible play.” – Metropolitan Museum of Art

Last Monday’s Artist – Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Next Monday’s Artist – Édouard-Denis Baldus
“Monday Morning Museum” logo created by Adrean Darce Brent

Monday Morning Museum: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1886 by Louis Anquetin

Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa – Thursday 24 November 1864 Albi, Tarn, France to Monday 9 September 1901 Château Malromé, France

French Post-Impressionist Painter and Printmaker

At the Circus: The Spanish Walk (Au Cirque: Le Pas Espagnol), 1899

“The grand master of urban entertainments, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec made many paintings and drawings on the circus theme in the late 1880s and 1890s, just as his popularity as a commercial artist soared. Fin-de-siècle Paris hosted an assortment of professional circuses, and Lautrec frequented them all. He was personally drawn to circus performers-those colorful equestrians, animal trainers, clowns and acrobats on society's "fringes." It was while undergoing treatment for alcoholism at a sanitarium on the outskirts of Paris in 1899 that Lautrec produced an ambitious group of crayon/chalk drawings of circus figures. These imaginative sketches were drawn entirely from memory, without recourse to preliminary studies. The Lehman horse and rider perform the "pas espagnol", the ambling gait formalized by the Spanish Riding School of Vienna. It was thanks to these circus drawings that Lautrec earned his release from the sanitarium-their impressive handling convinced doctors of his improving health. As Lautrec left the clinic, he is said to have remarked, "I've bought my release with my drawings."” – Metropolitan Museum of Art

Last Monday’s Artist – Horace Pippin
Next Monday’s Artist – Lewis Carroll

“Monday Morning Museum” logo created by Adrean Darce Brent

Multi-Talented and Multi-Troubled Singer Whitney Elizabeth Houston Dies On Eve Of The 54th Grammy Awards

Whitney Elizabeth Houston – Friday 9 August 1963 Newark, New Jersey to Saturday 11 February 2012 Beverly Hills, California

World Will Always Love Whitney

Images:
Left: Whitney Houston from the website Whitney-Houston-Fans.blogspot.com
Center: Whitney Houston from the website photos.express.ge
Right: Whitney Houston from the website userserve-ak.last.fm

Monday Morning Museum: Horace Pippin

Self-Portrait, 1944 by Horace Pippin

Horace Pippin – Wednesday 22 February 1888 West Chester, Pennsylvania to Saturday 6 July 1946
American Folk Artist

Lady of the Lake, 1936

“"Lady of the Lake" is distinctive in Pippin's work, not only for its landscape setting, but also for its literary subject matter, taken from the Arthurian legends. In Pippin's own inimitable interpretation, the Lady of the Lake is here personified as a nude sunbather at the edge of the water, stretched out on a blanket decorated with what seems to be a Native American design. The figure sits with her face held up to the sun, next to a cabin that seems too small to accommodate her height—an exaggeration of scale and perspective that marks the work of many self-taught artists. On the near shore of the lake rests a canoe. Meadow and forest fill the opposite shore, and mountains rise in the distance. The symmetry is broken only by the trellis with a single, prominent red rose at the lower right of the composition. The artist's use of bright, intense reds and greens is typical of his palette during his period.” – Metropolitan Museum of Art

Last Monday’s Artist – Eugène Cuvelier
Next Monday’s Artist – Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
“Monday Morning Museum” logo created by Adrean Darce Brent

New England Falls To New York – Again: Super Bowl Is Super Blah

My arrival at Sonny McLean’s is around 9:30 a.m., an hour and a half after the bar opened for Super Bowl Sunday. My favorite booth is occupied, however the booth nearest the front entrance is free and I swoop in to claim it. Looking around I see Rich and I go over where he is at the bar – the surprise on his face and the ensuing hug are unexpected (though this is the first time I’ve been in my favorite New England sports living bar in over a year). Give Rich the store’s business card and he takes down my number. He is still not online, so no Red Sox Box for him. Rich tells me that he’s no longer a health and safety trainer with the Post Office, but is now a postal carrier in the Valley. He asks if I’m still in the area and I tell him no – I have to travel further to get to Sonny’s now. Andrew comes to Rich’s end of the bar (Rich now sits closer to the entrance) and he looks the same despite being a new father – great to see him. As I go back to the booth, Jen passes by and says she’s left a diet coke on the table for me and states “some things never change.”

As I look around at all the unfamiliar faces, I still feel the connection this bar gives me as the Bruins and Celtics play on screens throughout Sonny’s. Taking advantage of my temporary solitude, I read The Expats (no, it’s not about former New England football players) until someone asks to sit at the table. Well, that someone turns out to be Kevin, the Operations Manager at the condominium complex where Joanie and Grant (the new owners of Sonny’s) live in Pacific Palisades. He’s expecting his boss and a friend to come as well. This is Kevin’s third time in Sonny’s, though he has been in Southern California for years and his roots are in Maine. Steve B. passes by the booth and we chat for a few minutes – really good to see him. During the hours before kickoff, the Bruins and Celtics both win their games, I check out the Beer Garden in the bar’s parking lot (great idea – allows tens of people to be someplace other than the bar, which allows it to remain “walkable”), and I order the Steak Tip Dinner and though broccoli no longer comes with the meal, it is so much more flavorful than the previous version. Eventually, Kevin’s boss, Rita, makes it to the table and a couple, Shaun and Chandra round out the table guests.

Guess it’s time to go into a description of the game, though I do so without any joy. The New York Giants lead at the end of the first quarter on a safety and touchdown and point after and the New England Patriots keep the Giants from scoring in the second quarter, while managing to get a field goal and touchdown and point after to end the half in the lead by 10 to 9. In the third quarter the Pats score first with a touchdown and point after to increase their lead to 17 to 9, though the Giants come back in that quarter and score two field goals to come within two points of the Pats who lead 17 to 15 at the end of the third quarter. How I wish the Super Bowl ends now! Unhappily, there is one more quarter to play and the Patriots score no points and the Giants score six in the fourth quarter. The Giants win Super Bowl XLVI by a score of 21 to 17. To sum it up: the Giants lead first, the Patriots lead in the middle, and the Giants lead last. Another somber Super Bowl Sunday at Sonny’s.

I leave after the failed Hail Mary – no reason to hang around. Say good-bye to Kevin and Rita (the others had already departed). See Rich and say I’d come to Sonny’s during the baseball season this year. So, I’ll return in April and hope that the Red Sox can bring some happiness to the bar.

Teams	1st Quarter	2nd Quarter	3rd Quarter	4th Quarter	TOTAL
New England Patriots	0	10	7	0	17
New York Giants	9	0	6	6	21

New England Patriots logo from the website wikipedia.org