a different drum

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Following the drum, a nation's call to arms led by- oft times a child-answered by women following their men.
It's no wonder women wanted to wear a man's regimentals.

Philipe Mercier's The Young Drummer Boy, 18th c.

in 1982

Drummer "boy" straps, brass buttons, capes and what all- run through fashion's timeline-just as war runs through History's. Great military details gave women's clothing much needed panache-stepping away from the frills and fripperies that would smother any mistress. There was WAR to be fought-multiples- in each and every century & the military mode of dress for women moved along with the times.
Queens dressed to rally and hail her armies.

Catherine the Great wearing the uniform of her Preobrazhenskii regiment

painted by Vigilius Eriksen, 1762.

This Reynolds portrait was first seen at the Royal Academy's Somerset House in 1780. The costume- adapted from military uniform-specifically the Lady's husband-Sir Richard Worsley's Hampshire Militia uniform-became the fashion during England's war with the colonies.

Sir Joshua Reynolds portrait of Lady Worsley, 1776

Who knows when someone got the wild idea to set a drum on its ear-and make it a smart looking table? No doubt there is a history.
I imagine some war weary soldier- a Captain perhaps- stretching out his limbs one evening-looking about for a hassock-and finding only a drum.
A Star is Born...

 James Tissot's Captain Frederick Gustavus Burnaby, 1870.

 Belgian Side Drum,1850- 1900.

here

tables at 1st dibs

Cecil Beaton lived at Ashcombe, a property set deep amongst the Wiltshire Downs, for seven years during the 1930s. This chair was made by Beaton for his own bedroom, to complement the circus murals that were painted on a wet Sunday afternoon by his friends, many of whom were starlets and darlings of the 1930s. As Beaton describes in his memoirs, the room was decorated in the most outrageous of colours, with each of his friends responsible for different panels, featuring 'circus performers, baroque emblems, barley-sugar poles and flowered mirrors'. from Richard Buckle's Self Portrait with Friends, The Selected Diaries of Cecil Beaton, 1926-1974

Chairs from 1st Dibs in the Beaton style &

below a Child's version attributed to Beaton at Tod Donobedian

Beaton's Bedroom and his gang of artists-standing around one of his drum tables with a little drummer lass.

Not to be out done in the bedroom-Beaton used drums as end tables in his Studio. It's a room that is as viable today as any within the pages of World of Interiors.

How spiffing is this etsy piece from Artisanworks Inc.? Vintage 1920-30's Ludwig snare drum on custom steambent Art Nouveau style stand. HERE

Queen Louise of Prussia in her Hussar inspired riding habit,

 painted by Friedrich Wilhelm Ternite, in 1809, and again in 1810.

Grand Duchesses Olga and Tatina in the uniforms of their respective regiments, 

the Voznesenskiye Ulahns and the Elisavetgradsky Hussars, July 13th, 1913.

Following the drum, always a hearing a different drummer, with his mind on war, Rex Whistler painted the young Laura Ridley in the regimentals of the Northumberland Hussars, 1940.

from the book, In Search of Rex Whistler

Anatole Demidoff, age 7,  portrait by Robert Lefevre,1820.

Military dress has returned-seen everywhere-couture, fashion in the street-and worn best so & often by French Vogue's editor Emmanuelle Alt. I've got a sense she sees it quite literally as her modern uniform-with skinny oh so skinny jeans in black or white.

I've my own cape that I grab to wear when the weather is cold. I love the military lines-and I've always-always heard the beat of a different drum-

and usually I follow.

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TEN MEN

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True to my word, here are My 10 Can't do without-paintings-this time its raining Men. Would that I-could own them, I hope I would be ready to share them with the world!




Dosso Dossi's work is beautiful-enigmatic, the artist was noted for his very personal-mysterious paintings. The sitter has actually been described by historians as a young girl-that Dossi could paint such a work makes the painting and painter-forever fascinating and seductive.

Dosso Dossi
   Portrait of a Young Man holding a Dog and a Cat
(10" x 12" approx.) 

c. 1512-1540 artist's death

Dossi was an admirer of the great Renaissance master Giorgione. Giorgione's early death at around 30 years of age and the lasting effect of his work is undeniable. The face in this portrait-as in Dossi's -of knowing-of innocence-one that we want to know.  These two painters were painting way over my head. Still so many questions about their work and their lives -unanswered. things we want to know.

Giorgione 
 Portrait of young man 
(19" x 23")

   c.1504

his painting The Tempest may be my absolute favorite singular painting

This Jan Van Eyck portrait is thought to be a self portrait. Why this painting?

It's the red turban.

 Jan Van Eyck 

possibly a self portrait

Portrait of a Man in Turban

(about 8" x 10")

c. 1433

The other Italian of the ten-the beautiful Raphael-painting the beautiful Altoviti-his painting can be seen in the National Gallery in Washington. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't he beautiful? Does there have to be more?

Raphael

Bindo Altoviti

(23" x 17")

 c. 1515

Reynolds painted himself many times-I love this work. In this self portrait Reynolds looks firmly out at us-at his subject. His youth-no hindrance to his confidence-only the sun seems to slow him down.

Reynolds
Self Portrait
(25" x 29")

c. 1747-1749

The beautiful Courbet-the French Realist enjoyed painting himself too.Here with his dog- he pauses to observe us-no lack of self confidence. It was much the same in his life, he was beloved-but not without having his work derided by critics who did not want to see what he saw...The way things really are.

Courbet

Self Portrait with a Black Dog

c. 1841

I think I'm a little in love with Lord Battersea-and it's not just the dog.

Frederick Sandys  
Portrait of Cyril Flower, Lord Battersea

(20" x 25")

c.1872

an equally dashing portrait of Battersea by Sandys would suffice

Another of Sargent's great and controversial works-Dr. Pozzi At Home-who was he waiting for? The fiery canvas isn't hot enough to extinguish the Doctor's bedside manners.

Sargent

Dr. Pozzi At Home

(79" x 40")

c.1881

No fantasy collection would be complete without Picasso. From his Blue Period-the painter paints himself again.

Picasso
Self Portrait
(24" x 32" approx)

c. 1902

Egon Schiele -protege of Klimt,painted this portrait when he was 19 years old. Young-yet considering Schiele was only 28 when he died-his work was perhaps at its zenith. Though this portrait lacks some of Schiele's characteristic distortion and perhaps is less appealing to Schiele followers- it is infinitely beautiful. His ability to capture artist Peschka's solitude- and not disrupt it-with his brilliant paints of coal black -fragile lavender, confetti green and dazzling Klimt-like pattern mesmerizes. Peschka's hands emerge from Schiele's exercise with great tenderness and reverence. Perhaps Schiele needed only his 28 years-this when he was 19.

Schiele 
Anton Peschka

 (39" x 43")

 c. 1909

Such a diverse collection with the exception of the 3 Italians-those Renaissance boys-4- including the elder Van Eyck of Flanders. The Renaissance-a period I could easily select 10 paintings from-yet there is no Titian's Man with A Glove, no Masaccio profile, no macho Veronese, no menacing Bosch. That would be too easy. Branching out- I've always admired the work of the handsome Frenchman Courbet and the figures of Schiele -easily an equal of Klimt. No collection would be complete without Sargent who captured an age of excess-but with faces that still are full of life nor complete without the mastery of Picasso-Master of them all. 

As I've noted-the Sandys painting of Battersea is just because he may be my ideal Man-alas there was no 2nd Baron of Battersea-his marriage to Constance de Rothschild was childless.

10 Portraits

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A recent post by Mark Ruffner writing the blog All Things Ruffnerian-prompted me to take up this challenge to cull through countless Portraits of Women & fantasize - If I could own 10 ?, which would I choose? Mark followed suit after Yvette of In So Many Words-did the same. You can see where this is going... While I still stretch my imagination on where to hang them & worry about negotiating with the Met, the Hermitage and likewise-I found narrowing down my choices difficult. No portrait-its value-its obscurity or its notoriety has been excluded. A few were easy-sorting and narrowing it to a mere 10 virtually impossible.

Pure fantasy-but doesn't it exercise the eye? Force us to edit-in a world where pinning, tumbling,blogging,linking-blinking tweeting-etc etc. allow us to gluttonous Excess?. Of course seeing Mark's picks and Yvette's IT is Temptation to say-"oh  yes, That one," but that would have been too easy. I must say it shocked me that some of my favorite portrait painters-Boldini, Whistler, Helleu did not make My List-nor did Zubaran-I immediately excluded his paintings of Saints-choosing just ONE would be treasonous-and choosing 10-unfair.


(The 10-in no particular order & linked in the text with insights about the work)

Petrus Christus, Portrait of a Young Girl

 c 1470.

what can I say? it might be my favorite of them all. It fits the Bacon quote at the heading of this experiment like no other.

El Greco's Lady in a Fur Wrap

c.1580

El Greco? Yes, one of his mysterious paintings of women-there are few. Uncharacteristic,yet his brush is evident-and while there are disputes about that-it's all the more reason to want it.

 Ingres' Mademoiselle Rivière

 c.1805

Ingres, for me the Master portrait painter-this is one of two Ingres paintings I've included. Can you deny it?

 Liotard's Portrait of Marie Fargues, his wife

 c. 1749

This portrait satisfies all things- sitter, dress, complexity of patterns, book, flowers and mirror. The 18th century was a period where women like Mary Wortley Montague were forging paths of individualism and leaving brilliant trails of their lives in memoirs and letters. Liotard painted many women of the period in Eastern dress. Almost any of Liotard's paintings would suffice-I would be content with 10 of them.

Sir Joshua Reynold's Mrs. Baldwin

c. 1782

Another painter I would not leave off any list-Reynolds and again it  is the 18th century with its certain brand of  Beauty and its allure of Exoticism.

Ingres' The Comtesse D'Haussonville, née Louise de Broglie

c.1845

It's charms are evident.the Comtesse d' Haussonville, grand-daughter of Madame de Stael- one of the most fascinating women in Europe," was also a remarkable person in her own right.
(I've written about her here & Ingres here)

Sargent's Madame X,  Virginie Gautreau

 

c.1884

Sargent. This portrait- his most memorable and he considered his best- was also his most controversial. Of course I would pick this one.Virginie Gautreau was not happy with the portrait-it revealed too much-much too much. Eager to paint her Sargent wrote a friend, "I have a great desire to paint her portrait and have reason to think she would allow it and is waiting for someone to propose this homage to her beauty. If you are 'bien avec elle' and will see her in Paris, you might tell her I am a man of prodigious talent." Books have been written about the painting. Sargent is another great favorite and I've devoted many posts to my intrigue with Sargent in a series called seeking Sargent -where images today remind me of his work, here.

I have a lithograph of Sargent by William Rothenstein  I love.

Portrait of Emilie Flöge, by Gustav Klimt

c. 1902

Model, muse and partner-Floge and Klimt were priest and priestess in turn of the century Vienna when everything was wonderful and art was everything.

 Balthus' "Japanese woman with red table," Countess Setzuko Klossowska de Rola,the artist's wife.

 c. 1967

This painting until recently was owned by Helene Rochas and sold at auction this fall. I wrote about it here.

Picasso's Nusch Éluard 

c. 1938

Picasso painted Nusch Elard numerous times-muse to the Surrealists, artist in her own right. The great painter painting a painter with a personal story as intriguing as the great one himself- no wonder he adored her. Picasso is the great painter of all time-here-Barbara of It's About Time shows you why-and would have me tossing out this entire list to have 10 portraits on scraps of paper with "Picasso" signed in the corner.

& No list is worth listing- without adding 1 to-

Lady with an Ermine (Cecilia Gallerani) - Leonardo da Vinci

c.1490

 

If it couldn't be a Lady with dog-a Renaissance ermine will do.

& as dual portraits go...

who could resist

 this portrait of  Monsieur & Mademoiselle?

Liotard's "Monsieur Levett and Mademoiselle Glavani in Turkish costume

or 
Sargent's Mr. and Mrs. I. N. Phelps Stokes, 1897
it is another favorite Sargent- with two fascinating subjects

I've written about Edith here

 & Yes, I fantasize about 10 Men too-

alas,Correggio's fetching Portrait of a Young Man did not make the cut.

Now-what about you? Do you have a favorite from my 10? your own?




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in honour of OSCAR: David Garrick Celebrity

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