Valentine's Day Greetings

The Kiss - Gustav Klimt

 Love Messenger - Marie Spartali Stillman  
This painting reveals a 'double edged sword' by showing the dependable love and beauty of the goddess Venus in the form of two symbols - a dove and a single red rose. Her love is compared to the unpredictable love of her son Cupid, whose image appears on the embroidery. Cupid holds a bow and arrow, loaded and ready to shoot, but the omens look uncertain as he is blindfolded.

The Kiss - Francesco Hayez 

The Black Brunswicker - John Everett Millais   
It is the eve of the battle at Waterloo, but the soldier's sweetheart, wearing a ball gown, restrains him and tries to push the door closed, whilst he gently but firmly pulls it open.
The Black Brunswickers were a special troop raised by Frederick William Duke of Brunswick (1771-1815) in 1809. The regiment consisted of the best German gentlemen and was known as the ‘Death or Glory’, a name derived from their distinctive death’s head hat badge and their apparent devotion to duty. The troops suffered severe losses at the battle of Quatre Bras, Waterloo in 1815.  Millais used Kate, Charles Dickens daughter, as the model.

The Garden of Love - Peter Paul Rubens 
This painting celebrates Rubens marriage to Helena Fourment, his second wife, who was sixteen years old when they married and Rubens was fiftythree. She was deemed 'the most beautiful women in Antwerp'. In the painting she is shown on the left being nudged along by a cupid.
The scene shows a group of people frolicking around in an idealised garden where cupids carry symbols of marital love including a pair of doves. The fountain showing Venus nursing a baby and a sculpture of the three Graces all signify fertility and nuptial happiness. The peacock symbolises the goddess Juno, protector of marriage.

Love stamp (1973) designed by Robert Indiana - an American artist associated with the pop art movement

The Kiss - Edvard Munch

April Love - Arthur Hughes
A young woman looks down at fallen rose petals as her hidden suitor bends to kiss her hand. The petals symbolise the fragility of young love. 
This painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1856, and following the exhibition it was bought by William Morris. He narrowly beat John Ruskin to the purchase who also desired it
paintings via wiki

Nostalgia

The slightest breeze whisks a host of Rosebay-willow-herb progeny to float off high above our heads

Schools are back, and we have had our first Fine Art Society lecture following the summer break - Edvard Munch: Mother, Mistresses and Models. The talk was by a brilliant speaker who has inspired me to learn more about him and his life. I have never really understood Munch's paintings which predominately seem to be about his preoccupation with the emotions of isolation, melancholy, and despair. 

via

National Gallery, Oslo, Norway

Munch's painting of 'The Scream' is a disturbing image, apparently his intention was to show an anxiety ridden vision of the soul. It is the second most universally recognised painting in the world - no prizes for guessing which is number one!

Making the most of these warm balmy September days

Savouring evening walks before the sun slips below the horizon - a little quicker each night

Like the turning hands on a clock the seasons roll on

The hedgerows and bushes are overflowing with seeds and fruits

There is still colour in the garden

folklore predicts and heralds a harsh winter

following a bountiful season of berries
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I am heading off in a few days to the land of my childhood 

My ballet teacher gave my poor mother the task of dying white towelling brown and then the job of making me this fox outfit. I recall my father spending time pulling bristles out of our yard brush for the whiskers, but sadly neither the whiskers nor my mother's embroidered black snout and green eyes are visible on this old photo.