Posts tagged with ‘french’
Another book to add to the must-read list: The Banquet Years: The Origins of the Avant-Garde in France - 1885 to World War I
(via: i12bent)
French symbolist poet, Stéphane Mallarmé: Mar. 18, 1842 - 1898
The Tomb of Edgar Allan Poe
Collected Poems and Other Verse (Oxford World’s Classics)
Such as eternity at last transforms into Himself,
The Poet rouses with two-edged naked sword,
His century terrified at having ignored
Death triumphant in so strange a voice!
They, like a spasm of the Hydra, hearing the angel
Once grant a purer sense to the words of the tribe,
Loudly proclaimed it a magic potion, imbibed
From some tidal brew black, and dishonourable.
If our imagination can carve no bas-relief
From hostile soil and cloud, O grief,
With which to deck Poe’s dazzling sepulchre,
Let your granite at least mark a boundary forever,
Calm block fallen here from some dark disaster,
To dark flights of Blasphemy scattered through the future.(Etching by Gaugain…)
A question for all of my wonderful new readers/followers...
- Who is your favorite author (or literary work) from the late nineteenth century? I would love to know!
Since my post on Rippl-Ronai I’ve been reading more about Les Nabis, and I wanted to share some interesting tid-bits on another artist associated with that group of French avant-gardists: Odilon Redon. Redon gained recognition after the publication of Karl Huysmans’ controversial novel Au Rebours (1884); the novel featured a decadent, aristocratic character who collected Redon’s art work (just a side note: Oscar Wilde’s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray is said to have been inspired by Huysman’s novel).
Huysmans was a fan of Redon’s work, and he recounted his impressions of the artist’s surreal imaginings: “These drawings defied classification; unheeding, for the most part, of the limitations of painting, they ushered in a very special type of the fantastic, one born of sickness and delirium.” After the publication of Huysmans’ novel, Redon became closely associated with the Decadent movement in Europe.
Initially, Redon worked only in black charcoal, which gave his pieces a macabre, nightmarish quality. In his early career, he depicted bizarre creatures with large heads and black, penetrating eyes. His style changed dramatically in the 1890’s when he turned to bright pastels and began to favor still-lifes and portraits. Despite the change in style, Redon’s work remained innovative, and many of the early twentieth century surrealists counted Redon among their precursors.
There are several excellent books out there on Redon’s work, including: Beyond The Visible: The Art Of Odilon Redon
World’s First Underwater Photo
The first underwater camera system was developed by French scientist Louis Boutan in 1893.
(via thehistoryprofessor)
Train wreck in Montparnasse, Paris 1895.
(via: fuckyeahvictorians: sepia-tinted: my-ear-trumpet: savvysilvi: onmyowntwohands)
Dissection Room at a Medical School, Bordeaux, France, 1890
Photographer unknown, Gelatin silver print
The study of anatomy separated laypersons from physicians. The public was excluded from the anatomy hall, which was the inner sanctum of physicians. This photograph comes from a type of formal album produced at the end of the 19th century. Such albums heralded the rise of medical schools and hospitals as places of learning and healing.
From A Morning’s Work: Medical Photographs from the Burns Archive & Collection, 1843-1939
(via: sealmaiden:liquidnight)
Jeune Fille Lissant, 1886. By Théodore Roussel.
Ah, the French. They certainly excel at the art of leisure…
Reynaud: Autour d’une cabine (1895).
This is an early animated cartoon!
“Reynaud devised an elaborate variation of the Magic Lantern projector with the background on a static glass slide, and the moving figures painted on gelatin, mounted in individual casings arranged on a sprocketed belt much like the perforations of film. The belt was hand cranked and this large-scale slide show was projected to audiences from behind a translucent screen.” (via).
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