Wordless Wednesday
Posted in Art, Jigsaws, Wordless Wednesday on Feb 24th, 2010
Ramblings of a Bookworm
Posted in Art, Jigsaws, Wordless Wednesday on Feb 24th, 2010
Posted in Art, Wordless Wednesday on Aug 5th, 2009
Hosted by Wordless Wednesday
Posted in Art, Art history, Book Reviews, Impressionists, Non-fiction, Paintings, Sue Roe, Support Your Library Challenge 2009 on Apr 21st, 2009
Non-fiction books often take me a while to read and Sue Roe’s The Private Lives of the Impressionists is no exception; not however, because it’s difficult to read or boring, but simply because I decided to read it slowly. The Impressionists were a mixed bunch, including Manet, Monet, Pissarro, Cézanne, Renoir, Degas, Sisley, Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt, and [...]
Posted in Art, Art history, Books, Impressionists, Library Loot, Non-fiction, Thomas Hardy on Mar 14th, 2009
I don’t need to borrow any more books, but I had to go to the library to return The Gargoyle (see here) and of course then I couldn’t leave without at least looking at the books. This week I concentrated on non-fiction as I already have a few novels on the go. I read non-fiction much [...]
Posted in Art, Books, Dante, Dorothy L Sayers, It's Tuesday - Where Are You?, Teaser Tuesdays on Mar 10th, 2009
Today I’m in Dante’s Inferno, an invisible spectator following Dante and Virgil as they make their way down into Hell. Charon, the boatman ferries the dead across the river Acheron to the Hall of Death with the dread words “Lay down all hope, you that go in by me” has let us enter from a word [...]
Posted in Art history, Book Reviews, Fiction, Marina Fiorato on Feb 27th, 2009
I’ve just finished reading Marina Fiorato’s new novel, The Madonna of the Almonds, which will be out on 14 May. It is a love story above all, but there is so much more as well. It’s set in Italy in the 16th century, about a young widow, Simonetta di Saronno, struggling to save her home, who [...]
Posted in Art, It's Tuesday - Where Are You?, Paintings, Teaser Tuesdays on Feb 24th, 2009
Today I’m in Paris in the 1860s with the Impressionists. Paris is overrun with art students wanting to exhibit their paintings in the annual exhibition in the Salon des Beaux Arts. Today it’s 17 May 1863 and everyone is crowded into the exhibition of rejected works called the Salon des Refuses, where people are shocked by the [...]
Posted in Art, Books, Library Loot on Feb 13th, 2009
I went to the library yesterday to pick up a reservation, The Private Lives of the Impressionists by Sue Roe. I’d written about the short course on the Impressionists I’m doing and Litlove recommended this book. It has a lovely front cover showing part of Eugene Manet on the Isle of Wight by Berthe Morisot. [...]
Posted in Art, Books, Impressionists, Sunday Salon on Feb 1st, 2009
A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good.
Samuel Johnson 1709-84
This week I’ve been reading where my inclination took me. I’ve been tempted to re-read old favourites through thinking and writing about the books I read five years ago, particularly the Iris [...]
Posted in Art, Paintings, Pre-Raphaelites on Jun 7th, 2008
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was first formed in the summer of 1848. From the start their work had no common denominator – the painters called “Pre-Raphaelites” were all individual and their paintings show great contrasts. Pre-Raphaelitism cannot be defined; there are as many differences between the paintings as there are similarities. The original members of the [...]