The Lovers’ Chronicle 19 August – your hands – birth of Madame du Barry – art by Gustave Caillebotte – photography by E. J. Bellocq

19 August 2023 By Rhett 0 In Random

Dear Zazie, Hope you had a good day. Mine was good and can be summed up in three words; chores, readin’, and grillin’. Here is today’s Lovers’ Chronicle from Mac Tag to his muse. Follow us on twitter @cowboycoleridge. Rhett.

The Lovers’ Chronicle

Dear Muse,

need a good riff

to get me goin’

so i think of you

rememberin’

the feel of your hands,

kneadin’ my muscles

so strong, persistent

workin’ out knots,

hurts so good

you know i believe

a woman’s beauty

is in her eyes,

her smile,

and her hands

i miss

when i was in yours

come we to this callin’,

to this callin’ we come,

for the words are full

and the melodies bloom

she sits ‘neath the moonlight a-plaitin’ of her hair,

and i will, with fond request repair, and look upon

her face for in her i find rest to lay my weariness

“How can you live like this?”
it is what keeps me alive
“No, it’s what keeps you alone!”

pale horse
where are you goin’
does your rider know…

wait
the moon will come
please wait,
that i may see
your face by moonlight

rememberin’
your hands

no one else knows,
hears the same songs,
understands the yearnin’,
the sadness, the feelin’s
unrestrained

say you will come

if your words are not good enough
you are not close enough

“Too much solitude
is not good for you.”

oh, i agree

*file under well intended,
not to be followed advice*

lightnin’ on the horizon
screen porch sittin’
torch lights lit
music, a drunken poet
singin’ ’bout the devil
and fallen angels

thunder rumblin’ now
pourin’ more mezcal
rememberin’
your hands…
oh my

another Saturday night

Venus, Mars, and Vulcan, by Tintoretto

On this day in 295 BC, the first temple to Venus, the Roman goddess of love, beauty and fertility, is dedicated by Quintus Fabius Maximus Gurges during the Third Samnite War.

Jeanne Bécu, comtesse du Barry
Madame du Barry by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, 1781

Today is the birthday of Jeanne Bécu, comtesse du Barry (Vaucouleurs 19 August 1743 – 8 December 1793 Paris); the last Maîtresse-en-titre of Louis XV of France and one of the victims of the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution. The officer of the king’s troops, Monsieur de Belleval, described her in his memoirs: “I can still see her carelessly seated or rather reclining in a large easy chair, wearing a white dress with wreaths of roses. She was one of the prettiest women at a court which boasted so many, and the very perfection of her loveliness made her the most fascinating. Her hair, which she often left unpowdered, was of a beautiful golden color and she had so much that she scarcely knew what to do with it all. Her wide blue eyes looked at one with an engaging frankness. She had a straight little nose and a complexion of a dazzling purity. In a word, I like everyone else fell immediately under her charm.”

As I fell immediately under your charm.

Portrait de l’artiste (Self-portrait). c. 1892. Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

Today is the birthday of Gustave Caillebotte (rue du Faubourg-Saint-Denis, Paris ; 19 August 1848 – 21 February 1894 Petit-Gennevilliers); painter, member and patron of the artists known as Impressionists, although he painted in a more realistic manner than many other artists in the group. Caillebotte was noted for his early interest in photography as an art form.

Never married, Cailebotte appears to have had a serious relationship with Charlotte Berthier, a woman eleven years his junior and of the lower class, to whom he left a sizable annuity. Smart man.