The Lovers’ Chronicle 11 May – your presence – art by Jean-Léon Gérôme, Karl Pärsimägi & Salvador Dali – birth of Irving Berlin

11 May 2024 By Rhett 0 In Love, Random

Dear Zazie, Today’s Lovers’ Chronicle from Mac Tag to his muse. Check us out on Twitter @cowboycoleridge. Rhett

The Lovers’ Chronicle

Dear Muse,

under the night lights
on Peachtree
under the Atlanta sun
drivin’ with the top down
since you

everything else
feels long ago

so much discovered

the words, us

were we chosen
were we sent
one for the other

we will not know but this
what matters is our presence

there is no

right or wrong answer

this is just the way it is

your presence

either near or far

has been the force

one of the few constants,

comin’ up on ten years

whether

i was chosen,

or you were sent

i do not know

and it matters not

what does,

are these words

spin the totem…

in the bedroom we shared,

walkin’ over to the bed,

pickin’ up your pillow,

pressin’ it to my face

and breathin’ in

your presence,

floodin’ senses

feelin’ lightheaded

sittin’ on the bed

alone with anguish

but there are no tears

life has wrenched them away

azaleas in the sun
dogwoods bloomin’ neath
the Carolina blue sky

was it that long ago
to use the word saved,
is no exaggeration

so much discovered
the words, myself, you

but you
just as suddenly found
then suddenly gone

at least i have the words
you left behind

I was alone today in a car with a dark-haired beautiful woman. The first time I have been alone with a beautiful woman since… It was overwhelmin’. Her perfume was makin’ my head swim. It was intoxicatin’. I yearned so to touch her. I wanted her to touch me; to hold me. It made me dream again…

walkin’ into the bedroom,
the bedroom they had shared
he could still smell her perfume

rememberin’ when they talked
about wearin’ pajamas to bed
she considered wearin’ anything
more than a few drops
of Chanel No. 5
to be overdressed

walkin’ over to the bed,
pickin’ up her pillow
he pressed it to his face
and breathed in deeply
he was awash with her

her presence,
flooded his senses
he felt lightheaded
and sat on the bed
alone with his anguish

but there were no tears
life had wrenched them away

Today is the birthday of Jean-Léon Gérôme (Vesoul, Haute-Saone 11 May 1824 – 10 January 1904 Paris); painter and sculptor in the style now known as Academicism. The range of his oeuvre included historical painting, Greek mythology, Orientalism, portraits, and other subjects. In my opinion, one of the most important painters from this academic period. In addition to being a painter, he was also a teacher with a long list of students.

Gallery


Photo by Nadar

Jean-Léon Gérôme.

Pygmalion et Galatée (1890), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

“The Harem Bathing”

Après le bain

Pollice Verso (1872), which popularized the “thumbs down” gesture. Oil on canvas, Phoenix Art Museum.

Truth Rising from her well, 1896

The Duel After the Masquerade (ca. 1857–59) depicts a duel after a costume ball in Bois de Boulogne, Paris. The Walters Art Museum

The Cockfight (1846); now in the Musée d’Orsay, Paris

The Tulip Folly (1882) represents “tulipomania” in the Netherlands. Soldiers were ordered to trample the flowerbeds in an effort to stabilize the market. The Walters Art Museum

Tanagra, 1890

The Death of Caesar (1867), (Walters Art Museum), depicts the assassination in the Theatre of Pompey on the Ides of March

Phryne before the Areopagus, 1861
Napoleon in Egypt, ca. 1863, Princeton University Art Museum
Summer Afternoon on a Lake, ca. 1895
Diogenes (1860), Walters Art Museum
Reception of Le Grand Condé at Versailles (1878)
On the Desert. The Walters Art Museum
Harem baths
Heads of the Rebel Beys at the Mosque of El Hasanein, Cairo, 1866
Arnaut Blowing Smoke in His Dog’s Nose
“Young Greeks at the Mosque” (Jean-Léon Gérôme, oil on canvas, 1865); this oil painting portrays Greek Muslim recruits into the Ottoman Janissary corps at prayer in a mosque.
Arnaut Smoking, 1865

Today is the birthday of Irving Berlin (born Israel Isidore Baline, Russia, May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989 New York City); composer and lyricist, in my opinion, one of the greatest songwriters in American history. His music forms a significant part of the Great American Songbook. His compositions include; “Alexander’s Ragtime Band”, “White Christmas”, “There’s No Business Like Show Business”, “God Bless America”, “When I Lost You”, “Blue Skies”, “Puttin’ on the Ritz”, “Anything You Can Do”, “Cheek to Cheek”, and “Always”.

When I Lost You

The roses each one
Met with the sun
Sweetheart when I met you
The sunshine had fled
The roses were dead
Sweetheart when I lost you

I lost the sunshine and roses
I lost the heavens of blue
I lost the beautiful rainbow
I lost the morning dew
I lost the angel who gave me
Summer, the whole winter through
I lost the gladness that turned into sadness
When I lost you

The birds ceased their song
Right turned to wrong
Sweetheart when I lost you
A day turned to years
The world seemed in tears
Sweetheart when I lost you

Blue Skies

Blue skies looking at me
Nothing but blue skies do I see

Bluebirds singing a song
Nothing but bluebirds from now on

I never saw the sun shining so bright
Never saw things goin’ so right
Noticing the days hurrying by
When you’re in love, my, my, how they fly

Blue days, all of them gone
Nothing but blue skies from now on

Looking at me

Blue skies looking at me
Nothing but blue skies do I see

Bluebirds singing a song
Nothing but bluebirds from now on

I never saw the sun shining so bright
Never saw things goin’ so right
Noticing the days hurrying by
When you’re in love, my, my, how they fly

Blue days, all of them gone
Nothing but blue skies
Nothing but blue skies
Blue skies, blue, blue skies
Nothing but blue skies from now on

Always

Everything went wrong,
And the whole day long
I’d feel so blue.
For the longest while
I’d forget to smile,
Then I met you.
Now that my blue days have passed,
Now that I’ve found you at last –

I’ll be loving you always
With a love that’s true always.
When the things you’ve planned
Need a helping hand,
I will understand always.

Always.

Days may not be fair always,
That’s when I’ll be there always.
Not for just an hour,
Not for just a day,
Not for just a year,
But always.

I’ll be loving you, oh always
With a love that’s true always.
When the things you’ve planned
Need a helping hand,
I will understand always.

Always.

Days may not be fair always,
That’s when Ill be there always.
Not for just an hour,
Not for just a day,
Not for just a year,
But always.

Not for just an hour,
Not for just a day,
Not for just a year,
But always.

For non-commercial use only.

Today is the birthday of Karl Pärsimägi (11 May 1902, Oe, Antsla Parish, Estonia – 27 July 1942, Auschwitz); Fauvist painter.In 1919, he participated in the Estonian War of Independence and was awarded a medal. After that, against his father’s wishes, he went to Tartu to enroll at the new “Pallas Art School” which was known for promoting modern art. In addition to the newer styles, such as Fauvism, he found himself influenced by Estonian folk art and by Konrad Mägi, who was a teacher there. He also studied with Ado Vabbe and Nikolai Triik and, in 1923, made a study trip to Germany. That same year, he held his first exhibition. He interrupted his training several times, to visit the family farm and paint landscapes.

In 1937, he moved to Paris, with the financial support of his father, who had finally become reconciled to his son’s career choice. While there, he studied at the Académie Colarossi and came under the influence of Paul Cézanne, although he became known as the “Estonian Matisse”. At the outbreak of World War II, unlike most other Baltic artists, he refused to return to his homeland, which was now occupied by the Russians.

In 1941, he was arrested by the Gestapo and taken to Auschwitz by way of Drancy internment camp. The reasons for his arrest remain unclear. He was not Jewish but, perhaps, had been trying to help a Jewish friend or was active in the Resistance. Sexual orientation has also been cited as a possible motive. He was put to death the following year.

Gallery

Self-portrait (c.1930)

Seated Woman in a Blue Dress

Portrait of a Woman

Lying Nude
Woman Reading
Girl at the Window
In the Park
Interior
An Axe in the Moon

Today is the birthday of Salvador Dalí (Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, 1st Marquis of Dalí de Púbol; Figueres, Catalonia, Spain; 11 May 1904 – 23 January 1989 Figueres); surrealist painter.

Dalí was a skilled draftsman, best known for the striking and bizarre images in his surrealist work. His painterly skills are often attributed to the influence of Renaissance masters. Perhaps his best-known work, The Persistence of Memory, was completed in August 1931. Dalí’s expansive artistic repertoire included film, sculpture, and photography, at times in collaboration with a range of artists in a variety of media.

Dalí attributed his “love of everything that is gilded and excessive, my passion for luxury and my love of oriental clothes” to an “Arab lineage”, claiming that his ancestors were descendants of the Moors. He was highly imaginative, and also enjoyed indulging in unusual and grandiose behavior.

After living together since 1929, Dalí married Gala in a civil ceremony in 1934, and remarried in a Catholic ceremony in 1958 in the Pyrenean hamlet of Montrejic. They needed to receive a special dispensation by the Pope because Gala had been previously married and she was a believer (not Catholic, but was an Orthodox Christian). Dalí was said to have been a virgin when they met on the Costa Brava in 1929. She was Dalí’s muse, directly inspiring and appearing in many of his works.

In the early 1930s, Dalí started to sign his paintings with his and her name as “(i)t is mostly with your blood, Gala, that I paint my pictures”. He stated that Gala acted as his agent, and aided in redirecting his focus. According to most accounts, Gala had a strong libido and throughout her life had numerous extramarital affairs (among them with her former husband Paul Éluard), which Dalí encouraged, since he was a practitioner of candaulism. She had a fondness for young artists, and in her old age she often gave expensive gifts to those who associated with her.

In 1968, Dalí bought Gala the Castle of Púbol, Girona, where she would spend time every summer from 1971 to 1980. He also agreed not to visit there without getting advance permission from her in writing.

Gallery