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Artwork Postcard entitled Gibraltar from La Linea c.1860, though artist not credited.
Ferma Postcard in collection, bought 1986
Entitled The Runner, this 2006 mural on Rossville Street in Derry shows a young boy running after the British Army set off tear gas on Bloody Sunday.
An exhibition entitled “PolandIn.” was held on the sidelines of the Assemblies of WIPO Member States, which met from September 24 to October 2, 2018.
It showcased the most important, most modern, and – in many cases – also iconic achievements of Polish technical know-how and design. WIPO co-organized the event with the Patent Office of the Republic of Poland and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland.
Copyright: WIPO. Photo: Violaine Martin. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 IGO License.
The education kit entitled “Riskland: the fun way to learn how to prevent disasters” is the outcome of a joint initiative between the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). This product was developed at the end of 2002 by the ISDR Regional Unit for Latin America and the Caribbean, in cooperation with UNICEF Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean (UNICEF-TACRO). Initially, it was addressed for countries in the LAC region and was originally produced in Spanish, English and Portuguese.
Riesgolandia, aprendamos jugando cómo prevenir desastres tiene la intención de poner a disposición de la comunidad educativa y a los niños y las niñas de América Latina y el Caribe una herramienta innovadora e interactiva para la reducción del riesgo de desastres.
Entitled 'My favourite places and spaces' the competition was based around 'Reminiscences of Childhood' - Dylan Thomas’ classic recollection of the sights and sounds of his childhood.
Following in the footsteps of Dylan, the competition asked pupils to submit a short story, poem or picture depicting their own favourite places and spaces.
Participating schools were provided with a fascinating insight into the Swansea writer’s story through animated performances of the piece by actor Mark Montinaro and word-based workshops with Dylan Day Coordinator and poet Mab Jones.
Mae'r gystadleuaeth - 'Fy Hoff Leoliadau A Lleoedd' - yn seiliedig ar raglen radio Dylan Thomas, Remininscences of Childhood - Dylan Thomas cofio clasurol o golygfeydd a synau ei blentyndod
Gan ddilyn yn olion troed Dylan Thomas, fel rhan o'r gystadleuaeth bu'n rhaid i ddisgyblion gyflwyno stori fer, cerdd neu lun o'u hoff leoedd a mannau.
Rhoddwyd mewnwelediad cyfareddol i stori'r ysgrifennwr o Abertawe i'r ysgolion a gymerodd ran, trwy berfformiadau animeiddiedig o'r darn gan yr actor Mark Montinaro a gweithdai'n seiliedig ar eiriau gyda Chydlynydd Diwrnod Dylan a'r bardd Mab Jones.
Perhaps I should have entitled this photo "Why did the turtle cross the road?"
This is a "Common Snapping Turtle" (Chelydra serpentina), which I happened upon as I made my way from 0800 Mass this morning.
After I made this pic, I picked it (I'm not certain of the sex) up and threw it in the creek running alongside the road. As I turned my Jeep around, I noticed a nearby resident walking out with her camera. She said she also was going to photograph it and ensure it didn't turn into road kill.
The Alligator Snapping Turtle is most easily distinguished from the Common Snapping Turtle by the presence of "horns" or spiny-like protrusions on its shell. As you can see, this one has none.
This website is an excellent resource on Snapping Turtles: www.chelydra.org/common_alligator_snapping_turtle.html
the title of this photo was inspired by lyrics to the chapter in your life entitled san francisco by the lucksmiths
photos taken at San Joaquin Reservoir. All images taken with Canon 5D Mark III and Canon 400mm 5.6 L
©2013 Anthony Gliozzo - All Rights Reserved
Press "L" to Land here
This Piece is entitled One Good Friend. i tried to evoke the deep
feeling between the girl and the dog, a kind of dog.kind of fantasy creature. I ve left some sketch lines, this is one of the study for atmospheres and style.
Hope you like. Made in Photoshop on about 1 hour.
Let me know ;) thank you!
Entitled the 'Out of Nothing' series, due to myself and my model wanting to do a collaborated project literally out of nothing, or for as free as we could possibly get it.
Model - Stacey Bournes
CNP President Dr. Stephen Flynn testified before the Ad Hoc Subcommittee on State, Local, and Private Sector Preparedness and Integration of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in a hearing entitled: "The Next Big Disaster: Is the Private Sector Prepared?"
Gyptian has a new album entitled I Can Feel Your Pain. On Tuesday October 21, 2008, we attended Gyptian’s album launch party, at Element (nightclub), New York City. This event was brought to the world by Rhona Fox, Inc. and VP Records.
Find them here:
VP Records: www.VPRecords.com
Rhona Fox, Inc: www.RhonaFox.com
Revenge Entertainment
Celebrate life with revenge.
Team Revenge
Revenge Media, Inc.
Bare entertainment
entitled "unemployee of the month", released 7/15
A design for those who cannot be labeled as employed, whether by choice or not. Those individuals get the "unemployee of the month" award.
Buy it here:
www.orangemoonapparel.com/store/oma.cgi/oma.orangemoonapp...
entitled "her eyes," released 8/20
Known for her incredible acting talent and her hypnotizing eyes... a silhouette of Ms. Davis.
Buy it here: www.orangemoonapparel.com/store/oma.cgi/oma.orangemoonapp...
The education kit entitled “Riskland: the fun way to learn how to prevent disasters” is the outcome of a joint initiative between the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). This product was developed at the end of 2002 by the ISDR Regional Unit for Latin America and the Caribbean, in cooperation with UNICEF Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean (UNICEF-TACRO). Initially, it was addressed for countries in the LAC region and was originally produced in Spanish, English and Portuguese.
Riesgolandia, aprendamos jugando cómo prevenir desastres tiene la intención de poner a disposición de la comunidad educativa y a los niños y las niñas de América Latina y el Caribe una herramienta innovadora e interactiva para la reducción del riesgo de desastres.
For three decades, this sculpture stood in the plaza of the World Trade Center. Entitled "The Sphere", it was conceived by artist Fritz Koenig as a symbol of world peace. It was damaged during the tragic events of September 11, 2001, but endures as an icon of hope and the indestructible spirit of this country. The Sphere was placed here on March 11, 2002 as a temporary memorial to all who lost their lives in the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center.
New York, USA: An overview of the room during a side event entitled "Gender statistics and monitoring tools for agriculture and food security" organized by FAO and IFAD at the UN headquarters in New York City on 13 March, 2015.
Photo credit must be given: ©FAO/Sudeshna Chowdhury. Editorial use only. Copyright ©FAO
My series entitled "Soul Paintings" focuses on the practice of inviting the divine into my work by modifying the levels of my consciousness through prayer and meditation. I call this series "Soul Paintings" because I believe that the love and light of God is alive in each of us, and through my work and attunement with my spirit and soul I may better use my artwork to honor Creation and possibly help others pacify the beast within.
RM Cotton is an award-winning full-time artist based out of Savannah, Georgia. To see more of her work or read her blog, visit Rachel's Site
An exhibition entitled “PolandIn.” was held on the sidelines of the Assemblies of WIPO Member States, which met from September 24 to October 2, 2018.
It showcased the most important, most modern, and – in many cases – also iconic achievements of Polish technical know-how and design. WIPO co-organized the event with the Patent Office of the Republic of Poland and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland.
Copyright: WIPO. Photo: Violaine Martin. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 IGO License.
Our activity was entitled "Saca la Bici por 350" and was organized by the
EcoClub of the Maxei School, Saca la Bici Group and by the biking school
PoliBikes. People were invited to ride their bikes on one of the main streets of
the city of Querétaro, closed to normal traffic every Sunday to encourage the
use of the bikes as an alternative to cars. In addition, some tree seedlings
were donated and the use of a solar oven and solar heaters were demonstrated.
El EcoClub de la Escuela Maxei junto con el Grupo Saca La Bici y la Escuela de
Ciclismo Polibikes organizaron el evento "Saca La Bici por 350". Invitaron a
los ciudadanos de Querétaro a participar en un paseo en bicicleta en la
"BiciVía" de la calle Constituyentes. Este paseo en bicicleta fue una forma de
concientizar a las personas sobre la necesidad de reducir las emisiones de
bióxido de carbono por los vehículos automotrices y se proporcionó información
sobre las múltiples formas de contribuir a disminuir los efectos del cambio
climático.
This multimedia piece, entitled America's NEO-CON-MEN was created on July 4th, 2008 and was selected to be a part of the Bay6 Gallery and Studios one night show during the Netroots Nation Conference on Saturday, July 19th, entitled Blogging from the Right Side of the Brain. The event was attended by political writers and Netroots Nation participants across the nation who were visiting Austin during that week.
About this piece: America's NEO-CON-MEN is about exposing the true nature of those who have been instrumental in appropriating our government, stealing our basic liberties via shredding our constitution, and dividing the land that was supposed to be by and for the people through petty partisanship and subterfuge in a mad attempt at fulfilling the last crusade. They have taken our proud republic, land of the free and home of the brave, and sold our core values to the highest bidder; enslaving us to corporate entities who grind our bones and our very life's blood beneath their boot heels without recourse or remorse. They have turned the American Dream inside out, removing the checks and balances that were carefully put in place by our forefathers to separate us from tyranny, all the while enshrouded with stars and stripes and hefting the golden cross. Only by revealing their hypocrisy can we reclaim the power that was invested and entrusted in their lofty positions. At the top center is a photo of a real bald eagle who broke its beak and was starving to death, unable to feed itself, until an engineer designed the prosthetic beak shown and grafted it to the animal. The eagle has made a full recovery from this act of creativity and compassion. I can think of no greater metaphor for our the current state of our democracy, and you and I are that beak.
Entitled Canavi.vn, an online recruitment provider for women, the online hub is the brainchild of RMIT Vietnam Bachelor of Commerce alumnus Nguyen Hoang Hai.
New Deal mural entitled "Monterey Bay" painted by Henrietta Shore in 1937. The mural is currently in the Postmaster's office on the front wall of the post office. The postmaster is happy to allow folks in to see the mural. He does not know why the mural is now in his office. He did say that at one time the mural was covered by paneling--there are nail holes in the mural that testify to this. He said it was discovered when there was an electrical problem and the workers removed the paneling and found the mural beneath. My theory is that when the lobby was renovated, it left no place to install the mural so it was put on the wall in the Postmaster's office.
New Deal mural entitled "Mining Village" painted by Stevan Dohanos in 1939. The mural was slated to be installed in the Huntington post office but the locals deemed it too depressing. It was then offered to the Logan, WV post office but declined. It finally was placed in the Forestry Building in Elkins. A second mural depicting a forest tower was painted as a compromise.
19th century set of picture blocks entitled The New Pictorial Alphabet of Birds on Blocks, in a wooden box with a sliding lid. Altogether there are 35 rectangular wooden blocks, with a colour printed illustration on one side, mainly of birds, and the letter of the alphabet printed on the other in capitals. Made by W Peacock, London.
The illustrations are; albatross, bustard, cockatoo, duck, eagle, fowls, goose, hornbill, indian adjatant, jay, kingfisher, lark, magpie, nightingale, ostrich, peacock, quail, robin, swan, turkey, umbrella bird, vulture, woodpecker, an anonymous bird for x and z, and a yellowhammer. There are also 5 blocks with the alphabet split between them on the back, with illustrations of a race, a butterfly, hoop, going home and the ride and 2 blocks with numbers on illustrated with pigs and a goat ride, and 2 blocks with words on illustrated with a Newfoundland dog and feeding chickens.
HMCMS: CRH1972.5.7
DPABRV26
The Postcard
A postally unused postcard that was published by Muse Productions of Stroud and printed in England by Cotswold Printing.
The following information is provided on the divided back of the card:
'James McNeill Whistler
1834 - 1903.
Convalescent or Petit Déjeuner;
Note in opal 1883 - 1884.
Watercolour on white paper.
26 cm x 18 cm
Private Collection.
Tate Gallery, London 1994
Musée d'Orsay, Paris 1995
National Gallery of Art, Washington 1995.'
James McNeill Whistler
James Abbott McNeill Whistler RBA, who was born in 1834, was an American painter in oils and watercolor, and printmaker, active during the American Gilded Age, and based primarily in the United Kingdom.
He eschewed sentimentality and moral allusion in painting, and was a leading proponent of "art for art's sake".
James' signature for his paintings took the shape of a stylized butterfly with an added long stinger for a tail.
The symbol combined both aspects of his personality: his art is marked by a subtle delicacy, while his public persona was combative.
He found a parallel between painting and music, and entitled many of his paintings "arrangements", "harmonies", and "nocturnes", emphasizing the primacy of tonal harmony.
Whistler's most famous painting, Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1 (1871), commonly known as Whistler's Mother, is a revered and often parodied portrait of motherhood.
Whistler influenced the art world and the broader culture of his time with his aesthetic theories and his friendships with other leading artists and writers.
-- James Abbott Whistler - The Early Years
James Abbott Whistler was born in Lowell, Massachusetts on the 10th. July 1834, the first child of Anna McNeill Whistler and George Washington Whistler. He was the elder brother of Confederate surgeon William McNeill Whistler.
In later years, Whistler played up his mother's connection to the American South and its roots, and he presented himself as an impoverished Southern aristocrat, although it remains unclear to what extent he truly sympathized with the Southern cause during the American Civil War.
He adopted his mother's maiden name after she died, using it as an additional middle name.
James' father was a railroad engineer, and Anna was his second wife. James lived the first three years of his life in a modest house at 243 Worthen Street in Lowell, Massachusetts. The house is now the Whistler House Museum of Art, a museum dedicated to him.
James claimed St. Petersburg, Russia as his birthplace during the Ruskin trial:
"I shall be born when and where I want,
and I do not choose to be born in Lowell."
Whistler was a moody child, prone to fits of temper and insolence, and he often drifted into periods of laziness after bouts of illness. His parents discovered that drawing often settled him down and helped to focus his attention.
The family moved from Lowell to Stonington, Connecticut in 1837, where his father worked for the Stonington Railroad. Three of the couple's children died in infancy during this period.
Their fortunes improved considerably in 1839 when his father became chief engineer for the Boston & Albany Railroad, and the family built a mansion in Springfield, Massachusetts, where the Wood Museum of History now stands.
-- James Whistler in Russia and England
The family lived in Springfield until they left the United States for Russia in late 1842 when James' father was recruited by Nicholas I of Russia to design a railroad in Russia.
The Emperor had learned of George Whistler's ingenuity in engineering the Canton Viaduct for the Boston & Albany Railroad, and he offered him a position to engineer the railway from Saint Petersburg to Moscow.
After moving to St. Petersburg, the young Whistler took private art lessons, then enrolled in the Imperial Academy of Arts at the age of eleven.
The young artist followed the traditional curriculum of drawing from plaster casts and occasional live models, revelled in the atmosphere of art talk with older peers, and pleased his parents with a first-class mark in anatomy.
In 1844, he met the noted artist Sir William Allan, who came to Russia with a commission to paint a history of the life of Peter the Great. Whistler's mother noted in her diary:
"The great artist remarked to me: 'Your
little boy has uncommon genius, but do
not urge him beyond his inclination.'"
In 1847–1848, James' family spent some time in London with relatives, while his father stayed in Russia. Whistler's brother-in-law Francis Haden, a physician who was also an artist, spurred his interest in art and photography. Haden took Whistler to visit collectors and to lectures, and gave him a watercolour set with instruction.
Whistler already was imagining an art career. He began to collect books on art, and he studied other artists' techniques. When his portrait was painted by Sir William Boxall in 1848, the young Whistler exclaimed that:
"The portrait is very much like me, and
a very fine picture. Mr. Boxall is a beautiful
colourist... It is a beautiful creamy surface,
and looks so rich."
In his blossoming enthusiasm for art, at fifteen, he informed his father by letter of his future direction:
"I hope, dear father, you will
not object to my choice."
His father, however, died from cholera at the age of 49, and the Whistler family moved back to his mother's home town of Pomfret, Connecticut.
The family lived frugally and managed to get by on a limited income. James' art plans remained vague, and his future uncertain. His cousin reported that Whistler at that time was:
"... slight, with a pensive, delicate face,
shaded by soft brown curls... he had a
somewhat foreign appearance and
manner, which, aided by natural abilities,
made him very charming, even at that
age."
-- Whistler at West Point
Whistler was sent to Christ Church Hall School with his mother's hopes that he would become a minister. Whistler was seldom without his sketchbook, and was popular with his classmates for his caricatures.
However, it became clear that a career in religion did not suit him, so he applied to the United States Military Academy at West Point, where his father had taught drawing and other relatives had attended.
James was admitted to the highly selective institution in July 1851 on the strength of his family name, despite his extreme nearsightedness and poor health history.
However, during his three years there, his grades were barely satisfactory, and he was a sorry sight at drill and dress, known as "Curly" for his hair length which exceeded regulations.
Whistler bucked authority, spouted sarcastic comments, and racked up demerits. Colonel Robert E Lee was the West Point Superintendent and, after considerable indulgence toward Whistler, he had no choice but to dismiss the young cadet.
Whistler's major accomplishment at West Point was learning drawing and map making from American artist Robert W. Weir.
James' departure from West Point seems to have been precipitated by a failure in a chemistry exam where he was asked to describe silicon. He began by saying:
"Silicon is a gas."
As Whistler himself put it later:
"If silicon were a gas, I would
have been a general one day".
-- Whistler's First Job
After West Point, Whistler worked as draftsman mapping the entire U.S. coast for military and maritime purposes. However he found the work boring, and was frequently late or absent.
James spent much of his free time playing billiards and idling about, was always broke, and although a charmer, had little acquaintance with women.
After it was discovered that he was drawing sea serpents, mermaids, and whales on the margins of the maps, he was transferred to the etching division of the United States Coast Survey. He lasted there only two months, but he learned the etching technique which later proved valuable to his career.
At this point, Whistler firmly decided that art would be his future. For a few months he lived in Baltimore with a wealthy friend, Tom Winans, who even furnished Whistler with a studio and some spending cash.
The young artist made some valuable contacts in the art community and also sold some early paintings to Winans. Whistler turned down his mother's suggestions for other more practical careers, and informed her that with money from Winans, he was setting out to further his art training in Paris. Whistler never returned to the United States.
-- Whistler's Art Study in France
Whistler arrived in Paris in 1855, rented a studio in the Latin Quarter, and quickly adopted the life of a bohemian artist. Whistler preferred self-study and enjoyed the café life. Soon he had a French girlfriend, a dressmaker named Héloise.
He studied traditional art methods for a short time at the École Impériale and at the atelier of Charles Gleyre. The latter was a great advocate of the work of Ingres, and impressed Whistler with two principles that he used for the rest of his career: that line is more important than color, and that black is the fundamental color of tonal harmony.
Twenty years later, the Impressionists would largely overthrow this philosophy, banning black and brown as "forbidden colors," and emphasizing color over form.
While letters from home reported his mother's efforts at economy, Whistler spent freely, sold little or nothing in his first year in Paris, and was in steady debt.
To relieve the situation, he took to painting and selling copies from works at the Louvre, and finally moved to cheaper quarters. As luck would have it, the arrival in Paris of George Lucas, another rich friend, helped stabilize Whistler's finances for a while. In spite of a financial respite, the winter of 1857 was a difficult one for Whistler. His poor health, made worse by excessive smoking and drinking, laid him low.
Conditions improved however during the summer of 1858. Whistler recovered and traveled with fellow artist Ernest Delannoy through France and the Rhineland. He later produced a group of etchings known as "The French Set", with the help of French master printer Auguste Delâtre.
During that year, he painted his first self-portrait, Portrait of Whistler with Hat, a dark and thickly rendered work reminiscent of Rembrandt. However the event of greatest consequence that year was his friendship with Henri Fantin-Latour, whom he met at the Louvre.
Through Henri, Whistler was introduced to the circle of Gustave Courbet, which included Carolus-Duran (later the teacher of John Singer Sargent), Alphonse Legros, and Édouard Manet.
Also in this group was Charles Baudelaire, whose ideas and theories of "modern" art influenced Whistler. Baudelaire challenged artists to scrutinize the brutality of life and nature, and to portray it faithfully, avoiding the old themes of mythology and allegory.
Théophile Gautier, one of the first to explore translation qualities among art and music, may have inspired Whistler to view art in musical terms.
-- Whistler in London
Reflecting his adopted circle's banner of the Realism art movement, Whistler painted his first exhibited work, La Mère Gérard in 1858. He followed it by painting At the Piano in 1859 in London, which he adopted as his home, while also regularly visiting friends in France.
At the Piano is a portrait composed of his niece and her mother in their London music room, an effort which clearly displayed his talent and promise. A critic wrote:
"Despite a recklessly bold manner and
sketchiness of the wildest and roughest
kind, it has a genuine feeling for colour
and a splendid power of composition
and design, which evince a just
appreciation of nature very rare amongst
artists."
The work is unsentimental, and effectively contrasts the mother in black and the daughter in white, with other colors kept restrained in the manner advised by his teacher Gleyre. It was displayed at the Royal Academy the following year, and in many exhibitions to come.
In a second painting executed in the same room, Whistler demonstrated his natural inclination toward innovation and novelty by fashioning a genre scene with unusual composition and foreshortening. It later was re-titled Harmony in Green and Rose: The Music Room. This painting also demonstrated Whistler's ongoing work pattern, especially with portraits: a quick start, major adjustments, a period of neglect, then a final flurry at the finish.
After a year in London, James produced a set of etchings in 1860 called Thames Set, as counterpoint to his 1858 French set, as well as some early impressionistic work including The Thames in Ice.
At this stage, he was beginning to establish his technique of tonal harmony based on a limited, predetermined palette.
-- Whistler's Early Career
In 1861, after returning to Paris for a time, Whistler painted his first famous work, Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl. The portrait of his mistress and business manager Joanna Hiffernan was created as a simple study in white.
However, others saw it differently. The critic Jules-Antoine Castagnary thought the painting an allegory of a new bride's lost innocence. Others linked it to Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White, a popular novel of the time, or various other literary sources.
In England, some considered it a painting in the Pre-Raphaelite manner. In the painting, Hiffernan holds a lily in her left hand and stands upon a wolf skin rug (interpreted by some to represent masculinity and lust) with the wolf's head staring menacingly at the viewer.
The portrait was refused for exhibition at the conservative Royal Academy, but was shown in a private gallery under the title The Woman in White.
In 1863, it was shown at the Salon des Refusés in Paris, an event sponsored by Emperor Napoleon III for the exhibition of works rejected by the Salon.
Whistler's painting was widely noticed, although upstaged by Manet's more shocking painting Le déjeuner sur l'herbe. Countering criticism by traditionalists, Whistler's supporters insisted that the painting was "an apparition with a spiritual content," and that it epitomized his theory that art should be concerned essentially with the arrangement of colors in harmony, not with a literal portrayal of the natural world.
Two years later, Whistler painted another portrait of Hiffernan in white, this time displaying his newfound interest in Asian motifs, which he entitled The Little White Girl.
His Lady of the Land Lijsen and The Golden Screen, both completed in 1864, again portray his mistress, in even more emphatic Asian dress and surroundings.
During this period Whistler became close to Gustave Courbet, the early leader of the French realist school, but when Hiffernan modeled in the nude for Courbet, Whistler became enraged and his relationship with Hiffernan began to fall apart.
In January 1864, Whistler's very religious and very proper mother arrived in London, upsetting her son's bohemian existence and temporarily increasing family tensions. As he wrote to Henri Fantin-Latour:
"General upheaval!! I had to empty my
house and purify it from cellar to eaves."
James also immediately moved Hiffernan to another location.
From 1866, Whistler made his home in Chelsea, London, an area popular with artists, firstly in Cheyne Walk, then an ill-fated move to Tite Street, and finally Upper Church Street.
-- Whistler's Later Career
In 1866, Whistler decided to visit Valparaíso, Chile, a journey that has puzzled scholars, although Whistler stated that he did it for political reasons. Chile was at war with Spain, and perhaps Whistler thought it a heroic struggle of a small nation against a larger one, but no evidence supports that theory.
What the journey did produce was Whistler's first three nocturnal paintings (which he originally termed "moonlights"): night scenes of the harbor painted with a blue or light green palette.
After he returned to London, James painted several more nocturnes over the next ten years, many of the River Thames and of Cremorne Gardens, a pleasure park famous for its frequent fireworks displays, which presented a novel challenge to paint.
In his maritime nocturnes, Whistler used highly thinned paint as a ground with lightly flicked color to suggest ships, lights, and shore line. Some of the Thames paintings also show compositional and thematic similarities with the Japanese prints of Hiroshige.
In 1872, Whistler credited his patron Frederick Leyland, an amateur musician devoted to Chopin, for his musically inspired titles:
"I say I can't thank you too much for the name
'Nocturne' as a title for my moonlights! You have
no idea what an irritation it proves to the critics
and consequent pleasure to me—besides it is
really so charming and does so poetically say
all that I want to say and no more than I wish!"
At that point, Whistler painted another self-portrait and entitled it Arrangement in Gray: Portrait of the Painter (circa 1872). He also began to re-title many of his earlier works using terms associated with music, such as a "nocturne", "symphony", "harmony", "study" or "arrangement", to emphasize the tonal qualities and the composition, and to de-emphasize the narrative content.
Whistler's nocturnes were among his most innovative works. Furthermore, his submission of several nocturnes to art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel after the Franco-Prussian War gave Whistler the opportunity to explain his evolving "theory in art" to artists, buyers, and critics in France.
His good friend Fantin-Latour, growing more reactionary in his opinions, especially in his negativity concerning the emerging Impressionist school, found Whistler's new works surprising and confounding. Fantin-Latour admitted:
"I don't understand anything there;
it's bizarre how one changes. I don't
recognize him anymore."
Their relationship was nearly at an end by then, but they continued to share opinions in occasional correspondence.
When Edgar Degas invited Whistler to exhibit with the first show by the Impressionists in 1874, Whistler turned down the invitation, as did Manet, and some scholars attributed this in part to Fantin-Latour's influence on both men.
-- Whistler's Portraits
The Franco-Prussian War of 1870 fragmented the French art community. Many artists took refuge in England, joining Whistler, including Camille Pissarro and Claude Monet, while Manet and Degas stayed in France.
Like Whistler, Monet and Pissarro both focused their efforts on views of the city, and it is likely that Whistler was exposed to the evolution of Impressionism founded by these artists, and that they had seen his nocturnes.
Whistler was drifting away from Courbet's "damned realism" and their friendship had wilted, as had his liaison with Joanna Hiffernan.
-- Whistler's Mother
By 1871, Whistler had returned to portraits and soon produced his most famous painting, the nearly monochromatic full-length figure entitled Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1, but usually referred to as Whistler's Mother.
A model failed to appear one day, according to a letter from his mother, so Whistler turned to his mother and suggested that he do her portrait. He had her stand at first, in his typically slow and experimental way, but that proved too tiring, so the seated pose was adopted. It took dozens of sittings to complete.
The austere portrait in his normally constrained palette is another Whistler exercise in tonal harmony and composition. The deceptively simple design is in fact a balancing act of differing shapes, particularly the rectangles of curtain, picture on the wall, and floor which stabilize the curve of her face, dress, and chair.
Whistler commented that the painting's narrative was of little importance, yet the painting was also paying homage to his pious mother. After the initial shock of her moving in with her son, she aided him considerably by stabilizing his behavior somewhat, tending to his domestic needs, and providing an aura of conservative respectability that helped win over patrons.
The public reacted negatively to the painting, mostly because of its anti-Victorian simplicity during a time in England when sentimentality and flamboyant decoration were in vogue.
Critics thought the painting a failed "experiment" rather than a work of art. The Royal Academy rejected it, but then grudgingly accepted it after lobbying by Sir William Boxall - but they hung it in an unfavorable location at their exhibition.
From the start, Whistler's Mother sparked varying reactions, including parody, ridicule, and reverence, which have continued to this day. Some saw it as "the dignified feeling of old ladyhood", "a grave sentiment of mourning", or a "perfect symbol of motherhood."
Others however employed it as a fitting vehicle for mockery. It has been satirized in endless variations in greeting cards and magazines, and by cartoon characters such as Donald Duck and Bullwinkle the Moose.
Whistler did his part in promoting the picture and popularizing the image. He frequently exhibited it, and authorized the early reproductions that made their way into thousands of homes.
The painting narrowly escaped being burned in a fire aboard a train during shipping. It was ultimately purchased by the French government, the first Whistler work in a public collection, and is now housed in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.
During the Great Depression in the United States, the picture was billed as a "million dollar" painting, and was a big hit at the 1933–34 Chicago World's Fair. It was accepted as a universal icon of motherhood by the worldwide public, which was not particularly aware of or concerned with Whistler's aesthetic theories.
In recognition of its status and popularity, the United States issued a postage stamp in 1934 featuring an adaptation of the painting.
In 2015, New Yorker critic Peter Schjeldahl wrote:
"It remains the most important American
work residing outside the United States."
Martha Tedeschi wrote:
"Whistler's Mother, Wood's American Gothic, Leonardo
da Vinci's Mona Lisa and Edvard Munch's The Scream
have all achieved something that most paintings -
regardless of their art historical importance, beauty, or
monetary value - have not: they communicate a specific
meaning almost immediately to almost every viewer.
These few works have successfully made the transition
from the elite realm of the museum visitor to the
enormous venue of popular culture."
-- Other Portraits by Whistler
Other important portraits by Whistler include those of Thomas Carlyle (historian, 1873), Maud Franklin (his mistress, 1876), Cicely Alexander (daughter of a London banker, 1873), Lady Meux (socialite, 1882), and Théodore Duret (critic, 1884).
In the 1870's, Whistler painted full-length portraits of his benefactor Frederick Leyland and his wife Frances. Leyland subsequently commissioned the artist to decorate his dining room.
Whistler had been disappointed over the irregular acceptance of his works for the Royal Academy exhibitions and the poor hanging and placement of his paintings. In response, Whistler staged his first solo show in 1874.
The show was notable and noticed, however, for Whistler's design and decoration of the hall, which harmonized well with the paintings, in keeping with his art theories. A reviewer wrote:
"The visitor is struck, on entering the gallery,
with a curious sense of harmony and fitness
pervading it, and is more interested, perhaps,
in the general effect than in any one work."
Whistler was not so successful a portrait painter as the other famous expatriate American John Singer Sargent. Whistler's spare technique and his disinclination to flatter his sitters, as well as his notoriety, may account for this. He also worked very slowly, and demanded extraordinarily long sittings.
William Merritt Chase complained of his sitting for a portrait by Whistler:
"He proved to be a veritable tyrant, painting
every day into the twilight, while my limbs
ached with weariness and my head swam
dizzily. 'Don't move! Don't move!' he would
scream whenever I started to rest."
By the time James gained widespread acceptance in the 1890's, Whistler was past his prime as a portrait painter.
-- Whistler's Technique
Whistler's approach to portraiture in his late maturity was described by one of his sitters, Arthur J. Eddy, who posed for the artist in 1894:
"He worked with great rapidity and long hours, but
he used his colours thin, and covered the canvas with innumerable coats of paint. The colours increased in
depth and intensity as the work progressed.
At first the entire figure was painted in greyish-brown
tones, with very little flesh colour, the whole blending
perfectly with the greyish-brown of the prepared
canvas.
Then the entire background would be intensified a
little; then the figure made a little stronger; then the
background, and so on from day to day and week to
week, and often from month to month. ... And so the
portrait would really grow, really develop as an entirety,
very much as a negative under the action of the chemicals
comes out gradually - light, shadows, and all from the
very first faint indications to their full values.
It was as if the portrait were hidden within the canvas,
and the master by passing his wands day after day
over the surface evoked the image."
-- Whistler's Printmaking
Whistler produced numerous etchings, lithographs, and dry-points. His lithographs, some drawn on stone, others drawn directly on "lithographie" paper, are perhaps half as numerous as his etchings.
Some of the lithographs are of figures slightly draped; two or three of the very finest are of Thames subjects - including a "nocturne" at Limehouse; while others depict the Faubourg Saint-Germain in Paris, and Georgian churches in Soho and Bloomsbury in London.
The etchings include portraits of family, mistresses, and intimate street scenes in London and Venice. Whistler gained an enormous reputation as an etcher. Martin Hardie wrote:
"There are some who set him beside Rembrandt,
perhaps above Rembrandt, as the greatest master
of all time. Personally, I prefer to regard them as
the Jupiter and Venus, largest and brightest
among the planets in the etcher's heaven."
James took great care over the printing of his etchings and the choice of paper. At the beginning and end of his career, he placed great emphasis on cleanness of line, though in a middle period he experimented more with inking and the use of surface tone.
-- Whistler's Butterfly Signature and Painting Settings
Whistler's famous butterfly signature first developed in the 1860's out of his interest in Asian art. He studied the potter's marks on the china he had begun to collect, and decided to design a monogram of his initials.
Over time this evolved into the shape of an abstract butterfly. By around 1880, he added a stinger to the butterfly image to create a mark representing both his gentle, sensitive nature and his provocative, feisty spirit.
He took great care in the appropriate placement of the image on both his paintings and his custom-made frames. His focus on the importance of balance and harmony extended beyond the frame to the placement of his paintings in their settings, and further to the design of an entire architectural element, as in the Peacock Room.
-- The Peacock Room
Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room is Whistler's masterpiece of interior decorative mural art. Painted in 1876–1877, it is now considered a high example of the Anglo-Japanese style.
Frederick Leyland left the room in Whistler's care to make minor changes, "to harmonize" the room whose primary purpose was to display Leyland's china collection.
James painted over the original paneled room designed by Thomas Jeckyll (1827–1881), in a unified palette of brilliant blue-greens with over-glazing and metallic gold leaf.
Whistler let his imagination run wild, however:
"Well, you know, I just painted on. I went on -
without design or sketch - putting in every
touch with such freedom ... And the harmony
in blue and gold developing, you know, I forgot
everything in my joy of it."
James completely painted over 16th.-century Cordoba leather wall coverings first brought to Britain by Catherine of Aragon that Leyland had paid £1,000 for.
Having acquired the centerpiece of the room, Whistler's painting of The Princess from the Land of Porcelain, American industrialist and aesthete Charles Lang Freer purchased the entire room in 1904 from Leyland's heirs, including Leyland's daughter and her husband, the British artist Val Prinsep.
Freer then had the contents of the Peacock Room installed in his Detroit mansion. After Freer's death in 1919, The Peacock Room was permanently installed in the Freer Gallery of Art at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. The gallery opened to the public in 1923.
A large painted caricature by Whistler of Leyland portraying him as an anthropomorphic peacock playing a piano, and entitled The Gold Scab: Eruption in Frilthy Lucre – a pun on Leyland's miserliness and fondness for frilly shirt fronts – is in the permanent collection of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
-- Whistler and the Ruskin Trial
In 1877 Whistler sued the critic John Ruskin after the critic condemned his painting Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket. Whistler exhibited the work in the Grosvenor Gallery, an alternative to the Royal Academy exhibition, alongside works by Edward Burne-Jones and other artists.
Ruskin, who had been a champion of the Pre-Raphaelites and J. M. W. Turner, reviewed Whistler's work in his publication Fors Clavigera on the 2nd. July 1877. Ruskin praised Burne-Jones, while he attacked Whistler:
"For Mr. Whistler's own sake, no less than for
the protection of the purchaser, Sir Coutts
Lindsay (founder of the Grosvenor Gallery)
ought not to have admitted works into the
gallery in which the ill-educated conceit of
the artist so nearly approached the aspect
of willful imposture.
I have seen, and heard, much of Cockney
impudence before now; but never expected
to hear a coxcomb ask two hundred guineas
for flinging a pot of paint in the public's face."
Whistler, seeing the attack in the newspaper, replied to his friend George Boughton:
"It is the most debased style of criticism
I have had thrown at me yet."
He then went to his solicitor and drew up a writ for libel, which was served to Ruskin. Whistler hoped to recover £1,000 plus the costs of the action. The case came to trial the following year after delays caused by Ruskin's bouts of mental illness, while Whistler's financial condition continued to deteriorate.
The case was heard in the Exchequer Division of the High Court on the 25th. and 26th. November 1878, before Baron Huddleston and a special jury. Counsel for John Ruskin, Attorney General Sir John Holker, cross-examined Whistler:
Holker: "What is the subject of Nocturne in
Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket?"
Whistler: "It is a night piece, and represents
the fireworks at Cremorne Gardens."
Holker: "Not a view of Cremorne?"
Whistler: "If it were A View of Cremorne it
would certainly bring about nothing but
disappointment on the part of the beholders.
It is an artistic arrangement. That is why I call
it a nocturne. ..."
Holker: "Did it take you much time to paint
the Nocturne in Black and Gold? How soon
did you knock it off?"
Whistler: "Oh, I 'knock one off' possibly in a
couple of days – one day to do the work and
another to finish it ..."
Holker: "The labour of two days is that for
which you ask two hundred guineas?"
Whistler: "No, I ask it for the knowledge I
have gained in the work of a lifetime."
Whistler had counted on many artists to take his side as witnesses, but they refused, fearing damage to their reputations. The other witnesses for him were unconvincing, and the jury's own reaction to the work was derisive.
With Ruskin's witnesses being more impressive, including Edward Burne-Jones, and with Ruskin absent for medical reasons, Whistler's counterattack was ineffective. Nonetheless, the jury reached a verdict in favor of Whistler, but awarded a mere farthing in nominal damages, and the court costs were split.
The cost of the case, together with huge debts from building his residence ("The White House" in Tite Street, Chelsea, designed with E. W. Godwin, 1877–8), bankrupted him by May 1879, resulting in an auction of his work, collections, and house.
Stansky notes the irony that the Fine Art Society of London, which had organized a collection to pay for Ruskin's legal costs, supported him in etching "The Stones of Venice" (and in exhibiting the series in 1883), which helped recoup Whistler's costs.
Whistler published his account of the trial in the pamphlet Whistler v. Ruskin: Art and Art Critics, included in his later The Gentle Art of Making Enemies (1890), in December 1878, soon after the trial.
Whistler's grand hope that the publicity of the trial would rescue his career was dashed as he lost rather than gained popularity among patrons because of it. Among his creditors was Leyland, who oversaw the sale of Whistler's possessions.
Whistler made various caricatures of his former patron, including a biting satirical painting called The Gold Scab, just after Whistler declared bankruptcy. Whistler always blamed Leyland for his financial downfall.
-- Whistler's Later Years
Anna Lea Merritt wrote:
"It is always a delight to remember that actually
once Mr. Whistler was really shy! Those who had
the pleasure of hearing his first Ten O'Clock must
remember that when he came before his rather
puzzled and distinguished audience, there were
a few minutes of very palpable stage fright."
After the trial, Whistler received a commission to do twelve etchings in Venice. He eagerly accepted the assignment, and arrived in the city with girlfriend Maud Franklin, taking rooms in a dilapidated palazzo they shared with other artists, including John Singer Sargent.
Although homesick for London, he adapted to Venice and set about discovering its character. He did his best to distract himself from the gloom of his financial affairs and the pending sale of all his goods at Sotheby's.
He was a regular guest at parties at the American consulate, and with his usual wit, enchanted the guests with verbal flourishes such as:
"The artist's only positive virtue is idleness -
and there are so few who are gifted at it."
His new friends reported, on the contrary, that Whistler rose early and put in a full day of effort. He wrote to a friend:
"I have learned to know a Venice in Venice
that the others never seem to have perceived,
and which, if I bring back with me as I propose,
will far more than compensate for all annoyances
delays & vexations of spirit."
The three-month assignment stretched to fourteen months. During this exceptionally productive period, Whistler finished over fifty etchings, several nocturnes, some watercolors, and over 100 pastels - illustrating both the moods of Venice and its fine architectural details.
Furthermore, Whistler influenced the American art community in Venice, especially Frank Duveneck (and Duveneck's "boys") and Robert Blum who emulated Whistler's vision of the city and later spread his methods and influence back to America.
Back in London, the pastels sold particularly well, and James quipped:
"They are not as good as I
supposed. They are selling!"
James was actively engaged in exhibiting his other work, but with limited success. Though still struggling financially, he was heartened by the attention and admiration he received from the younger generation of English and American painters who made him their idol, and eagerly adopted the title "pupil of Whistler".
Many of them returned to America and spread tales of Whistler's provocative egotism, sharp wit, and aesthetic pronouncements - establishing the legend of Whistler, much to his satisfaction.
In January 1881, his mother Anna Whistler died. In her honour, he publicly adopted her maiden name McNeill as a middle name.
Whistler published his first book, Ten O'Clock lecture in 1885, a major expression of his belief in "art for art's sake". At the time, the opposing Victorian notion reigned, namely, that art, and indeed much human activity, had a moral or social function.
To Whistler, however, art was its own end, and the artist's responsibility was not to society, but to himself, to interpret through art, and to neither reproduce nor moralize what he saw. Furthermore, he stated:
"Nature is very rarely right, and must
be improved upon by the artist, with
his own vision."
Though differing with Whistler on several points, including his insistence that poetry was a higher form of art than painting, Oscar Wilde was generous in his praise, and hailed the lecture as a masterpiece:
".... not merely for its clever satire and amusing
jests ... but for the pure and perfect beauty of
many of its passages ... for that he is indeed one
of the very greatest masters of painting, in my
opinion. And I may add that in this opinion Mr.
Whistler himself entirely concurs."
Whistler, however, thought himself mocked by Oscar Wilde, and from then on, public sparring ensued leading to a total breakdown of their friendship, precipitated by a report written by Herbert Vivian. Later, Wilde "symbolically murdered Whistler", basing Basil Hallward, the murdered artist in his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, on Whistler.
Whistler joined the Society of British Artists in 1884, and on the 1st. June 1886, he was elected president. The following year, during Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, Whistler presented to the Queen, on the Society's behalf, an elaborate album including a lengthy written address and illustrations that he made.
Queen Victoria so admired "the beautiful and artistic illumination" that she decreed henceforth, "that the Society should be called Royal."
This achievement was widely appreciated by the members, but soon it was overshadowed by the dispute that inevitably arose with the Royal Academy of Arts.
Whistler proposed that members of the Royal Society should withdraw from the Royal Academy. This ignited a feud within the membership ranks that overshadowed all other society business. In May 1888, nine members wrote to Whistler to demand his resignation. At the annual meeting on the 4th. June 1888, he was defeated for re-election by a vote of 18–19, with nine abstentions.
Whistler and 25 supporters resigned, while the anti-Whistler majority (in his view) was successful in purging him for his "eccentricities" and "non-English" background.
With his relationship with Maud Franklin unraveling, Whistler suddenly proposed to Beatrice Godwin (also called Beatrix or Trixie), a former pupil and the widow of his late friend, architect Edward William Godwin.
Through his friendship with Godwin, Whistler had become close to Beatrice, whom Whistler painted in the full-length portrait titled Harmony in Red: Lamplight.
By the summer of 1888 Whistler and Beatrice appeared in public as a couple. At a dinner Louise Jopling and Henry Labouchère insisted that they should be married before the end of the week.
The marriage ceremony was quickly arranged; as a member of Parliament, Labouchère arranged for the Chaplain to the House of Commons to marry the couple. No publicity was given to the ceremony to avoid the possibility of a furious Maud Franklin interrupting the marriage ceremony.
The marriage took place on August 11, 1888, with the ceremony attended by a reporter from the Pall Mall Gazette, so that the event received publicity. The couple left soon after for Paris, to avoid any risk of a scene with Maud.
Whistler's reputation in London and Paris was rising, and he gained positive reviews from critics and new commissions. His book The Gentle Art of Making Enemies was published in 1890 with mixed success, but it afforded helpful publicity.
In 1890 James met Charles Lang Freer, who became a valuable patron in America, and ultimately his most important collector.
Around this time, in addition to portraiture, Whistler experimented with early colour photography and with lithography, creating a series featuring London architecture and the human figure, mostly female nudes.
He contributed the first three of his Songs of Stone lithographs to The Whirlwind, a Neo-Jacobite magazine published by his friend Herbert Vivian. Whistler had met Vivian in the late 1880's when both were members of the Order of the White Rose, the first of the Neo-Jacobite societies.
In 1891, with help from his close friend Stéphane Mallarmé, Whistler's Mother was purchased by the French government for 4,000 francs. This was much less than what an American collector might have paid, but that would not have been so prestigious by Whistler's reckoning.
After an indifferent reception to his solo show in London, featuring mostly his nocturnes, Whistler abruptly decided he had had enough of London. He and Trixie moved to Paris in 1892, and resided at n° 110 Rue du Bac, Paris, with his studio at the top of 86 Rue Notre Dame des Champs in Montparnasse.
He felt welcomed by his old Paris friends Monet, Auguste Rodin, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, as well as Stéphane Mallarmé, and he set himself up a large studio.
James was at the top of his career when it was discovered that his wife Trixie had cancer. They returned to London in February 1896, taking rooms at the Savoy Hotel while they sought medical treatment. He made drawings on lithographic transfer paper of the view of the River Thames, from the hotel window or balcony, as he sat with her. She died a few months later.
In 1899, Charles Freer introduced Whistler to his friend and fellow businessman Richard Albert Canfield, who became a personal friend and patron of Whistler's. Canfield owned a number of fashionable gambling houses in New York and Rhode Island, including Saratoga Springs and Newport, and was also a man of culture with refined tastes in art.
Canfield owned early American and Chippendale furniture, tapestries, Chinese porcelain and Barye bronzes; he also possessed the second-largest and most important Whistler collection in the world prior to his death in 1914.
In May 1901, Canfield commissioned a portrait from Whistler; he started to pose for Portrait of Richard A. Canfield in March 1902. According to Alexander Gardiner, Canfield returned to Europe to sit for Whistler at the New Year in 1903, and sat every day until May 16, 1903.
Whistler was ill and frail by this time, and the work was his last completed portrait. The deceptive air of respectability that the portrait gave Canfield caused Whistler to call it 'His Reverence'. The two men were in correspondence from 1901 until Whistler's death.
A few months before his own death, Canfield sold his collection of etchings, lithographs, drawings and paintings by Whistler to the American art dealer Roland F. Knoedler for $300,000. Three of Canfield's Whistler paintings hang in the Frick Museum in New York City.
In the final seven years of his life, Whistler did some minimalist seascapes in watercolor and a final self-portrait in oil. He corresponded with his many friends and colleagues. Whistler founded an art school in 1898, but his poor health and infrequent appearances led to its closure in 1901.
-- Whistler's Death
James died in London on the 17th. July 1903, six days after his 69th. birthday. He was laid to rest in Chiswick Old Cemetery in west London, adjoining St. Nicholas' Church, Chiswick.
-- Whistler The Man
Whistler was the subject of a 1908 biography by his friends, the husband-and-wife team of Joseph Pennell and Elizabeth Robins Pennell, printmaker and art critic respectively.
The Pennells' vast collection of Whistler material was bequeathed to the Library of Congress. The artist's entire estate was left to his sister-in-law Rosalind Birnie Philip. She spent the rest of her life defending his reputation and managing his art and effects, much of which eventually was donated to Glasgow University.
Whistler had a distinctive appearance, short and slight, with piercing eyes and a curling mustache, often sporting a monocle and the flashy attire of a dandy.
He affected a posture of self-confidence and eccentricity. He often was arrogant and selfish toward friends and patrons. A constant self-promoter and egoist, he relished shocking both friends and enemies.
Though he could be droll and flippant about social and political matters, he always was serious about art, and often invited public controversy and debate to argue for his strongly held theories.
Whistler had a high-pitched, drawling voice and a unique manner of speech, full of calculated pauses. A friend said:
"In a second you discover that he is not
conversing - he is sketching in words,
giving impressions in sound and sense
to be interpreted by the hearer."
Whistler was well known for his biting wit, especially in exchanges with his friend and rival Oscar Wilde. Both were figures in the Café society of Paris, and they were often the "talk of the town".
They frequently appeared as caricatures in Punch, to their mutual amusement. On one occasion, young Oscar Wilde attended one of Whistler's dinners, and hearing his host make some brilliant remark, apparently said, "I wish I'd said that", to which Whistler riposted, "You will, Oscar, you will!"
In fact, Wilde did repeat in public many witticisms created by Whistler. Their relationship soured by the mid-1880's, as Whistler turned against Wilde and the Aesthetic Movement. When Wilde was publicly acknowledged to be a homosexual in 1895, Whistler openly mocked him.
Whistler revelled in preparing and managing his social gatherings. As a guest observed:
"One met all the best in Society there—the people
with brains, and those who had enough to appreciate
them. Whistler was an inimitable host. He loved to be
the Sun round whom we lesser lights revolved ...
All came under his influence, and in consequence,
no one was bored, no one dull."
In Paris, Whistler was friends with members of the Symbolist circle of artists, writers and poets that included Stéphane Mallarmé and Marcel Schwob. Schwob had met Whistler in the mid-1890's through Stéphane Mallarmé; they had other mutual friends, including Oscar Wilde (until they argued) and Whistler's brother-in-law, Charles Whibley.
Whistler was friendly with many French artists, including Henri Fantin-Latour, Alphonse Legros, and Gustave Courbet. He illustrated the book Les Chauves-Souris with Antonio de La Gandara. He also knew Édouard Manet and the Impressionists, notably Claude Monet, and Edgar Degas.
As a young artist, he was a close friend of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. His close friendships with Monet and poet Stéphane Mallarmé, who translated the Ten O'Clock lecture into French, helped strengthen respect for Whistler by the French public.
Whistler was friendly with his fellow students at Gleyre's studio, including Ignace Schott, whose son Leon Dabo Whistler later would mentor.
Whistler's lover and model for The White Girl, Joanna Hiffernan, also posed for Gustave Courbet. Historians speculate that Courbet used her as the model for his erotic paintings Le Sommeil and L'Origine du Monde, possibly leading to the breakup of the friendship between Whistler and Courbet.
During the 1870's and much of the 1880's, Whistler lived with his model and mistress Maud Franklin. Her ability to endure long, repetitive sittings helped Whistler develop his portrait skills.
He not only made several excellent portraits of her, but she was also a helpful stand-in for other sitters. Whistler had two daughters by Maud Franklin: Ione (born circa 1877) and Maud McNeill Whistler Franklin (born 1879).
Maud sometimes referred to herself as 'Mrs. Whistler', and in the census of 1881 gave her name as 'Mary M. Whistler'.
Whistler had several extramarital children, of whom Charles James Whistler Hanson (1870–1935) is the best documented. After Whistler parted from his mistress Joanna Hiffernan, she helped to raise Hanson, even though his mother was the parlour maid, Louisa Fanny Hanson.
In 1888, Whistler married Beatrice Godwin, whom he called Beatrix or Trixie. She was the widow of his friend E. W. Godwin, the architect who had designed Whistler's White House, and the daughter of the sculptor John Birnie Philip and his wife Frances Black.
Beatrix and her sisters Rosalind Birnie Philip and Ethel Whibley posed for many of Whistler's paintings and drawings; with Ethel Whibley modeling for Mother of Pearl and Silver: The Andalusian (1888–1900).
The first five years of their marriage were very happy, but her later life was a time of misery for the couple, due to her illness and eventual death from cancer. Near the end, she lay comatose for much of the time, completely subdued by morphine, given for pain relief. Her death was a heavy blow that Whistler never quite overcame.
-- Whistler's Legacy
Whistler was inspired by and incorporated many sources in his art, including the work of Rembrandt, Velázquez, and ancient Greek sculpture in order to develop his own highly influential and individual style.
He was adept in many media, with over 500 paintings, as well as etchings, pastels, watercolors, drawings, and lithographs.
Whistler was a leader in the Aesthetic Movement, promoting, writing, and lecturing on "art for art's sake." With his pupils, he advocated simple design, economy of means, the avoidance of over-labored technique, and the tonal harmony of the final result.
Whistler has been the subject of many major museum exhibitions, studies, and publications. Like the Impressionists, he employed nature as an artistic resource.
Whistler insisted that it was the artist's obligation to interpret what he saw, not to be a slave to reality, and to "bring forth from chaos glorious harmony".
During his life, he influenced many artists throughout the English-speaking world. Whistler had significant contact and exchanged ideas and ideals with Realist, Impressionist, and Symbolist painters. The artist Walter Sickert was his pupil, and the writer Oscar Wilde was his friend.
Whistler's Tonalism had a profound effect on many American artists, including John Singer Sargent, William Merritt Chase, Henry Salem Hubbell, Willis Seaver Adams (whom he befriended in Venice) and Arthur Frank Mathews.
Whistler met Mathews in Paris in the late 1890's; he took Whistler's Tonalism to San Francisco, spawning a broad use of that technique among turn-of-the-century California artists.
Whistler was also a major influence on the 1880's Heidelberg School movement in Australia, otherwise known as Australian impressionism. As American critic Charles Caffin wrote in 1907:
"Whistler did better than attract a few followers
and imitators; he influenced the whole world of
art.
Consciously or unconsciously, his presence is
felt in countless studios; his genius permeates
modern artistic thought."
During a fourteen-month stay in Venice in 1879 and 1880, Whistler created a series of etchings and pastels that not only reinvigorated his finances (this was after he had declared bankruptcy following the Ruskin trial), but also re-energized the way in which artists and photographers interpreted the city - focusing on the back alleys, side canals, entrance ways, and architectural patterns - and capturing the city's unique atmospherics.
In 1940 Whistler was commemorated on a United States postage stamp when the U.S. Post Office issued a set of 35 stamps commemorating America's famous authors, poets, educators, scientists, composers, artists, and inventors: the Famous Americans Series.
The Gilbert and Sullivan operetta Patience pokes fun at the Aesthetic movement, and the lead character of Reginald Bunthorne is often identified as a send-up of Oscar Wilde, though Bunthorne is more likely an amalgam of several prominent artists, writers, and Aesthetic figures.
Bunthorne wears a monocle and has prominent white streaks in his dark hair, as did Whistler.
Novelist Henry James had become well enough acquainted with Whistler to base several fictional characters on "the queer little Londonized Southerner," most notably in Roderick Hudson and The Tragic Muse.
Whistler also appeared as one of Henry James's most attractive minor characters, the sculptor Gloriani in The Ambassadors, whose personality, way of life, and even home were closely based on Whistler.
George du Maurier's 1894 novel Trilby has a character, Joe Sibley, "the idle apprentice," who was meant to depict Whistler. Whistler threatened to sue, and in subsequent editions the character was replaced by another.
Whistler was also the model for a character in Marcel Proust's novel, In Search of Lost Time — the painter Elstir.
Whistler was the favorite artist of singer and actress Doris Day. She owned and displayed an original etching of Whistler's Rotherhithe and two of his original lithographs, The Steps, Luxembourg Gardens, Paris and The Pantheon, from the Terrace of the Luxembourg Gardens.
Whistler achieved worldwide recognition during his lifetime, including:
- 1884: elected an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Munich.
- 1892: made an officer of the Légion d'Honneur in France.
- 1898: became a charter member and first president, International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers.
A statue of James McNeill Whistler by Nicholas Dimbleby was erected in 2005 at the north end of Battersea Bridge on the River Thames in London.
project entitled "dv stills from cannon zr70" or "running around a basement and annoying NYU security at 4am"
Early 20th century UK postcard of posed group entitled "Camera Fiends". Not Postally used but writing on back refers to the living picture series H.G.L. with box on top right marked for Half penny stamp. The Half Penny stamp was in use across three monarchs from 1890s to 1918.
Is the Gentleman who is being photograped wearing a dog collar and a member of the church?
or is he wearing a Starched collar like the other two males?
Is this one of the earliest posed Paparazzi pictures taken, i wonder?
Bounty was an enlarged reconstruction of the original 1787 Royal Navy sailing ship HMS Bounty. Built in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia in 1960, she sank off the coast of North Carolina during Hurricane Sandy on 29 October 2012.
The tall ship was often referred to as HMS Bounty, but was not entitled to the use of the prefix "HMS" as she was not commissioned into the Royal Navy. Here "HMS" is treated as part of the popular name, and not as a ship prefix.
HMS Bounty, also known as HM Armed Vessel Bounty, was a small merchant vessel that the Royal Navy purchased in 1787 for a botanical mission. The ship was sent to the South Pacific Ocean under the command of William Bligh to acquire breadfruit plants and transport them to the West Indies. That mission was never completed owing to a 1789 mutiny led by acting lieutenant Fletcher Christian, an incident now popularly known as the mutiny on the Bounty.[1] The mutineers later burned Bounty while she was moored at Pitcairn Island. An American adventurer helped land several remains of Bounty in 1957.
The Royal Navy had purchased Bethia for a single mission in support of an experiment: the acquisition of breadfruit plants from Tahiti, and the transportation of those plants to the West Indies in the hope that they would grow well there and become a cheap source of food for slaves. Sir Joseph Banks had proposed the experiment and had recommended Lieutenant William Bligh R.N. as commander. Bligh in turn was promoted through a prize offered by the Royal Society of Arts.
In June 1787, Bounty was refitted at Deptford. The great cabin was converted to house the potted breadfruit plants, and gratings were fitted to the upper deck. William Bligh was appointed Commanding Lieutenant on 16 August 1787 at the age of 33, after a career that included a tour as sailing master of James Cook's Resolution during Cook's third and final voyage (1776–1780). The ship's complement was 46 men: a single commissioned officer (Bligh), 43 other Royal Navy personnel, and two civilian gardeners.
Voyage out
On 23 December 1787, Bounty sailed from Spithead for Tahiti. For a full month, the crew attempted to take the ship west, around South America's Cape Horn, but adverse weather prevented this. Bligh then proceeded east, rounding the southern tip of Africa (Cape Agulhas) and crossing the width of the Indian Ocean. During the outward voyage, Bligh demoted Sailing Master John Fryer, replacing him with Fletcher Christian. This act seriously damaged the relationship between Bligh and Fryer, and Fryer later claimed that Bligh's act was entirely personal.
The costs of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are rising substantially. Paying for this spending solely through federal income tax increases would require more than doubling current tax rates, even for the lowest tax bracket.
Read more: www.heritage.org/budgetchartbook/entitlements-double-tax-...
entitled "community college graduate", released 7/17
Be proud of those two years that you spent at community college to get that AA degree. Community College Graduate, in blue letters.
Buy it here:
www.orangemoonapparel.com/store/oma.cgi/oma.orangemoonapp...
New Deal mural entitled "Cotton" painted by J. Kelly Fitzpatrick in 1939. He painted it on canvas at the Dixie Art Colony's studios at Nobels Ferry on Lake Jordan. It was then mounted on the wall in the post office. After the postal service move to new quarters in the mid 1960s the old building became the city library, sat vacant for many years, housed county courts temporarily and curently is vacant yet being renovated for use as a community meeting space. Fitzpatrick also painted the mural at Ozark, Alabama.
Seton Hall Law School's Legislative Journal and the Institute for Privacy Protection hosted a symposium entitled, "Protecting Child Privacy Beyond the Information Age" on November 15, 2019.
The New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs held a medal ceremony at the Woodbridge Center Mall on Nov. 1, to honor and recognize the services of New Jerseyans veterans from the various war conflicts. New Jersey veterans from World War II through current Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom received New Jersey's Distinguished Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Korean Service Medal or Vietnam Service Medal. As part of DMAVA's Veterans Outreach Program, the ceremony marks the start of a three-day visit of the veterans outreach kiosk where veterans and their family members can learn more about benefits or entitlements they could be elible for. (Photos by Staff Sgt. Armando Vasquez, NJDMAVA/PA)
School of Pharmacy, Hajvery University organized one day seminar entitled, "Area to be focused in Pharmacy Practice" in Pakistan on 4th February 2016, Thursday, at 11.00 am.
Dr. Zaheer-ud-din-Babar, Head of Pharmacy Practice, School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, New Zealand, visited Hajvery University. He is an International speaker, and recipient of prestigious “Research Excellence Award” from University of Auckland in 2012.
Dr. Babar has active research linkages with the leading universities in Australia, Europe, and in the Asia Pacific Region. He has also acted as a consultant for World Health Organization (WHO), Health Action International, and International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP), and for the Pharmaceutical Management Agency of New Zealand. He is a reviewer of top tier health-policy journals and of funding bodies including Australian National Health and Medical Research Council. Dr Babar is the founding editor of the Journal of Pharmaceutical Policy and Practice (www.joppp.org).
The seminar presented by Dr. Zaheer-ud-din-Babar was informative for students and for faculty as well. He has given some excellent solutions for current problems of Pharmacy practices. He has raised the need of community Pharmacist, i.e. processing of prescription, care of patient, monitoring of drug utilization, extemporaneous preparation, and health promotion. With this addition, many native health care problems will automatically be resolved. At the end, there was the closing ceremony. Dr. Lubna Shakir, Mr. Talib Hussain, and students of different batches shared their comments about these worthwhile lectures. The Rector of Hajvery University, Dr. Khalid Pervaiz gave a thank note and positive feedback for the lectures. Prof. Dr. Khalid Pervaiz represented souvenir to Dr. Zaheer-ud-din-Babar. Dr. Babar also thanked and appreciated the management, faculty, and students, and thanked Hajvery University for inviting him. The session ended with a group photo.
Although scholastic economic philosophers had constructed a wide variety of prohibitions and loopholes related to the conduct of traditional lending (usury), there is very little scholastic thought on foreign exchange transactions except insofar as they related to the covering of loan repayment. Raymond de Roover notes that: "One paradoxical result of this controversy was that pawnbrokers and small money-lenders were the main victims of the campaigns waged against usury by friars like Bernardino of Feltre, but the big bankers and international connections were left undisturbed. Far from being censured they were called "the peculiarly beloved sons of the Church" and prided themselves in being the Pope's exchangers. In fact, their services were indispensable for the transfer of papal funds."[6]
Thus, "Profit and Loss on Exchange" (Pro e danno di cambio) was not considered usury and was frequently listed in accounting books.[6]After the division of the empire of Charlemagne, Papacy and the Empire
The papacy and the empire had a difficult relationship in the period, going back to the 1000’s with the Investiture Crisis. More recently, prior to his death, Frederick received an official deposition notice from Innocent IV at the Council of Lyons.[5] In theory, Innocent IV had the exclusive power to legitimize and de-legitimize the emperor, but in practice this power was only as powerful as those who believed in it. Innocent deposed Frederick, releasing his vassals from their obligations and excommunicating both Frederick and his supporters, but Frederick retained his emperorship and most of his supporters. He responded with a letter of his own to other nobility in Europe to gain support by listing the offenses of the church and clergy.[6] The pope was still somewhat relevant for determining legitimacy despite this, as Henry VII over 50 years later traveled to Rome to be crowned King and was publicly noted for having done so.
Papal Involvement in elections and legitimacy returns in the 1330s with the dispute between Louis Wittelsbach and Frederick Habsburg, with then pope John XXII having denied Louis' election as legitimate, citing that under canon law, legitimacy required papal confirmation of an election.[7] In response, Louis made a declaration at Rhense, declaring that papal interference was no longer necessary if an emperor had sufficient popular support. Because of this, John XXII and his successor Clement VI would look for other imperial candidates to challenge and replace Louis, eventually siding with Charles of Luxembourg, who would shortly thereafter successfully gain the emperorship after Louis' death.
Consequences
The seven prince-electors voting for Henry, Balduineum picture chronicle, 1341
Depiction of the Interregnum in Chronicon pontificum et imperatorum (c. 1450), showing three men standing at the tomb of an emperor with the caption "Thus the Roman Empire for a time had no emperor" (Also das Römische rich eine Wile one keiser stunt).
The crisis of the Great Interregnum established an official set of prince-electors as the legal entities that could elect an emperor, and the college of prince-electors as the only source of legitimacy of the German king. Charles' actions in his reign also saw a modest revival of imperial interest in Italy[8] and shifted the center of German politics from central and southern Germany towards the east at Bohemia, and later Austria. At the same time, it set back the progress of centralization achieved under previous dynasties and rulers and severely weakened the authority of the emperor and the king. The lack of central government strengthened the communal movements, such as the Swabian League of Cities, the Hanseatic League and the Swiss Confederacy. It also encouraged increased feuding among the lesser nobility, leading to conflicts such as the Thuringian Counts' War, leading to a general state of near-lawlessness in Germany where robber barons acted unopposed by the nominal system of justice. The role of the papacy in the elections and general governance of the empire were also put into question and would steadily diminish until later emperors would ignore Rome entirely in the election process. Germany was fractured into countless minor states fending for themselves, a condition that would persist into the modern period and, termed Kleinstaaterei, present an obstacle to the modern project of national unification.
Avignon came within the Kingdom of Burgundy, and was owned jointly by the Count of Provence and the Count of Toulouse. From 1060, the Count of Forcalquier also had nominal overlordship, until these rights were resigned to the local Bishops and Consuls in 1135.From 1316 to 1342, the Avignon popes relied on the exchange services of three large Florentine banking houses—the Bardi, Peruzzi, and Acciaioli—all of whom failed in 1342, bringing down the entire papal transfer system with them.[5]
From 1342 to 1362, the Apostolic Camera was required to use the services of several smaller and weaker firms from Asti (especially Malabayla), Lucca, and Pistoia; the Camera was unsuccessful in trying to build up the capacity of each of these bankers.[5]
However, in 1362, the papacy was able to employ the services of the Alberti antichi banking house in Florence, which had recently risen to prominence.[5] The papacy did not use the mechanism of the bill of exchange (which had been common since the 13th century), but rather employed a unique procedure, which required a receipt in notarial form for all transfers to Avignon, called the instrumentum cambii; this instrument—always made out in duplicate or triplicate—specified the amount received by the banker and proxy and recorded a promise to transmit to Avignon and pay to the pope or his agent a certain amount.[5] One copy of the instrument was sent to Avignon by the papal carrier which enabled the Avignon administration to obtain payment from either the banker or their Avignon representative.[5] The use of written documents was considered "not businesslike" by contemporaries as it required the constant "intervention of notaries".[5]
The instrumentum cambii (also known as an "Avisa") did not eliminate the possibility of fraud, but rather created different possibilities for misdealings, as seen with a 1359 exchange between Venice and Avignon.[7]
The Avignon branch of the Medici bank was not established until 1446, the same year as the London branch.[
With the German rulers at a distance, Avignon set up an autonomous administration with the creation of a consulat in 1129, two years before its neighbour Arles.
In 1209 the Council of Avignon ordered a second excommunication for Raymond VI of Toulouse.[12]
At the end of the twelfth century, Avignon declared itself an independent republic, and sided with Raymond VII of Toulouse during the Albigensian Crusade. In 1226, the citizens refused to open the gates of Avignon to King Louis VIII of France and the papal legate. They besieged the city for three months (10 June-12 September).[13] Avignon was captured and forced to pull down its city walls and fill up its moat.
At the end of September, a few days after the surrender of the city to the troops of King Louis VIII, Avignon experienced severe flooding.[14]
In 1249 the city again declared itself a republic on the death of Raymond VII, his heirs being on a crusade.
On 7 May 1251, however, the city was forced to submit to two younger brothers of King Louis IX, Alphonse of Poitiers and Charles of Anjou (Charles I of Naples). They were heirs through the female line of the Marquis and Count of Provence, and thus co-lords of the city. After the death of Alphonse in 1271, Philip III of France inherited his share of Avignon and passed it to his son Philip the Fair in 1285. It passed in turn in 1290 to Charles II of Naples, who thereafter remained the sole lord of the entire city.
The University of Avignon was founded by Pope Boniface VIII in 1303 and was famed as a seat of legal studies, flourishing until the French Revolution (1792).In 1309 the city, still part of the Kingdom of Arles (as the Kingdom of Burgundy was known by then), was chosen by Pope Clement V as his residence at the time of the Council of Vienne and, from 9 March 1309 until 13 January 1377, Avignon, rather than Rome, was the seat of the Papacy. At the time the city and its surroundings (the Comtat Venaissin) were ruled by the kings of Sicily of the House of Anjou. The French King Philip the Fair, who had inherited from his father all the rights of Alphonse de Poitiers (the last Count of Toulouse), made them over to Charles II, King of Naples and Count of Provence (1290). Nonetheless, Philip was a shrewd ruler. Inasmuch as the eastern banks of the Rhône marked the edge of his kingdom, when the river flooded up into the city of Avignon, Philip taxed the city since during periods of flood, the city technically lay within his domain.
Avignon became the Pontifical residence under Pope Clement V in 1309.[15] His successor, John XXII, a former bishop of the diocese, made it the capital of Christianity and transformed his former episcopal palace into the primary Palace of the Popes.[16] It was Benedict XII who built the Old Palace[17] and his successor Clement VI the New Palace.[18] He bought the town on 9 June 1348 from Joanna I of Naples, the Queen of Naples and Countess of Provence for 80,000 florins. Innocent VI endowed the city walls.[19]
Under their rule, the Court seethed and attracted many merchants, painters, sculptors and musicians. Their palace, the most remarkable building in the International Gothic style was the result, in its construction and ornamentation, of the joint work of the best French architects, Pierre Peysson and Jean du Louvres (called Loubières)[20] and the larger frescoes from the School of Siena: Simone Martini and Matteo Giovanetti.[21]
The papal library in Avignon was the largest in Europe in the 14th century, with 2,000 volumes[22] Around the library were a group of passionate clerics of letters who were pupils of Petrarch, the founder of Humanism.[23] At the same time the Clementine Chapel, called the Grande Chapelle, attracted composers, singers, and musicians[24] including Philippe de Vitry, inventor of the Ars Nova, and Johannes Ciconia.[23]
As Bishop of Cavaillon, Cardinal Philippe de Cabassoles, Lord of Vaucluse, was the great protector of the Renaissance poet Petrarch.
Urban V took the first decision to return to Rome, to the delight of Petrarch, but the chaotic situation there with different conflicts prevented him from staying there. He died shortly after his return to Avignon.[25]
His successor, Gregory XI, also decided to return to Rome and this ended the first period of the Avignon Papacy. When Gregory XI brought the seat of the papacy to Rome in 1377, the city of Avignon was administered by a legate.[25]
The early death of Gregory XI, however, caused the Great Schism. Clement VII and Benedict XIII reigned again in Avignon[26] Overall therefore it was nine popes who succeeded in the papal palace and enriched themselves during their pontificate.[20]
From then on until the French Revolution, Avignon and the Comtat were papal possessions:[27] first under the schismatic popes of the Great Schism, then under the popes of Rome ruling via legates until 1542, and then by vice-legates. The Black Death appeared at Avignon in 1348 killing almost two-thirds of the city's population.[28][29]
In all seven popes and two anti-popes resided in Avignon:
Clement V: 1305–1314 (curia moved to Avignon March 9, 1309)
John XXII: 1316–1334
Benedict XII: 1334–1342
Clement VI: 1342–1352
Innocent VI: 1352–1362
Urban V: 1362–1370 (in Rome 1367-1370; returned to Avignon 1370)
Gregory XI: 1370–1378 (left Avignon to return to Rome on September 13, 1376)
Anti-Popes
Clement VII (1378-1394)
Benedict XIII (1394-1403)
The walls that were built by the popes in the years immediately following the acquisition of Avignon as papal territory are well preserved. As they were not particularly strong fortifications, the Popes relied instead on the immensely strong fortifications of their palace, the "Palais des Papes". This immense Gothic building, with walls 17–18 feet thick, was built 1335–1364 on a natural spur of rock, rendering it all but impregnable to attack. After its capture following the French Revolution, it was used as a barracks and prison for many years but it is now a museum.
Avignon, which at the beginning of the 14th century was a town of no great importance, underwent extensive development during the time the seven Avignon popes and two anti-popes, Clement V to Benedict XIII, resided there. To the north and south of the rock of the Doms, partly on the site of the Bishop's Palace that had been enlarged by John XXII, was built the Palace of the Popes in the form of an imposing fortress consisting of towers linked to each other and named as follows: La Campane, Trouillas, La Glacière, Saint-Jean, Saints-Anges (Benedict XII), La Gâche, La Garde-Robe (Clement VI), Saint-Laurent (Innocent VI). The Palace of the Popes belongs, by virtue of its severe architecture, to the Gothic art of the South of France. Other noble examples can be seen in the churches of Saint-Didier, Saint-Pierre, and Saint Agricol as well as in the Clock Tower and in the fortifications built between 1349 and 1368 for a distance of some three miles (4.8 km) flanked by thirty-nine towers, all of which were erected or restored by the Roman Catholic Church.
Main article: Avignon Exchange
The popes were followed to Avignon by agents (or factors) of the great Italian banking-houses who settled in the city as money-changers and as intermediaries between the Apostolic Camera and its debtors. They lived in the most prosperous quarter of the city which was known as the Exchange. A crowd of traders of all kinds brought to market the produce necessary for maintaining the numerous courts and for the visitors who flocked to it: grain and wine from Provence, the south of France, Roussillon, and the country around Lyon. Fish was brought from places as distant as Brittany; rich cloth and tapestries came from Bruges and Tournai. The account-books of the Apostolic Camera, which are still kept in the Vatican archives, give an idea of the trade of which Avignon became the centre. The university founded by Boniface VIII in 1303 had many students under the French popes. They were drawn there by the generosity of the sovereign pontiffs who rewarded them with books or benefices.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Avignon.The Avignon Exchange was one of the first foreign exchange markets in history, established in the Comtat Venaissin during the Avignon Papacy. The Exchange was composed of the agents (factores) of the great Italian banking-houses, who acted as money-changers as well as financial intermediaries between the Apostolic Camera and its debtors and creditors.[1] The most prosperous quarter of the city of Avignon, where the bankers settled, became known simply as the Exchange.[1] According to de Roover, "Avignon can be considered an Italian colony, since the papal bankers were all Italians".[2]
Avignon was the first legal body to regulate fiduciary transactions:[3] a statute of Avignon, of 1243, contains a paragraph entitled De Litteris Cambii, "of bills of exchange".[4]
Background
Main article: Apostolic Camera
Unlike most medieval rulers who levied funds from sources of taxation relatively nearby, the papacy's primary source of income was constituted from taxes and tributes collected across Europe. Moreover, the papacy had a gross geographic mismatch of its assets and liabilities: money collected in France and Poland, for example, might be spent for military reconquest in the Papal States.[5] The papacy soon discovered that the direct transfer or shipment of physical specie over long distances was not only risky but extremely expensive, and was thus forced to procure the services of international merchant-bankers who dealt in foreign exchange from their branches throughout the important commercial centers of Western Europe[5] not only in large centers but at the sites of the Champagne fairs.
However, the Italian merchant-bankers could be of no assistance for funds collected in Eastern Europe (mainly Poland, Hungary, and Bohemia), Scandinavia, and Northern Germany where there was no organized money market at this time, and thus the direct transfer of funds was still required.[5] The preferred alternative to shipping specie was to entrust small amounts to ecclesiastics who happened to be traveling to visit the pope or (more often) traveling merchants on their way to Bruges or Venice (however, to transfer funds from Kraków to Bruges to Avignon took over a year).[5] Even in Western Europe, direct transfer of funds was required when the foreign exchange market could not provide the necessary liquidity; for example, in 1327, 100,000 florins were sent from Avignon to Bologna in a caravan of fifteen pack animals guarded by an armed escort of forty-six.[5]
The Apostolic Camera, or papal treasury, was established in the 13th century, with close ties to Italian merchant bankers, who were given the title mercatores camerae apostolicae ("mercatores" of the Apostolic Camera).[5] The papal residences of Rome, Viterbo, and Rieti were close to the two main banking centers in Italy: Florence and Siena; however, these connections were severed during the reign of Pope Clement V (1305–1315) as he wandered through Languedoc and Provence.[5]
Only when Pope John XXII (1316–1334) began the construction of a permanent papal residence in Avignon, the Palais des Papes, did the major Italian banks open branches in the Curia and resume their dealings with the Camera.[5] However, the closeness of this relationship never equaled the "intimate" management of the Gran Tavola of Orlando Bonsignori in the 13th century; instead of entrusting idle funds to merchant bankers for investment, the papal Chamberlain, Treasurer, and Vice-treasurer (all high-ranking ecclesiastics, assisted by a "throng" of clerics, notaries, and laymen) managed these funds more physically, keeping them in a "strong room" built specifically for this purpose.[5]
Theology of usury
The Avignon Exchange was created in a theological environment more permissive of money-changing than Biblical accounts of Jesus.
Although scholastic economic philosophers had constructed a wide variety of prohibitions and loopholes related to the conduct of traditional lending (usury), there is very little scholastic thought on foreign exchange transactions except insofar as they related to the covering of loan repayment.[6] Raymond de Roover notes that:
"One paradoxical result of this controversy was that pawnbrokers and small money-lenders were the main victims of the campaigns waged against usury by friars like Bernardino of Feltre, but the big bankers and international connections were left undisturbed. Far from being censured they were called "the peculiarly beloved sons of the Church" and prided themselves in being the Pope's exchangers. In fact, their services were indispensable for the transfer of papal funds."[6]
Thus, "Profit and Loss on Exchange" (Pro e danno di cambio) was not considered usury and was frequently listed in accounting books.[6]
History
From 1316 to 1342, the Avignon popes relied on the exchange services of three large Florentine banking houses—the Bardi, Peruzzi, and Acciaioli—all of whom failed in 1342, bringing down the entire papal transfer system with them.[5]
From 1342 to 1362, the Apostolic Camera was required to use the services of several smaller and weaker firms from Asti (especially Malabayla), Lucca, and Pistoia; the Camera was unsuccessful in trying to build up the capacity of each of these bankers.[5]
However, in 1362, the papacy was able to employ the services of the Alberti antichi banking house in Florence, which had recently risen to prominence.[5] The papacy did not use the mechanism of the bill of exchange (which had been common since the 13th century), but rather employed a unique procedure, which required a receipt in notarial form for all transfers to Avignon, called the instrumentum cambii; this instrument—always made out in duplicate or triplicate—specified the amount received by the banker and proxy and recorded a promise to transmit to Avignon and pay to the pope or his agent a certain amount.[5] One copy of the instrument was sent to Avignon by the papal carrier which enabled the Avignon administration to obtain payment from either the banker or their Avignon representative.[5] The use of written documents was considered "not businesslike" by contemporaries as it required the constant "intervention of notaries".[5]
The instrumentum cambii (also known as an "Avisa") did not eliminate the possibility of fraud, but rather created different possibilities for misdealings, as seen with a 1359 exchange between Venice and Avignon.[7]
The Avignon branch of the Medici bank was not established until 1446, the same year as the London branch.[
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avignon_Exchange
In the Holy Roman Empire, the Great Interregnum (so-called to distinguish it from the longer period between 924 and 962) was a period of time, from approximately 1254 until 1273, following the throne dispute of Frederick II where the succession of the Holy Roman Empire was contested and fought over between pro- and anti-Hohenstaufen factions. Starting around 1250 with the death of Frederick II, the conflict over who was the rightful emperor and King of the Romans would continue into the 1300s until Charles IV of Luxembourg was elected emperor and secured succession for his son Wenceslaus. This period saw a multitude of emperors and kings be elected or propped up by rival factions and princes, with many kings and emperors having short reigns or reigns that became heavily contested by rival claimants.
The long-lasting effects of the Interregnum were primarily the end of centralization of the imperial monarchy and the fragmentation of power towards the princes and prince-electors. The efforts of the Houses of Welf and Hohenstaufen towards expanding the power of the emperor and ensuring a clear line of succession between family members was difficult in this period, with many elections going from one family to another family in a deliberate effort by the electors to prevent a consolidation of power.
Great Interregnum
Following the death of Frederick II in 1250, two claimants claimed the Emperorship, Frederick II's son Conrad IV and the church backed anti-king William of Holland. By Frederick’s death, Conrad had defeated William and forced his submission. Conrad’s position in Germany was strong when he traveled to Italy to claim the rest of his inheritance from his mighty father. However, Conrad's death in 1254 gave William two years of rule but his death in 1256 gave way to a double election in 1257, between Richard of Cornwall and Alfonso X of Castile. Alfonso never set foot in Germany during his lifetime and Richard was crowned in 1257, spending the rest of his reign traveling between England and Germany until his death in 1272. Richard maintained a solid support base in Germany during his reign, keeping the feudal relations of the Hohenstaufens and maintaining some officials of William of Holland. After his death in 1272, there were few obvious candidates to succeed him as multiple dynastic conflicts had splintered the larger dynasty's lands into smaller territories, leaving Ottokar II of Bohemia and Rudolf of Habsburg as the main candidates. Ottokar's ambitions for expanding his territory into Babenberger lands alarmed the princes and they elected Rudolf instead, viewing him as less-threatening and more friendly to their interests.
Rudolf to Albert
Rudolf started his reign by reclaiming Hohenstaufen land that had been pawned off for money or lost during the previous two decades in a policy called revindication,[1] and during the course of his reign he managed to recover a majority of Hohenstaufen lands and estates. This policy met some resistance in 1274 when a Diet held in Nuremberg decreed that the Count Palatine of the Rhine would be the judge in such cases, diluting some of Rudolf’s power.[2] Rudolf continued the course of Richard, maintaining the Hohenstaufen feudal relationships and expanding on policies started by Richard, notably by overhauling judicial oversight of royal lands to be held by loyal knights and retainers to increase revenues from these lands. Rudolf was frustrated in his attempts to gain control of Babenberger lands in modern-day Austria as his base of support rested on appearing as non-threatening to the other princes. After his death in 1291, Adolf of Nassau was chosen over Rudolf's son Albert due to Albert's attitude towards the electors and the potential threat he might be to them.
Adolf of Nassau had more difficulties in securing his authority with the electors than Rudolf, primarily because the electors desired a weaker ruler that they could control more easily. Adolf granted concessions to the princes but otherwise continued Rudolf's policies of revindication to expand royal lands. Adolf utilized funds from England meant to finance a war with France to instead gain control of Thuringia, which was desired by the electors and other princes due to inheritance disputes. This proved to be his undoing as several princes and electors worked together to challenge Adolf and decide to depose him, a highly controversial move as Adolf's claim was never questioned prior to this incident and the group of princes acted without papal approval. The conflict moved onto the battlefield, where Adolf was killed in battle and Albert of Habsburg, Rudolf's son, was elected as King of the Romans in 1298. Albert however turned on the electors later in his reign, trying to consolidate his family's control of both Thuringia and Bohemia, though ultimately failing as he was murdered by his nephew Johann in 1308 before either could be fully brought under control.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interregnum_(Holy_Roman_Empire)
This shot might also be entitled, How To Tell If It's Windy In New York. Yes, I know some of you will be offended by this image, but what can I tell you - I shots 'em as I sees 'em.
So one day during my recent sojourn in NYC, I was walking down the street when a mighty gust of wind lifted this glue trap and sent it sailing in the direction of some nearby scaffolding. It immediately conjoured two images in my head. One was of Debra Winger in Forget Paris when a pigeon is stuck to the side of her head and I imagined the horror of the same thing happening to someone with this loaded trap. The other thought was that I was being given a glimpse into the evolutionary backstory of how pigeons came to be.
This is an old one, from when the Marimekko duvet was still intact. The look on Babar's face is one of sheer entitlement.
The education kit entitled “Riskland: the fun way to learn how to prevent disasters” is the outcome of a joint initiative between the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). This product was developed at the end of 2002 by the ISDR Regional Unit for Latin America and the Caribbean, in cooperation with UNICEF Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean (UNICEF-TACRO). Initially, it was addressed for countries in the LAC region and was originally produced in Spanish, English and Portuguese.
Riesgolandia, aprendamos jugando cómo prevenir desastres tiene la intención de poner a disposición de la comunidad educativa y a los niños y las niñas de América Latina y el Caribe una herramienta innovadora e interactiva para la reducción del riesgo de desastres.
From my set entitled “Buttercup”
www.flickr.com/photos/21861018@N00/sets/72157607214043026/
www.flickr.com/photos/21861018@N00/sets/72157607217763461/
In my collection entitled “The Garden”
www.flickr.com/photos/21861018@N00/collections/7215760718...
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranunculus
Ranunculus is a large genus of about 400 species of plants in the Ranunculaceae. It includes the buttercups, spearworts, water crowfoots and the lesser celandine (but not the greater celandine of the poppy family Papaveraceae).
They are mostly herbaceous perennials with bright yellow or white flowers (if white, still with a yellow centre); some are annuals or biennials. A few have orange or red flowers and occasionally, as in R. auricomus, petals may be absent. The petals are often highly lustrous, especially in yellow species. Buttercups usually flower in April or May but flowers may be found throughout the summer especially where the plants are growing as opportunistic colonisers, as in the case of garden weeds.
The Water crowfoots (Ranunculus subgenus Batrachium), which grow in still or running water, are sometimes treated in a separate genus Batrachium. They have two different leaf types, thread-like leaves underwater and broader floating leaves although for some species, such as R. aquatilis, a third, intermediate leaf form occurs.
Ranunculus species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Hebrew Character and Small Angle Shades. Some species are popular ornamental flowers in horticulture, with many cultivars selected for large and brightly coloured flowers.
The name Ranunculus derives from the Latin words rana (frog) and ulus (little). This probably refers to many species being found near water, like frogs.
In the interior of the Pacific Northwest of the United States the buttercup is called "Coyote’s eyes" — iceyéeyenm sílu in Nez Perce and spilyaynmí áčaš in Sahaptin. In the legend Coyote was tossing his eyes up in the air and catching them again when Eagle snatched them. Unable to see, Coyote made eyes from the buttercup.
All Ranunculus species are poisonous when eaten fresh by cattle, horses, and other livestock, but their acrid taste and the blistering of the mouth caused by their poison means they are usually left uneaten. Poisoning can occur where buttercups are abundant in overgrazed fields where little other edible plant growth is left, and the animals eat them out of desperation. Symptoms include bloody diarrhea, excessive salivation, colic, and severe blistering of the mucous membranes and gastrointestinal tract. When Ranunculus plants are handled, naturally occurring ranunculin is broken down to form protoanemonin, which is known to cause contact dermatitis in humans and care should therefore be exercised in excessive handling of the plants[1]. The toxins are degraded by drying, so hay containing dried buttercups is safe
The term sardonic (sardanios), "bitter or scornful laughter", is often cited as deriving from the name of the Sardinian plant Ranunculus sardous, known as either σαρδάνη (sardanē) or σαρδόνιον (sardonion). When eaten, it would cause the eater's face to contort in a look resembling scorn (generally followed by death). It might also be related to σαίρω (sairō) "I grin"
New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs participated at the Stand Down of North Jersey at John Fitzgerald Kennedy Pool and Recreation Center in Newark on Oct. 15. Stand Down is an out-reach program with a mission to assist homeless veterans and provide a safe retreat where they can receive personal hygiene, clean clothes, enjoy warm meals, receive medical and dental care and be informed of state and federal entitlements. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Armando Vasquez, NJ DMAVA/PA)
I think when a sign is well painted on the building itself, there is a certain charm - regardless of what it's advertising.
New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs participated at the Stand Down of North Jersey at John Fitzgerald Kennedy Pool and Recreation Center in Newark on Oct. 15. Stand Down is an out-reach program with a mission to assist homeless veterans and provide a safe retreat where they can receive personal hygiene, clean clothes, enjoy warm meals, receive medical and dental care and be informed of state and federal entitlements. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Armando Vasquez, NJ DMAVA/PA)
Cast stone relief entitled "Pony Express and Rural Delivery" created by Vincent Glinsky in 1940. The postal service moved out of the old PO around 1969. All the literature in books and online lists this artwork as "missing". It remained in the old PO after it was sold to a private individual. The current "owner" removed the piece in the last few months due to someone trying to break into the old PO--he was concerned they would damage the artwork. He hopes to loan the piece to a museum for display but it currently is in his garage.
The education kit entitled “Riskland: the fun way to learn how to prevent disasters” is the outcome of a joint initiative between the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). This product was developed at the end of 2002 by the ISDR Regional Unit for Latin America and the Caribbean, in cooperation with UNICEF Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean (UNICEF-TACRO). Initially, it was addressed for countries in the LAC region and was originally produced in Spanish, English and Portuguese.
Riesgolandia, aprendamos jugando cómo prevenir desastres tiene la intención de poner a disposición de la comunidad educativa y a los niños y las niñas de América Latina y el Caribe una herramienta innovadora e interactiva para la reducción del riesgo de desastres.