R.L. Swihart's Blog, page 48

Ford Madox Ford: Memoirs

On the death of his grandfather, Ford Madox Brown:

Upon the top was inscribed “Ford Madox Brown,” and on the bottom, “Wycliffe on His Trial Before John of Gaunt. Presented to the National Gallery by a Committee of Admirers of the Artist.” In this way the “X” of Madox Brown came exactly over the centre of the picture. It was Madox Brown’s practice to begin a painting by putting in the eyes of the central figure. This, he considered, gave him the requisite strength of tone that would be applied to the whole canvas. And indeed I believe that, once he had painted in those eyes, he never in any picture altered them, however much he might alter the picture itself. He used them as it were to work up to. Having painted in these eyes, he would begin at the top left-hand corner of the canvas, and would go on painting downward in a nearly straight line until the picture was finished. He would, of course, have made a great number of studies before commencing the picture itself. Usually there was an exceedingly minute and conscientious pencil-drawing, then a large charcoal cartoon, and after that, for the sake of the color scheme, a version in water-color, in pastels, and generally one in oil. In the case of the Manchester frescoes, almost every one was preceded by a small version painted in oils upon a panel, and this was the case with the large Wycliffe. On this, the last evening of his life, Madox Brown pointed with his brush to the “X” of his name. Below it, on the left-hand side, the picture was completely filled in; on the right it was completely blank — a waste of slightly yellow canvas that gleamed in the dusky studio. He said: “You see I have got to that ‘X.’ I am glad of it, for half the picture is done and it feels as if I were going home.” Those, I think, were his last words. He laid his brushes upon his painting cabinet, scraped his palette of all mixed paints, laid his palette upon his brushes and his spectacles upon his palette. He took off the biretta that he always wore when he was painting — he must have worn such a biretta for upward of half a century — ever since he had been a French student. And so, having arrived at his end-of-the-day routine, which he had followed for innumerable years, he went upstairs to bed. He probably read a little of the Mystères de Paris, and died in his sleep, the picture with its inscriptions remaining downstairs, a little ironic, a little pathetic, and unfinished.

Some Pics I Saw @ Tate Britain

 

European Goldfinch @ St Ives

European Goldfinch @ St Ives. Had seen them before (here and Spain) but never got a good pic. Saw another one in St Ives (as we were waiting for the train back to St Erth and eventually London), he came to the tracks and even flashed the gold on his sleeve. But alas, by the time I got my camera out of the suitcase he'd flown up into the trees.

#rlswihart #stives #cornwall #uk #goldfinchesofinstagram #europeangoldfinch #nature #beauty #poetry #readmorepoetry2023 #ukraine 🇺🇦

Ford Madox Ford: Memoirs

On Pre-Raphaelites and the Aestheticists:

Pre-Raphaelism in itself was born of Realism. Ruskin gave it one white wing of moral purpose. The Æstheticists presented it with another, dyed all the colors of the rainbow, from the hues of mediæval tapestries to that of romantic love. Thus it flew rather unevenly and came to the ground. The first Pre-Raphaelites said that you must paint your model exactly as you see it, hair for hair, or leaf-spore for leaf-spore. Mr. Ruskin gave them the added canon that the subject they painted must be one of moral distinction. You must, in fact, paint life as you see it, and yet in such a way as to prove that life is an ennobling thing. How one was to do this one got no particular directions. Perhaps one might have obtained it by living only in the drawing-room of Brantwood House, Coniston, when Mr. Ruskin was in residence. —

Ford Madox Ford: Memoirs

 On Christina Rossetti:

She wanted to be obscure, and to be an obscure handmaiden of the Lord, as fervently as she desired to be exactly correct in her language.

From Our Recent Trip to London: A Few Bird Pics

 

Ford Madox Ford: Memoirs

And over the porch was the funereal urn with the ram’s head. This object, dangerous and threatening, has always seemed to me to be symbolical of this circle of men, so practical in their work and so romantically unpractical, as a whole, in their lives. They knew exactly how, according to their lights, to paint pictures, to write poems, to make tables, to decorate pianos, rooms, or churches. But as to the conduct of life they were a little sketchy, a little romantic, perhaps a little careless. I should say that of them all Madox Brown was the most practical. But his way of being practical was always to be quaintly ingenious. Thus we had the urn. Most of the Pre-Raphaelites dreaded it; they all of them talked about it as a possible danger, but never was any step taken for its removal. It was never even really settled in their minds whose would be the responsibility for any accident. It is difficult to imagine the frame of mind, but there it was, and there to this day the urn remains.

Ford Madox Ford: Parade's End, Vol.. 2

And morning had brought the common-sense idea that probably she wanted to do nothing more than pull the string of the shower-bath — which meant committing herself to the first extravagant action that came into her head — and exulting in the consequences.

Ford Madox Ford: Some Do Not ...

Being near Tietjens she lifted her plate, which contained two cold cutlets in aspic and several leaves of salad: she wavered a little to one side and, with a circular motion of her hand, let the whole contents fly at Tietjens’ head. She placed the plate on the table and drifted slowly towards the enormous mirror over the fireplace. “I’m bored,” she said. “Bored! Bored!”

R L Swihart's "Her Fight" @ Red Noise Collective

 

My poem "Her Flight" is up at the first link (Red Noise Collective) and a bit of the poem is also used on a cool Instagram video (second link). No idea how long the poem will be up. Run.:)
https://www.rednoisecollective.com/he...
https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cp3N0E...
#rlswihart #rednoisecollective #herflight #readmorepoetry2023