Showing posts with label Portraits. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Portraits. Show all posts
Sunday 29 July 2018
Normal Weather Today.
Weather normal today, rain most of the morning, no sun, and occasional dry spots, dank and dreich but warm, a normal Summer in Edinburgh that. I dealt with this in the manner I grew accustomed to while in Edinburgh - I remained indoors.
Here indoors with the aid of a newly obtained cheap bookcase I cleared lots of videos from the floor, the floor they have been lying on for about 18 months since I painted the room. Of course my delight at my bargain (huh!?) was somewhat dimmed as the videos are about an eighth of an inch (ask your dad) too tall for the immovable shelves. However it cleared a space, bar the dust, and soon I will be sorting other items that have lain around for too long without being attended to.
Well I may leave that until my exercise kicks in again. You see I keep starting this exercise business and find it does me good, however there is always a problem interfering and I end up missing out and have to start again. So tomorrow while the washing is churning around the machine, while I watch something interesting on TV or laptop, I will once again stretch, moan, lift and moan, stretch and follow the old order once again. If successful I may become strong enough to lift Calvin's commentary on Genesis and begin reading the thing.
While awaiting the football this afternoon, the Heart of Midlothian won by five goals to nil as you may expect, I indulged an old habit, no not that one, I went looking for portraits. I have not taken such photos for a long time, there are no girls around here, and I found myself in the mood to do just this while the rain fell outside. So I perused the web stealing poses in which to imagine I may one day find someone daft enough to let me practice this art. I have taken many attempted portraits over the past hundred years and three have been worth it, I think I need practice. At least it gave me many ideas, some above my station, and one day I will have a model and maybe actually get the camera set properly, we wait in hope.
Sunday 28 August 2016
The Sunday Post
Yesterday, in a fit of early morning zeal, I got the bike out and cycled around for half an hour. This was yet another attempt to lose weight and get some degree of fitness. Today, I cycled the five minutes to church, ten minutes coming back against the wind and traffic, and see myself as ready for a long cycling adventure tomorrow, if the wind drops, it's quite strong at the moment.
Yes indeed I might rise early and race slowly up the old railway until my knees give way. That should not take long. The advantage is the Bank Holiday Weekend, this means many people are away and the last dregs of the school holidays begin to come to an end. This week the schools return to be filled with happy cheery children, and miserable adolescents. At the museum we have one more week of the kids, two days actually, then it is the grandparents and parents coming in to see what they missed when they came with the kids.
As I intend to drop one day and work only Tuesday mornings for a while, so I can do the other things for the museum that lie awaiting on this computer, i will also be able to take more time on the bike and on the bus pass. When the holidays are over I can get a holiday. Or at least a day out on the bus! How I need to be out and about a wee bit more, my mind needs refreshment and my body needs the following rest. Already this week sees an improvement as I eat better and sleep more.
I do, as some remember, like portraits. This one here dates from the 1850's and I winder if it is from the USA? Something about it speaks of east coast wealth, maybe that's just me. Possibly because of the somewhat long exposure time the lady in the picture cannot avoid offering us a face full of stress. However I note what looks like two wedding rings on her finger and wonder if she has been bumping off her men? The outfit looks black, it is of course impossible to tell from the picture what the colour of the dress actually happens to be, but the dark beads round the neck, the crucifix and the general demeanor speaks of sad times. Her dark bracelets also add to the doom laden image.
She appears to be no more than thirty years of age and it is perfectly possible in the 1850's to lose two husbands in short time, and if in the USA possibly through gunfire of course! Her men may have gone west to make their fortune and failed to return, it is likely disease carried them away.
Poor lass, if my guesswork is correct she will have had enough problems and need no more. I wonder who she was, I wonder if she is just a model, I wonder if her husbands were rich and I wonder where did the money go....?
Monday 27 January 2014
Sorting Out files
Trieris, a replica of an Athenian ship.
Oxford Street 1897
Some of the pics were quite interesting, this one appeared from somewhere, who knows where, but shows a different view of Oxford Street than that seen today. You will note some obvious similarities, rain, crowded pavements, shops, and generally dreary appearance overall. The main difference I suppose it that the photographer can stand in the middle of the road and remain alive....if indeed he did remain alive!
Flitch Way
This is a self portrait by Lady Clementina something or other, a lass who took to photography in the middle of the nineteenth century. If I could remember more I would tell you what it is but my dim mind tells me she took pictures of her friends, and women dressed like that make very good photographs, but from her Kensington home she made the most of her hobby. You had to be amongst the wealthy to be a photographer in those days. The cost of the camera, the glass negatives, the time and staff required to develop the pictures all combined to make photography very expensive indeed. George Eastman, and those like him, did the world a huge service by developing his 'Box Brownie' and other cheap cameras. The delight of seeing a successful photograph, no matter how inept to a professional, is just that a delight!
Most of my time however was spent amending the huge amount of Great War pictures that somehow got split into a variety of places. So many duplicates, so many I canny mind obtaining. The laptop is not the easiest machine for a hamfisted eejit to operate and the files kept disappearing into one another. This led to more confusion as I fought to get them back where they belonged only to find I had confused two similar files. Like hitting your head on a brick wall it was so good when it was all over, at least I hope it is now.
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Labels:
Cats,
cycle,
Flitch Way,
Great War,
London,
Photography,
Portraits,
Trireme
Wednesday 31 July 2013
Too Slothful to Post, so.....
Here is a picture of a pretty girl by a window. (1862)
She is reading a book while waiting for the carpet fitter to arrive!
Thursday 23 May 2013
Representation of the People?
In times past I liked to take portrait pictures. I must have taken hundreds of pictures of people and have at least one really good one and two I like. Now I only have the wee camera, and no models, I don't take any, which is irksome. However I always collect such portraits if I see any I like, either paintings or photos. Today I found myself wandering through sites offering vintage portraits and I am amazed so many see the light of day. There is something about these I like. The attractive women, the clever way they have been posed, the expressions. A good portrait offers you the real person, and the person does not always like what they see! Some photographers have a way of making the sitter what the photographer wishes them to be rather than what they actually are, and this irritates. There are those who put the sitter in a box, or with a background that makes them something other than themselves, these are often famous photographers, but the subject is not in my view themselves, just a mannequin.
One day when rich I will get a camera similar to the aged Zenith 'E' or the Minolta, scrape together a lens of around 105 -150 length and go find myself some willing (cheap) models.
Until then I trawl the net..
Tuesday 20 December 2011
Three Outstanding Portraits
Gladstone
Disraeli
Salisbury
I believe all by Millais and displayed in the Portrait Gallery London.
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Monday 3 October 2011
Last Sunshine?
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I snapped this bright blue sky this afternoon as I suspect this may be the last hot day of the year. They say the temperature will drop considerably over the next few days, that the remains of another US hurricane will be deposited over us, with the accompanying winds to boot! It appears a proper autumn is upon us now. I may not go out for the next six months!
As some enjoyed the portrait of Reynolds I add another, Lady Colin Campbell painted by Giovanni Boldini in 1897. I first saw this large impressive painting in the English National Portrait Gallery, which you ought to visit, and was very impressed by it. The impression I received is dimmed somewhat by the restrictions of a blog, but this is a marvellous portrait.
Gertrude Elizabeth Blood, who married Lord Colin Campbell and joined a higher social society than that in which she was bred. However he was a philanderer and appears to have passed on a nasty disease to her. The following divorce caused a sensation (yawn) and high society rejected her in spite of he being to blame. Well they were all at it were they not? They still are, no morals among the high society at any time. She turned to literary work and mixed in artistic circles. She died in 1911 in her early fifties.
Check the link for more.
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I snapped this bright blue sky this afternoon as I suspect this may be the last hot day of the year. They say the temperature will drop considerably over the next few days, that the remains of another US hurricane will be deposited over us, with the accompanying winds to boot! It appears a proper autumn is upon us now. I may not go out for the next six months!
As some enjoyed the portrait of Reynolds I add another, Lady Colin Campbell painted by Giovanni Boldini in 1897. I first saw this large impressive painting in the English National Portrait Gallery, which you ought to visit, and was very impressed by it. The impression I received is dimmed somewhat by the restrictions of a blog, but this is a marvellous portrait.
Gertrude Elizabeth Blood, who married Lord Colin Campbell and joined a higher social society than that in which she was bred. However he was a philanderer and appears to have passed on a nasty disease to her. The following divorce caused a sensation (yawn) and high society rejected her in spite of he being to blame. Well they were all at it were they not? They still are, no morals among the high society at any time. She turned to literary work and mixed in artistic circles. She died in 1911 in her early fifties.
Check the link for more.
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Labels:
Boldini,
Lady Colin Campbell,
Paintings,
Portraits,
Sunshine
Saturday 1 October 2011
Joshua Reynolds
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I like portraits. This self portrait of Sir Joshua Reynolds is particularly good I thought. Instead of the usual sidelong glance and hands akimbo that we often see here he has cleverly put his hand over his eyes and brought life to the portrait. Very good indeed I say!
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I like portraits. This self portrait of Sir Joshua Reynolds is particularly good I thought. Instead of the usual sidelong glance and hands akimbo that we often see here he has cleverly put his hand over his eyes and brought life to the portrait. Very good indeed I say!
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Tuesday 18 August 2009
Portrait of Louise Jopling
Sir John Everett Millais (1829 - 1896)
I love portraits. Once upon a time when I had friends I used to attempt to become another Karsh or Snowdon. It was not to be however I did enjoy it and have a few snaps that I like. Those portrayed often did not like the pictures funnily enough, and this became worse for them when others cried "Oh that's just you!" Funny how we rarely like to see ourselves as we are. Women especially are like this because they will see only faults, and usually faults no man will see, faults they expect another woman to notice, and faults which in the end do not actually determine whether she is worth anything or not - the personality outshines all cosmetic faults.
Some men share the dislike of seeing themselves. This has less to do with the cosmetic side, shout "Hoi Ugly!" to any group of men and most will turn round, then point to their mate! However if the male has an image of himself, good or bad, and the picture reminds him of this, or indeed corrects his assumptions,then he feels attacked and reacts in the time honoured male fashion, he gets either violent and yells blue murder, or he sulks like a nine year old. (By the way, I have no pictures of me on view!) None the less photographs of ourselves will continue to be taken and the rich among you may well have an oil painting or two on your wall of yourself or a loved one. This is actually a good thing because in spite of you being you people wish to have a record of your existence, something the minority in history could possess.
My failure to make the grade is not equaled by Sir John Everett Millais. He became one of the foremost portrait painters, and he was not even a Scot! Louis Jopling was a well known portraitist herself and modelled for this picture. Millais then gave her the portrait as a gift foe her son, his Godson. As a leading member of 'Women's suffrage' she was clearly a troublemaker, although when she applied for a commission (worth £150) she lost out to Millais himself, who then earned £1000! Well she was just a woman after all!
Read about both, they sound admirable, and rich, people. Then study their pictures and take photos of those around you!
Some men share the dislike of seeing themselves. This has less to do with the cosmetic side, shout "Hoi Ugly!" to any group of men and most will turn round, then point to their mate! However if the male has an image of himself, good or bad, and the picture reminds him of this, or indeed corrects his assumptions,then he feels attacked and reacts in the time honoured male fashion, he gets either violent and yells blue murder, or he sulks like a nine year old. (By the way, I have no pictures of me on view!) None the less photographs of ourselves will continue to be taken and the rich among you may well have an oil painting or two on your wall of yourself or a loved one. This is actually a good thing because in spite of you being you people wish to have a record of your existence, something the minority in history could possess.
My failure to make the grade is not equaled by Sir John Everett Millais. He became one of the foremost portrait painters, and he was not even a Scot! Louis Jopling was a well known portraitist herself and modelled for this picture. Millais then gave her the portrait as a gift foe her son, his Godson. As a leading member of 'Women's suffrage' she was clearly a troublemaker, although when she applied for a commission (worth £150) she lost out to Millais himself, who then earned £1000! Well she was just a woman after all!
Read about both, they sound admirable, and rich, people. Then study their pictures and take photos of those around you!
Labels:
Louise Jopling,
Portraits,
Sir John Everett Millais
Wednesday 29 October 2008
Portraits
This painting is called 'The Beaver Hat' and is by the Scots painter Edward Arthur Walton.
I post it simply because I like it. In the days of long ago I used to attempt to take portrait photographs and became quite adept at this. In fact of the thousands of pictures taken I found three that were worth looking at! Sadly I have not succeeded in continuing this success story through a lack of models, although I have enquired about the availability of several lassies as they passed by. The ASBO hinders this somewhat now.
I like looking at portraits as they tell us so much, mostly indirectly. While we look at the individual shown we learn much about the society around them as well as the portrait painter or photographer. It appears to me that far too many today tell us more about themselves and little about the subject. This is very sad. 'The Beaver Hat' tells us that the date is pre-war, the 'Great War' that is, but says nothing about the lassie posing. Had she been important I suspect her name would have been well known in artistic circles, and a large fee paid for the painting. This must therefore be a model. Such hats were popular amongst the girls of the day, if they had cash, and kept many a trapper happy in the wild west, although they may well have been travelling by Model 'T' Fords by this time! This is a lovely picture, simple and straightforward, a limited background, (looks like some bedsits I have known, dull, dirty and dingy,) with the lassies face highlighted and standing out from the rest. I like it. I wonder how much this would cost in today's 'Credit Crunch' society?
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