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| His Bunkie by William James Aylward |
The Death of a Soldier - Wallace Stevens
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Jan Steen (1626-1679) was a Dutch baroque painter known for his genre (everyday household) paintings. His scenes were often very chaotic, with a lot of humor built into them. While many of his jokes are obscure to us today, there is still a Dutch saying "Jan Steen household" to describe a chaotic home.
While his works were popular in his day, he was a poor money manager and left a lot of debt when he died. His work is still highly regarded.
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| Jan Steen self-portrait |
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The was a time when the Paris Morgue was an attraction. In 19th century Paris unidentified corpses were brought in from the streets or the river. In an attempt to identify them it was decided to display them in the hope a relative or acquittance would claim them. They were frozen, displayed on angled iron tables, and their clothes displayed. They would be publicly exhibited for three days.
Entry to the viewing area was free, and soon it became a popular destination for the curious. Newspapers would print lurid details of the cadavers, and the more infamous ones (decapitations, mutilation or children) would draw large crowds.
From the article The Paris Morgue: A Gruesome Tourist Attraction in the 19th Century:
The Paris Morgue was open seven days a week from dawn to 6pm and was drawing up to 40,000 visitors a day. Parisians and tourists mingled side by side. It became a family day out at weekends, the respectable mixing with the disreputable, young and old, male and female, small children and workers on their lunch break; all filed past the bodies with unabated curiosity.
The more horrendous or gruesome a death, the longer the queues grew. Decapitated, or limbless bodies, tiny children, only added to the morbid desire to see the bodies up close.
Of course what was undeniably adding to the dubious attraction of seeing dead bodies on display was that it was free to enter.
A glimpse of the Paris Morgue’s interior. The left wall of the entrance hall consisted of a row of windows through which guests could see the “salle d’exposition” where cadavers were laid out on iron tables, their clothes hung from thick iron hooks over their heads.
Indeed if on a rare day, the morgue was empty of bodies, the dissatisfaction of the crowd was made apparent. Their appetite for death up close had become almost insatiable.
Because of the guarantee of daily crowds, street vendors set up outside the morgue selling oranges, coconut ice or whatever else they thought would tempt the queue.
It all sounds rather macabre and gruesome, but then again, we all slow down and rubberneck for traffic accidents, don't we?
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Jacob Philipp Hackert (1737–1807) was a German painter known for his landscapes. He was a neo-classicist and a romanticist. He was quite successful in his life. He moved to Italy where he was the court painter of King Ferdinand IV of Naples. Eventually, wars in northern Italy forced him south where he was to spend the remainder of his life.
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| Jacob Philipp Hackert by Wilhelm Titel |
This is a chaotic and at times faintly alarming trip down a rail line in Bangladesh. The line is actually not in use, it was closed some 20 years ago, and this is a maintenance carriage checking the tracks. The tracks are covered with straw and other debris and livestock are tied to it. People have to run ahead to clear them.
It is a trip through rural Bangladesh. There used to be a ferry at its end by the river. A newer track with a bridge has replaced it. In the comments there is a lot of nostalgia over this route, people fondly remembering riding the train in their youth.
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Weird Tales was a very influential 20th Century pulp magazine. It featured horror, the supernatural and sci-fi. Among writers it discovered and promoted were H.P. Lovecraft, Ray Bradbury, and Robert E. Howard. It discontinued publication in 1954 but has had several attempts to restart. Since 1988 it has been published under its current incarnation.
These covers are from the original 1923 to 1954 run.
Asai Seisakusho (Nejiya) Ltd. is a small factory, ran by one man, in Japan. It produces 400,000 screws per day. The work it takes to maintain the machines, manage orders, perform quality control, order the supplies he needs, and do the books is amazing to consider. When done with his workday he says he goes home and drinks beer. That sounds well deserved to me.
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Leon Wyczółkowski (1852-1936) was a Polish artist. He started out as a realist, but as he traveled and matured, he was to be exposed to many other artistic styles which he folded into his work. The strongest influence was impressionism which informed the play of light in his works.
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| Leon Wyczółkowski self-portrait |
May Day, that most wonderful day of the year, falls on a Friday! And so, we have some uplifting music as you prepare for your festive struggle sessions, traditional bread line occupying, and lording it over the wreckers and hoarders! And always remember, you need to break an egg to make an omelet, and you may need to break millions of Kulak's heads to make a Socialist utopia! Your future as a useful idiot beckons!
Have a Happy May Day comrades and enjoy your tree bark snacks as you listen to some melodious and inspiring tunes!
This video takes place in Borneo. It is shrimp season, so they travel down a river to get some shrimp and then return to their home, which is in a long building divided into apartments. They grill and pan fry the shrimp and enjoy their dinner. After eating they relax on the patio area in front of their apartment and then take a walk through the village.
If you want to get some sense of what they are talking about you'll need to turn on Captions>Auto-translate>English. Much of what you'll get will be gibberish, but you can follow along here and there.
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Email has largely replaced written mail, but back in the day it was as feature of life. Now it is little but bills and advertising flyers. These are pictures from the time when the letter was king: postmen, postal workers, mail delivery, reading letters, and mailboxes.
The Taroko National Park in Taiwan is centered around a rather spectacular gorge. The marble cliffs that surround the river that created the gorge are steep and very tall. Along with marble, there are a lot of jade deposits. It is a very impressive natural wonder.
I've been to it. In fact, the hotel he shows is the place that I stayed in. Within walking distance of it is a small village with street stalls, the tall pagoda, and various other temples and monasteries. Throughout the gorge are many other temples. It is well worth a visit if you're in the neighborhood. The gorge itself is spectacular.
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George du Maurier (1834-1896) was a French novelist and artist who settled in London. He was a caricaturist whose illustrations appeared primarily in the satirical Punch weekly magazine. His subjects were the upper class of the Victorian era.
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| George du Maurier' |
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16th Century Russian tax collectors conducting an audit |
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Henri Rivière (1864-1951) was French artist. When Japan opened up in the 1850s a wave of goods had entered Europe, including woodprints which considerably influenced European artists. They were to influence Rivière as well.
In 1888 the construction of the Eiffel tower began. Inspired by Hokusai’s Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji Rivière decided to do a similar portfolio featuring the tower. He started by trying to replicate the Japanese printing process, although he actually didn't know how it was done. His experimentation led to two prints, but it was a costly and time-consuming process, so he abandoned it for lithography for the rest of the series.
These images are from the Public Domain Review' post Henri Rivière’s Thirty-Six Views of the Eiffel Tower (1888–1902). There are more images at that post, as well as a discussion of his series.
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| Henri Rivière |
