oops!

 Jill Greenberg, Misinformation, 2006, from her End Times series.

housecleaning on one's blog is probably not best attempted late at night in the throes of exhaustion. I lost my old template and with it my blogroll and other things...posts are still intact, though. I think. and, like I said, a bit of straightening up was in order so I'm hoping this is for the best. clean sweep! anyways, bear with me! technical difficulties blah blah blah.

Photograph courtesy of Guy Hepner, originally via Cup of Jo.

Artwork to Room: à la Turc, by way of Russia

This one was thump-you-on-your-head obvious, but I couldn't resist.

Jean-Etienne Liotard, Portrait of a Young Woman in Turkish Dress Sitting on a Divan, circa 1750. Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Geneva.*

Living room of Charles and Olya Thompson, from American Vogue, Jan. 2010.** 

* Don't confuse this with the strikingly similar portrait belonging to the Rijksmuseum which is thought to portray Mary Gunning, the Countess of Coventry. Liotard produced several pastels of this ravishing scene but only the one in Amsterdam certainly depicts Lady Coventry. DO, however, click on the image to see more detail. It's my own scan (not the greatest, but the colors are better than anything else I can find), so if you borrow it, please credit the book whose spine I butchered to get the scan: 

Jean-Étienne Liotard (1702-1789): Masterpieces from the Musées d’art et d’histoire of Geneva and Swiss Private Collections. New York: Frick Collection, 2006.

** This is from one of my old folders and I can't find the rest of the article, but you can see more images at Habitually Chic. Trust me, you'll want to.

"There are fairies at the bottom of our garden,"

or, as Andy Warhol would have it, at the bottom of HIS garden. 

I wasn't expecting to glean blogging fodder from the art historical feeding frenzy that is CAA (because this is not, whatever you might think, intended to be an art history blog). However, I was bowled over when I recognized JJ Grandville's enchanting 1847 illustrations, "Les Fleurs Animées," from one of my favorite old Bibliodyssey posts, in reference to Andy Warhol's characteristically cheeky, whimsical series of 1956, "In the Bottom of My Garden." I thought you might like to see them as well.

 

The comparison was remarked upon yesterday by Allison Unruh in a diverting talk on Warhol's rococo references, and all I could think of for the rest of the session was how I couldn't wait to go home and find more images! I'm not going to wax scholarly now...you can read more about the Warhol series here, and click here to see more Grandville.

Perhaps my fondness for these works has an even earlier origin - two beloved books of my childhood, Cicely Mary Barker's Flower Fairies of the Garden and Elsa Beskow's The Flower Festival. Not to mention this. And oh goodness I almost forgot about THIS magical painting by Richard Dadd, one of my favorite little marvels at the Tate Britain:

Even the title, The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke, is enchanting. Unfortunately it loses a lot in reproduction (I really hate when people say that, it can sounds so smug,* but it's TRUE!!) but you should still click on the image - and that little magnifying glass - to see some fraction of the tiny details.

* Or maybe I'm just jealous of their mad world-traveler skillz.

Reproductions courtesy of Guy Hepner,  Bibliodyssey and the Tate Britain.

because everyone loves a sale....

How about a sumptuous silk robe? Imagine yourself curled in a leather wingback chair riddled with craquelure beside a roaring fire, channeling your inner Lady Ottoline Morrell. I know I am. This beauty is marked down from £265 to £143.10. This rounds up to about $230 ... about $200 more than I can afford at the moment, but not everyone is a penniless student, so go wild!

On the more financially palatable front, Flora Douville's luscious watercolor calendars are now $12. What are you waiting for?

If you can click on this link and not find the (admittedly coy) J. Peterman verbiage absolutely irresistible ... well, I admire your willpower. Half off...and this gentleman will be jealous. No mean feat, that. And the gloves aren't half bad either. Did I mention that's a silk lining you see peeking out under there? Magenta silk. Yup.

[please click the gold bar below the gentleman's portrait to zoom in. you won't be sorry.]

Adventures in Stitchery: A Prelude

Karen Savage, Doll Dress #6, 2009

As you may have gathered, I picked up a new hobby or two recently. I asked for a sewing machine for Christmas. I had expended ridiculous amounts of energy for years thinking about how badly I wanted to learn to sew. Finally, I realized how silly I was and wondered what was stopping me. The answer ... absolutely nothing! Hopefully this will be a place where I can document my fits and starts, successes and failures.

You might wonder - why sewing?

For a visual person as I am, shopping for clothes has been an exercise in frustration. I usually have a very clear idea of what I am looking for, a very clear idea of what suits me, and a very clear (read: miniscule) budget. None of which tends to match up. Ever. And this somehow led to the moment at the laundromat when I realized I had loaded up one of the super-size machines with nearly all black clothes. It's depressing when you realize that in your wardrobe, grey or navy count as pops of color!

             Karen Savage, Party Dress #2, 2005

So I fantasize about a custom wardrobe, which is now ever-so-slightly within reach. Not that I'm going to be making tailored garments within the month (or even the year). But you have to start somewhere, right?

Finally, there is the matter of me having my head buried in books all day long. Which is a treat, really, but an exhausting one. Having a strictly unintellectual problem to wrap  my head around, being able to glide my fingers over sumptuous fabrics while feasting my eyes on color and pattern - well, it sounds like a dip in the pool (in August, not frigid February!).

Karen Savage, Party Dress # 3, 2007

All amazing photograms by Karen Savage, via Packer Schopf Gallery. I fell in love with her work years ago while interning at my college art museum; we purchased one of her works and spent countless hours fawning over it. See also here.

Artwork to Room: Friedel Dethleffs-Edelmann

Friedel Dethleffs-Edelmann (1899-1982), Selbstbildnis in der Malkutte [Self-Portrait in Artist's Smock], 1932
Loft Tour: Amsterdam Sugar Warehouse, Loft Life Magazine, 2009