The curation
paintings, poems and sonnets, held slowly.
What each work is, what it stands for, and the symbols worth stopping for. Every image here is a work of art long out of copyright.
Showing 20 of 20 posts
on exhaustionPsyche Opening the Golden Box
Curiosity and what it costs. Venus's last task for Psyche was to carry a box back from the underworld and never open it.
on anxietyThe Blind Girl
Perception beyond sight. The younger girl looks up at the rainbow; the blind girl turns her face toward the warmth she can feel on her skin.
on existingDust Motes Dancing in the Sunbeams
The beauty of the overlooked. Hammershøi paints the hour in which nothing happens, and asks you to stay long enough to notice that something does.
on exhaustionFlaming June
Deep, unashamed rest at the hottest part of the year, painted as if sleep itself were a source of light.
on returning to yourselfWanderer above the Sea of Fog
The moment before the next step. Friedrich's wanderers face the unknown, and we are invited to stand where they stand.
on healingAutumn Leaves
Transience, and the tenderness of ordinary rituals at the end of the day and of the year.
on exhaustionThe Gleaners
The dignity of hard, humble labour, and the gap between abundance and what is left for those who work for it.
on healingThe Angelus
The pause. Millet said the picture grew from a memory of his grandmother stopping the household's labour whenever the bell rang.
on griefOphelia
Grief that has no one to hold it. Hamlet's cruelty and her father's death leave her with nothing to hold onto, and the stream takes her.
on returning to yourselfThe Return of Persephone
Return after absence. In Greek myth, Persephone spends part of each year in the underworld, and her homecoming is what brings spring.
on lonelinessThe Monk by the Sea
Human smallness and the longing that opens up when there is nothing between you and the infinite.
on returning to yourselfHope
Hope as persistence rather than optimism. Watts wanted to paint the stubborn act of making music when almost everything is gone.
on griefBeata Beatrix
Love and mourning fused into one image. Rossetti painted it after the death of his wife, Elizabeth Siddal, who modelled for it.
on lonelinessThe Lady of Shalott
The cost of leaving a protected solitude to live. The Lady could only see the world in a mirror; one glimpse of it directly broke the spell.
on anxietyThe Starry Night
Turbulence and calm held in a single frame. The sky churns while the village below sleeps.
on griefIsle of the Dead
The crossing. Böcklin was asked by a widow for a picture 'to dream by', and painted five versions of this island.
on healingThe Milkmaid
The dignity of ordinary work, observed with total attention.
on anxietySnow Storm: Steam-Boat off a Harbour's Mouth
The overwhelm of weather, and the courage of someone still moving through it. Turner claimed he had himself lashed to a mast for four hours to see it.
on anxietyThe Great Wave off Kanagawa
Impermanence and steadiness together. The wave looks like claws; the mountain does not move.
on anxietyAnxiety
Anxiety as a shared, slightly anonymous condition. It is a close cousin of Munch's The Scream, painted in the same place and mood.
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