Lord Leighton • "de chic"

"…pupils were expected to invent draperies and accessories.   Leighton had shown himself a great adept at doing this, making skillful drawings of folds that he told a friend afterwards were made de chic." 

~ from Frederic Leighton (1904) by Alice Corkran

"…an artist who paints a picture without a model says that he did it "de chic." ~ A Social Mirage (1899) by Mrs. Frank Leslie

A Social Mirage (1899) by Mrs. Frank Leslie

St. John inspired by Leighton?

or: Inspired By(?) #8

Was J. Allen St. John inspired by Lord Frederic Leighton?

Who would dare doubt‽

And Speaking of Sappho

or: The Birth of Literature ~ or: The Genus of Genius ~ or: The Species of Literature (‽)

Re: A Howard Pyle decorative panel

In 1905 Howard Pyle painted a group of decorative panels for his own residence. The theme he chose was "The Arts," the various branches of creative activity, such as painting, music, literature, and dance.

Genius of Literature, 1905 - Howard Pyle

Genus of literature, 1909 - snapped at delart.org

"Genus of Literature" …reading that title, given at delart.org, left me perplexed. If you ask, 'Why?', please continue~

The article, The Field of Art: Mural Painting In This Country Since 1898 (Scribner's Magazine volume XL, July~Dec 1906), provides the titles: The Genius of Literature ; The Genius of Art ; The Genius of Music ; The Genius of Drama.  ~ Apt titles for decorative works.

page from vol XL July-Dec 1906 - Scribner's magazine, Volume 40

The 1921 bibliography, Howard Pyle: A Record of His Illustrations and Writings by Willard S Morse and Gertrude Brincklé, published by The Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts, changes the titles to: The Birth of Literature ; The Genus of Art ; Music ; Drama. ~ Dubious, odd and generic. Hey! What's in a name?

clipping from Howard Pyle: A Record of His Illustrations and Writings

genus - noun ( pl. genera |ˈjenərə| or genuses) Biology ~ (cut 'n' paste)

a grouping of organisms having common characteristics distinct from those of other such groupings. The genus is a principal taxonomic category that ranks above species and below family, and is denoted by a capitalized Latin name, e.g., Leo.

• (in philosophical and general use) a class of things that have common characteristics and that can be divided into subordinate kinds.

      ~ Ah so desu ka. If the subject of each panel was a genre of literature, Genus of Literature would be the overarching title, and each panel would have a subtitle, i.e., Poetry, Novella, Haiku, et cetera. That's not the case.

Genius of Shakespeare by Théodore Chasseriau

Genius - ( pl. genii |ˈjēnēˌī|) (in some mythologies) a guardian spirit associated with a person, place, or institution.

  ~ 'Spirit' being the more popular choice: The Spirit of the Beehive ; Spirit of St. Louis ; The Spirit of Radio ; Spirit of Liberty ; The Spirit of the Revolution ; or those 3 Spirits: The Ghost of Christmas Past, et cetera.

1793 - The Genius of Literature presenting her Pupils to Minerva

Minerva - The Roman goddess of poetry, wisdom, et cetera.

Minerva Conducting the the Genius of Arts to Immortality - Pierre Paul Prud'hon (1758-1823)

Arcadia - an idyllic, unspoiled, harmonious wilderness.

shepherd - a person who tends and rears sheep. (or in French, berger)

Les Bergers d’Arcadie by Nicolas Poussin (sans frame)

Idyll - In the visual arts, an idyll is a painting depicting the same sort of subject matter to be found in idyllic poetry, often with peasant life as its central theme.

Idyll c.1880 - Lord Leighton

Sappho - an Ancient Greek poet, born on the island of Lesbos.

Sappho by Frederick Arthur Bridgman

(Lydia) Amanda Brewster Sewell (1859 - 1926)  Sappho, 1891

A possible title if it were an illustration/easel-painting ~ "An Arcadian Idyll: Sappho Reciting Before Shepherds"

Howard Pyle, An Arcadian Idyll: Sappho Reciting Before Shepherds, 1905

The Poet and the Muse

Inspired By(?) #6 or: Pyle inspired by …Moreau? …Delaunay?  …Chassériau?  …Leighton? …Hokusai‽

Howard Pyle

A young man (a poet?) embracing his elusive muse (personified by a mermaid) for the final time?

"And when your fingers find her, she drowns you in her body, 

Carving deep blue ripples in the tissues of your mind." ~ Cream, Tales Of Brave Ulysses

Howard Pyle - The Mermaid, 1910

Gustave Moreau

Hesiod (a poet) and the muse, no mermaid but a Phrygian cap!

Gustave Moreau - Hésiode et la Muse, 1857

See also ~ https://picasaweb.google.com/104843871720362761374/GustaveMoreau18261898

Phrygian cap

Jules-Elie Delaunay

A poet but no muse.

Sappho Kissing Her Lyre by Jules-Elie Delaunay

Théodore Chassériau

A poet and his muse, but again not a mermaid.

Hero et Leandre, also known as Le Poete et la Sirene, 1841

See also ~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_and_Daphne

Théodore Chassériau, Apollo and Daphne

Frederic Leighton

A mermaid and a fisherman, hmm… who is perhaps also a poet?

The Mermaid (The Fisherman and the Syren). (From a ballad by Goethe.) (26½ × 18½ in.) R.A.

Shown in 1858 at the Royal Academy, and again in the 1897 retrospective exhibition, was first entitled The Fisherman and Syren, and afterwards The Mermaid; it is a composition of two small full-length figures, a mermaid clasping a fisherman round the neck. The subject is taken from a ballad by Goethe:

"Half drew she him,

Half sunk he in,

And never more was seen."

Hokusai

WHATEVER.

http://www.delart.org/collections/howard_pyle/pyles_inspiration_mermaid.html

Master Copy #6

Edward Hopper after Lord Leighton

In the 1882 Academy appeared two of the most popular of Sir Frederic's pictures, Wedded and Day Dreams.  …Still more famous is Wedded,—"one of the happiest of Sir Frederic's designs," said a critic at the time, "and as a composition of lines, difficult, subtle, and original, may be called one of the most remarkable productions of this decade."

Edward Hopper (1882-1967)  Couple (Study After a Painting) Ink and graphite on paper, 11 1/4" x 6 1/2" Provenance: The artist (until 1967) to his widow, Jo Hopper (until 1968); Estate of Jo Hopper; Private Collection, New York

Lord Frederic Leighton (1830–1896) Wedded, 1882, oil on canvas, 145.4 x 81.3cm

When standing with me before Leighton's picture "Wedded" in the studio Robert Browning exclaimed, "I find a poetry in that man's work I can find in no other." ~ Mrs. Russell Barrington (The Life, Letters and Work of Frederic Leighton)