Anne of Carversville

1. Katya de Grunwald Photography
2. Natalie Portman via FFFFOUND!
3. Pattern on Graphic Exchange via FFFFOUND!
4. Siamese fighting fish by flag75 on flickr

Something very special happened to me over the weekend. The blue theme is honor of that.

Blue, for me, at this moment, is immensely beautiful, not sad. Elegant and regal, not sorrowful and lonesome. I speak of the beauty of blue in art— the expensive lapis lazuli pigment of Renaissance paintings, the cobalt of queen’s gowns, the deep-hued skies and blossoms of lush, imagined scenes.

I’m excited and proud to present to you my greatest art acquisition thus far. Say hello to the blue lady!

Bieres De La Meuse by Marc Auguste Bastard, 1896.

This is the first piece of fine art I ever loved. It hung on my grandma’s bedroom wall until she moved in with my mom a couple of months ago. It was a gift from her brother, who might’ve actually gotten it from Paris. She calls it “the blue lady”. Last Saturday, she gave it to me, and it is behind me now, leaning against my bed, waiting for me to set up its place on my wall.

I grew up admiring the blue lady. My mom tells me she did too. As a little girl I thought it was such a big poster! It’s a beer advertisement poster by the way, for La Meuse beer, in the Art Nouveau style. We always thought it was a depiction of the goddess of the wheat or something. Well, close enough… I suppose she is holding a bundle of barley, which is an ingredient in beer.

I only discovered all these things in college when I took my art history classes. So you see, I have loved Art Nouveau even before I knew what it was called. I do think the influence flows into my art. See for example:

Art Nouveau: Organic forms and whiplash curves. This deserves a separate blog post all on its own. Maybe in a future theme. :)

How timely is it that I bought this book the day right before the blue lady came to me? The book is a succulent chunk of words and imagery from that very era:

Aesthetes and Decadents of the 1890’s: An Anthology of British Poetry and Prose

Aesthetes and decadents, I’d like to count myself in among them! Here is a poem from the book, written by Arthur Symons in the same year as the Bieres De La Meuse poster:

If I could time-travel, the 1890’s is definitely on my list of destinations. I’d love to meet Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas… Alfons Mucha, Aubrey Beardsley, and Marc Auguste Bastard too.

Where in time would you like to go?

Love,
Feanne