For our October Art Appreciation selections, I’ve chosen a couple of favorites of mine as well as one or two I’m looking forward to exploring. I hope you enjoy this month’s poet, artist, composer and film!
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ART APPRECIATION
OCTOBER 2023
POET
If you’ve been following this series, you may recall that our January poet was William Blake. This month I’ve chosen another poet of the Romantic Period, Percy Bysshe Shelley. You may also remember that at one time we had Golden Retrievers named Blake and Shelley. That’s what happens when you were an English Major – ha!
I’ve really been enjoying the Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets series and have chosen another for my readings this month. If you haven’t purchased any of these yet, let me just say I don’t think you would be disappointed. These are quality, hard cover editions with a nice dust jacket and sewn in ribbon bookmark. They are fairly small – 4.5 by 6.5 inches – and I find that to be a handy size for poetry.
Shelley: Poems
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) was perhaps the most intellectually adventurous of the great Romantic poets. A classicist, a headlong visionary, a social radical, and a poet of serene artistry with a lyric touch second to none, Shelley personified the richly various—and contradictory—energies of his time. This compact yet comprehensive collection showcases all the extraordinary facets of Shelley’s art. From his most famous lyrical poems (“Ozymandias,” “The Cloud”) to his political and philosophical works (”The Mask of Anarchy,” “Hymn to Intellectual Beauty”) to excerpts from his remarkable dramatic and narrative verses (“Alastor,” “Prometheus Unbound”), Shelley’s words gave voice to English romanticism’s deepest aspirations.
Shelley was a British writer born in 1792 and is considered to be one of the major British Romantic poets.
Poetry Foundation ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley
10 of the Best Percy Shelley Poems Everyone Should Read
As a tea lover myself, I found this article quite interesting:
How Percy Shelley Stirred His Politics Into His Teacup
ARTIST
I know it’s not “edgy” to love Monet’s paintings but I can’t help it…they are some of my favorites. I think it’s the color palette. The book I share below is from the Basic Art books that I’ve been using for these posts. I’m really enjoying collecting these!
Monet
Hailed the “Prince of the Impressionists”, Claude Monet (1840-1926) transformed expectations for the purpose of paint on canvas. Defying the precedent of centuries, Monet did not seek to render only reality, but the act of perception itself. Working “en plein air” with rapid, impetuous brush strokes, he interrogated the play of light on the hues, patterns, and contours and the way in which these visual impressions fall upon the eye.
Monet’s interest in this space “between the motif and the artist” encompassed too the ephemeral nature of each image we see. In his beloved water lily series, as well as in paintings of poplars, grain stacks, and the Rouen cathedral, he returned to the same motif in different seasons, different weather conditions, and at different times of the day, to explore the constant mutability of our visual environment.
This book offers the essential introduction to an artist whose works simultaneously reflected upon the purpose of a picture and the passage of time, and in so doing transformed irrevocably the story of art.
Claude Monet was a French painter and one of the founders of the Impressionism movement in art.
Monet’s Magical Nuances: How the Impressionist Became a Worldwide Star
COMPOSER
Franz Liszt was a Hungarian composer born October 22, 1811. That puts him in the Romantic Period with Shelley and Monet followed close behind.
Franz Liszt
Here is a Spotify playlist I created:
CLASSIC FILM
Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn and Jimmy Stewart…need I say more?
With this furiously witty comedy of manners, Katharine Hepburn revitalized her career and cemented her status as the era’s most iconic leading lady thanks in great part to her own shrewd orchestrations. While starring in the Philip Barry stage play ‘The Philadelphia Story’, Hepburn snapped up the screen rights, handpicking her friend George Cukor to direct. The intoxicating screenplay by Donald Ogden Stewart pits the formidable Philadelphia socialite Tracy Lord (Hepburn, at her most luminous) against various romantic foils, chief among them her charismatic ex-husband (Cary Grant), who disrupts her imminent marriage by paying her family estate a visit, accompanied by a tabloid reporter on assignment to cover the wedding of the year (James Stewart, in his only Academy Award winning performance). A fast-talking screwball comedy as well as a tale of regrets and reconciliation, this convergence of golden-age talent is one of the greatest American films of all time.
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If you have any favorites to recommend for future Art Appreciation posts feel free to share in the comments!
LINKS TO PREVIOUS ART APPRECIATION POSTS…
JANUARY:
LWD Classic Film of the Month ~ Breakfast at Tiffany’s
LWD Artist of the Month ~ Manet
LWD Composer of the Month ~ Vivaldi
FEBRUARY:
LWD Classic Film of the Month ~ A Raisin in the Sun
LWD Poet of the Month ~ Langston Hughes
LWD Artist of the Month ~ Degas
LWD Composer of the Month ~ Chopin
MARCH:
LWD Art Appreciation ~ March 2023
APRIL:
LWD Art Appreciation ~ April 2023
MAY:
LWD Art Appreciation ~ May 2023
JUNE:
LWD Art Appreciation ~ June 2023
JULY:
LWD Art Appreciation ~ July 2023
AUGUST:
LWD Art Appreciation ~ August 2023
SEPTEMBER:
LWD Art Appreciation ~ September 2023
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