
“One cannot predict the next mythology any more than one can predict tonight’s dream; for a mythology is not...from the brain, but...from the heart.” Joseph J Campbell (1904–87) studied mythology & religion.
Friday, October 30, 2015
Bastille Day 1890 by van Gogh

Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Tennis & more from German artist Lotte Laserstein 1898-1990
Lotte Laserstein (German artist, 1898-1990) Tennis Player 1929
Lotte Laserstein (German artist, 1898-1990) Self Portrait
German-born Lotte Laserstein told a friend when she was 5, that she had decided to become a painter & to remain unmarried. Sometime after her father's death, Laserstein and her family settled in Berlin in 1912. There, having received her initial art training in a school run by one of her aunts, Laserstein became one of the few female students at the Berlin Academic College of Fine Arts from 1919-1925. Working with Erich Wolfsfeld from 1925-1927, Laserstein became an accomplished realist painter, winning the Academy's gold medal for her work. She soon had her own pupils, & her 1st one-person exhibition at a Berlin gallery in 1930, garnered critical praise. Meanwhile, to supplement her income Laserstein took various jobs making decorative art & illustrating an anatomy text.
In 1930, she moved to Wilmersdorf. Her style changed around this time, exchanging flat surfaces with strong contours for a looser, airier brush. Despite her increasing success, the rise of Nazism in Germany began to affect Laserstein's life. In 1933, because her paternal grandfather was Jewish, Laserstein was no longer able to exhibit. The racial ideology of the National Socialists declared Lotte Laserstein a "three-quarter Jew;" and as a consequence, she was excluded from all public activity as an artist. She was discharged from the executive committee of the Art Association. Laserstein's mother's apartment & many of her valuables were confiscated by the state. It became increasingly difficult for Laserstein to find artists' materials; & in 1935, she was forced to close her studio. In 1937, Laserstein moved to Stockholm, where she remained for the rest of her life, becoming a member of the Swedish Academy of Arts as a respected portraitist. In 1938, in order to obtain Swedish citizenship, Lotte Laserstein married Sven Marcus pro forma; but she never lived with him. She made continued fruitless efforts to help her mother, her sister Käte and Käte's companion to leave Germany. Her sister eventually joined Laserstein in Sweden, but their mother died in at Ravensbruck, a German concentration camp. In 1963, Lotte Laserstein joined Konstnärernas Riksorganisation, the Swedish association of fine artists. Her 1987 exhibitions in London heralded an international rediscovery of her work.
Lotte Laserstein (German artist, 1898-1990) Two Women (Self Portrait) 1928
Lotte Laserstein (German artist, 1898-1990) Self Portrait 1938


Lotte Laserstein (German artist, 1898-1990) Motorcyclist 1929
Lotte Laserstein (German artist, 1898-1990) Two Boys with Sailboat 1938
Lotte Laserstein (German artist, 1898-1990) Rolf and Gun Bolin
Lotte Laserstein (German artist, 1898-1990)
Lotte Laserstein (German artist, 1898-1990) Sven Svensson 1942
Lotte Laserstein (German artist, 1898-1990) Young Girl
Lotte Laserstein (German artist, 1898-1990) Ung flicka i hage
Lotte Laserstein (German artist, 1898-1990) Boy Playing a Mandolin
Lotte Laserstein (German artist, 1898-1990) The Yellow Parasol
Lotte Laserstein (German artist, 1898-1990) Girl


Lotte Laserstein (German artist, 1898-1990) Dita Neumann 1944


Lotte Laserstein (German artist, 1898-1990) Self Portrait
Monday, October 26, 2015
Women Playing Tennis in both private & public gardens & parks
Otto Henry Bacher (American painter, 1856–1909) Portrait of Mary Holland
The modern form of tennis evolved in the 19th-century. Between 1859 & 1865, in Birmingham, England, Major Harry Gem, a solicitor, & his friend Augurio Perera, a Spanish merchant, combined elements of the game of rackets & the Spanish ball game Pelota playing it on a croquet lawn in Edgbaston. In 1872, both men moved to Leamington Spa; & in 1874, with 2 doctors from the Warneford Hospital, they founded the world's 1st tennis club, the Leamington Tennis Club.
In December 1873, Major Walter Clopton Wingfield designed & patented a similar game—which he called Sphairistikè (from ancient Greek meaning "skill at playing at ball" soon known simply as "sticky") for the amusement of his guests at a garden party on his estate of Nantclwyd, in Llanelidan, Wales. He likely based his game on the evolving sport of outdoor tennis including real tennis.
Much of modern tennis terminology also derives from this period, as Wingfield borrowed both the name and much of the French vocabulary of real tennis and applied them to his new game. Tennis comes from the French tenez, the imperative form of the verb tenir, to hold. This was a cry used by the player serving in royal tennis, meaning "I am about to serve!" Racquet comes from raquette, which derives from the Arabic rakhat, meaning the palm of the hand. Deuce comes from à deux le jeu, meaning "to both is the game" (that is, the two players have equal scores). The origin of the use of Love for zero is disputed. It is possible that it derives from "l'oeuf," the French word for "egg," representing the shape of a zero.
George Goodwin Kilburne (English painter, 1839-1924) A Game of Tennis
Francis Sydney Muschamp (British artist, 1851-1929) A Game of Tennis
John Lavery (Irish painter, 1856-1941) A Game of Tennis
Leopold Franz Kowalski (French painter, 1856-1931) A Game of Tennis
John Strickland Goodall (British artist, 1908–1996) A Game of Tennis
Horace Henry Cauty (English genre painter, 1846-1909) The Tennis Match
Arthur Hacker (English Pre-Raphaelite painter, 1858-1919) The Artist's Sister 1882
John Strickland Goodall (British artist, 1908–1996) A Game of Tennis
Max Liebermann (German Impressionist Painter, 1847-1935) Tennis Player by the Sea
Tom Simpson (British artist, 1877-1964) The Tennis Party
John Strickland Goodall (British artist, 1908–1996) A Game of Tennis
James Wallace (British artist, 1872-1911) A Game of Tennis in Battersea Park
Max Liebermann (German Impressionist Painter, 1847-1935) Tennis Court with Players
Samuel John Peploe (Scotland artist, 1871-1935) Game of Tennis, Luxembourg Gardens, c 1906
Tom Simpson (British artist, 1877-1964) Edwardians at Tennis
Tom Simpson (British artist, 1877-1964) The Tennis Party
John Lavery (Irish painter, 1856-1941) Tennis
Louis Prang (American artist, 1824-1909) Lawn Tennis
Edith Hayllar (British Painter, 1860-1948) After Tennis
Saturday, October 24, 2015
17C Golf - Children play & golf evolves
1595 Adriaen van der Linde
1603 Attributed to Adriaen van der Linde (Dutch artist, 1560-1609) Three-Year-Old Boy with Colf Stick
1626 Jan Anthonisz van Ravesteyn (Dutch painter, 1572-1657) Young Boy with a Golf Club and Ball
Bartholomeus van der Helst, ca. 1658-1659
1600s Unknown artist
1615 Unknown Artist
1640 Unknown artist
1612 Unknown Dutch artist, Master Slijper' holding a brass-headed kolf club
1613 Marinus Molenaar Kanters Boy aged four and a half
1620-30s Paulus Moreelse (Dutch artist, 1571-1638) Portrait Of A Four-Year Old Boy With Club And Ball
1624 Nicolaes Eliaszoon Pickenoy (Dutch painter, 1588-1656) 'Boys Playing Kolf on a Road.' Detail
1626 Adriaan Pietersz van der Venne (Dutch genre painter, 1589-1662).Man with Boy playing golf wearing ice spurs
1631 Wybrand de Geest (Dutch artist, 1592-1661-65) Portrait of a Boy with a 'Colf' Stick
1635 Wybrand de Geest (Dutch artist, 1592-1661-65) Portrait of two brothers
1650 Peter Lely (English artist, 1618-1680) The Children of the Markgraaf de Trazegnies
1660 Pieter de Hooch (Dutch genre painter, 1629-1684) The Little Golf Players
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