Bouguereau Mother and Baby,

I would like to see this blog become more interactive.  I plan to add a few more of my own thoughts and impressions and would welcome comments and ideas from those of you who use and enjoy these posts.  If you do further research and find things worth sharing you could share those or just your family's thoughts and reactions to the pieces.  If you have your children copy the painting or write a description of it, you could post their work here :).  To leave a comment scroll to the bottom of the current post and click on the word "comment".  I'll look forward to hearing from some of you and I think your comments and ideas will also be a blessing to others.  


 William Adolphe Bouguereau 

Maternal Admiration by William Adolphe Bouguereau

I enjoyed the artist's use of red in the mother's clothing against the dark green background (complementary colors) and the "innocent" baby in creamy white.  I also noticed that the light is falling full on the baby. 5 year old John commented, "Awww, cute!  Is that from the olden days?  I like her style(I think referring to her clothes).  Ruthie would really like the baby."  My daughter Rachael framed a faded copy of this painting overlaid with a poem she had written for me as her Mom - very special!!  I have it in our livingroom.  


A peaceful piece by Johann Sebastian Bach that is one of my favorites - Air on G String
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2j-frfK-yg&feature=related

I enjoyed the computerized graphics allowing us to watch the sound dance as the music notes move up and down. This piece is very peaceful.  By the way, if you want to listen to some of the pieces and musicians that have been featured so far on this blog you can click on the pop-out player at the very bottom of the blog and keep the music playing while you do other things.  

The Sun Travels
by Robert Louis Stevenson

The sun is not a-bed, when I At night upon my pillow lie; Still round the earth his way he takes, And morning after morning makes. While here at home, in shining day, We round the sunny garden play, Each little Indian sleepy-head Is being kissed and put to bed. And when at eve I rise from tea, Day dawns beyond the Atlantic Sea; And all the children in the west Are getting up and being dressed.

William Beauguereau, Johann Sebastian Bach - Air on G String, The Sun Travels by Robert Louis Stevenson

I have been thinking that perhaps I am moving too quickly over each painting, that having so much available we aren't able to take time to savor it.  For my own children I'm thinking that seeing a particular painting for two weeks in a row and studying it more carefully might be more beneficial than moving on to a new one every week.  With the music and poetry this is probably true also.  I know that, for myself, going over a thing repeatedly makes me familiar with it and gives more satisfaction as it becomes "mine".  Also I think I'll try making each new painting the screensaver on our computer so it gets looked at over and over throughout the two weeks.  I'm open to your opinions on this.  Have you been enjoying having a new post every week or would bi-weekly be just as good or perhaps better?  I hope you enjoy today's touching painting of a mother and her baby.  William Adolphe Bouguereau does such a good job of capturing both the baby's peacefulness in sleep and the mother's adoration.

Maternal Admiration by William Adolphe Bouguereau

A peaceful piece by Johann Sebastian Bach that is one of my favorites - Air on G String
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2j-frfK-yg&feature=related

The Sun Travels
by Robert Louis Stevenson

The sun is not a-bed, when I At night upon my pillow lie; Still round the earth his way he takes, And morning after morning makes. While here at home, in shining day, We round the sunny garden play, Each little Indian sleepy-head Is being kissed and put to bed. And when at eve I rise from tea, Day dawns beyond the Atlantic Sea; And all the children in the west Are getting up and being dressed.

William Adolphe Beauguereau,

William Adolphe Beauguereau

The following is a brief biographical sketch of 
William Adolphe Beauguereau taken from the Art Renewal Center Museum site:


 Excerpt from the Biography of William Bouguereau, by Damien Bartoli:

"William Bouguereau is unquestionably one of history's greatest artistic geniuses. Yet in the past century, his reputation and unparalleled accomplishments have undergone a libelous, dishonest, relentless and systematic assault of immense proportions. His name was stricken from most history texts and when included it was only to blindly, degrade and disparage him and his work. Yet, as we shall see, it was he who single handedly opened the French academies to women, and it was he who was arguably the greatest painter of the human figure in all of art history. His figures come to life like no previous artist has ever before or ever since achieved. He wasn't just the best ever at painting human anatomy, more importantly he captured the tender and subtlest nuances of personality and mood. Bouguereau caught the very souls and spirits of his subjects much like Rembrandt. Rembrandt is said to have captured the soul of age. Bouguereau captured the soul of youth.

Considering his consummate level of skill and craft, and the fact that the great preponderance of his works are life-size, it is one of the largest bodies of work ever produced by any artist. Add to that the fact that fully half of these paintings are great masterpieces, and we have the picture of an artist who belongs like Michelangelo, Rembrandt and Carravaggio, in the top ranks of only a handful of masters in the entire history of western art."

 Today, Johann Sebastian Bach's best known organ piece - Toccata and Fugue in D minor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATbMw6X3T40&feature=iv&annotation_id=annotation_78634


This was a new poem for me by Robert Louis Stevenson, but I liked it, I hope you do, too.

Come from the Daisied Meadows HOME from the daisied meadows, where you linger yet - Home, golden-headed playmate, ere the sun is set; For the dews are falling fast And the night has come at last. Home with you, home and lay your little head at rest, Safe, safe, my little darling, on your mother's breast. Lullaby, darling; your mother is watching you; she'll be your guardian and shield. Lullaby, slumber, my darling, till morning be bright upon mountain and field. Long, long the shadows fall. All white and smooth at home your little bed is laid. All round your head be angels.

William Adolphe Beauguereau, Bach - The Well Tempered Clavier, Stevenson - At the Seaside

William Adolphe Beauguereau has done a wonderful job of capturing the expressions of this moment.  Also look at the wonderful details including the details of the fabrics and clothing.


Johann Sebastian Bach wrote a collection of solo keyboard for students.  In his words, "for the profit and use of musical youth desirous of learning, and especially for the pastime of those already skilled in this study." Each book contains twenty-four pairs of preludes and fugues. The first pair is in C major, the second in C minor, the third in C-sharp major, the fourth in C-sharp minor, and so on. The rising chromatic pattern continues until every key has been represented, finishing with a B-minor fugue.


Listen to The first pair in C major here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KQW2YnCUrE&feature=related


And the second in C minor:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVs2TTYkKF8&feature=related


C Sharp major:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6H8LN0tTrA&feature=related


This is a beautiful piece - I hope you enjoy it:  Ashkenazy plays Bach WTC Book 1 Prelude and Fugue no.8 in E-Flat minor http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCCzlIv2lcA


A quote from a listener to the first of this week's you-tube video: "We spent two weeks analyzing the prelude portion in my high school theory class. I was completely enraptured by the simultaneous simplicity and complexity of the work. It sounds like a never-ending melody.
I find it so hard to believe that people say that Bach is boring. How can music so beautiful POSSIBLY bore anyone?" 

We continue this week with a fun summer children's poem by
Robert Louis Stevenson from A Child's Garden of Verses.

At the Seaside


When I was down beside the sea
A wooden spade they gave to me
  to dig the sandy shore.


My holes were empty like a cup.
In every hole the sea came up,
  Till it could come no more.