Pierre Auguste-Renoir - Terrace,

This painting  is called "Terrace".  I think I like this painting by Pierre Auguste-Renoir  because of the bright colors.  There is a lot of motion and energy in this painting but the sisters portray a gentle peace.  Notice all the little brushmarks that make up the water and the foliage.

A fun piece by Robert Schumann this week:  The Merry Farmer.  If you are taking piano lessons you may have had this piece.  The Happy Farmer Schumann

Emily Dickinson loved nature.  She often used pictures from nature to describe her thoughts about life - here is a poem about a butterfly.

FROM cocoon forth a butterfly
As lady from her door
Emerged—a summer afternoon—
Repairing everywhere,
Without design, that I could trace,	5
Except to stray abroad
On miscellaneous enterprise
The clovers understood.
Her pretty parasol was seen
Contracting in a field	10
Where men made hay, then struggling hard
With an opposing cloud,
Where parties, phantom as herself,
To Nowhere seemed to go
In purposeless circumference,	15
As ’t were a tropic show.
And notwithstanding bee that worked,
And flower that zealous blew,
This audience of idleness
Disdained them, from the sky,	20
Till sundown crept, a steady tide,
And men that made the hay,
And afternoon, and butterfly,
Extinguished in its sea.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir - The Girl With the Watering Can, rRobert Schumann - Symphony No. 3 "Rhenish"

A new artist today but one you're perhaps familiar with - Pierre-Auguste Renoir.  He uses a lot of color.  He was a French impressionist painter.  Impressionists used brush strokes that were filled with color to "give an impression" of what they were seeing rather than try to paint it realistically. Your eye mixes the colors for you and makes assumptions about what is being portrayed from the suggestion convincing you of a real image.  This painting is called "Girl With a Watering Can"  It is a fun one to try to copy.

 Biographical Sketch - Pierre-Auguste Renoir

A lovely symphony by Robert Schumann today - Symphony No. 3 "Rhenish"  conducted by Liebowitz

Schumann - Symphony No. 3 "Rhenish"


Emily Dickinson's poetry was mostly unpublished until after her death - she was a very private person who preferred to spend time with her family and a very few close friends.  She thought in deep unusual ways and often pondered death and the hereafter.  Her word pictures and analogies are moving and beautiful.

ON this long storm the rainbow rose,
On this late morn the sun;
The clouds, like listless elephants,
Horizons straggled down.
The birds rose smiling in their nests,	5
The gales indeed were done;
Alas! how heedless were the eyes
On whom the summer shone!
The quiet nonchalance of death
No daybreak can bestir;	10
The slow archangel’s syllables
Must awaken her.

Jules Breton - The Communicants; Robert Schumann - Traumerei, Emily Dickinson - Will there really be a morning?

Jules Breton seemed equally comfortable painting a single figure or a whole scene of people.  This painting is called, "The Communicants" (or First Communion).  I like the lighting as well as all the various costumes and the foliage and spire in the background.  It is a close family scene as the girl's grandmother kisses her and her grandfather offers his hand.  




Today we have a beautiful piece of music by Robert Schumann Tzvi Erez Plays Schumann Traumerei from Kinderszenen http://www.youtube.com/user/ErezTzvi?v=mwV8NV4IyCA

Another poem by Emily Dickinson - "Will there really be a morning?"




Will there really be a morning?
Is there such a thing as day?
Could I see it from the mountains
If I were as tall as they?


Has it feet like water-lilies?
Has it feathers like a bird?
Is it brought from famous countries
Of which I have never heard?

Oh, some scholar! Oh, some sailor!
Oh, some wise man from the skies!
Please to tell a little pilgrim
Where the place called morning lies!

Jules Breton - The Rest of the Haymakers, Robert Schumann - Davidsbündlertänze, Emily Dickenson - Going to Heaven!

Today's painting by Jules Breton is titled, "The Rest of the Haymakers".  I'm not sure how the title fits but I like the painting.  The diagonal lines of thread and the distaff as well as the red cuff on the left being lower draws the eye diagonally.  Diagonal lines have more energy and motion.  This adds interest in an otherwise placid picture.  I've mentioned it before but I really like the colors Breton uses in his seas.
This lovely girl is beautifully and realistically painted.  I see lots of contrasts in this painting - the lovely girl is right before us but seems not to notice us, she is relaxed but busy, Her clothes are lovely but she is barefoot, she is sitting out by the sea doing a domestic chore and the airy sky behind the solid figure of the girl.  Do you see other contrasts?  


  

Continuing with Robert Schumann - today we have a series of pieces called Davidsbundertanze, or "Dances of the League of David".  You can read more about it Wikipedia - Davidsbündlertänze  and listen to it played on Youtube by Fannie Davies who studied under Robert Schumann's wife Clara  You-tube Davidsbündlertänze and here is part two if you want to listen to more Youtube - Davidsbündlertänze part 2


Our poem today by Emily Dickinson is Going to Heaven!  Many of Emily's poems dealt with death and the life after.  

GOING TO HEAVEN!
by: Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

OING to heaven!

I don't know when,

Pray do not ask me how,--

Indeed, I'm too astonished

To think of answering you!

Going to heaven!--

How dim it sounds!

And yet it will be done

As sure as flocks go home at night

Unto the shepherd's arm!

 

Perhaps you're going too!

Who knows?

If you should get there first,

Save just a little place for me

Close to the two I lost!

The smallest "robe" will fit me,

And just a bit of "crown";

For you know we do not mind our dress

When we are going home.

 

I'm glad I don't believe it,

For it would stop my breath,

And I'd like to look a little more

At such a curious earth!

I am glad they did believe it

Whom I have never found

Since the mighty autumn afternoon

I left them in the ground.