A Bluestocking Knits

Sir Joshua Reynolds, "Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse" (1784), The Huntington Library and Art Gallery, San Marino, California.  I must confess that my favorite story about the actress Mrs. Siddons — and possibly about Reynolds as well, apocryphal or not — is his exasperated comment to her while painting this portrait, "Good heavens, madam, your nose! is there no end to it?"

Rembrandt, "Self-Portrait" (ca. 1636-38), The Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, California.  Rembrandt is, I think, one of the most interesting people in history, certainly one of the most interesting portraitists.  His "official" pictures can be masterpieces, certainly, but I find myself more drawn to the private ones, the ones he made for himself, like this one from his lifelong series of self-portraits, and the one below of his mistress Hendrickje.  Like Shakespeare, he had a way of looking at people that is infinitely fascinating, in which one can find something new with every viewing.

J.M.W. Turner, "Rain, Steam, and Speed (The Great Western Railway)" (1844), National Gallery, London.  Coming from a train-mad family, I could hardly not like this picture.  It does not, I think, capture train-ness so much as a sort of train dream, the "rain, steam, and speed" of a moment.

Carl Larsson, "Karin by the Linen Cupboard (Karin vid Linneskapet)", 1906.  I like this because everything isn’t all tidy!  Larsson managed to produce an incredible number of paintings, watercolors, and sketches, and yet really took the time to look at a scene — how Karin’s body is tilted towards and away from the window at the same time, here, for instance, to make the light fall on her work.

Dürer, "Self-Portrait" (1498), Prado, Madrid.  What a piece of work! and so modest, too!

Rembrandt, "Hendrickje Stoffels" (1659), National Gallery, London.  Melancholy, and achingly beautiful.  The coral necklace and furs against her bare skin, and the sad, rather tired look in her eyes — wonderful.