“Portrait of a Young Woman” by Gustave Jean Jacquet (1846-1909), date of painting unknown. From the Public Domain Graphics email list.

Here is a portrait of a lovely young woman by Victorian French artist Gustave Jean Jacquet (1846-1909). I got this from one of my (rather quiet) email lists – Public Domain Art. I have no date for the painting or even who the beautiful lady is, but it was certainly painted before 1909 and thus is public domain. Enjoy!

Click on the image to see it / download it full-sized.

Peace,

Bekka

Dancing foxes from ‘How Mrs. Fox Married Again’ in _Household Tales by the Brother’s Grimm_, 1886. Illustration by Walter Crane. From the Project Gutenberg ebook.

I just loved this illustration by Walter Crane from an 1886 edition of stories by the Brothers Grimm. I’m not familiar with this specific tale – “How Mrs. Fox Married Again” – but the happy couple dancing is great fun. They are dressed in what the Victorians would consider ‘old fashioned’ clothes – from the early 1800s. Mrs. Fox is wearing a loose Empire waist dress and her beau is wearing knee-length breeches. Mrs. Fox even has a fan hanging from one arm!

I found this in Household Tales by the Brothers Grimm, by (of course) Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, translated by Lucy Crane, and illustrated by Walter Crane. It was published in 1886 and is now a Project Gutenberg e-book.

Click on the image to see it / download it full-sized.

Peace,

Bekka

Ad for ‘Wick Fancy Hat Bands’, showing spectators at a baseball game (all with fancy hat bands), c. 1910. Artist unknown. From the Library of Congress digital collections – LOC #LC-DIG-ppmsca-18476.

Baseball season is upon us (though my team isn’t doing as well as I’d hoped). I found this ad (from c. 1910)  in my collection, advertising ‘Wick Fancy Hat Bands’, and showing spectators at a baseball game. You can tell it’s a baseball game by the catcher in the bottom left of the picture. Of course, everyone in the stands is wearing a hat with a fancy hat band! One woman waves a pennant, and a man in the back row is shouting through a megaphone! At the bottom right it urges the consumer to “Cheer Up- Show your Colors!”, presumably with your hat band!

This poster is from the Library of Congress digital collections, Prints and Photographs Division. Click to download it or view it full-sized.

Peace,

Bekka

French ad for Gladiator Cycles, by Georges Massias, 1905. From Wikipedia Commons.

At the turn of the 20th c. in France, they knew that sexiness sold things. This 1905 bicycle ad is a perfect example. The artist, Georges Massias, has drawn wings on the bicycle instead of pedals, and flying along with it is a beautiful naked woman with long flowing flame-red hair. I’m not sure what the artist thought he was promising the customer with this ad. Maybe he just liked to draw pretty women.

Personally, I would have loved to have had a bicycle that would fly when I was a kid….

I found this wonderful gem of a French ad on Wikipedia Commons. Click to see it or download it full-sized.

Peace,

Bekka

Drawing of a clock with 2 faces, from “On Clocks” in Olaus Magnus’ _Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus (History of the Northern Peoples)_. From Wikipedia Commons.

I just loved this double clock face. It gave me several ideas for artworks, so I thought it would also be a good image to share will all of you. It’s from Olaus Magnus’ famous Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus (History of the Northern Peoples), which was printed in Rome in 1555. A combination of history and folklore about Sweden, it achieved the 16th c. equivalent of best seller status; It was translated from Latin into Italian, German and English, and was also issued in several ‘abridged’ versions.

Click on the image to see it or download it full-sized. I found this copy of the print on Wikipedia Commons.

Peace,

Bekka

Sir John Tenniel’s illustration of Lewis Carroll’s poem ‘Jabberwocky’, from _Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There_, 1872. Found on Wikipedia Commons.

Every year, after my husband and I do the taxes, we reward ourselves and the family with an outing using some of the refund money. It has to be something everyone agrees on, so this time it was to see Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. [Trust me, taking a family of 6 out to see a movie these days is not an inexpensive outing anymore. Even to a matinee...] I highly enjoyed it. Being a visual person, I really had fun watching all the visual ‘tip of the hat’ things that Burton did in reference to Lewis Carroll’s original – including the connections between Sir John Tenniel’s illustrations and the movie characterizations. Think of Alice’s battle with the Jabberwock, especially how it was shown on the scroll [hopefully this doesn't spoil anything for anybody], and look at the original illustration by Tenniel.

And there were, of course, numerous references to the original poem, and not just the Mad Hatter’s partial recitation of it. The original poem is thus:

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! and through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

-”Jabberwocky”, by Lewis Carroll, from Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There, 1872.

Great great great fun. A bit too dark for really little kids, though my youngest (who is in third grade but granted, loves Goosebumps books and ghost stories) was fine. We all had a ball though!

Click on the picture to see it/download it full-sized.

Peace, and Happy Frabjous Day!

Bekka

Wrecked car missing a wheel, with a small crowd, Maryland, 1923. From the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LOC #LC-DIG-npcc-09083.

Okay, yes, I know it has been a week since I posted the last ‘Daily’ Public Domain image. But I must admit to all of you that lately I have not been myself physically.

Most of the time, I feel like this car. Broken, sagging, and certainly not going anywhere fast. Because of the problems with my latest pain medication, I have been only taking ibruprophen (Advil) for my fibromyalgia pain. I spend way too much time sleeping and though I have made some progress on the house, it has been at the cost of my blog. Sorry.

Today, I am forcing myself to sit at the computer and put in at least one week’s worth of DPDs, scheduled ahead of time to publish each day, so that any of you that may actually have noticed the missing images will be able to get your daily ‘fix’ again. I really am going to get back in the swing of things and work through this physical slump.

I chose this picture because the car is slumping, just like me! It’s from the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs division, and shows a picture taken in 1923 of a wrecked car in Maryland. The front driver’s wheel is completely messed-up! I don’t know if it is the car or the prospect of getting their photo taken that suddenly brought out all these young men, though! And notice the car has two license plates – in 1923 you needed a plate for every state that you drove the car in, so this one has one for Maryland and Washington D.C. It’s so much easier now that you only need the plate for the state the car is registered in!

And, as always, this photo is public domain. Click to see it or download it full-sized.

Peace, and thanks again for your patience,

Bekka

A little Victorian waif with a flower, surrounded by a wreath of flowers. From _Dear Santa Claus_, 1901. From the Project Gutenberg e-book.

This image comes from a  book entitled Dear Santa Claus, which I found in ebook form on Project Gutenberg, was published in 1901. Its full title is Dear Santa Claus: Charming Holiday Stories for Boys and Girls. A number of the stories aren’t Christmas or Winter themed, so therefore, many of the illustrations are more appropriate for the Spring and Summer!

This one comes from a section entitled ‘Fairy Stories’ and has this accompanying

text:

No specific author or illustrator is given in the book, and the Gutenberg notes simply say ‘Various’ under ‘author’.

Click to see / download the fairy waif full-sized.

Peace,

Bekka