Jennifer Jones 1919-2009

Portrait of Jennie, 1948

Beauty is truth, truth beauty,

that is all ye know on earth,

and all ye need to know.

Keats

Robert Brackman was chosen by producer David O. Selznick to paint the portrait which in the film can be seen to grow under the brush of Joseph Cotten. The canvas was painted in Brackman's studio in Noank, Connecticut, near New London, where Jennifer Jones resided during the period required for the fifteen sittings needed to complete the picture. Brackman also made a pastel study of Jennie as a young girl, which appears in the film in the early phase of the romance.
American Artist, December 1948

Joseph Cotton in the film starting the portrait.

Publicity photo, Cotton looks on as Robert Brackman paints Jennifer Jones' portrait.

The Battle Rages On

I recently overheard at the water-cooler that Stanley Meltzoff and 60's illustrators in general "all had a solid understanding of abstract art and the emerging color theories". Apparently intimate knowledge of the "notan" enabled Meltzoff to replicate, albeit in reverse, the composition of the late Salon era French academic Georges Antoine Rochegrosse (1859-1938).



The Meltzoff depicts the battle of Thermopylae during the second Persian invasion of Greece. The Rochegrosse depicts the battle of Marathon during the first Persian invasion of Greece. Coincidence? Did somebody say i-ran?

Emile Friant (1863-1932)

Whilst skipping across the bytes of internet I often see the name Emile Friant mentioned. The regularity of which surely bewilders equally those that do and don't know. 5 works presented here for those that admire his finest and wish to see more, with humble apologies for the lack of color.

each jpeg is tagged with the title and date

Stop standing in the middle, what do you think of Friant? If positive, which "Friant" is your favorite?