Freja Beha Erichsen

Freja Beha Erichsen with saxophone in “Freja & Arizona” for Vogue Germany, June 2011. Photograph by Karl Lagerfeld. - Dunkelblaues Kleid wie aus S. 140 von Chanel. Armreif: Tiffany & Co.

Two Ballet Dancers

Edgar Degas (French, 1834-1917) - Two Ballet Dancers, c.1879 (Pastel and gouache on paper. Shelburne Museum, Vermont) - Degas shows two dancers in an abrupt, expressive design. The young dancers are spent and the one on the left massages her foot indicating discomfort. They are far removed from the magic illusion of the stage and performance that many expected of Degas…

Ophelia

Gaston Bussière (French, 1862-1929) - Ophelia, c.1900 (Watercolour) - Orphelia in the water with flowers…

There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds
Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke;
When down her weedy trophies and herself
Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide;
And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up:
Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes;
As one incapable of her own distress,
Or like a creature native and indued
Unto that element: but long it could not be
Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
Pull’d the poor wretch from her melodious lay
To muddy death.

El Greco - The Adoration of the Shepherds

El Greco (‘The Greek’) was a 17th century Cretan painter who was deeply religious and prayed intensely. El Greco settled in Toledo, Spain, where he firmly immersed himself within the Spanish Renaissance tradition. His deeply religious beliefs and tendency towards mysticism impart his paintings with shadowy conviction. ‘The Adoration of the Shepherds’ depicts the ecstatic reception of the birth of Christ. Angels hover and shepherds kneel, while light and darkness compose a sense of awe. This painting was intended to hang over El Greco’s tomb – as the angels watched over Jesus in birth, Jesus would watch over El Greco in death.