a bit of gertrude abercrombie never did any harm ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Abercrombie

the turkish gun in horse guards parade ... only the barrel is turkish ... the carriage was made in chatham

This magnificent gun was captured by the British after the siege of Alexandria during the Napoleonic Wars, in 1801, and has been here since it was transported to Horse Guards Parade in 1802.

The barrel was made by Murad, the Chief Gunner’s son, in 1524.

Better text here ...

https://theromantictraveller.blog/2012/07/05/turkish-gun-in-horse-guards-parade/

the artist's studio ... let's see what crops up ... i don't think it will be a large set ... i might have to include printers and photographers ... and sculptors ...

courbet

bruno surdo, 1988

leonard foujita, ?1940s?

william orpen

velazquez, 

... to be continued ...

possibly the painting best-loved by other painters ... Velazquez's Las Meninas ... Picasso almost went mad trying to perform a kind of stylistic autopsy to discover its secrets ... richard hamilton took a more delicately considered look ... and i think he mixed his response to picasso with respect and good-natured derision ...

the original was painted c1656/1657

picasso had already known the painting for forty or fifty years before he went on his LAS MENINAS binge in 1957 ... some of his small "re-constructions" in the Picasso Museum in Barcelona are full of energy ...  he tries to distil some of Velazquez's subtle magic ... but i doubt if he was pleased with the outcome

... and i'm not sure that he helps us to see velazquez in a new way ... not that he wanted to ...

 

richard hamilton's response to Picasso's confusion deserves close examination ... i'm not sure where parody begins and pastiche ends ... hamilton replaces velazquez the man desperate for honours with picasso the communist casting a cold eye on wealth and privelege ... but when you look at the individual figures hamilton drew then you see how each is a skilful and sensitive re-invention of picasso's many different styles ... AND he's also chosen to rival Picasso's skills as a print-maker ... Hurrah !

The Tate Gallery have a well-written account of Hamilton's project written by Elizabeth Manchester who points out that Hamilton's engagement with Picasso & Velazquez continued well over thirty years.

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/hamilton-picassos-meninas-p07659

Blake's Lost & Found painting ...DE ANTRO NYMPHARUM ... Of The Cave Of The Nymphs ... painted in 1821, subject of a daunting 99-page 1963 essay by Kathleen Raine ... and more !

https://www.jstor.org/stable/27540892

i've taken screenshots of the first four pages in case you need to check out the approachability and lucidity of her writing ...

 

the image of the painting seems to have been scanned from a book ... when i find a proper archival digital image then i'll post it here.

LATER ... Hurrah ! ... The Blake Archive have an excellent zoom-able image 

https://www.blakearchive.org/preview/but803?descId=but803.1.1.pt.01

Vexingly, I then discovered Kathleen Raine's earlier 21 page essay from 1957 ...

https://www.jstor.org/stable/750785

... i haven't got the kind of intellectual curiosity and stamina needed to read both essays as closely as they deserve ... i'll go a little way until i wilt ... 

... but then she went on to publish "the book" ... BLAKE AND ANTIQUITY, 1977 ... 

https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/orbis:582095

Hmmm !  Where to begin ?

POST-SCRIPT ... of course, the lady herself was a force of nature and of intellect ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_Raine

Harlequin & Colombine ... set ii ... this one might take some time ...

... to be continued ...