Merry Christmas, Everyone!

The Newborn by Georges de Latour

"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given."

Paintings and Quilts 2 -- "A Few of My Favorite Things"

Looked high and low for more quilts in paintings and did find some, particularly among Norman Rockwell's paintings, pointing to the quilt's place in Americana.

Porch by Andrew Wyeth, with the quilt behind the dog

Colonial Quilts by Childe Hassam

and by Norman Rockwell--

A  Scout Is Helpful

Reading in Bed

Tucking into Bed

Christmas Eve

Paintings and Quilts Part 1

Fine Arts Friday: The Numbering at Bethlehem

Numbering at Bethlehem by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1525-1569

"And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child."

      Gospel of Luke, 2:1-5

This is one of my favorite Christmas paintings, and whenever I had a house or apartment without a window over the kitchen sink, I would hang this painting there, so I could look at it every day as I cooked and washed up. 

Click on the painting to make it larger to find Mary and Joseph. They are in the lower half of the painting, slightly right of center. Mary, "great with child," sits on a donkey that is led by Joseph. They are heading toward the building at the left, where they will pay their tax and be numbered, among the many who will do the same. 

On the building hangs a wreath, as it is the Christmas season in Flanders, which Bruegel depicts here on a typical late December day with the townspeople in "Bethlehem" going about their business and children playing. It is cold outside. The townspeople's houses range from flimsy to substantial, depending upon their lot, and some may not be so warm. 

Everyone is busy. It is a scene like any other Christmas, and there are Mary and Joseph, in their complete humility. No one notices them, but they are here among us, Bruegel says. Watch for them, in the streets and among the crowd, and also in your heart. 

Advent: Preparing

This week I must surely get the house spic and span and in order as part of Advent preparations and in keeping with the beautiful French carol, People Look East.

People, look east, the time is near
Of the crowning of the year.
Make your house fair as you are able, 
Trim the hearth and set the table.
People look east and sing today
Love, the guest, is on the way. 

Paintings and Quilts--a "Few of My Favorite Things"

The Quilting Bee by Grandma Moses

Finishing the Quilt by Mary Whyte, a watercolorist from South Carolina who has created numbers of paintings featuring quilts or quilt making.

The City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program

The City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program. These two murals are across the street from each other.

Garret Room by Andrew Wyeth, 1962. As Wyeth describes it in his autobiography, "I made this drybrush of Tom Clark in his attic room. I came across him--I just prowl around people's houses, when they let me, of course, at all times of the day and night--stretched out on that amazing bedspread that his grandmother had made."

The Cliff Dwellers by George Bellows, 1913. Can you find the quilt in this painting?

If you know of other paintings with quilts, I'd love to hear.

Some of Us Love Snow

Greenwich Village Back Yards by John Sloan, 1914

Lift Every Voice and Sing: the Quilts of Gwendolyn Ann Magee

Please take a look at the beautiful and heart-wrenching quilts of Gwendolyn Ann Magee at Southern Spaces. They appear in an online catalogue for an exhibition of her quilts at the Gatewood Gallery at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (September 11 through November 18, 2014). The Mississippi Museum of Art also held an exhibition of her Slave Series (March 7 through May 18, 2014).

Lift Every Voice and Sing, 2004

The Highpoint Museum in Highpoint, North Carolina, is showing some of Mrs. Magee's quilts through February 21. She also has quilts in the permanent collection at The Smithsonian Museum of American Art and the Mississippi Museum of Art.

 

Five Years Hard Labor, 2001

 

Living in Jackson, Mississippi, Mrs. Magee first started making quilts in 1989 to remind her college-bound daughters of home, but in the process "she discovered her artistic voice in the fiber arts, swiftly mastering quilting and surface design techniques through which she powerfully expressed herself and engaged an audience," as reported in Southern Spaces.

Requiem, 2007

"I am fully aware," she blogged in 2009, "that the dissonance is palpable between this medium [quilting]  through which my art finds expression and the subject matter that it articulates. I know that the quilt form usually is associated with feelings of warmth, comfort, serenity and security and that my subject matter often is harsh, intense, somber and frequently brutal. However, viewers of the art frequently convey to me that they find the work to be compelling, evocative, meaningful and riveting."

Full of the Faith, 2004

The contrast itself adds to the portrayal of her art, not to mention her breathtaking skill as a quilter.
You can see more quilts and learn more of this artist at her website. Gwendolyn Magee died in 2011.

Nubian Queen