Who made him dead to rapture and despair,The meaning is in the eye of the beholder. I thought of Vincent Van Gogh's response to Millet:
A thing that grieves not and that never hopes.
Stolid and stunned, a brother to the ox?
In 1885 Van Gogh described the painting of peasants as the most essential contribution to modern art. He described the works of Millet and Breton of religious significance, "something on high."... He held laborers up to a high standard of how dedicatedly he should approach painting, "One must undertake with confidence, with a certain assurance that one is doing a reasonable thing, like the farmer who drives his plow... (one who) drags the harrow behind himself. If one hasn't a horse, one is one's own horse." Referring to painting of peasants Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo: "How shall I ever manage to paint what I love so much?"If one hasn't a horse, one is one's own horse... but it is something on high.
Van Gogh Museum says of Millet's influence on Van Gogh: "Millet's paintings, with their unprecedented depictions of peasants and their labors, mark a turning point in 19th-century art. Before Millet, peasant figures were just one of many elements in picturesque or nostalgic scenes. In Millet's work, individual men and women became heroic and real.Van Gogh made many copies of Millet paintings — "not copying pure and simple" but "translating into another language, the one of colors, the impressions of chiaroscuro and white and black." Here is one original and "copy," "The Sower":
Van Gogh explained: "One does not expect to get from life what one has already learned it cannot give; rather, one begins to see more clearly that life is a kind of sowing time, and the harvest is not yet here."
Comparing Markham and Van Gogh — both looking at the image of a peasant — I thought of — forgive me — Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump looking at the off-coast (off-cast) Americans. She saw seeing deplorables and he saw the foundation of greatness.
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See Van Gogh’s astounding 1885 portrait of the deplorable Potato Eaters.
ha ha ha good one.. greatness in seeing there was a whole new gropup of people he could disrespect, take advantage of and fleece... someone to open the door to riches and wealth beyond his wildest dreams... the guy is a grifter and NEVER had an honest thought EVER.. what is wrong with you?
'Now, a very great man once said
That some people rob you with a fountain pen
It don't take too long to find out
Just what he was talking about
A lot of people don't have much food on their table
But they got a lot of forks and knives
And they gotta cut something'
The strength of the ox is what feeds the family. Trump sees nobility in feeding the American family. Hillary only sees the international money flows she gets a share in from selling the oxen for slaughter.
Robert Frost also weighs in with "A Time to Talk"
When a friend calls to me from the road
And slows his horse to a meaning walk,
I don’t stand still and look around
On all the hills I haven’t hoed,
And shout from where I am, What is it?
No, not as there is a time to talk.
I thrust my hoe in the mellow ground,
Blade-end up and five feet tall,
And plod: I go up to the stone wall
For a friendly visit.
We don't really know what Hillary and Trump saw in those middle Americans, only what they put in their political rhetoric as they sought favor from enough Americans to win the Electoral College.
Hillary's "deplorables" remark was made to a group of donors, the elite, and she may have thought this is the kind of attitude that opens their pocketbooks. Trump was playing to crowds, continually adapting to the response he got from those people. Trump may have had even more contempt and distance from those people, but a showman's feeling for what they like and what will draw them to the polls.
For Van Gogh, who never achieved recognition during while alive, life was a kind of sowing time, and the subsequent harvest of adulation and immortality has been rich indeed. For many centuries and across many cultures, religion has peddled the notion that people should be content with a life of sowing, to be harvested in heaven or in later reincarnations--either succor for people who have little else to comfort them or sucker-bait to keep them compliant while the elite exploit them.
"She saw seeing deplorables and he saw the foundation of greatness."
At first, I perceived that as a typo. Then I realized the truth of it. The soi-disant elites see deplorables in the sowers and gleaners. Hillary saw those "elites" as her route to power.
the guy is a grifter and NEVER had an honest thought EVER.. what is wrong with you?
You mean Bill, don't you ?
The Left has never gotten it since Henry Wallace lost the election.
"Useful Idiot" about covers it.
Trump may have had even more contempt and distance from those people
Who do you think would be more comfortable in a bowling alley in Cleveland Ohio drinking a beer and bullshitting with the locals? Trump or Hillary?
Hillary's "deplorables" remark was made to a group of donors, the elite, and she may have thought this is the kind of attitude that opens their pocketbooks.
Hillary said half of Trump's supporters were "deplorables", at the same time she derided Trump as the candidate of the rich.
She really didn't say whether half of Trump's supporters were deplorable irrespective of income, or whether the deplorables were concentrated largely among his less affluent supporters?
Since there are fewer rich people, my guess is she was asserting the numerically fewer rich Trump supporters were consciously exploiting the deplorable nature of the poorer constituencies to be tools of Trump and those rich.
That way, Hillary could argue her rich supporters were morally superior to Trump's rich supporters, as well her less affluent supporters being superior to Trump's, even if Trump's rich supporters weren't deplorables themselves.
To Young America
In spite of the stare of the wise and the world's
derision,
Dare travel the star-blazed road, dare follow the
Vision.
It breaks as a hush on the soul in the wonder of
youth ;
And the lyrical dream of the boy is the kingly
truth.
The world is a vapor, and only the Vision is
real
Yea, nothing can hold against Hell but the Winged
Ideal.
Trump of glad jubilee!
Echo o’er land and sea
freedom maintain.
Let the glad tidings fly,
And every tribe reply,
Make America great
again.
Next stop: seeing Trump in a bowl of cornflakes.
Trump, Trump, bo-bump
Banana fana foe fump
Fee fi mo mump
Trump !
The "deplorables" aren't the roots of greatness, they are its remnants. There simply aren't enough deplorables, and far too many GWashes.
It is the GWash types that stalk the streets of still lovely San Francisco, built by genuine "deplorables" of a century or more ago. They exult in their sophisticated appreciation of the architecture, built by and designed by and commissioned by people they would automatically despise, "deplorables" all. Somehow they never think of those whose taste and craft built this.
Sometimes this city feels like an architectural ruin. Its been abandoned by its makers and true owners, occupied by a scuttling lesser race. That servile lot spends its days complaining about the rent and about those "deplorables" on the other side of the Oakland hills.
It is the GWash types that stalk the streets of still lovely San Francisco, built by genuine "deplorables" of a century or more ago. They exult in their sophisticated appreciation of the architecture, built by and designed by and commissioned by people they would automatically despise, "deplorables" all.
We bilked this city
we bilked this city on gun control
Bilked this city
we bilked this city on rent control
Millet's Sower sowing millet.
I've probably posted this before, but Saki is always worth repeating, and maybe it will turn back into a hoer.
The Stalled Ox
Ralph L.:
I would pay good money for "Barbary Apes Wrecking a Boudoir", painted in the style, and up to the standard, implied in the story.
A usual feature in the NYT used to be a story of a couple of Ivy Leaguers who quit their high-powered jobs in Manhattan to move to Vermont and make artisanal goat cheese.( No mention of the trust funds which made this possible. ) That seems to be the only sort of agriculturists their readers were interested in.
We can't all be drag queens.
Willa Cather was inspired by Millet’s paintings, particularly “The Sower.” She was fascinated with his composition processes, particularly his many sketches and drafts, if you will. His process of simplification intrigued her. She thought that all great art stresses the process of simplification. You can see the influence of Millet in “O Pioneers” and “My Antonia.”
Who do you think would be more comfortable in a bowling alley in Cleveland Ohio drinking a beer and bullshitting with the locals? Trump or Hillary?
Tricky questions. Hillary would be more comfortable with the beer, Trump more comfortable with the locals.
Hill and Bill have had plenty of chances to tell us how they LOVE middle Americans. Funny, how we never hear it. Hillary actually LOST votes with her attitude, to believe that she has a "Secret Love" of the "deplorables" is quite amusing.
As for Trump. Had he been a charlatan, he would've done what Bush I, McCain, Romney, etc. have done. He would thrown off the mask AFTER the nomination and moved to the center - and won cheers and applause from the Establishment. OR he could have done the same thing AFTER the election.
He's done neither. He's taken an INCREDIBLE amount of shit for taking on the Establishment. NO POTUS has been treated with such contempt and hostility by the MSM or the Establishment - both R and D.
In many ways, Trump is the real deal. He doesn't PRETEND to like Steak and McDonald's he really does. He's been preaching "America First" for 20 years. He's not pretending.
Are you familiar with Millet's picture "the Angelus"? Of peasants stopping work to say a prayer? Are you familiar with Van Goth being a lay preacher to those peasants?
Without the idea that God made man, and loves and cares for him, then men are just animals, and mere "useless eaters" to be bossed around for profit, or (worse) as cogs in the machinery of the communist utopia the intellectuals wanted to impose on them.
The backstory is the severe poverty in Europe in the 19th century.
And America gave the ordinary person a third alternative: permission to cling to religion, own a gun (a symbol of protecting yourself and your family, not relying on the police or the government) and work hard for your family on your own terms.
"Who do you think would be more comfortable in a bowling alley in Cleveland Ohio drinking a beer and bullshitting with the locals? Trump or Hillary?"
Trump is a teetotaler, so a beer for him is out.
For Hillary, a beer would be shotgunning a sixer.
I doubt Hillary could find the entrance to a bowling alley if you stood her in front of it.
don't know if this tread is still alive but i'll take another swing at it...
buwaya: far too many people like gwash is kind of the point of a democratic republic, kind of like hilary gettin 3 million more votes than trump..
and i think she was aiming at describing racists, neo nazis, fascists, white supremicists etc as deplorable and yes if you fall into any of those categories it doesn't matter how many good works you do. i think you might find yourself being thusly described...
from rb morris' 'That's how every empire falls' -
A bitter wind blows through the country
A hard rain falls on the sea
If terror comes without a warning
There must be something we don't see
What fire begets this fire?
Like torches thrown into the straw
If no one asks, then no one answers
That's how every empire falls.
Of course, the actual percentage of Americans who are any or all of "[white] racists, neo nazis, fascists, white suprem[a]cists" is 2-5%, not the 50% Hillary and her supporters would like to pretend. Which means she's still a liar or a fool, or a bit of each.
I doubt Hillary could find the entrance to a bowling alley if you stood her in front of it.
Well, you'd be wrong -- take a look at her actually bowling. Also, Bill was a big fan of bowling, so I'm sure she saw plenty of that when they lived in Arkansas.
Hillary is really quite good working her way through a group of regular folks. Trump, on the other hand, gives off a let- them-kiss-my-ring vibe.
To be fair, the bowling-alley set was Hillary's base in the 2008 primaries. It's the elites that went for Obama. Say what you will about the elites, that's where the money is.
If you are ever n Amsterdam you must visit the Van Gogh Museum. My favorite art museum that I have visited. Been there three times and have enjoyed it every time. About 200 paintings arranged in chronological order so you can see the progression of his work, from his dark and grim studies of Dutch peasant life to the wild and vivid colors of his final years. Just wonderful.
"If you are ever n Amsterdam you must visit the Van Gogh Museum. My favorite art museum that I have visited."
Done.
I could see going back.
I like these 1-artist museums. I very much enjoyed the Picasso Museum and the Rodin Museum in Paris.
Wikipedia has a list of one-artist museums.
Most, I'm not too interested in, but I would go out of my way to see the Paul Klee museum in Bern, Switzerland.
Ann Althouse said...
"If you are ever n Amsterdam you must visit the Van Gogh Museum. My favorite art museum that I have visited."
Yes, that is a wonderful museum. So are the Rodin and Monet ones.
They have a great Dali museum in St. Petersburg. FLA
weevil - i would say your numbers are way off....if you think only 5% of trump voters are racist, well i would say that you are enjoying the kool-aid... not sure where you are getting that stat... i would bet that it's much higher even on this great blog...
Has anyone seen the movie 'Vincent' very nicely done drawn in the style of VG using a lot of his paintings as locals..
Looks like Loyola Chicago is going to the final 4... anybody have them in the final 4 in their brackets?
does every catholic school have a good luck nun mascot?
"One does not expect to get from life what one has already learned it cannot give; rather, one begins to see more clearly that life is a kind of sowing time, and the harvest is not yet here."
Ann may not agree but I think this is appropriate in this context:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ccu91wcovedefH6WbdWaEz6F_uzvy8tab7GHoZBv1BQ/edit?usp=sharing
I also like: "Come to me ye who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest." I can see that now, but what did it mean in Jesus's day?
The Chagall Museum in Nice, France is worth a visit, too. Assuming you like Chagall.
@Gwalsh,
Take a wild, woolly guess at what American ethnic groups are the most anti-Semitic, and have been consistently since 1968? C'mon, you can do it.
Now, what party do those folks vote for by a large majority?
@GWash
Oh, come on. Progressives are radical racists and ethnic chauvinists in the worst, traditional fascist, way. There is the black nation, the hispanic nation, the gay nation, the muslim nation, the female nation, and the (despised) white male nation. And let any who dare wander from their nation beware, for that is treason and no progressive will tolerate treason. Furthermore, all, except the (despised) white male nation, are required to hate Israel, for the strictures of intersectionality are strong.
again, you guys have it bass ackwards... i'm not saying that any community is better or worse than the others regarding racism... my point is that we are all racists to one degree or another... it's what you do with that knowledge that matters..
now i'm going to bring some science up so hold on to your boots... we all (that is if you are homo sapien) come from the same place biologically.. racism is a culturally taught concept...
Chuck, this self loathing, deprecating adjective you are using here regarding the white male nation ... the only thing that people despise about the white male is that they have clung to power for centuries, keeping the rest of the world under their thumb and in 'their place'.. you might find it liberating to lose the sad sack self identification and see that we are all part of the same family with the same issues and let's move forward together...
youngH... interesting that you point me to that... as long as you continue to CONCENTRATE on the differences between us pointing to other folks saying see they do it more than we do, the longer you will continue to be frustrated and angry... that is similar to a 5 year old's argument...
you cannot fight racism with racism.. i get your point - the black community is anti semitic that does not justify YOUR racism.. it's hard (impossible) to control what other ethnic communities do the only thing you can control is yourself ...
come on you can do it too ...
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