Dublin Irish Festival

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of helping Tess with her booth at the Dublin Irish Festival. Throughout the weekend, we had several amusing encounters with inebriated people, and I choked twice on remembering names of Waterhouse paintings, much to my chagrin. Two especially amusing anecdotes..

The drunk guys who came up to the beautifully framed canvas of Waterhouse La Belle Dame Sans Merci and starting poking the canvas with their fingers, saying "the Pre-Raphs were freaking HOT. They were HOT!" (imagine said in a drunk voice)

The lady on Sunday who pulled out a print of Alain Chartier by Leighton, and said "it looks like they're lining up to kiss him!"


Also, Tess had a really neat cotton tapestry for sale, with art inspired by Waterhouse's Destiny. Check it out!

Desperate Romantics Episode 2

Thanks to Comfortablyblue for directing my attention to episode 2 of Desperate Romantics on YouTube!


Millais was quite distracted while painting Lizzie, by thoughts of Effie as Ophelia:

Meanwhile, the candles have all gone out on poor Lizzie:

After she has healed, she goes back into the water and finishes the painting:

And then promptly dives in face-first with Rossetti:

Lizzie sees Millais' painting for the first time:

My only real objection in this episode is the fact that they chose to make Ruskin appear to be more obsessed with extremely curvaceous and buxom interpretations of womanhood. In both last episode and this, you see him secretly looking at sketches of full-figured women in intimate positions. In reality, however, it was quite the opposite...he was obsessed with the very young, almost pre-puberty female body, and specifically, the hairless nether-regions. However much I may understand why they wouldn't want to put this in a tv show (his proclivities are as repulsive now as they were then), I hope people don't get the wrong idea of Ruskin as a result.

But again, a rolicking good show, quite enjoyable!

The Blogger's Bio

Well, no luck finding a posting of Desperate Romantics on YouTube this time around, sadly.

Just so you know, I was interviewed by a friend, Rickey, for his blog, on the subject of the Pre-Raphaelites. I really enjoyed answering his questions, and the resulting interview is here.

Thanks Rickey!

Other Passions Intervene

Apologies for my silence on here for the last little bit. Last week was the premiere episode of Desperate Romantics, and I was focused on that for a while, until another passion of mine intervened on Friday, and took over for a while.

I bought a screen-worn movie costume from The Secret of Moonacre!!

This does, arguably, mix in with the Pre-Raphaelites tangentially, since the gown, and the character, really seem almost straight out of one of their works.

Anyway, I'm sure I'll come down from this giddy high eventually, and I hope someone posts part 2 of the BBC series tomorrow so that we can all discuss it. If I see it, I'll be sure to post a link!

In the mean time, here's a music video someone posted with images from episode 1:

In Defense of the Desperate (Romantics)

Ruskin and Effie

I watched the majority of Part I last night on YouTube, thanks to the posted videos I linked. And I have to say...I rather enjoyed it. Granted, perhaps I would feel differently if it was focused on the lives of William Morris, Jane, and Edward Burne-Jones (my personal icons within the PRB), but although I shook my head a bit at some of the liberties, I felt it was still a good show.

To get them out of the way, a few things that bothered me.

• The music was just horrible. During even slightly witty scenes, I half expected a 'wah wah wah' trumpet to start playing. Quite distracting, I thought.
• The length of time it took for the PRB to create their masterpieces was totally shoved under the carpet. It was implied that works like Christ in the House of His Parents were created virtually overnight in a rush for the fictional exhibition. I understand that rushing things for the sake of the story line happens constantly in film, but this just irked me a bit.
• The whole scene with Ruskin checking out the PRB's work, and the fact that Ruskin so despised Rossetti's work at that meeting. From everything I've seen, Ruskin encouraged Rossetti's genius. Also, Dante comes off as an utterly talentless hack who is only transformed into talent through Lizzie.
  

Now, things I DID especially like.

• The portrayal of Ruskin and his relationship with Effie. This particular love triangle is one of my favorite in PRB history, since it has such a lovely happy ending (at least for poor Effie). I thought they portrayed Ruskin's conflicted thoughts on womanhood, and Effie's sad confusion over her husband's actions quite well.
  
• Lizzie Siddal! Everyone has commented how grateful they are to the production that Lizzie is portrayed as intelligent and strong-willed, instead of a drooping wallflower with half-closed lids. Of course, within the production, this is probably in part to emphasize the change that comes over her as her laudanum addiction worsens.

In regards to the artists themselves, it did bother me at first the way they all seemed to be whittled down into a single characteristic: Hunt is holy and proper, Millais is sweet and charming, Rossetti is rakish and flirtatious. But as I drifted off to sleep last night after finishing the last video, it dawned on me that in some ways, this plan of attack is rather in-keeping with the artists themselves. After all...what was one of the greatest hallmarks of Pre-Raphaelite art, if not their symbolism? The way they whittled subject matter down into a single moment of allegory?

Overall, the show takes numerous liberties with the historical story of the Pre-Raphaelites when there's really no need to at all. But does it distract from the overall story of these determined young talented men who so revolutionized the art world of their day? I am, overall, thankful for this production, which I hope will spark more interest in the Brotherhood and their fascinating lives.

Ha!

Whatever your feelings about the first episode of Desperate Romantics, this LOLpic made me smile. Courtesy of LJ user spyderfingers.

Bits and Pieces of Desperate Romantics

Bits of Desperate Romantics are up on Youtube.