Jetsam

"Jetsam": unwanted material or goods purposely jettisoned to lighten the load.

Here I have some jetsam that I am about to cast, maybe not overboard, but to the uncertain fate of the various post offices in the world.

I have far, far, too many postcards waiting to be sent to people, so if anyone would like one of the 10 cards pictured, please leave a comment and send me your postal address via email. You can contact me via the contact tab at the top of this blog.

The black and white cards are from a box of 100 "Postcards from our Past" published by English Heritage.

The second set are from another box of 100, classic covers from Vanity Fair.

You can see them better if you click on the image to enlarge it.

Updated to add, I am very happy to send postcards anywhere in the world, either stamped and written or in an envelope.

Illustrations

I always, if asked, say that I enjoy postcards showing art of any type. As a result I've received art of almost every description and, of course I realise now there are some styles I like more than others. Great favourites of mine are book illustrations such as the ones above.

I don't know if I can describe this second group as illustration. They are reproductions of covers of books and magazines.  Now, is that cover art? Or could they be described as illustrations too?

Train spotters

Children seem to do the same things the world over.  This could be a scene from "The Railway Children " (by Edith Nesbit) but in fact it's an oil painting by Pavel Gavrilenko, a Belarussian artist. It was painted in 1957, just four years before he died.

This is a post for Postcard Friendship Friday, hosted by Beth at The Best Hearts are Crunchy.

Autumn already?

This is a painting by a young Russian artist, Vlad Krachuk, who lives and works in Moscow.  This particular card was chosen because today it felt as though autumn had already started. My fingers are crossed for an Indian summer.

Russian Market

An oil painting by the Russian artist, Sergey Sochivko (1959-).  Although the card says it's a detail of the original, in fact there is very little missing.

Sergey Sochivko is from Omsk and well known for his love of the old, and the spirit of the Omsk Siberian Cossacks. His paintings are views of the city of Omsk with its historic buildings and street scenes as a backdrop for fantastical stories.

Summer

Sometimes I receive cards that have no particular significance apart from being pleasant to look at. And this is one of them. It's title is "Summer" and that seems fair enough, it does look summery - and today was the warmest day this year here.  Very appropriate.

It was sent from Belarus where it was 19 degrees C (66 F) at the time of sending.

Alice

Alice in Wonderland, by George Dunlop Leslie, 1879.

Since it's Mother's Day tomorrow in many parts of the world, I thought this picture of a mother reading to her daughter might be appropriate.  This is, in fact Leslie's own daughter, Alice.

The picture hangs in the Royal Pavilion, in Brighton.  It is one of the 54 tiny pictures of women reading on the postcard I received last December.

This is a post for Postcard Friendship Friday, hosted by Beth at The Best Hearts are Crunchy.

L is for Reading

To be more accurate, L is for "lukea" which, in Finnish, means to read.

It is an illustration by Martta Wendelin (1893-1986), an artist from Finland who created postcards, magazine covers, and illustrated fairy tales. Her themes tended to be nostalgic and charming, a little romantic.

G is for Green Giant

Norman Rockwell's style is fairly easily recognisable, though I'll admit to having been confused once or twice.  He was an American artist who created covers for The Saturday Evening Post from 1916, and went on to depict small town life after he moved to Vermont.

This piece, dated 1939, has the title "Who's Having More Fun?" and was an illustration for an advertisement for Green Giant canned corn.

Strangely, it was sent to me from Japan.

Easter chick

I don't believe this really is an Easter card, but I love it.  It comes from The Netherlands and on the back says it was drawn by "Ilse", a primary school pupil, for something called "Action Schoolyard".

This is a post for Postcard Friendship Friday hosted on Beth Niquette's, The Best Hearts are Crunchy.  Do visit her and join in.

Art Nouveau

Two beautiful examples of the style of art known in English as Art Nouveau which flourished between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th.  It is known by different names in different languages: Jugendstil in Germany for instance.  Curiously in France it was given the name Modern Style.

The top card is one of Alfons Mucha's famous posters while the lower one is a perfume label from Russia.  Both were sent from Germany.

This is a post for Postcard Friendship Friday hosted on Beth Niquette's, The Best Hearts are Crunchy.

A nice cup of tea

When it's cold outside, as it is here at the moment, there is nothing like a hot cup of tea (with maybe a biscuit or two).  This pen and ink drawing of a Russian couple enjoying the warmth is by Anatoly Kudravcev.  He was born in the village of Shanevo and this image is one of several he has drawn of village life.  I suspect village life is the same the world over.

This is a post for Postcard Friendship Friday hosted on Beth Niquette's, The Best Hearts are Crunchy.

Reading women

I seem to have given the impression that I collect postcards of women or girls reading because just after Eva's comment the other day (Eva of Mail Adventures), I received this postcard with 54 different pictures of women reading!  I've scanned it at a relatively high resolution so that if you click on the image you should be able to see better.

Of course they aren't identified on the back so now starts the challenge of working out who they all are.  For my own reference purposes I've allocated them A-F for rows and 1-9 columns.

Row A
1. Marie Adelaide of France by Jean-Etienne Liotard
2. In Slaap Gevallen by Kik Zeiler, 1948
3. An Interlude by William Sergeant Kendall, 1907
4. De gezusters Arntzenius ('lezende zusjes') or The Arntzenius sisters (reading sisters) - WB Tholen, 1895
5. The Magdalen Reading by Rogier van der Weyden, about 1435
6. Helene Vary by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1889
7. Reading a Story by James Tissot, 1878
8. Alice by George Dunlop Leslie, 1879
9. The Maid With the Golden Hair by Frederick Lord Leighton

Row B
1. Virgin and Child, by William Dyce
2. Gare St Lazare, by Edouard Manet 1873
3. From Ot and Sien, Cornelis Jetses 1873-1955
4. The Reader Crowned with Flowers, or Virgil's Muse, by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot 1845
5. Girl Reading, Jean-Baptiste Camille-Corot, 1850/1855
6. Mrs. Duffee Seated on a Striped Sofa, Reading, by Mary Cassatt, 1876
7. Ballet Class, the Dance Hall [detail] by Edgar Dégas, 1880
8. Reading by Lamplight, by George Clausen, 1909
9. The Novel Reader, by Vincent van Gogh, 1888

Row C
1. Woman by a Goldfish Tank, by Lovis Corinth, 1911
2. La Liseuse [The Reader], by Alfred Emile Stevens, about 1860
3. Meditation: Madame Monet on a Couch, by Claude Monet, 1871
4. Madonna mit den Erdbeeren [Madonna with Strawberries, by "The Upper Rhenish Master", c. 1425.
5. St Catherine, by "The master of the Half length", 1830s
6. Lezende Vrouw[Reading Woman], by Matthieu Wiegman, 1925
7. Intérieure, by Edgar Fernhout, 1951
8. Mary Reading, by Lorenzo Costa, c. 1515
9. Interior with poppies and reading woman (Lizzy Hohlenberg), by Anna Ancher, 1905

Row D
1. The Novel: A Lady in a Garden Reading a Book, Frank Dicey,
2. Home Devotion by Adolf Hölzel
3. L'Edition de Luxe, by Lilian Westcott Hale, 1910
4.Young Girl Reading by Gustav Adolph Hennig, 1828
5.The Little Convalescent by Eastman Johnson, 1872-1880
6. Leisure, by William W Churchill, 1910
7. Young Woman Reading, by Mary Cassatt, 1876
8. The Reading Lesson, Auguste Toulmouche
9. Girl Reading, by Edmund Tarbell, 1909

Row E
1. Woman Reading by Léon Kamir Kaufman, 1921
2. Woman Reading by Candlelight by Peter Ilsted, 1908
3. A Quiet Read in a Chinoiserie Interior, by Georges Croegaert, 1888
4. ?
5. Woman reading, by J Paul Allinson, 1940
6. Repose, by Jacques Cancaret
7. Girl with a Book by William Merritt Chase, 1902
8. La Lettre by Henry Lerolle
9. The Browning Readers by William Rothenstein, 1900

Row F
1. Elegant Woman in Library by Edouard Gelhay
2. La lecture by Henri Fantin-Latour
3. Portrait of Katie Lewis by by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1886
4. Val d'Arconville by Theodore Robinson, 1888
5. Mademoiselle Guillaumin Reading by Armand Guillaumin, 1907
6. Woman Reading by a Window by David Alison
7. Young Woman Reading a Letter by Jean Raoux, 1717-1719
8. Woman Reading on Subway by Silvina Resnik
9. At The Window by Hans Olaf Heyerdahl, 1881

All but one, I think, I've found!  Some were easy, some were really difficult.

Madonna and Child

Although this card from the Netherlands did have art stamps on it, I had to go to France to find the first Madonna and Child stamp.

It commemorates the 500 years since Rafael painted it in 1512/13. The original hangs in the museum in Dresden.

The Royal Mail quite frequently uses art on stamps, particularly around Christmas time.  I have a set of PHQ (postal headquarters) stamp cards from 1991 which are taken from a 14th century manuscript kept in the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

These are just two of the set.  I love the colour and form, but if you look closely at the faces, they do look a little odd though possibly more "real". I prefer them to some more recent versions.

As I said, the original postcard did have art stamps on it too, commemorating Rembrandt
:

And another by Vermeer, that almost everyone will recognise thanks to the recent film, Girl with a Pearl Earring.

This is a post for Sunday Stamps, now hosted by Violet Sky at "See it on a Postcard!"

In the Garden

He has such a distinctive style that it almost seems unnecessary to say that this is another card by the artist Leonid Afrenov, "In the Garden". It comes from Belarus, his native country.  He has also lived in Israel, the USA and now his home is Mexico.

It's such a delight to the eye, I have to wonder why mine never looks like this. Well, partly of course because I no longer have a garden.

Book versus doll

A doll lies abandoned on the floor while the little girl reads her book.  It's a new book apparently because the title of the picture, a watercolour by George Goodwin Kilburne, is "The New Book".  The date on it is 1870.

I have discovered in my efforts t find out more about this painting, that Wikipedia has a whole category called "Paintings of sitting girls reading indoors".  I already have a few of them...  Are there categories for reading out of doors, women, men, I wonder?  I have a few of those too...

The postcard was sent to me from the Netherlands although the artist is British.

The couple on the bench

Carl Spitzweg: Das Paar auf dem Bank (um1860) The Couple on the Bench

This picture reminds me of the Mazda light advertisement, And in Life's Evening Time, though in fact it's really quite different. Nevertheless it shows us a contented (presumably) and not-so-young couple taking a break on their stroll through the woods.

Carl Spitzweg was a German artist of the 19th century, often making his pictures a humourous look at life. Another well known work of his is The Bookworm.

A post for Postcard Friendship Friday hosted by Beth Niquette on her blog, The Best Hearts are Crunchy. Click on the button to visit and join in.

Tarn et Garonne

As today is the 150th birthday of Toulouse-Lautrec, I attempted to find a map of the area around Albi in the Tarn département (south west France) where he was born.  I failed but here instead is a map of Tarn et Garonne the next département along to the west.  Albi is almost directly to the east of Montauban.

Henri Toulouse-Lautrec was an artist, now probably best known for his posters such as the one above advertising the Moulin Rouge.

Beatrix Potter

When I was little, my mother used to read me Beatrix Potter's books and then later (though it seemed only a flash) I used to read them to my sons when they were small.  I am waiting until my grandchildren are the right age for me to start reading them again.

This particular illustration is from The Tale of Peter Rabbit and it shows how Mr McGregor, the grumpy gardener, used Peter's jacket and shoes to make a scarecrow to frighten off the blackbirds.

Utamaro

This card arrived in my collection entirely by accident - I found it inside a second-hand book I bought recently.  It was originally sent from Japan by a dutiful son to his mother.

The picture is one of Kitagawa Utamaro's woodblock prints.  He was a Japanese artist (1753-1806) and one of the most famous artists of the ukiyo-e tradition of prints.

I haven't been able to identify this one in spite of having trawled through 800+ images on ukiyo-e.org
There were 3000+ of them so I know I didn't really get very far.