‘A Walk at Dusk’ by Caspar David Friedrich
Wow. Had to reblog this after checking out the tags for other posts about this painting. Someone lightened this a lot in Photoshop (or the equivalent). It really changes the mood. Compare this unaltered shot of the original at the Getty:
Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/43633219350.
According to the Getty’s site, A Walk at Dusk is 13 1/8 x 17 3/16 in. Here’s an uncropped iPhone shot I grabbed during my visit; sorry I didn’t get a human in there for scale.
Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/43632622687.
Thank you for the kind comment. I know exactly what you mean about a thin crescent moon: The thinner it is the more breathtakingly beautiful I find it, and to have Jupiter hanging a moon’s-width away is a stunning thing to see.
I have to believe Friedrich was touched by that beauty, and that it provided him some solace, the same way it does for me.
Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/43632321248.
A Walk at Dusk (about 1830-35)
Caspar David Friedrich (German, 1774-1840)
I posted previously about this painting I saw at the Getty last weekend. As someone who loves the sight of a crescent moon, and still more a close conjunction with a bright planet, I really liked this scene, and the contrast Friedrich created between the beautiful event in the sky above and the somber scene depicted below.
Reading up on Friedrich since then, I found his story compelling. His mother died when he was seven, a sister died when he was eight, and then, when he was 13, his younger brother Johann broke through the ice on a frozen lake and drowned before his eyes. At 16 he began his formal training as an artist, and ended up becoming one of the leading painters of the German Romantic period, specializing in landscapes that placed diminished human figures in evocative natural settings.
There was both a figurative and a literal darkness to his work. He frequently experienced episodes that today would probably be diagnosed as major depression. Some lighter scenes and more use of color emerged after Friedrich, at the age of 42, married 25-year-old Caroline Bommer and started his own family. But as time passed his style fell out of favor and his reputation declined, until he and his paintings were viewed as little more than strange and melancholy curiosities. His later life was spent in poverty and obscurity, and his paintings increasingly featured a bent, aged figure: Friedrich himself, contemplating scenes where symbols of death, like the megalithic tomb shown in this painting, were prominent.
A Walk at Dusk does not have an exact date; the Getty placard lists it as “about 1830-35”, those being the last years in which Friedrich was able to work in oils. He suffered a debilitating stroke in 1835 and never fully recovered; during the last five years of his life he created few works, with most of those being smaller paintings and watercolors. My guess is that A Walk at Dusk, along with a number of other works dated 1830-35, went unsold during his lifetime, and only became of interest after his death, at which point Friedrich’s haphazard records made it impossible to fix the dates of the works more precisely.
The placard accompanying the painting at the Getty mentions the new moon, but doesn’t mention the planet alongside it. But as someone who loves planetary conjunctions I noticed it right away. And it made me wonder: Would it be possible to figure out when Friedrich might have seen that conjunction? With desktop planetarium software it’s easy to simulate the sky for any date and location, so earlier today I used a program called Stellarium to look at all the young moons Friedrich might have seen if he’d been walking near Dresden at dusk during the years 1830 to 1835.
I think I may have found it. If Friedrich was depicting an actual sky he’d seen recently, rather than merely inventing a sky, or basing the painting on a sketch he’d made years before, then there’s really only one good candidate: The night of January 6, 1832, when an 11% illuminated moon hung low in the southwest with Jupiter a half-degree above and to the right.
I included enlargements of the painting and a screenshot from Stellarium above, so you can see how closely the painting matches the sky from that date. There were a half-dozen other conjunctions during those years, but nothing that comes close to having the moon and a bright planet in the right position at the right time. But the conjunction of January 6, 1832 is an almost perfect match.
I really like this painting. I like thinking about the deeper themes Friedrich was communicating with it. But I also like the idea that because of his belief in the importance of depicting the beauty of the natural world faithfully, and because of our shared appreciation of the beauty of a close conjunction, I may have been able to tell the precise evening when he saw that sky.
Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/43629983224.
Only the purest of heart can be truly worthy.
Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/43597665848.
Hm. Interesting idea. I’m always a sucker for anything meta.
How would I evaluate that, though?
Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/43597056330.
- Shindig
- Our Mrs. Reynolds
- Trash
- Bushwhacked
- War Stories
1. Out of Gas
2. Safe
3. Jaynestown
4. War Stories
5. Heart of Gold(I would just like to add, in addition to putting “Out of Gas” in the number one slot, that it is possibly the most gripping, perfectly-constructed, expertly-interwoven piece of television brilliance I have ever had the pleasure (and heartwrenching pain, but mostly pleasure) of witnessing.)
Reblogging to agree about Out of Gas.
Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/43586641278.
Jupiter and the Moon Have a Close Encounter in the Sky February 18, 2013
The movement of the Moon makes a fascinating study of celestial mechanics. Despite the light pollution it brings to the nighttime sky, we’re fortunate as a species to have a large solitary satellite to give us lessons in “Celestial Mechanics 101″
This weekend, we’ll get to follow that motion as the Moon crosses into the constellation Taurus for a near-pass of the planet Jupiter, and for a very few citizens of our fair world, occults it.
In astronomy, the term “occultation” simply means that one astronomical body passes in front of another. The term has its hoary roots in astronomy’s ancient past; just like the modern day science of chemistry sprung from the pseudo-science of alchemy, astronomy was once intertwined with the arcane practice of astrology, although the two have long since parted ways. When I use the term “occultation” around my non-space geek friends, (I do have a few!) I never fail to get a funny look, as if I just confirmed every wacky suspicion that they ever had about us backyard astronomers…
But those of us who follow lunar occultations never miss a chance to observe one. You’ll actually get to see the motion of the Moon as it moves against the background planet or star, covering it up abruptly. The Moon actually moves about 12° degrees across the sky per 24 hour period.
On the evening of Monday, February 18th, the 56% illuminated waxing gibbous Moon will occult Jupiter for Tasmania and southern Australia around 12:00 Universal Time (UT). Folks along the same longitude as Australia (i.e., eastern Asia) will see a close pass of the pair. For North America, we’ll see the Moon approach Jupiter and Aldebaran of February 17th (the night of the Virtual Star Party) and the Moon appear past the pair after dusk on the 18th.
I didn’t realize this was happening last night.
I love conjunctions (what the image above actually shows, when two celestial bodies are close together in the sky, as opposed to occultations, when one body actually passes in front of the other). (I love occultations, too. But I’m not talking about those now.)
Seeing this image in my dash reminded me of a painting I saw during my trip to the Getty last weekend. Here it is:
From the Getty placard:
A Walk at Dusk (About 1830-35)
Caspar David Friedrich (German, 1774-1840)
Oil on canvas
The most celebrated of the German Romantic painters, Friedrich possessed a deeply personal and introspective vision that attracted a wide following. Among the last canvases he completed before a debilitating stroke, A Walk at Dusk shows a single figure — perhaps the artist himself — contemplating a megalithic tomb. This symbol of death is counter-balanced by the waxing moon, which represented for Friedrich Christ’s promise of rebirth.
[me again]
The placard didn’t mention it, but you can see that Friedrich didn’t just paint the young crescent moon; he also painted a bright planet (either Venus or Jupiter) in a close conjunction with it.
A crescent moon low in the sky is a beautiful thing by itself, but a planetary conjunction makes it even better. I want to write more about this painting, but I’ll save it for another post.
Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/43577300097.
I am happy to enter you into the sweepstakes. Yes, there are some other people already entered, and no, I haven’t yet figured out exactly how it will work. The latest plan is that I will hold some kind of contest and the winner will be written into my will, to receive the ‘lies’ Tumblr domain upon the event of my death.
One idea I had was this: I’d like to think that after I’m gone the lies URL will continue to provide content similar to what it does now. That seems like a nice way to treat those who follow me. So my successor as operator of the domain should be someone who has demonstrated an ability to do that.
So:
For one week I will make a point of following everyone who has ever expressed an interest in being given the lies URL. During that time I will “like” and reblog posts by those people according to my usual idiosyncratic criteria. At the end of the week, I will consult the tic-tac-toe board of my favorite blogs on the “Following” page. If any of the contestants have made it into my top nine, I will reward whomever scores highest by leaving the lies URL to them in my will.
What do people think of that? Suggestions for improvement?
Oh: And on the other part of your question. I have one other Tumblr URL currently saved: an-indifferent-penguin. I figure I can always fall back on that if this ‘lies’ thing doesn’t pan out.
Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/43574204885.
Meanwhile, under Manhattan:
As work slowly but surely but mostly slowly progresses on the Second Avenue Subway, and East Side Access, construction crews have dug some really wonderful looking caverns.
Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/43567730872.
SPYRO!!!!!
Don’t go up the whirlwind, though. There’s just a speedway up there, and the speedways are dumb. Unless you REALLY REALLY need the orb, then I guess you can waste an hour doing it.
Reblogging for someone special.
Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/43567538629.
Casual Blue (by Jane Bennet)
A little casual, a little blue.
So, this is outside Jane’s apartment in LA, right? That’s the same spot they shot the special Halloween episode. Which means that after hanging out at the Bennet’s, Jane is now back in LA (and presumably job-hunting). Right?
Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/43538888806.
The full moon rises over the only planet we have ever called home.
The image above will make most people think of Earthrise, the photo astronaut William Anders took during the Apollo 8 mission. But it reminds me even more of this one:
STS107-E-05697 (26 January 2003) —- A quarter moon is visible in this oblique view of Earth’s horizon and airglow, recorded with a digital still camera aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia.
Most of the data collected during Columbia’s final mission was destroyed when the craft broke up over Texas during re-entry, but a number of photos, including the one above, had already been downloaded.
I wrote about those images here. Another image I really liked from that set was this one:
STS107-E-05688 (26 January 2003) —- Ilan Ramon, STS-107 payload specialist, looks at Earth’s horizon through a window of the Space Shuttle Columbia. Ramon represents the Israeli Space Agency.
There’s no way to sugar-coat it: Space is a fucking dangerous place for human beings. It just is. That there are people willing to go there anyway, and send back images so those of us safe on Earth can get an idea of what it’s like, makes me proud of my species.
colchrishadfield is a Tumblr hero for real.
Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/43532950787.
“
Revkin seems preoccupied with the fact that Keystone is part of larger systems and not particularly significant in light of that context. And it’s true: Everything is insignificant in light of some larger context. Climate change is a “wicked problem,” which means that everything passing as a solution will be flawed, partial, and impermanent. What to do? We are rapidly losing ground, on the verge of locking in a trajectory scientists tell us will lead to disastrous and irreversible consequences. We can sit around and fill our blogs with reasons why this or that solution is the wrong one, inferior to some better one that we’d already have, goldarnit, if those meddling pushers-of-other-solutions weren’t “distracting” from ours. We can fall in love with the ineffable intellectual tangle, as Revkin has, and accept that anything specific enough to build an activist campaign around will be meaningless in the context of global energy demand and emissions. We can read the Serenity Prayer and get used to the fact that it’s all out of our hands anyway.
But some people want to fight! Some people actually haul themselves out from behind their keyboards, call a bunch of friends, put on warm clothes, and go stomp around in public yelling about it. These are the folks throwing sand in the social gears, the ones trying to wrest the levers of power out of hostile hands. As a professional word-typer, like Revkin, I have come to believe that those people deserve a certain level of respect and forbearance. Maybe shouting advice down to them from the bloggy heights isn’t as helpful as we word-typers are inclined to think. At least we could refrain from pissing on them while they’re rallying….
The argument of Keystone protestors is not that there’s One True Way, but that eventually there has to be some way. Somebody’s got to start taking these dire warnings seriously and do something, something specific and concrete. You can’t support Doing Something but oppose Doing This Particular Thing forever. Sooner or later, people have to draw lines and take sides. Progress does not happen without struggle.
”
– David Roberts, The virtues of being unreasonable on Keystone (via dendroica)
Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/43529328678.
Because Caroline Lee is fabulous. And so is her hair.
Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/43527313456.
oh wickham deserves tea
just gonna reblog this again
Reblogging to add the source for the gif for anyone wondering: That’s Barbara Stanwyck as Lily Powers in 1933’s Baby Face, a film so badass it helped usher in widespread adoption of the Hays Code the following year.
Also, technically, coffee, not tea.
Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/43527148310.
Aw, sweetie. The sad fact is, we’re all going to die. But you have every prospect of a long, wonder-filled life before that happens. Even better: Actuarial realities being what they are, chances are excellent that I’ll die first, which means that even if I persist in hogging the ‘lies’ URL to the bitter end, you’re at most looking at three or four decades (maybe less) before it becomes available.
I’ll tell you what: Next time I revise my will, I’ll add a section directing my executor to take whatever steps are necessary to make sure the ‘lies’ tumblr URL is released back into the wild in a timely manner after I’m gone. Maybe I could even set up some kind of orderly succession, where we pick someone now to designate as the recipient. Or we could specify that there be a random drawing, or some other suitable contest. Hm…
I’m going to think about this some more.
Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/43519506038.
old unreleased song nýja lagið, reykjavík, june 1999. this one hasn’t been played in a while :) more rare live bits and bobs posted here this week…
Two months from today they’ll be playing the Santa Barbara Bowl. The perfect band in the perfect venue.
Why would you not be there? You think you’re going to live forever?
Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/43514712727.
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