bunny bowl, 12thc iran

Photo credit: Yale University Art Gallery.  Hobart and Edward Small Moore Memorial Collection, Gift of Mrs. William H. Moore

This bowl measures 3 3/8 x 7 3/16 in. (8.5 x 18.2 cm), a good size for soup or a salad, perhaps.  I wonder who owned this bowl back in 12th-century Iran, what they liked best to have served in it, and whether they asked specially to have such a graceful, vine-entwined rabbit painted on it.  It was made in Seljuk Period Iran (1038-1194), a period of prosperity and thriving arts (here's the Metropolitan Museum of Art on that).  I was also able to find a reference that suggests the rabbit/vine motif celebrates the goodness of life now and to come. 

enjoy easter fiercely!

thanks internet archive (PD)

"This is a fierce bad Rabbit; look at his savage whiskers, and his claws and his turned-up tail."

I always had a soft spot for Beatrix Potter's thug bunny.  If you recall that you did too, you may refresh your friendship with him here at Internet Archive.  I think that Beatrix Potter knew she had a streak of Fierce Bad Rabbit herself, thinly veneered.  It's right there in her style - creatures recorded down to the last realistic hair, dressed up for civilized life but ready to shuck it all off at any moment.

Happy Easter to you all, dear Museum friends.  

Remember to share your carrots!

And be careful where you shuck off your veneer.

"newly arrived from zurich, 1798"

image copyright and by kindest permission of the artist

Here we see "Marie-Jeanne-Amélie de Lalande, Contemplating the Spheres, Employing the Orrery, newly-arrived from Zurich, 1798."  No doubt you're asking yourself at least one of the following:

1.  But isn't that a rabbit?

2.  Who's Marie-Jeanne-Amelie de Lalande?

3.  What's an orrery?

The answers are 

1. Yes, and that's the genius of Canterbury UK artist DD McInnes (whom we've seen before here at the Museum).  If you're like me, you were attracted to the juxtaposition of solemn atmosphere with a thoughtful bunny, and then before you knew it you learned that 

2. Marie-Jeanne-Amelie de Lalande was an 18th-century French astronomer and mathematician.  

3. You also decided to look up "orrery" and discovered that it was a mechanical model of the solar system, like the modern one in this video.  (You'll note the one above has eight planets.  Neptune was discovered in 1846, Pluto in 1930 before its demotion to dwarf planet in 2006.)

While I was lost in admiration for this work, my memory scratched at me.  I knew there was a work of the 1700's of which this reminded me, and I found it:  Joseph Wright of Derby's work of around 1766, A Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrery.

See what happened there?  You looked at a brown bunny, and before you know it you were contemplating space, and it was mysterious fun.  This is why I love McInnes, and here's more reasons why.

wordless vintage wednesday

thanks ampersand. what a find.

christina rossetti's "a word for the dumb"

A Word for the Dumb
Pity the sorrows of a poor old Dog
Who wags his tail a-begging in his need:
Despise not even the sorrows of a Frog,
God's creature too, and that's enough to plead:
Spare Puss who trusts us purring on our hearth:
Spare Bunny once so frisky and so free:
Spare all the harmless tenants of the earth:
Spare, and be spared:--or who shall plead for thee?

 - Christina Rossetti, a powerful poet and a sister of Dante Gabriel Rossetti

wordless vintage wednesday

thanks lovely shop on se stark

war rabbit

the walters art museum. Acquired by William T. or Henry Walters. creative commons 0 license.

Once (in Japan, perhaps in the 19th century) this rabbit served a martial purpose.  He's a kurikata, a knob with which a cord can be attached to a wooden scabbard.  His unusual coloring is due to his being made of the alloy shibuichi, which is a mixture of silver and copper, with golden eyes.

vicki sawyer's beautiful creatures

image copyright and by kindest courtesy of vicki sawyer

Artist Vicki Sawyer's portraits bring us proud creatures bedecked in the treasures of nature.  She found this theme in her early years among a family appreciative of the woods, of birds, of small simple glories.  She has created art all her life, and now turns her gift to a world where animals wear flowers and twigs as jewels and crowns.  Here's her "Jackalope Wannabe" doing just that.  (Are you on Pinterest? You can see so many there.)

two blue bunnies

image copyright and by kindest permission of the artist, ande hall

I do enjoy a lovely pastel work.  Mix in a couple of fat bunnies and my favorite complementary colors of orange and blue, and - well, you've made my Friday.  Kansas artist Ande Hall has a feel for pastels that mixes bright, delightful color with excellent form and control.  The results are not only rich in pigment and feel, but fun, as you can see when you skim through her gallery.  (Did you see the scarlet tanager, or the warbler on the nest, or any of those excellent chickens?)  This particular work grabbed me because the treatment of the lines mixed with that deep color reminded me of what I liked best about Fauvism (Matisse, for example).
Hall was a full-time veterinarian for 25 years, and still keeps her hand in part-time.   She also continues to serve animals through her Etsy shop - where 5% of her proceeds are donated to IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature- the world's oldest and largest wildlife conservation organization).

lime rabbit

"Rabbit-shaped lime pot from Cambodia, Angkorian era, 11th-12th century"
by Hiart - Own work. Licensed under CC0 via Wikimedia Commons 

This cheery bunny lives at the Honolulu Academy of Arts now, but eight or nine centuries ago he was a lime pot in Cambodia.  Lime is part of the condiment that prepares betel nut for chewing (kind of like a sugar bowl for those who take sugar in their coffee).  At the time this was made, the Angkor period (11-13th c), animal-shaped ceramics were popular.  Here's an owl shaped lime pot of the period over at Cornell University.  Here's a cat lime pot at the Met.  Part of the general style seems to have been a rounded, bug-eyed charm - delightful.

vintage wordless wednesday

found at noun, pdx

street bunny

thanks wikimedia commons contributor j bizzie, cc by 2.0

Here's wishing you the same alertness and energy for your Monday as this street-sticker rabbit, who apparently featured at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis in 2013.  

happy easter!

courtesy thegraphicsfairy.com, believed PD

From (we think) a 1922 cover of a ladies' magazine, it's the Easter Bunny and his wife and kids.  I hope this morning finds you with those you love, human, feathered, scaled or furred.

Happy Easter from your friends at The Pet Museum!

fantabulous bunnies. invisible toast.

image copyright and by kindest permission of the artist

Portland, OR photographer Patricia Rubinelli of Invisible Toast Photography has, quite simply, one of the most delightful artist's statements I've ever read.  Mind you, this is a person with impeccable artist chops - glass work in Seattle, fine art degree from Southern Methodist University, residency in Woodstock, lives on a vintage houseboat on the Columbia River.  Seeing all this (and frankly feeling a little outgunned as your friendly Curator with her friendly little blog), I did not expect to run across cheer and friendliness like this (from her Etsy "About Me":)

A bunch of incredible strokes of luck later, I wound up working in the most highly regarded glass studios in Seattle, WA. I had photographed light refractions through glass containers for years so even though this seems like a jump it really wasn't that far off.
Moving next to New York City, and the mountains of upstate New York, I focused primarily on my glass career.
THEN ALONG CAME THE BUNNIES!
They took over everything. I was ready to scrap my glass career to be able to stay home and play with them all day. I didn't really see a bright financial future in that plan, but they were so cute it didn't matter. Anyone who has bunnies should understand this and back me up.

 While I may not have any bunnies "on staff," I will back that up all day, Museum friends.  And that was before I looked through her page's slideshow.  Then I noticed her list of materials for the piece above:

 Photography, White Angora Bunny, Nuage (the white bunny - curator), Mini Rex Rabbit, Bells (the brown bunny - c), Live Bunny Models, Spoiled Rotten Rabbit, Cageless Bunnies, Free Range Bunny Rabbits, stormy sky, dramatic clouds

It works.  Rubinelli's medium is not only photography, but feeling, investment in these beloved creatures, and the technical and artistic ability to bring some of that inner landscape to share with you.  Please have a look at her Etsy shop, and don't miss that slideshow.

the reunion

image copyright and by kindest courtesy of the artist

Seattle artist Nakisha says that she has been making animal art ever since she can remember.  Her site proves a sure feel for the structure and spirit of all sorts of animal beings (here's Nakisha.com, and look at this excellent wire cat).  Today I bring you her watercolor The Reunion, in which every individual is a portrait of a real-life rescue bunny.  I love that idea, and I appreciate the gentle Tasha Tudor-like feel in this work.  Notice how the red dishes and flowers pop against the muted pale green setting.  Delicious.

Nakisha's Etsy shop bluedogrose is here.

portrait with rabbit

thanks wikiart.org (PD)

Valentin Serov (1865-1911) was one of the great Russian portraitists of his day.  Yet I had never seen his name till I discovered this pencil Portrait of K. A. Obninskaya with Bunny (1904).  Turns out he studied under Ilya Repin, and in Moscow and Paris.  The freshness of his approach to his subjects is considered to be the starting point of Russian Impressionism.  You can see this much more vividly when you see a number of his works in color (this page isn't great, but it will help).  I simply enjoyed the solidity and velvety finish of the rabbit, and how carefully she holds him.

where's alice? asks corelladesign

image copyright and by kindest permission of the artist

Last seen here at the Museum in this post on her gorgeous Black Cat, Donna McKenzie's back with this spring green inquiry:  Where's Alice Green Wallpaper.  If Alice feels anything like I do about now, she's surrendered herself to that tangle of flora in sheer joy that winter's over.  That rabbit does look puzzled, doesn't he?  I particularly like his nose and lips - just a little shading and there's a muzzle ready to pet.  Check out this artist's other work at her Etsy shop, corelladesign.

play "winterbells"

A quick update: Over at Ferry Halim's charming game site Orisinal, 'tis the season for Winterbells.  Make the little snow bunny leap up up up on the bells, quickly now!

Play Winterbells.

the clockwork pet: roullet and descamps

A prim white kitty in spectacles fans herself. A basket of pink flowers holds a bunny surprise. And a kinda disreputable lion can still leap, though he's a hundred and nine years old.

All these fantastical things are late 19th - early 20th c clockwork toys - automata - from the Paris firm of Roullet & Descamps. Roullet had opened a tool-production workshop in 1866 and shortly after switched to automaton toys with his first partner. Descamps, the shop foreman, married into the family in 1879, and descendants ran the company till 1995. Their productions mirrored the fancies of the France they lived in: cute pets, dolls in the latest fashions, clowns, clever monkeys. The quality and poetic cleverness of their creations have been honored by a museum in the village of Souillac.

You may find more of the firm's history here. And here's a bunny in a cabbage. And a walking, meowing cat. All examples from Britain's Automatomania.

momoyo torimitsu: cute as discomfort

Big bright vinyl bunnies, too big for their space, crushed down over you. They ought to be cute and funny. Are they? There's so many of them. They aren't fitting comfortably. Something isn't right here.

Exactly, according to Japanese artist Momoyo Torimitsu. The bunny installation was called Somehow I don't feel comfortable, and it was designed specially to not fit its Parisian gallery space. Torimitsu was illustrating the effect of cuteness used in excess in order to buffer or gloss over issues such as individuality or empowerment.


The gallery show page here. And for an adventure, Momoyo Torimitsu's website here (click on the first page and then try clicking "Projects."