snail world, puppy world

http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e0-cb1d-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99 (PD)

"A World of Things" (Momoyagusa) is a 3-volume set of woodblock prints by Japan's last great Rinpa-style master, Kamisaka Sekka (1866-1942).  Rinpa was a style celebrating the natural world; when you learn that Sekka was sent to study in Europe during the Art Nouveau period, with its sinuous take on nature, you know you're in for some elegant viewing.  So it is with print no. 18 from the second volume in the set.  See how the rounded puppies look kind of like great big snails themselves?  Even the snail seems to wonder about this as he stretches out his eyestalks to get a good look.  Meanwhile, the puppy in back has such a funny look on his face.  He's hanging back, but he wants to know what's up.  Have fun, little friends.

puppy peace

 [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

We've seen the luminous work of Takeuchi Seiho a couple of times before at the Museum; you may recall a mouse going formal, a cat keeping clean.  Here is a piece dating around 1935 titled "Tranquility" and absolutely delivering what it promises.

wordless vintage wednesday

from the museum collection

a kitten muses on a puppy

It's been a great while since I featured anything by that jolly celebrant of all things cat and kitten, Oliver Herford.  Here is a selection from his book The Kitten's Garden of Verses, in which the creature known as a Puppy is considered:

The Puppy
The Puppy cannot mew or talk,
He has a funny kind of walk,
His tail is difficult to wag
And that's what makes him walk zigzag.

He is the Kitten of a Dog,
From morn till night he's all agog —
Forever seeking something new
That' s good but isn't meant to chew.

He romps about the Tulip bed,
And chews the Flowers white and red,
And when the Gardener comes to see
He's sure to blame mamma or me.

One game that cannot ever fail
To please him is to chase his tail—
(To catch one's tail, 'twixt me and you,
Is not an easy thing to do.)

If he has not a pretty face
The Puppy's heart is in its place.
I'm sorry he must grow into
A Horrid, Noisy Dog, aren't you?

-- Herford, Oliver, 1863-1935. The Kitten's Garden of Verses. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1911. 39-40.

the puppy

found on pinterest, please advise if not pd

Henry Herbert La Thangue (English 1859-1929) was a Royal Academician and spent some time studying in Paris under the famous French painter Jean-Leon Gerome.  With such a background you'd imagine he could paint all manner of expensive society portraits, but his preferred genre was rustic naturalism.  He loved the English countryside and loved to paint its people and their lives, using strong brushwork and sundrenched color.  That approach is striking in this undated portrait, known only as "Girl with a Puppy" or "The Puppy." Snapshot immediate, it grabs a moment when a girl in a garden laughs off the wriggling scamp in her lap.  "I can't hold him," you can hear her say.
Here's a short article on La Thangue from Victorian Web; look for the story of how his death may have been hastened when two of his paintings were supposedly lost at sea.

"dog talk"

courtesy the british library. PD

. . . is the title of this poem by E. D. Farrar, translated from Latin.  The voice is that of some puppies, telling humans what it is to be young dogs learning dogcraft, unable to speak, but well able to understand.

CANICULI LOQUUNTUR
THE younger brethern of your House,
We guard the door ;
And serve our elder godlike kin
With hard-won lore.

Your human speech we cannot frame—
You call us dumb—
Yet eloquent the eye and ear
That know you come.

For love can bridge the gulf that yawns
’Twixt us to-day,
And bid us share each other’s joy
Each in his way.

Parson, J. (1912). The friendly dog: an anthology. London: K. Paul, Trench, Trübner & co., ltd.. 70.

vintage wordless wednesday

yet another from the trove at noun pdx

three young dogs

courtesy the rijksmuseum (PD) - see this permalink

These three tubbies roll across the pages of an album published first in 1802.  The creator, Nakamura Hochu, died circa 1820; this is from the third edition of 1826.  Other artists' work were featured in this album as well - Izumiya Shojiro, and possibly Matsuda Shinzuke.   Want to see everything in this album?  The list of images is here at the Rijksmuseum website (I rather like the Three Rats).

marginal puppy transport

courtesy discardingimages.tumblr.com. Pontifical of Guillaume Durand, Avignon, before 1390.

Paris, Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, ms. 143, fol. 174r

See, everybody loves baskets of puppies, even huge walking rabbit-men.
I wonder all the time what purpose was served by the odd, charming marginalia in manuscripts. Turns out I wasn't the only one wondering - but even the British Library hasn't got an answer, as you'll see in this readable and well-illustrated article.

vintage photo time: puppy boy

some lovely bulk bin somewhere

Such a tiny fluffball puppy!And this kid is doing a good job holding him: bottom and tummy supported. (What do you suppose is that cylindrical thing against the house there?)