Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Cousin Eugene

Eugene Delacroix
Self Portrait, 1837


Eugene Delacroix
Self Portrait, 1840


Martha Miller
Cold Snap Self, 2001
pastel and charcoal on Rives BFK, 22" x 30"



Martha Miller
Self with God in the Creation of Adam, 2005
charcoal on Rives BFK, 22" x 30"


I found a copy of Eugene Delacroix's journal in the free bin at the MECA library recently. It's a beautiful little book - hard cover, sewn binding, published in 1952. I just started reading it, and it's a real treat! I read that Robert Motherwell did his thesis on Delacroix's journal (I found the Motherwell book in that same free bin...I have quite a nice collection of discarded art books that keeps growing!)
Right after I rescued the Delacroix journal from the bin, I received an e-mail from my cousin Jon, our family historian. Jon has been working on the family genealogy for the past few years, visiting graveyards and taking photos of family tombstones. (An interesting aside: Jon and I are double cousins -our mothers are sisters and our fathers [now deceased] were brothers.) Anyhow, Jon e-mailed me a list of famous people that we are related to: Queen Elizabeth II, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Thoreau, Bob Hope (!) to name just a few, and, Eugene Delacroix. This has made me even more eager to read his journal! Of all Delacroix's ponderings and pronouncements that I've read so far, I completely agree with this one:

One always has to spoil a picture a little in order to finish it.

2 comments:

artslice said...

What a great resource you've found in that bin! How interesting you two are 'double cousins' - I've never heard of that description... it almost makes you brother and sister :) Love that quote - sounds like truth to me!

martha miller said...

hi brenda

yes, we have the same two bloodlines, rather than the three that typical first cousins have...
it's perfectly legal!!!
:^)