Art of the Dish Washer

If you cook something you usually have to clean something. 

Pots, pans, baking sheets, broilers, bowls, spoons, knives and in my kitchen it can be a seemingly endless parade of all of the above. 

Then add in the plates and glasses and serving platters.  Cleaning it all can take longer than making it all.

Some goes in the dishwasher and some (my grandmother’s crystal goblets) I wash by hand. I have been washing dishes since I was 7. My mother washed dishes until I turned 7. 

My children may have washed dishes once or twice. I used to sing as I washed. I made up songs like only a creative 7-year-old can. Songs about what we had for dinner, what I wanted to be, farm animals and my mother.

Dish washing must not be very glamorous to paint because finding works with women or men washing the dishes was hard to find. Lots of dishes and many paintings of dirty dishes with bits of food on them that needed washing. 

This week enjoy the Art of the Dish Washer. 

Sewing Up Art

Needles were once made of bone, 

                                                        Bone needles Museum Dorestad

antler or ivory and thread was made of sinew, and veins.  And the LORD God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife, Genesis 3:21.

                           The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise. Painting by Benjamin West, 1791

He must have used something for needle and thread and so they learned to sew.

The art of sewing, attaching objects using stitches made with a needle and thread. It is the oldest textile art.

                        The first functional sewing machine was invented by Barthelemy Thimonnier, in 1830

Sewing machines were not invented until the 19^th century so all sewing was done by hand. Every lace trimmed, jewel encrusted, smocked and pleated dress in the court of Marie Antoinette 

                                     Marie Antoinette, Versailles, France by Heinrich Lossow

was sewn by hand. Every tunic, codpiece and breeches worn by Henry VIII 

                                                       Hans Holbein, Portrait of Henry VIII 

was sewn by hand.

Every quilt my granny made, every button my mom sewed was done by hand.

This week enjoy Sewing Up Art.

Ironing Out Art

This week we will explore women ironing.

                                                     1882 Edgar Degas - Woman Ironing

Ironing is the use of a heated tool to remove wrinkles form fabric. The flat piece of metal on the bottom of the iron is called the sole. Basically heat relaxes the fiber while the weight of the iron presses the fiber flat and it stays flat as it cools. Some fibers such as cotton requires moisture to get the fiber to relax.

Irons which were flat pans filled with hot coals have been used in China for centuries. In the 17^th century thick slabs of iron, which were delta shaped, were heated in fires and applied to fabric. They were called sadirons. 

                                       Sad Iron By J W Lufkin of Boston Massachusetts Mass

Later iron delta shaped boxes were filled with hot coals which were re-heated with a small bellows.

In the late 19^th century you could find irons heated by whale oil, kerosene, and natural gas.

Gochsheim Castle 

                                                                  Gochsheim Castle

in Germany which not only houses over 100 works of art by local artist Karl Hubbuch 

                                                         Karl Hubbuch

but also a museum with a collection of over 1300 historical irons on display.

This week enjoy Ironing Out Art. 

Art of Illustrator Frances Brundage

Born in 1854 in Newark, New Jersey to Rembrandt Lockwood and Sarah Ursula Despeaux,  Frances Isabelle Lockwood 

became an illustrator of postcards. She was best known for the cherub faces of children who appeared on postcards for Christmas, 

Easter, Valentine's Day and any occasion you can think up. 

Frances created beautiful women, stunning fashion, whimsical children, fluffy puppies and kittens for calendars, fans 

               4-Part Fan by Frances Brundage Published by Raphael Tuck and Sons, Ltd marked
and paper dolls. 

                          PAPER DOLLS to Cut Out & Paint - Frances Brundage - Saafield 1920s

She also illustrated several books, Arabian Nights, Robin Hood and stories of King Arthur to name a few. She illustrated the novels of  Robert Louis Stevenson and Louisa May Alcott. 

Francis was trained by her father Rembrandt Lockwood who painted church murals, miniatures,  portraits, and was a very skilled wood engraver. At 17 she had to work to support her family when Rembrandt, her father left their home. 

Her first sale as a professional was a sketch she made after reading a poem by Louisa May Alcott to author Louisa May Alcott.

She married artist William Tyson Brundage in 1884 whom she often worked with on projects. 

              Will and Frances Brundage/Blue Lantern Studio — Corbis From "The Arabian Nights," circa 1893

Francis would sign her work with her full signature, on occasion with just an initial and sometimes not at all. 

This week enjoy the art of Frances Brundage. 

Art of Xavier Sager

Another of the Christmas Card artists is Xavier Sager. 

Not much is known about his life. 

He lived in Paris in the early 1900's and much of his work reflects the joy, decadence and free spirit that defined the 
time. 

Many of the postcards he illustrated were whimsically risque.

                                              On The Beach Postcard - 1919 - by Xavier Sager 

It has been estimated that he illustrated over 3,000 postcards.

This week enjoy the Art of Xavier Sager. 

Art of Samuel Loren Schmucker

Another one of the Christmas Card Artists I highlighted after Christmas was Samuel Loren Schmucker.

For almost 10 years Samuel created postcards for the John Winsch Company and the Detroit Publishing Company, two of the largest postcard Publishers in America.  When the postcard craze slowed down he went on to paint designs for candy boxes and candy wrappers. He also did pen and ink sketches for the Philadelphia Daily Press fashion plates.

Samuel studied drawing and painting the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and at the Howard Pyle Institute at Drexel where he met fellow classmate Maxfield Parrish. 

His wife Katherine was the model for most of his postcard work. 

But what is most amazing is that Samuel contracted Polio as a small child and it left his right arm and hand partially paralyzed. He learned to grip a brush and use his shoulder and back to move his hand around to paint and draw.

This week enjoy the art of Samuel Loren Schmucker. 

Maude Humprey Bogart

On March 30, 1868 in Rochester, New York a baby girl was born. Her mother, Frances Churchill Humphrey and her father John Perkins Humphrey named her Maude.

She studied art at the Art Students League of New York when she was 18 and then in Paris at the Julian Academy.

She entered a competition sponsored by Louis Prang and Company to design a Christmas Card. She won and soon began working for the Publisher F.A. Stokes as an illustrator. Not only did she illustrate cards but calendars,

 post cards, fashion magazines,

                 Cover of Delineator magazine, April 1917. Color illustration by Maud Humphrey

and story books 

but she would paint portraits of children.

In 1898 Maude married Belmont Deforest Bogart and shortly after that Humphrey Deforest Bogart was born. 

                                    Maud and Humphrey

Better known as Humphrey Bogart. 

                                      Humphrey age 2

                                    

Maude signed her art Maude Humphrey and sometimes just M. H.   

This week, enjoy the art of Maude Humphrey Bogart.