The Errant Æsthete
Essentials for the Cocktail Swilling Savant
Good
and
quickly
seldom
meet
~Anonymous
Notable Aesthete
Deborah Turbeville
R. Kenton Nelson
Georgia O'Keefe
Frantisek Drtikol
Art Deco
Modernisme Majestueux
L'esprit de l'escalier
L’esprit de l’escalier or esprit d’escalier (stairway wit) is the sense of thinking of a clever comeback in an encounter when it is too late.
The phrase can be used to describe a riposte to an insult, or any witty, clever remark that comes to mind too late to be useful— when one is on the “staircase” leaving the scene of the encounter.
The phenomenon is usually accompanied by a feeling of regret at having not thought of the riposte when it was most needed or suitable.
Featured: Stairway at the Louvre, Paris, 2007
Sarah Moon
Paris Style
Le Couturier des Coutouriers
Il Portiere Di Notte
Un Coeur Tres Nature
Summer of Our Discontent
Robert Motherwell
Sunburn Series
Jeff Zaruba
Berenice Abbott
Hiroshi Sugimoto
Michael Levin
Things Past
Noticed
Acquired Tastes
Le Royal Dressmaker
“A man
should look
as if he bought
his clothes
with intelligence,
put them on
with care,
then
forgot
about them.”
-Hardy Amies
Anatomie de l'elégance
Grey Gardens
Dovima the Divine
In Praise of Silence
Our Lady of the Ladle
“Life itself is the proper binge.”
~Julia Child
A Life of Hats
Pantheon of Aesthetes
Sir or Madam?
Joyce Tenneson
Asaf Ben Zvi
Eugene Gabritschevsky
Larry Abramson
Will Cotton
Dietmar Busse
Maligned
Eric Baker on Design
As I bounce around online looking for images I always look for the extraordinary, the esoteric, the naive, and the emblematic of a time; works that are not the pieces we often see in design history books.
Just as a map helps us find our way and shows us where we are, looking at design from years past helps us better understand the trajectory contemporary design has taken. DesignObserver.
The Thoughtful Traveler
Poires de Vacances
Fawning for Fame
Inhabit
Peter Lippmann
Past Imperfect
Swoon Worthy
Irving Penn
The Epitome of Grace
Mad About Hats
The novelist Alison Lurie wrote: “Whatever is worn on the head is a sign of the mind beneath it.”
Stephen Jones, the greatest milliner of his generation, disagrees.
“Whatever is worn on the head is a sign of what a person would like to be."
Cecil Beaton
Cocktail Hour
A Bow Unbent
Solitary Walking
Annechovie
Patricia Gray
Post Wisdom
Reflections
“The golden moments
in the stream of life
rush past us
and we see nothing
but sand.
The angels
come to visit us,
and we only know them
when they are gone.”
-George Elliot
Fifi Flowers Design
Edouard Chimot
Anne Rothenstein
Edith Wharton's Gilded Age
Famed Fury - Leonore Fini
J. David McKenney
Destinations
Mats Gustafson
La Boheme: Loulou
Suzanne Katzenberg
Meisel's Models
The New Dutch Masters
William Wegman
ÉSOTÉRIQUE
Color
Maira Kalman
Sound Files
Hugo Guinness
Les Indiennes
Tim Walker
Lost Archives
John Keats
Faraway Places
NOIR ET BLANC
Bert Stern
George Hoyningen-Huene
Luc Dratwa
Richard Avedon
Peter Lindbergh
Lillian Bassman
Mary Ellen Mark
Edward Steichen
Eudora Welty
Michael Magill
Michael Kenna
Unexplained Absences
L'Incident de Chanel
“I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fake Chanel”
Following her counterfeit faux pas, the culture’s rebellious “bad girl” Courtney Love has been granted a reprieve by Karl Lagerfeld’s court. Fortunately, the iconic rock star is now decidedly back in fashion.
EX LIBRIS
The Age of Innocence
In this classic novel of old New York, Edith Wharton recreates the city of her girlhood in the 1870s. The Arion edition has been illustrated with photographs of the actual settings of the story.
“Truly a thing of beauty” according to Forbes magazine, this edition celebrates a classic of American literature. The book has a special status as an affectionate record of the streets and buildings of New York City. At every moment of the novel the reader knows where the characters are, walking down a particular street, standing in front of a certain address, looking out the window of a familiar room.
The Arion Press edition is illustrated with images of the novel's actual setting, as they are today, captured by noted photographer Stephen Shore who brought to this project a personal knowledge of the historic buildings and streets that made up Wharton's New York world.
New York Times art critic Michael Kimmelman raved: "The work’s laconic eloquence speaks of an era and a nation."
The Kindle
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon's sickly serene Self Portrait 1971 is a refracted faceted face akin to some of Paul Cézanne's self-portraits which are reminiscent of cut precious gem stones reflecting light. Bacon painted with a very dry brush giving the sensation of a granular, grainy effect.
The melancholia mood is of a man melting before you: a disturbing image of a disturbed man in a disturbed century. This is one of the last great self-portraits Bacon painted before he went off the rails and went back into to the lazy worn grooves of inane illustration.
Wallace Berman
Blogroll
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- JCB
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- Nearness of Distance
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- Smithsonian
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- Style
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- the style saloniste
- Tomorrow Museum
- Utah Mixologist
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The Errant Aesthete©
July, 2007 - January, 2012
The Errant Aesthete©
All Rights Reserved
If you would like to reprint an article or repurpose a photo, please email for permission.
EMAIL: worddrawing@gmail.com
Errant Aesthete – I am at a crossroads.
While these are magnificent settings in the historic context of design, do they continue to move me?
Increasingly, I am asking myself tough questions that ultimately define whether an object has aesthetic value, emphasis on value.
I viewed the French documentary film ‘Home’ recently and it moved me greatly. (You can view it for free on YouTube, or pick up the dvd – 1 hour 30 minutes.)
I invite you to see through the lens of ‘Home’, and perhaps revisit my thoughts on this post.
Vineca,
I understand the dilemma of design and aesthetic value and have long honored what personally “moves” me. I will relish, I feel sure, the documentary on “Home” as I’ve always thought that place to be a very personal one connoting self as much as decor. (NOTE: I thought this to be a topic of home as sanctuary, but having looked into the documentary by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, it is of home as earth, which suggests a whole other philosophical and moral discussion that we might continue after I’ve viewed the video). But getting back to the post:
These images portraying exquisite beauty in furnishings and design are but a part of the whole. Personally speaking, what’s masterful for me is the breathtaking presentation styling and artistry of photographer Nicolas Matheus. If you’re not familiar with his work, he’s a Parisian photographer who is featured quite often in Cote Sud. I admit to a bias to that publication and its choices, but like Tim Walker, who does for fashion what Matheus does for spaces, both seem to have perfected and refined a reverence and aesthetic in the staging of their images that simply inspire awe.
While my eye notes the details, it’s my imagination that is seduced, transforming spaces into magical settings bathed in texture and light that invite you to simply step in to the frame, leaving you perfectly content to have had the privilege of having dined there, slept there, been there.
wow, this is incredibly beautiful photography….
This is indeed a discussion for another time, so just a few final comments -
I want to be transformed by photographs. And it seems that I am no longer in complete awe of ordered and ideal beauty. Could it be that I am increasingly informed about the ‘world around me’?
The industrial revolution and all that it embraced, gave birth to Dadaism and an ironic visual language that truly challenged the familiar aesthetic….the same era that gave rise to many of the visionaries we view on this blog.
Please do see ‘Home’. To reassure, it is not Al Gore talking about melting glaciers and polar bears…nor Woody Harrelson advocating raw food). Lovely Glenn Close narrates this film and it is all the better.
It is ‘Home’.