Isaac Israëls (Dutch, 1865-1934), The parrotman: the guard Ponsen in the Zoo, The Hague, c.1917. Oil on canvas, 125 x 76 cm.

“I can only connect deeply or not at all.”

— Anaïs Nin

Sketches of Schumman’s Kinderszenen Op. 15 , No. 9, Ritter vom Steckenpferd (Knight of the Hobbyhorse), dated 1837.

Henri Delavallée (French, 1862-1943), Homme assis de dos [Seated man from behind], c.1886. Oil on canvas mounted on panel, 30.5 x 26.5 cm.

Bonnard painting on his studio, 1946.

Paris Opera Ballet artists in rehearsal

Photo © Pierre-Elie de Pibrac

Stephen Seymour Thomas (1868-1956), The Violin Student, Paris – 1891

Suzanne Valadon (French, 1865 – 1938): Still life with basket of apples, vase of flowers, and grapes (1928)

Handwritten last stanza of The Raven, a poem by Edgar Allan Poe.

Peter Frie (Swedish, b. 1947), Sky 13.09, 2003. Oil on canvas, 190 x 150 cm.

Paris Opera Ballet artists in rehearsal

Photo © Pierre-Elie de Pibrac

“True singing is a different breath, about
nothing. A gust inside the god. A wind.”

Rainer Maria Rilke, from “Sonnet I.III,” in Duino Elegies: The Sonnets To Orpheus, trans. Stephen Mitchell (Vintage, 2009)

Elizabeth Peyton (American, b. 1965), Earl of Essex, 1995.

Oil on Masonite, 30.5 x 22.9 cm.

Rachmaninov and conductor Eugene Ormandy during a rehearsal

at the Academy of Music in 1938, courtesy of the Listeners’ Club

Paris Opera Ballet artists in rehearsal

BBC Sherlock. Martin Freeman. Benedict Cumberbatch.

Guy Maestri (Australian, b. 1974), Last Light over Ball’s Pyramid. Oil on linen, 183 x 152 cm.

Art Comes First

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