The Fisherman’s Widow by Hendricus Jacobus Burgers (J.H. Burgers), as published in The Illustrated London News on 5 December 1868. When I first came across the story of that engraving – The Fisherman’s Widow – hanging in Mary Jane Kelly’s poky little room at 13 Miller’s Court, it hit me like a punch to the … Continue reading Watching the Empty Horizon: The Fisherman’s Widow, Mary Kelly, and Life’s Unforgiving Sea
Tag: art
The Swept Place: Why Some Churches Feel Wrong
There’s a peculiar kind of illness that has nothing to do with the body. It creeps in behind the eyes and presses down behind the ribs. It isn’t caused by lack of fresh air or poor hydration or an overlong breakfast. It’s spiritual, or at least — if that’s too much for polite company — … Continue reading The Swept Place: Why Some Churches Feel Wrong
The Smiling Corroder
Illustration inspired by Goethe’s Faust I’ve always preferred my devils civilised. Not the horned livestock of Sunday-school murals, nor the pantomime villain with a pitchfork and a contract written in sulphur. Those devils are easy to spot, which is why they’re mostly harmless. The devil that troubles me — the one who lingers — is … Continue reading The Smiling Corroder
John Martin’s Pandemonium: A Sermon of Fire and Futility
John Martin (1789–1854), Pandemonium, 1841.Oil on canvas. Tate Britain, London. Public domain. There are certain paintings before which I feel less a viewer and more a trespasser — a mortal who has wandered into a divine quarrel. John Martin’s Pandemonium (1841) is one such work. One scarcely enters it so much as one plummets into … Continue reading John Martin’s Pandemonium: A Sermon of Fire and Futility
The Laughing Maw: A Fool, His Blind Eye, and the Human Condition
Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen (attributed), The Laughing Fool, c.1500–1510. Oil on panel. Rijksmuseum Twenthe, Enschede. In art some faces smile, and some rupture. Faces that split open into something older than laughter and far more dangerous. The Laughing Fool belongs among these ruptures. He greets the viewer not with the civility of portraiture but with … Continue reading The Laughing Maw: A Fool, His Blind Eye, and the Human Condition
Wording 