This -- which is Rembrandt Peale's "Rubens Peale with a Geranium" (1801), from National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC -- was supposed to be my Show and Tell a houseplant last week, since I had been so busy watering my family during the brief but blistering heatwave a few weeks ago that I forgot to water my houseplants, and they are both looking more than a little peaky at the moment. The Peale boys' father hoped that they would all be great artists, hence the names like Rembrandt, Raphael, Titian, and Rubens -- from what I've seen of dad, I suspect they hardly dared not to. I like Rubens -- he has a sweet Hugh-Grant-ish look to him, and I warm to the fact that he needs two pairs of glasses.
But hats, something we wear in the summer, that's what we're supposed to be doing -- I have a rather disreputable straw thing which I wear in the garden when necessary, but to be honest, I rarely go out in the sun. I can't find my hat at the moment -- hence the photo for last week's -- a few days ago it was being used as a kind of boat/hot-air balloon basket to carry Little People from one side of the living room to another, and I haven't seen it since....
Oh yes, I agree about the Hugh Grant sweetness. What a lovely idea for a houseplant.
Posted by: Sarah Louise | June 15, 2006 at 01:45 PM
Oh, and I love the P.L. Traver's quote. She is one of my favorites!!
Posted by: Sarah Louise | June 15, 2006 at 01:46 PM
I didn't have a hat to show either, so I bailed out of S&T again. What is the deal with the two glasses? Obsessed with losing a pair, maybe?
Posted by: Elizabeth | June 15, 2006 at 01:48 PM
ah, well, we'll let you slide on the hat -
that's a beautiful painting...
Posted by: blackbird | June 15, 2006 at 02:00 PM
Elizabeth, I'm guessing that the smaller pair is for everyday (he was still wearing them in another portrait some ten or fifteen years later), and the bigger pair are for extra magnification, like changing one's reading glasses.
Posted by: Jeanne | June 15, 2006 at 03:53 PM