The Lovers’ Chronicle 23 February – the new – art by George Frederic Watts, Kazimir Malevich & Franz von Stuck

Dear Zazie, Here is today’s Lovers’ Chronicle from Mac Tag. Follow us on twitter @cowboycoleridge. What is new? Do you go down to the river? Rhett

The Lovers’ Chronicle

Dear Muse,

Neue dream…
Being whisked away in the dream carriage;
hey dream goddess, if you take requests i have one
The fabulous redhead asks, Where to my dear
lets see if She knows where i want to go
The carriage stops in front of a nondescript building
They enter through a door into an art studio
yes, She got it, that is Von Stuck
Is that The Sin he’s painting, asks the redhead
it is, i might git verklempt
Do you have sin, Von Stuck asks
dude, you do not have time,
but since we are in Munich
we do have time to go to Neue Pinakothek
and see the finished painting in person
After the museum they walk to their hotel
the historic Bayerischer Hof, once there,
they have a seat at Falk’s Bar in the hall of mirrors;
Another awesome choice by the dream goddess
yes, this hotel was bombed during world war ii
and this was the only room not destroyed
Now that our cocktails are here let’s have a toast
to sinners, survivors and new adventures
Cheers my love

© copyright 2024.2025 mac tag/cowboycoleridge all rights reserved

did i promise not
to go all abstract on you
“No need for that,
but not my favorite”
i could get there
with this one
“Let it flow”
i believe i was searchin’
for a feelin’, somethin’
rare, an inspiration
in movement and sound
pulled up, held close
in reverence
somethin’ i found in you

with you it was and is, experiences, places, conversations, thoughts, words, phrases, verse, inspiration, all comin’ together to create what can be, the stories of survivin’, of makin’ it through to here, of findin’ purpose, most importantly of us, to offer somethin’ new

reflections on havin’

once ago moments,
mergin’ with new ones,
into somethin’ so right

to know what it is
muse
companion
to be well loved
to be half of a whole

solace, for now
in verse, in songs,
and sketches
of memories

holdin’ us together
till i get back to you

Pale Love, Pale Rider

kinda weird topic you picked today
made sense at the time
another for the one that never was
how much of that was you
oh, all of it, i will own it
does writin’ about havin’ it help
yes, and it provides material
that is what matters
tellin’ the tales
anything new
stay tuned

cold starlit night
plains covered
in snow and ice
reflections on want

moments, brief
held and let go

what is it
muse
companion
to be well loved
and not scarred
and scared

solace, for now
in verse, in songs,
and sketches
of memories

just to get to you

there is movement of tension
and also movement
which eyes cannot catch

though it can be felt
drawin’ closer
to the artistry,
the form
to give expression
an irresistible urge
only in the habit
of consciousness
to see in images,
in compositions,
bits of self

i have not invented
anything
only the night
have i sensed
and in it
the new
which i call
you

no time to write
makes mac tag a dull boy

***

Not harborin’
Any expectations, yet
Words cease to be distinct,
And only your voice
I hear wanderin’ among
The windin’s of the stream

another one down by the river
you know how i like to go

full moon reflectin’ on ripplin’ water
walkin’ carefully over to a rock
raised skirt, sittin’ down
feet soakin’ in the cool water

“This feels so good. Won’t you join me?”
i proceed to remove boots and socks
“Do you really find women so puzzling?”

i believe i have just had bad luck
“What was it you wanted from women?”
well, more than the bright, brief moments,
much as i love ’em, i think i am lookin’
for a muse, a partner, a companion
i would like to know once in my life
what it is to be well loved, and to love well
“I see you’re quite the romantic cowboy.”
absolutely, but i am talkin’ about
somethin’ beyond romance, somethin’ deeper
where there is no he or she, or you or me
ain’t no yours nor mine, just two bein’ one

“Sounds nice. So you believe it can happen?”
i believe it does for the lucky few
it happened to my Uncle Ben and Aunt Nancy
“But not to most folks? The unlucky ones.”
no, that is why there are too many scarred
and scared people runnin’ around today
“And you? You don’t seem all scarred and scared.”
oh, I can get spooked, but do not tell anyone
“Really? When?”

pausin’ to gather words…
oh ever once in a while, when it is dark
early of a mornin’ or late at night,
when there ain’t no foolin’ myself about
what i have done and what i have not done
“What do you do? How do you cope?”
i seek solace in the skies; a sunrise,
the moon and stars, they bring comfort
and i read, i have read a lot of books
“So, have you given up on us women?”
pert near, i figure i got about as much
chance of findin’ love as becomin’ Pope
Laughin’, “You don’t seem like the Pope type.”

(smilin’), you have a great laugh, shall we go
standin’ there silent, reachin’ for your face
lightly tracin’ your hairline all the way
from your forehead down to your ear
holdin’ your head in my hands, drawin’ you
to me, kissin’ your forehead, whisperin’,
you are a rare woman
holdin’ on, you rest your head on my chest
you take off my hat, untie my kerchief,
open my shirt and unbutton your dress
our clothes fall around our feet
i lay on the meadow grass and shiver
and when i feel your body next to mine,
i shiver again and pull you close
you roll on top of me, archin’ your back
i cannot see your face but i can see
Orion in the night sky behind you
framin’ your head in a celestial crown
you kiss me,
hold your lips to my ear and sooth me
we move in rhythm, givin’ in
givin’ ourselves to the pleasure
we are makin’ without reservation
and i let myself go, finally
let down all the walls and barriers
i have spent a lifetime buildin’
and i hold on to you
as i have never held on to anyone
or anything in this life
and tears and all flow together,
down by the river

Today is the birthday of George Frederic Watts (Marylebone, West End London 23 February 1817 – 1 July 1904 London); painter and sculptor associated with the Symbolist movement. He said “I paint ideas, not things.” Watts became famous in his lifetime for his allegorical works, such as Hope and Love and Life. These paintings were intended to form part of an epic symbolic cycle called the “House of Life”, in which the emotions and aspirations of life would all be represented in a universal symbolic language.

In London, during the run of playwright Tom Taylor’s hit comedy Our American Cousin at the Haymarket Theatre, Watts painted portraits of actress Ellen Terry and her sister Kate. His portraits of Terry include Choosing, in which she must select between earthly vanities, symbolised by showy but scentless camellias, and nobler values symbolised by humble-looking but fragrant violets. His other portraits of her include Ophelia and Watchman, and, with Kate, The Sisters. He proposed marriage to Terry in spite of his being three decades her senior. She was impressed with Watts’s art and elegant lifestyle, and she wished to please her parents by making an advantageous marriage.

Terry and Watts married on 20 February 1864 at St Barnabas, Kensington, seven days before her 17th birthday, when Watts was 46. She was uncomfortable in the role of child bride, and Watts’s circle of admirers, including the salon organiser Sara Monckton Prinsep, were not welcoming. Terry and Watts separated after only ten months.

In 1886, at the age of 69, Watts remarried, to Mary Fraser Tytler, a Scottish designer and potter, then aged 36. In 1891 he bought land near Compton, south of Guildford, in Surrey. The couple named the house “Limnerslease” (combining the words “limner” or artist with “leasen” or glean) and built the Watts Gallery nearby, a museum dedicated to his work – the first (and now the only) purpose-built gallery in Britain devoted to a single artist – which opened in April 1904, shortly before his death, and received a major expansion between 2006 and 2011.

Gallery

“Portrait Of Mrs Fitzmaurice”

hope 1886

Choosing (Ellen Terry), ca. 1864

love and life

Mary Fraser Tytler

miss may prinsep

Paolo and Francesca

The Judgement of Paris

Today is the birthday of Kazimir Malevich (Kazimir Severinovich Malevich; Kiev Governorate of Russian Empire, now Ukraine; February 23, 1878 – May 15, 1935 Leningrad); painter and art theoretician. He was a pioneer of geometric abstract art and the originator of the avant-garde Suprematist movement. He was a devout Christian mystic who believed the central task of an artist was that of rendering spiritual feeling.

Malevich’s family was one of the millions of Poles who lived within the Russian Empire following the Partitions of Poland.

Gallery

bathers 1908

“Two ladies on a walk”

Girl with a Comb in her Hair, 1933, oil on canvas, Tretyakov Gallery

Flowergirl 1903

Flowergirl II (End of 1920s)

Party

Composition with the Mona Lisa, 1914

Taking in the Rye, 1911

Head of a Peasant Girl, 1912-1913

Red Cavalry, 1928-1932

And today is the birthday of Franz von Stuck (Franz Ritter von Stuck; Tettenweis, Kingdom of Bavaria; February 23, 1863 – August 30, 1928 Munich); painter, sculptor, printmaker, and architect. Stuck was best known for his paintings of ancient mythology, receiving substantial critical acclaim with The Sin in 1892. In 1906, Stuck was awarded the Order of Merit of the Bavarian Crown and was henceforth known as Ritter von Stuck.

self portrait

In 1897 Stuck married an American widow, Mary Lindpainter, and began work designing his own residence and studio, the Villa Stuck. His designs for the villa included everything from layout to interior decorations; for his furniture Stuck received another gold medal at the 1900 Paris World Exposition.

His funeral address memorialized him as “the last prince of art of Munich’s great days”. He is buried in the Munich Waldfriedhof next to Mary.

Gallery