Sunday 11th December - Praise Ye The Lord!

It's after three in the afternoon and I make no excuses for still being in my dressing gown.  I am having a slightly more relaxing day than of late and all I have had to do today is eat chocolate mini-rolls and construct a Christmas play costume for Lily.  She's a grandfather clock this year.  Thanks for that, school. She's only in two scenes and has one line - 'tick, tock' - but I've told her to steal it like Dame Judi in Shakespeare in Love. Anyway, to today's angelic offering...

Praise Ye The Lord! (no date) Hugues Merle

This rather sweet depiction of a couple of angels comes from French painter, Hugues Merle (1823-1881).  He was a contemporary of Bouguereau, whom his work resembles, although it seems Merle is more coy and sweet. One reason I don't do these blog posts as videos is that I tend to pronounce 'Bouguereau' as 'Boogaloo'.  Ever the professional.

The Embroidery Lesson (no date) Hugues Merle

The reason I came across Merle is that I wondered if there was any depictions of angels in one of my many Bibles and lo and behold, I found this...

Note the pressed leaf - this rather mammoth Children's Bible from 1907 made its way into my collection from the local Oxfam bookshop and very lovely it is too and packed with Victorian art.  The engraving of Merle's pastel original strengthens the image but you lose the delicacy of the robes in those sky colours.  It reminds me of the mauves and blues of twilight when the sky stains with amazing, impossible colours, as if to mock us for assuming it was only blue.  They remind me a little of Thomas Cooper Gotch's weird maidens...

La Reine Clothilde Thomas Cooper Gotch

I think it is the beautifully simple robes the girls wear, with the golden trim that calls Gotch to mind because it certainly isn't the style but then a fair few years seperate them.  It is almost unnecessary to give Merle's pair wings as they are as angelic as Victorian young ladies ought to be.  The title of the painting is not the one it seems to sport now, which is Two Angels in Adoration, but instead Praise Ye The Lord! which might have been bestowed upon it by the Bible publishers who have put it opposite that Psalm. It is an interesting image in one way, possibly inspirational or even aspirational to little girls reading their Bible.  We cannot see what the angels are adoring, they are just generally adoring stuff in an angelic manner and not being any trouble. For all young ladies reading this, what society would like you to do is to clasp your hands and lower your eyes, thinking adoring and heavenly thoughts (about God, not, I repeat not Tom Hiddleston).  By clasping your hands you are not getting up to anything unnatural, like reading, and by lowering your eyes you are being properly modest.  I'm not sure I have time for all that as I have mince pies to make, not to mention cards to write and presents to wrap.  It will have to go on my to-do list, but if you can start without me with the hand clasping and gaze lowering, please go ahead.

 

Just remember to clasp your own hand...