Tuesday 8th December - The Kiss

 It's been a devil of a day, dealing with all sorts of nonsense and keeping my swearing in check, not to mention venturing into town for some shopping, which is never a wise idea.  I think I had better hibernate from now on because outdoors is very definitely overrated.  In the meantime, bring on the snogging...

The Kiss (c.1870) Auguste Toulmouche

A couple in fancy dress are kissing over a table containing fruit and wine.  I guess they are at a party and no doubt overcome with both romance and someone else's booze.  It strikes me that the lady is showing scandalous amounts of calf and ankle for 1870, and both of them are wearing the most darling shoes imaginable.  If anything, his shoes are even more precious than hers.

Do I detect a curl of a moustache? Despite dressing in his Pierrot outfit, or maybe because of it, our chap is obviously a hit with the ladies.  Maybe his lady-love grew up with the same trends as I did...

Blimey, the 1980s was all sad Pierrots and air-brushing

Now, we all know there ain't no party like a Pierrot party, which gets far more rambunctious than chaste kissing over a fruit bowl.  Behold the horror...

I love the vague concern on the faces of the women behind. I'm not sure how on earth they will explain that one at A&E...

  "How did your Soiree go, Beryl?" 

"Oh, not bad, but then Bob decided it would be fun to jump straight through Mr Fortescue..." 

"Well, that's Bob all over, isn't it?"

Also, if you want to know who the most fun party Pierrot is, then look no further than Sarah Bernhardt...

Sarah Bernhardt in Jean Richepin's Pierrot the Murderer (1883) Atelier Nadar

Good heavens, none of us are leaving that party sober or in possession of our bloomers, but I digress... 

Le Retour (1883) Auguste Toulmouche

Auguste Toulmouche (1829-1890) was a French painter known for his beautiful interiors and even more beautiful women.  Emile Zola referred to his figures as the 'delicious dolls of Toulmouche' and indeed, his ladies as luxuriously dressed in satins and corsages, and have many plump cushions on which to sit and read their copious love letters. Toulmouche fought in the Franco-Prussian war, defending Paris from invasion, and after the war he and his wife spent more and more time in the Abbey of Blanche Couronne, part of his wife's family's large estates.  Towards the end of his life, in the face of Impressionism, Toulmouche fell out of fashion, but it is impossible not to love his visions of beauty in their comfortable surroundings.  I would love to know more about the party our Pierrot and his love are attending.  Do they actually know each other or have they just gotten carried away, with his lacy trousers and her star-glimmering skirt? Ah, the romance of it all!

We shall meet Mr Toulmouche again in Snogvent and  I shall see you tomorrow...