TwoForTuesday :

Wilhelm Hunt Diederich (USA, born Hungary, 1884-1953) Fire Screen, Made in NY 1920-30 Wrought and sheet iron On display at Philadelphia Museum of Art 2007-62-1

#FishFriday :

Ernest Chaplet (France, 1835-1909) Entwined Fish and Eel, 1888-1909 Porcelain with sang de boeuf glaze Now on display at Philadelphia Museum of Art “Firing the Imagination: Japanese Intluence on French Ceramics, 1860-1910”

Rabbit-Shaped Lime Paste Pot

Cambodia or NE Thailand, Angkor period, 12th-13th c.

Stoneware,4 5/8 x 5 7/8 x 4 1/4 in (11.7 x 14.9 x 10.8 cm)

Philadelphia Museum of Art 1970-11-1

#Baturday :

Edmond Lachenal (France, 1855-1930)

Vases in the Form of Lanterns, c.1885

Glazed earthenware, Hand painted earthenware

Now on display at Philadelphia Museum of Art “Firing the Imagination: Japanese Intluence on French Ceramics, 1860-1910”

“In 1870, at age 15, Edmond Lachenal apprenticed himself to the renowned ceramist Théodore Deck. At the Deck studio in Paris, Lachenal learned both production techniques and the non-Western styles and ornamental traditions which Deck was beginning to incorporate in his work. Lachenal brought these approaches with him when he established his own workshop in 1883. There he produced small and large Japanese-inspired plaques, vases, and sculptural objects.

Shaped like Japanese paper lantern[s], th[ese] vase[s] [are] decorated with two sculptural brown bats. Lachenal may have been influenced by the work of the Japanese potter Miyagawa Kōzan (1842–1916), whose prize-winning ceramics were displayed at the Paris Universal Expositions of 1878 and 1889. Kōzan was celebrated for his decorative technique taka-ukibori (sculptural relief), in which he decorated the surfaces of his wares with realistic three-dimensional high reliefs and sculptures, such as a crab climbing on the edge of a bowl.”

Happy #Humpday!

Tomb Figure of a Bactrian Camel

China, Tang Dynasty, 800-850

Earthenware with 3-color (sancai) glaze & traces of painted decoration

On display at Philadelphia Museum of Art 1964-9-1

#ThreeForThursday:

Votive Horses and Riders (three), 1966

Bhil tribe, India (Poshina, Sabarkantha district, Gujarat)

Terracotta

Philadelphia Museum of Art display

“Images of horses, usually with riders, are offered to local agricultural deities across India to protect villages and fields, as they have been for millennia. Large clay examples like those on view here are often placed in sacred groves of trees, especially by tribal (Indigenous) communities who have a special relationship with the forest and nature. Hundreds of such horses can collect in a grove, each eventually dissolving back into the earth from which it was made.”

#MonochromeMonday :

Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps (French, 1803-60)

The Rat Who Withdrew from the World, c.1847

Charcoal w/ stumping & white opaque watercolor on wove paper

on view at Philadelphia Museum of Art

“This drawing illustrates a fable about a rat who chooses to retire from the troubles of the world, taking up residence in a ball of cheese. Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps draws the moment in the tale when deputies of ‘Ratopolis’ visit the recluse in hopes of receiving his assistance in their ‘warfare against the cat.’

Decamps's choice of subject may have been prompted by his own growing sense of disillusionment with the French art establishment. His potential sympathy with a reclusive rodent offers an alternative, if surprising avatar for a French artist of the 1800s.”

For #FishFriday:

The Goddess Ganga

c. 1650-75

India (Mandi, Himachal Pradesh)

opaque watercolor, gold, & silver on paper

on display at Philadelphia Museum of Art

“The Hindu goddess Ganga personifies India's most important river, the holy Ganges, that begins high in the Himalayan mountains and flows south into the Bay of Bengal. Here she holds a vessel brimming with Ganges water while sitting atop an enormous fish — the humpback mahseer, a species of carp native to the Ganges.

Ganga also holds a lotus flower, a symbol of purity and abundance. Mythical creatures peek from the waves and waterbirds soar across dark monsoon clouds.”

For #FishFriday:

Paul Klee (Swiss, 1879-1940)

Fish Magic, 1925

oil & watercolor on canvas, mounted on panel

on display at Philadelphia Museum of Art

“In Fish Magic, Paul Klee creates a magical realm where the aquatic, the celestial, and the earthly intermingle. A delicate black surface covers an underlayer of colors, which the artist revealed by scratching and scrawling designs in the black paint.”

#TwoForTuesday + #TurtleTuesday:

A Pair of Vases: #Turtles with Jack-in-the-Pulpit*, c. 1879

Designer: Karl H. L. Müller (1820-1887)

Manufacturer: Union Porcelain Works, NYC

Porcelain, under- and overglaze decoration

Baltimore Museum of Art 1997.I27.I, 1997.I27.2

*likely misidentified; appears to be a pitcher plant, and a similar vase by the same company at another museum identifies it as such - see photo & notes below

Update #1: there is a single one of these vases on display at the Met too:

Update #2: this version at the Philadelphia Museum of Art ID’s it as a pitcher plant, as has a frog instead of a turtle:

For #BlackCatAppreciationDay 🐈‍⬛:

"Ce Soir-Chat Noir (Tonight at the Black Cat)" Poster, 1896

Designed by Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen (Swiss, 1859-1923) for Rodolphe Salis's Paris cabaret

Lithograph in red & black ink on wove paper, 24 1/4 × 15 5/8 in (61.6x39.7cm)

Philadelphia Museum of Art display

#WorldOceansDay fashion: check out this FANtasic dress! 😍

“Sea Fan Fantasy" Evening Dress, 1947 Designed by Tina Leser (American, 1910–1986) Hand-painted & spray-painted cellulose acetate plain weave, metallic sequins Philadelphia Museum of Art

Covering #WorldTurtleDay on a #TurtleTuesday + #TwoForTuesday (+ #TextileTuesday!) with a pair of twin turtle molas!

1. Mola: "Two Turtles" mid- 20th century artist/maker unknown, Guna people made in Island of Carti Yantupo, Kuna Yala (San Blas Islands), Panama cotton plain weave with cotton plain weave reverse appliqué 15 x 19 1/4 inches (38.1 x 48.9 cm) Philadelphia Museum of Art

2. Mola: "Two Turtles" mid- 20th century artist/maker unknown, Guna people made in Island of Carti Yantupo, Kuna Yala (San Blas Islands), Panama cotton plain weave with cotton plain weave reverse appliqué 14 1/4 x 20 1/4 inches (36.2 x 51.4 cm) Philadelphia Museum of Art

For #WorldTurtleDay on a #TurtleTuesday + #TwoForTuesday: what does this unusual 18th c. English portrait have in common with this early 20th c. Ottoman one from Pera Müzesi? More than you may think! 😉Find out more on the blog:

ANIMAL ART OF THE DAY for World Turtle Day: an unusual tortoise portrait from 18th Century England, and its connection to Ottoman Turkey https://arthistoryanimalia.com/2023/05/23/animal-art-of-the-day-for-world-turtle-day-an-unusual-tortoise-portrait-from-18th-century-england-and-its-connection-to-ottoman-turkey/

Still Life With a Tortoise, 1743 possibly by Thomas Black (English, 1715-1777) oil on canvas, 74.9 x 96.5 cm Philadelphia Museum of Art

The Tortoise Trainer, 1906 version by Osman Hamdi Bey (Ottoman, 1842-1910) oil on canvas, 221.5 x 120 cm Pera Müzesi

For #TilesOnTuesday:

“Dolphin” and “Whale” Dutch tile panels, c. 1600-1625, tin-glazed earthenware with polychrome decoration, made in Rotterdam. On display at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Flying into #Superb_Owl Sunday like Lakshmi on her owl!

The Goddess Lakshmi on Her Owl Vehicle (Vahana) West Bengal, India, 20th century Metal alloy resin-thread technique, a regional variation of lost-wax casting (dhokra) 6 7/8 × 3 3/4 × 3 5/8 inches (17.5 × 9.5 × 9.2 cm) Philadelphia Museum of Art

Covering #TwoForTuesday + #TextileTuesday + #TurtleTuesday with a pair of twin turtle molas! Hand-woven textiles of the Guna people (Panama), mid-20th century.

Title: Mola: "Two Turtles" (x2) Date: Mid- 20th century Artist: Artist/maker unknown, Guna people Geography: Made in Island of Carti Yantupo, Kuna Yala (San Blas Islands), Panama Medium: Cotton plain weave with cotton plain weave reverse appliqué Dimensions: #1 15 x 19 1/4 inches (38.1 x 48.9 cm); #2 14 1/4 x 20 1/4 inches (36.2 x 51.4 cm) Phiadelphia Museum of Art 1971-123-14 + 1971-123-11