Culture

. Henri Matisse, Zorah: La Robe Jaune. Oil on Canvass. Morocco, 1912. Collection Cowles it has been argued that Matisse stepped back, on his first trip in Morocco, from painting “wild, Fauvist women” to a more mature concern with the person and culture of his model, the Moroccan courtesan Zorah, whom he names and whom […]

Omar Khayyam

Omar Khayyam (196) “I’m going to completely divorce reason and religion”

Juan Cole

I’m going to murder my grief with a bottle of wine, and make myself a wealthy man with a […]

art and photography

Tunis: View of Coast from Sidi Bu Said (Photograph)

Juan Cole

Photograph by Juan Cole, May, 2012

art and photography

“On the Back of a Camel” (Renoir Painting)

Juan Cole

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) A dos de chameau signed ‘Renoir.’ (lower right) oil on canvas 28 3/8 x 29½ in. (72 x 75 cm.) Painted in Algeria in 1881 ( Just sold by Christies at auction for $2.7 million) The impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) began achieving some success after the turmoil attendant on the Franco-Prussian […]

Omar Khayyam

Omar Khayyam (312) “let’s not fret about tomorrow’s grief”

Juan Cole

Old friend, come on and let’s not fret about tomorrow’s grief today; let’s spend this instant’s cash in hand– because tomorrow when we pass away from this decrepit bar we’ll be laid out with those who left it seven thousand years ago. Translated by Juan Cole from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield 312

art and photography

“A View Toward Hamamet” Tunisia (Paul Klee Painting)

Juan Cole

Paul Klee, the Swiss-German modernist painter, experienced epiphanies during the ‘student trip’ he took with two other young artists to Tunisia in 1914. It was there that he, deeply influenced by the color and the quality of the light (which other European artists have remarked on), he “began his path toward abstraction,” as the brochure […]

Omar Khayyam

Omar Khayyam (209) “those oceans of learning never…”

Juan Cole

Those oceans of learning and culture who burned with the light of science in their day, never found an exit from this pitch-dark night. They delivered themselves […]

Omar Khayyam

Omar Khayyam (442) “I wish there were a place to rest…”

Juan Cole

I wish there were a place to rest or that this long, long road would end; and that a hundred thousand years from now, there were a hope that from the earth we’d bloom to breathe again. Translated by Juan Cole from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield 442

art and photography

The Moroccans (Matisse Painting)

Juan Cole

The Moroccans Henri Matisse (French, 1869–1954) Issy-les-Moulineaux, late 1915 and fall 1916. Oil on canvas, 71 3/8″ x 9′ 2″ (181.3 x 279.4 cm). Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel A. Marx. © 2012 Succession H. Matisse, Paris For Matisse in Morocco, see this page. Here is the MOMA audio description: See also my previous […]