Blond Odalisque - François Boucher
A portrait of Madame Elisabeth of France, sister of Louis XVI, by Charles Leclercq. 1783.
image: (C) RMN-Grand Palais (Château de Versailles) / Gérard Blot
"Oh, thou whose melody the heart obeys,
Thou who can’st all its subject passions move,
Whose notes to heav’n the list’ning soul can raise,
Can thrill with pity, or can melt with love!
Happy! whom nature lent this native charm;
Whose melting tones can shed with magic power,
A sweeter pleasure o’er the social hour,
The breast to softness sooth, to virtue warm—But
yet more happy! that thy life as clear
From discord, as thy perfect cadence flows;
That tun’d to sympathy, thy faithful tear,
In mild accordance falls for others woes;
That all the tender, pure affections bind
In chains of harmony, thy willing mind!"
Thou who can’st all its subject passions move,
Whose notes to heav’n the list’ning soul can raise,
Can thrill with pity, or can melt with love!
Happy! whom nature lent this native charm;
Whose melting tones can shed with magic power,
A sweeter pleasure o’er the social hour,
The breast to softness sooth, to virtue warm—But
yet more happy! that thy life as clear
From discord, as thy perfect cadence flows;
That tun’d to sympathy, thy faithful tear,
In mild accordance falls for others woes;
That all the tender, pure affections bind
In chains of harmony, thy willing mind!"
—
Helen Maria Williams
from: Poems (1786)
Candide - Voltaire
(Click image to read on Project Gutenberg)
A Modest Proposal - Jonathan Swift
(click image to read on Project Gutenberg)
Some amazing works coming to Christie’s “Old Master & Early British Drawings & Watercolours” auction on July 3, 2012.
Check out the catalog.
