Years ago I bought this poster of an exuberant bouquet by Jan van Huysum (1682-1749), which was at the time on loan to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. It’s still among the two dozen framed images that rotate through my house. I’d love to see it again, but I’m not sure where the actual painting has gone: the MFA’s site lists Huysum’s Vase of Flowers in a Niche, but not this one.
Jan Huysum, Vase of Flowers. Current location unknown (to me, at least!)
Thought-provoking words on flowers (and much else) from Alfred Lord Tennyson: “The Flower“.
Once in a golden hour
I cast to earth a seed.
Up there came a flower,
The people said, a weed.
To and fro they went
Thro’ my garden-bower,
And muttering discontent
Curs’d me and my flower.
Then it grew so tall
It wore a crown of light,
But thieves from o’er the wall
Stole the seed by night.
Sow’d it far and wide
By every town and tower,
Till all the people cried,
“Splendid is the flower.”
Read my little fable:
He that runs may read. *
Most can raise the flowers now,
For all have got the seed.
And some are pretty enough,
And some are poor indeed;
And now again the people
Call it but a weed.
* “He that runs may read” apparently means that something is explained so clearly that even non-experts can grasp it immediately; so, “Read my little fable: it’s easy to understand.”
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Happy Midsummer’s Eve!
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