Umberto Ecco, Conte pencil, 32 x 50 cm/ 12.5 x 19.5″
Umberto Ecco (1932-2016) was a medievalist, philosopher, semiotician, novelist, cultural critic, and political and social commentator. He is best known for his popular 1980 novel The Name of the Rose, made into the movie with Sean Connery playing the leading role. The novel is a tour de force of intricacies of medieval theology. Foucault’s Pendulum pokes fun, again intricately, at conspiracy theory, while Prague Cemetery revisits the plots of the Risorgimento. Another of my heroes. He taught at the University of Bologna, which we visited along with the Focault pendulum then swinging in the cathedral. Portrait in Conte.
Eight American artists, including me, are participating in an exhibit from March 1-6 atBloom Gallery in Valencia. The opening is March 1 at 1930h (7:30 pm). For those who live here, hope to see you there!
Each artist will exhibit two pieces. Mine are:
Pianist Singer Ballerina 2, acrylics on canvas, 100 x 73cm/ 40 x 29″
Pianist, Singer, Ballerina, acrylics on canvas, 1.5 x 1.3m/5′ x 4′
This expressionistic piece combines imaginative and realistic elements such as we see in the dancer, from the performer’s point of view. The stained glass look continues, muted in the dark theater as is the audience. It’s about the challenges of cooperative performance. Without an audience there is no performance.
Light and dark interplay. Shafts of light downpour, adding to the pressure. The spotlight’s on you. Do it. There is one escape: that open door. But to get there you are judged more harshly.
María Eugenia Ignacia Agustina de Palafox y Kirkpatrick, 39 x 50cm/16 x 19,″ Conte pencils in white and sepia on gray pastel paper
This is an updated version of this Conte drawing. Eugenia married Napoleon Bonaparte in 1853 and was the Empress of France from 1853-1870 when Napoleaon was deposed. See my article about her at https://garyjkirkpatrick.com/the-kirkpatrick-empress-of-france/
Add this one to the paintings inspired by Edward Hopper, although in this case I drew from a painting by the impressionist Frederick Childe Hassam. It is another piece in the style I term “Symbolic Expressionism.:
Dame Judi Dench, actress (b 1934), conte pencil drawing 30 x 50 cm/ 12 x 19.5″ on pastel paper
I’ve watched Judi Dench perform since the 1990’s in the BBC comedy ‘As Time Goes By.” She’s a natural on the stage. I am not alone in singing her praises. She has been awarded an Academy Award, a Tony Award, two Golden Globe Awards, four British Academy Television Awards, six British Academy Film Awards and seven Olivier Awards. She appeared in eight James Bond films. Starting in 1968 she had a long run as Sally Bowles in ‘Cabaret.’ Her accomplishments are almost too long to list.
Born in Granada, Spain, María Eugenia Ignacia Agustina de Palafox y Kirkpatrick (1826-1920) is the most highly placed and famous character in the Kirkpatrick family tree. From an aristocratic family, she became Empress of France when she married Napoleon III in 1853. I do not know when our trees cross, although it is likely before 1600 when Scots began to relocate to Ireland in large numbers, and perhaps well before. No claims to the throne coming from me!
Her grandfather was the Scotsman William Kirkpatrick of Closeburn ((1764–1837), who was US Consul from 1800-1817, and he was a wine merchant in Malaga, Spain. He’d exiled in Spain after supporting the Stuart pretensions to the throne made returning to Scotland problematic. As United States Consul in Malaga between 1800 and 1817, William Kirkpatrick excelled in commerce, with excellent connections in Europe and America. ” Allied with similar families from across Europe, the Kirkpatricks revolutionized trade and industry in southern Spain and even had a hand in introducing grapevines to Australia.” Geni
María Eugenia Ignacia Agustina de Palafox y Kirkpatrick, 39 x 50cm/16 x 19″
His daughter and mother to Eugenia was María Manuela Enriqueta Kirkpatrick de Closeburn y de Grevigné. Eugenia’s father was Don Cipriano de Palafox y Portocarrero, Grandee of Spain, 15th Duke of Peñaranda de Duero, 9th Count of Montijo, 15th Count of Teba, 8th Count of Ablitas, 8th Count of Fuentidueña, 14th Marquess of Ardales, 17th Marquess of Moya and 13th Marquess of la Algaba. Her mother, María Manuela Enriqueta Kirkpatrick de Closeburn y de Grevigné, gave birth to María Francisca de Sales “Paca” de Palafox Portocarrero y Kirkpatrick, who became Duchess of Alba, and later to Eugenia. There was a son who died young.
In 1834 María Manuela Enriqueta took daughters Eugenia and her older sister to Paris, fleeing a cholera outbreak. There the red haired Eugenia became an athletic and affable student, if mediocre academically. She liked horseback riding and swimming. She was very interested in politics and came to support the Bonapartist cause. Eugenia met Napoleon at a reception he hosted after he became the President of the Second Republic at the Elysée Palace on April 12, 1849. They wed on 29 January 1853 in a civil ceremony at the Tuileries in Paris, which is connected to the Louvre, and on the 30th in a religious ceremony at Notre Dame Cathedral.
Napoléon and Eugénie had one child together, Napoléon, Prince Imperial (1856–1879). They lived in England after their exile. She died on a visit to Spain.
Empress Eugenia with Emperor Napoléon III and Prince Napoleón Eugenio Luis (b 1856) circa 1858
Our guide at Closeburn Castle, María Navarro de Sepúlveda, said Eugenia was on the wild side. For example she purportedly enraged the Ottoman Sultan by taking a son in her arm. She supported many conservative causes, reflected in her staunch support of monarchies. She opposed the unification of Italy, in large measure due to her loyalty to the Pope. On the other hand, she advocated equality for women, supporting such causes as the effort to make George Sand the first female member of the Académie Française. She was a supporter of the arts, establishing the Musée Chinois at Fontainebleau.
She was no wall flower, that seems certain. She was active in governing France, officially representing the Emperor when he traveled outside France, while acting as his adviser on many matters. Among other official activities, she was present at the opening of the Suez Canal. She opposed a Prussian candidate for the vacant Spanish throne in the controversy that precipitated the Franco-German War of 1870. See Britannica.com
She had a strong influence on fashion and was memorialized in film. The Eugénie hat, popularized by Greta Garbo, was worn dramatically tilted and drooped over one eye. More representative of the empress’ actual apparel was the late 19th-century paletot, a coat with bell sleeves and a single button enclosure at the neck. Her character played a role in six films, and in the miniseries Sisi of 2009 vintage. The asteroid 45 Eugenia was named after her. She has a place in the official website of the Chateau of Versailles. There is much more of note. There are numerous books and articles about Eugenia:
Aubry, Octave (1939). Eugenie: Empress of the French. London: Cobden-Sanderson. Du Camp, Maxime (1949). Souvenirs d’un Demi-Siècle: Au Temps de Louis-Philippe et de Napoléon III 1830-1870 (in French). Hachette. Duff, David (1978). Eugenie and Napoleon III. New York: William Morrow. ISBN0688033385. Filon, Augustin (1920). Recollections of the Empress Eugénie. London: Cassell and Company, Ltd. Retrieved 14 August 2013. Horne, Alistair (1965). The Fall of Paris: The Siege and the Commune 1870-71. New York: St. Martin’s Press. Kurtz, Harold (1964). The Empress Eugénie: 1826–1920. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. LCCN64006541. Leroy, Alfred (1969). The Empress Eugénie. London: Heron Books. McQueen, Alison (2011). Empress Eugénie and the Arts: Politics and Visual Culture in the Nineteenth Century. Burlington: Ashgate. ISBN9781409405856. “Hôtel du Palais”. Merimée. Ministry of Culture. Retrieved 10 June 2013. Prince, Danforth; Porter, Darwin (2010). Frommer’s France 2011. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN9780470641774. Sencourt, Robert (1931). The Life of the Empress Eugénie. London: Ernest Benn. Seward, Desmond (2004). Eugénie: The Empress and her Empire. Stroud: Sutton. ISBN0-7509-29790. Stoddart, Jane T. (1906). The Life of the Empress Eugénie. London: Hodder & Stoughton. Tschudi, Clara (1899). Eugenie: Empress of the French. A Popular Sketch. London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co. Wawro, Geoffrey (2003). The Franco-Prussian War: The German Conquest of France in 1870-1871. Cambridge University Press. ISBN9780521584364. See Wikipedia
