The lady in the picture

In 1934, Bobsy Goodspeed, seated beneath a portrait of her by Bernard Boutet de Monvel, relaxes at her lush Lincoln Park apartment; the architect David Adler designed the space.


Portrait of a Lady

By Geoffrey Johnson

Between the world wars, a beautiful, artistic woman named Bobsy Goodspeed stood at the heart of Chicago's social and cultural scenes. Now, prompted by a salacious if glancing remark in a recent book, this forgotten woman re-emerges and opens the door on a vanished era peopled by painters and pianists, plutocrats and politicians—and an irresistible force named Gertrude Stein


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Provenance

Copper vessels once the property of the late Ingmar Bergman, whose estate was auctioned by Bukowskis in September.




Ingmar Bergman photographed by Irving Penn, 1964



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That woman

Not one of my icons, but I do find her curiously interesting. Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor and the Duchess of Windsor discuss their first meeting.

And, her canary dress against the red sofa and green lampshade is just too captivating.


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No particular reason

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The polite look of fascism

General Francisco Franco and his wife Carmen Polo.

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Europeans eat sausages wherever they go

Kathleen Byron, the noted actress, dies at the age of 88. Her most memorable role was that of the deranged Sister Ruth in Powell and Pressburger’s Black Narcissus (1947). Sister Ruth is driven mad by her desire for the handsome Mr. Dean (played by David Farrar).

Her full obituary appears in The Times.


The original cinema trailer for Black Narcissus

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Domestic goddess

Georgia O’Keeffe, 1968.





Georgia O'Keeffe and the Camera: The Art of Identity





Georgia O'Keeffe, 1956 by Yousuf Karsh





O'Keeffe at Ghost Ranch, 1962



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Goddess of the Bullring

1944 promotional poster




Conchita Cintrón & Horse by Henry Clarke
Vogue, September 1968








Image of Conchita Cintrón by Henry Clarke, 1968.




Taking a bow after dispatching her first 700-pound bull, Tijuana, Mexico, 1941.



La Diosa Rubia in action, 1945.


The bullfighter Conchita Cintrón (b.1922) was known as, La Diosa Rubia, the Blonde Goddess. The half-American, Peruvian raised Cintrón was one of the most famous and respected bullfighters of the 1930s and '40s. A professional rejoneadora, a horse-riding bullfighter, only because it was illegal for a woman to make a kill on foot.

Her final standoff in the ring came in 1949. In September 1951 Conchita Cintrón married Francisco Castelo Branco, the nephew of her trainer.They settled in Portugal, where she raised six children and established the Al-Gharb Kennels.




Goddess of the Bullring: The Story of Conchita Cintrón, the World’s Greatest Matador by Lola Verrill Cintrón (Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1960)

Memoirs of a Bullfighter by Conchita Cintrón (Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1968)

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Old acquaintance

Lillian Hellman photographed by Bill King for Blackglama.

The past, with its pleasures, its rewards, its foolishness, its punishments, is there for each of us forever, and it should be. - Lillian Hellman

As the black eyed peas finish cooking, I just wanted to take a moment to wish all of you the best for the coming new year. As I was saying to someone the other day... it hasn't quite turned out the way I had planned, but I have certainly enjoyed the journey. I was originally referring to my life, but it did strike me as rather apt for here as well.

Happy New Year

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Fall and switch

Sophia Loren




Princess Margaret




Allegra Caracciolo di Castagneto


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Symphony in grey

Halston in his living room, photographed by Harry Benson in 1978 for Life magazine.


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Truth beyond the real

Self-Portrait, 1906
Coloured pencil and pencil on notebook paper



Girl with a Bow, 1920s
Watercolour on paper



Sisters, 1928
Gouache on paper



Portrait of Mademoiselle Chanel, 1923
Oil on canvas
Interestingly, Mlle Chanel declined this portrait as she felt it looked nothing like her.


Marie Laurencin (1883-1956) the French painter, stage designer and illustrator was a regular associate of the painters and poets of the Bateau-Lavoir. Influenced by the fauvist and cubist movements, Mlle Laurencin developed an elegant and highly personal style. Which, is characterised by an extreme simplification of form and a soft dream like palette.


Come to the edge, he said. They said: We are afraid. Come to the edge, he said. They came. He pushed them and they flew. - Guillaume Apollinaire

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The beautiful room is empty

Mrs. John C. Wilson (Princess Natalie Paley) wearing Mainbocher

The legendary beauty Natalia Pavlovna Paley (1905-1981) was the daughter of Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovitch of Russia and his morganatic wife Olga Valerianovna Karnovitch, who was created Countess von Hohenfelsen. She worked as a model in the 1920s and as an actress in the 30s. She became the second wife of the French couturier Lucien Lelong in 1927. And, for a brief time was Jean Cocteau's lover.

In 1935 Natalie Paley appeared in George Cukor's Sylvia Scarlett. In 1937 she divorced Lelong and moved to New York, where she started working for the couturier Mainbocher. That same year she met and married the theatre producer John Chapman Wilson.

When her husband died in 1961, Mrs. Wilson withdrew from the world. She refused to see even her sister and only spoke with her on the telephone. Several months after a fall in 1981 in which she broke her hip, she died at Roosevelt Hospital in Manhattan. As she lay dying, she whispered, I want to die with dignity.


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Jive talking

Dig Infinity: The Life and Art of Lord Buckley

Lord Buckley: the white, six-and-a-half-foot-tall, ex-lumberjack cat who invoked both the manners of the English aristocracy and the street language of black America...Lord Buckley: the picaresque pill-popping darling of Al Capone...Lord Buckley the jazz philosopher who jammed with Charlie Parker...Lord Buckley: the original viper, the Hall of Fame Hipster, the baddest Beatnik, the first flower child, the premier rapper...best known for his 'hipsemantic' retellings of Bible stories, Shakespeare soliloquies, and modern poetry in the 1950s. - Oliver Trager, author.




Hiparama of the Classics

Hipsters, Flipsters, and Finger-Poppin' Daddies, Knock me your lobes! I come to lay Caesar out, not to hip you to him. The bad jazz that a cat blows, Wails long after he's cut out. The groovey, is often stashed with their frames ..



Lord Buckley as he appeared on You Bet Your Life




His Royal Hipness




So You Thought Hip Was New Feb.12,1959 the Ivar Concert

Two of the best known monologues, The Bad Rapping of the Marquis De Sade and Hipsters Flipsters appear on this album, which is available for download online. So much easier than trolling the record shops of North Beach. Though, perhaps not as much fun. But, there is something to be said for the nostalgic sound of vinyl.

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Voluptuaries - everything else is a falling away

Melvyn Bragg in conversation with Francis Bacon in 1985, part of the arts programme The South Bank Show series.














Francis Bacon
11 September 2008 - 4 January 2009
Tate Britain
Explore the current exhibit HERE



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Cultured pearl

Master corsetier Mr Pearl originally began his journey in South Africa some forty odd years ago. In 1994 he established himself here in London as corset-maker to the stars. In 2002 Mr Pearl moved to Paris, where, from his cluttered atelier behind Notre Dame Cathedral, he designs unique pieces for couture houses. Painstakingly cutting, stitching and embroidering each one by hand. Standing 5 foot 8 inches he possesses an eighteen inch waist and carries himself as if he were a ballet master.


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What becomes a legend most

R. Couri Hay talks with Michele Gerber Klein about the legendary couturier Charles James.


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Face to face

The Mike Wallace Interview - What you are about to see is unrehearsed and uncensored.

Amongst others Mike Wallace interviews,


Gloria Swanson


Salvador Dali


Elsa Maxwell

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Another fabulous film is...

The River, Jean Renoir's intoxicating first colour feature. Shot entirely on location in India, it is an adaptation of Rumer Godden's novel, set during the last days of the Raj. As much about a young girl's coming of age as about the ebb and flow of life. Exquisitely shot by Renoir's nephew, Claude Renoir. The River is a visual feast.

After a family tragedy, an adolescent girl blurts out angrily at table, We just go on as if nothing has happened?
No, her mother responds, we just go on.









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Some are just born with it

Mr Isaac Hayes, the man who defined cool, has died.



Sam & Dave performing the soul classic Soul Man, which was written by Isaac Hayes and his songwriting partner David Porter.

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