Ruins of Despair

From a yellowed page of an old book: 'Tis but a night, a long and moonless night, We make the grave our bed, and then are gone. Thus, at the shut of ev'n, the weary bird Leaves the wide air, and in some lonely brake Cow'rs down, and dozes till the dawn of day, Then claps his well-fledg'd wings, and bears away. FINIS.

'The Grave' by Robert Blair 1788

#poetry #gothic #romanticism #books #booksky

"She fell forward, and even as she fell a hand, far colder than the snow, caught her neck. She lay struggling in the snow and as she struggled there two hands of an icy fleshless chill closed about her throat. Then she lay still."
- Hugh Walpole, 'The Snow'
#BookologyThursday #booksky #ghoststory

Someone with a Gothic sensibility must have decided that this image of a fortified sanitorium in the middle of a Norwegian forest (1906) was postcard worthy.

The monks dormitory #CleeveAbbey #Somerset

Pointed single light and window seat. Evidence of horizontal window bars remains #WindowsOnWednesday #DormitoryCleeveAbbey

Oil on canvas. A winter scene depicting a stone chapel or mausoleum with an arched wooden door, partially covered in snow. There are tall, bare trees, and a large building with spired rooftops looms softly in the foggy background. Snow blankets the ground.

'View of a Church Yard Entrance in Winter', Edmunc Koken c. 1862.

#gothic #romanticism #art #painting

A blurry, black and white photo of a man in a hat kneeling at a headstone.

For decades, until 2010, someone appeared at Edgar Allan Poe's grave in Baltimore before dawn on Jan. 19, his birthday.

The mysterious visitor (aka The Poe Toaster), who was never identified, would leave behind three roses & a half-filled bottle of cognac as a tribute to the writer

#WyrdWednesday

Much more than just a pretty thing, I'm sure <3

Ha! Indeed.

Oh, I definitely think wren's one of the good guys!

A small pond with an island on which a sand-colored pavilion is hidden by trees. The water is frozen and the trees are reflected on the surface. In front of the island stands a wire figure, which is supposed to represent a ballerina. The dark trees are covered with snow and the sky is light gray, so that this color photograph looks like a black-and-white image.

'Farbe: Schwarz-Weiss' #FotoVorschlag Keine sw-Bilder!
(Ist wirklich ein Farbbild, siehe alt-text)
#photography #nature #trees #scape #art #fotografie #natur

Recycled for this weeks birdy #LegendaryWednesday

I hadn't heard this one. Perhaps the reason?
bsky.app/profile/ragg...

Phew!

It is, in practice, Marguerite who ends up paying the price of her life for indiscretions of Faust, but her soul is spared. Image: Faust and Mephisto in prison, colored lithograph by Joseph Fay 1846

In Goethe's version of the Faustian pact, the sacriface ought to give you pause:

If you ever come across a moment in life so beautiful that you wish it never to end, the devil will claim your life and soul.

#WyrdWednesday #romanticism #books #booksky

good night moon and you

Mature, multi branched, ivy covered tree with a rather elegant, sinuous trunk

#ThickTrunkTuesday a November night on the outskirts of Kendal #Cumbria

Jean-Baptiste Oudry, 'The Cat and the Monkey' 1739. A painting of a black cat and a monkey infront of a fireplace, in what seems to be a classical villa. The monkey is prodding the cat to pull hot coals out of the fire.

'It is actually possible to become amateurs in suffering.'

– Charles Robert Maturin, Melmoth the Wanderer 1820

#goals

#gothic #books #booksky

Week long Solargraph image showing the path of the sun behind some trees and snow in the foreground.

New pinhole Solargraph! This one was in place for a week. Had a few really sunny days and then lots of cloud. Am I going to do a month long and year long one? You’d better believe it! 🔭 ☀️

Page and map from "A Voyage in the Sunbeam" by Annie Lady Brassey, published in 1878. South Pacific Ocean 25.11.1876. Scrapbook page with flying-fish wings mentioned in the text.

Sunbeam #Pacific #Ocean 25.11.1876. "Whilst I was standing on deck at night a flying-fish flew against my throat & hung there, caught in the lace of my dress. He is a pretty specimen, but only his wings are to be preserved, for Muriel will have his body for breakfast tomorrow." #Brassey #1870s #Fish

Jakub Schikaneder (Czech, 1855–1924)
"Street in the Evening, Prague", 1875.
Oil on Canvas Painting.
Private Collection.

#art #painting #painters #BlueSkyArt

Rena Mandel in 'Vampyr' (1932)

A procession of dark-robed figures, carrying a cross at the front, moves from a small arched stone bridge across the grassy landscape, dissappearing into the mist. To the right stands a tall, narrow stone structure resembling a small Gothic tower with a pointed spire and a crosses. Bare trees and low bushes frame the foreground, and faint outlines of larger trees are visible in the background. The sky is pale and hazy.

Prozession im Nebel (Procession in the Fog) by Ernst Ferdinand Oehme 1828

#MistyMonday #art #painting #gothic

#OwlishMonday

🎨Melchior D'Hondecoeter

the parlour in the Merchant’s House Museum
~ Hal Hirshorn (circa 2011)

#FolkloreSunday Ghosts are a close companion of the winter season. The days grow shorter, the nights longer & even though we no longer live by candlelight, the death of the year & the chill in the air reawaken the spectral realm with more solemnity than Halloween.

trailing moon, reflected as a dotted i in water, viewed through winter trees and low clouds, ghostly sunset at the horizon

Stanisław Masłowski

Moonrise, 1884

Good night
take care🌙

Väinö Blomstedt

( 1871 - 1947 ) Finnish painter

"Winter Evening" oil on canvas

81 x 54 cm, 1900

#art #painting #painters #BlueSkyArt

Caspar David Friedrich: Friedhof im Schnee (Graveyard under Snow) 1826 An oil painting of a snow-covered graveyard with simple wooden and metal grave markers, an old stone archway in the background, leafless trees behind it, and two shovels stuck in a partially dug grave in the foreground. The sky is light shade of grey.

Cold in the earth—and the deep snow piled above thee,
Far, far removed, cold in the dreary grave!
Have I forgot, my only Love, to love thee,
Severed at last by Time's all-severing wave?

– From 'Remembrance' by Emily Brontë 1845

#poetry #romanticism #books #booksky #snow

Edward Steichen, American (1879-1973), Flatiron Building, 1904-05, three-color halftone print, printed 1906, 21.6 x 16.5 cm, private collection