Make way for Alexandria's 'Revolutionists'

From left: Justine Summers is Olympe de Gouges; Sophie de Waal, Marie Antoinette; Melanie Kurstin, Charlotte Corday, and Dayalini Pocock, Marianne Angelle in Little Theatre of Alexandria's The Revolutionists/Photo by Matt Liptak

It's back to the past. 

If it had not been 10 p.m., if it had not been another cold night, I was ready to join other audience members so moved as I to take to the streets and demand change and action, following the powerful message delivered from the stage of the Little Theatre of Alexandria.

The actors were The Revolutionists; the time was 1793 during the height of the French Revolution's  Reign of Terror, but it could have been today when a quartet of unlikely acquaintances gather to urge a playwright to compose a work of what she wants, not what she knows.

Yes, a play within a play with a timeless statement on issues which vex us more than two centuries later.  From left are Marie Antoinette (Sophie de Waaland) and Olympe de Gouge (Justine Summers) in Little Theatre of Alexandria's The Revolutionists/Photo by Matt Liptak

The women argue about the play's content while Olympe de Gouges (Justine Summers) tries haphazardly to write and seize the moment.

A  realistic guillotine is the centerpiece of the sophisticated set with a long red drape hanging nearby ("better to capture your head, my dear") and a floor increasingly littered by the playwright's tossed drafts.  Steps add dimension to the scenes, changed only by the actors who prance in and out, often mad at their world and screaming, just to be sure you get the message.

Director Jennifer Lyman writes in program notes that she chose Revolutionists because she's a fan of the playwright, Lauren Gunderson ("the most produced playwright in America two seasons" before Covid-19 shut theatre doors). But Ms. Lyman hesitated to recommend it to LTA because of its "kick-ass, girl-power, meta-theatrical, modern, irreverent, anachronistic, political feminist" mindset. (Weak men need not attend.)

Marianne Angelle (Dayalini Pocock) is a Haitian fictional rebel, the smoothest of the lot, who, much like a mother, tries to stabilize the group with reason v. emotion.  while screams and yells abound, and shouts for the need to kill fill the stage. (Charlotte Corday [Melanie Kurstin] succeeds.)

Jean-Joseph Weerts, The Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat by Charlotte Corday on 13 July 1793, 1880/Public Domain, Wikimedia 

And just when you think serious might overtake the script, in waltzes the frilly, the silly Marie Antoinette (Sophie de Waal)  with a petit trianon voice to match her persona and gown, and hair (by Chanel Lancaster) as high as Marge Simpson's.  

Her boudoir with Versailles's elegant windows help embellish the queen's role and reputation. 

Costumers Jean Schlichting and Kit Sibley dress the characters in fashionable floor-length gowns of the period in colors and styles to mirror their personalities (dull for the playwright, smart for the Haitian, white for the killer, lacy for the queen).

Sound designer David Correia, assisted by Will Gregg and Donna Hauprich, handle their multiple assignments exceptionally, busy they are all evening with chants,  sprinkles of Les Miserables music, crowd noise, and the ka-chunk, thunk of the guillotine as it falls upon the heads of the victims.  

Lighting changes are right on time, illuminating the stage with bright red every time a prisoner steps up to the chopping block, or for the few moments when a solo light is needed.

Today I can take pen or computer to compose my message to those around me, including legislators, and "march" on paper and keyboard to demand change and action to advance equality for women. As of this writing, the long-ago Equal Rights Amendment has risen from the dead to claim new status and perhaps an extended deadline which, if allowed, may ratify a new constitutional amendment.  Amen, sisters!

Have we come a long way?

Congratulations to LTA for stepping outside the box to present a kick-off to Women's History Month, continuing the women's revolution.

Creative team members also include Lynn O'Connell and Kevin O'Dowd, producers; Danielle Guy, assistant director; Nick Friedlander and Meggie Webster, stage managers; Matt Liptak, set designer; Jeff Auerbach, Kimberly Crago, lighting designers, assisted by Katie Clement, Pam Leonowich, and Marg Soronos;  Chanel Lancaster, makeup; and Margaret Chapman, properties

What: The Revolutionists by Lauren Gunderson

When: Now through March 20, 2021, Wednesday through Saturdays, 8 p.m. Sundays, 3 p.m.

Where: Little Theatre of Alexandria, 600 Wolfe Street, Alexandria, VA 22314. Directions

Tickets:  Start at $24.

Adult language

Duration: About two hours with one five-minute pause.

Public transportation: Check the Metro and Dash bus websites.

Parking: On the streets and in many garages nearby with free parking at the Capital One Bank at Wilkes and Washington streets.

For more information: Box Office: 703-683-0496; Business: 703-683-5778. Asklta@thelittletheatre.com

patricialesli@gmail.com

First Ladies charm Gallery guests

The entrance to the exhibition, Every Eye is Upon Me at the National Portrait Gallery where Martha Washington welcomes visitors/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Robert Clark Templeton, Rosalynn Carter (b. 1927),  1976.  Mrs. Carter's focus on mental health began in 1970 when she was the first lady of Georgia and has never wavered since. When her husband, Jimmy Carter was president, Mrs. Carter attended cabinet meetings so she could be better informed to answer questions in her role as honorary chairwoman of the President's Commission on Mental Health. After the Carters left the White House in 1981, they invested muscle, hours, and money to humanitarian efforts like Habitat for Humanity, the largest non-profit builder in the world which has helped 29 million persons move in or rehabilitate homes/Collection of the National Portrait Gallery, donated by Mark, Kevin, and Tim Templeton, sons of the artist

I hope the paintings of the ladies are still up when the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery re-opens to showcase the aura and beauty of First Ladies of the United States in the enthralling exhibition, Every Eye Is Upon Me: First Ladies of the United States

In a large gallery of several rooms, the more than 60 portraits welcome visitors who mentally "ooohhh" and "awwww" at the elegance and refinement these ladies present.  Honestly, you walk away a more sophisticated person, having spent time in the halls with these women, admiring their achievements.  (You see what art can do!)

Charles Robert Leslie, Louisa Adams (1775-1852), 1816. Mrs. Adams was the wife of John Quincy Adams who served as President Madison's envoy to Russia in the court of Czar Alexander I. The couple lived in St. Petersburg for five years and a building there bears an historical marker denoting their place of residence. Her attire reflects the influence of her stay there.  

She was born in London where this sitting took place a year after her six-week journey from Russia to Paris, and she was educated in France. A woman of many talents, Mrs. Adams played the harp and wrote several autobiographical novels, including one about "gender inequality," titled Adventures of a Nobody,  according to the label. She preceded the feminist movement by150 years!/The portrait was loaned from the Diplomatic Reception Rooms, U.S. Department of State, Washington, D.C.  

Francesco Anelli, Julia Tyler (1820-1889), 1846-48.  Julia Gardiner Tyler was born to a large slave-holding family in Long Island, and during the Civil War she urged her sons to fight for the Confederacy. 

When she married him in 1844, President John Tyler was a widower, and it took some coaxing for her to marry a man 30 years older than she was. She was the first woman to marry a president in the White House but her residency there lasted only eight months when her husband's term ended in 1845. 

On state occasions, the label notes,  she encouraged the playing of "Hail to the Chief," a legacy which continues to this day. After her husband died in 1862 and the Civil War ended, Mrs. Tyler,  needing financial help, successfully lobbied Congress for a pension which she received in 1880.  

Together the Taylors had seven children, and their grandson, Harrison Ruffin Tyler, is still living at age 91 in Virginia/Collection of The White House

George Peter Alexander Healy, Sarah Polk (1803-1891), 1846. Mrs. Polk served as what then would have been "chief of staff" for her husband, James K. Polk. She scheduled his appointments, managed his correspondence, and acted as his secretary. Likely because of bladder surgery, President Polk was not able to have children, and he and Mrs. Polk are the only presidential couple to never have children/Loaned from the James K. Polk Home and Museum, Columbia, Tennessee

Charles Fenderich, Angelica Van Buren (1818*-1877), reproduction of original, 1838-1841. Mrs. Van Buren was born in Wedgefield, S.C., likely at Melrose, a South Caroline plantation, where she grew up. On a visit to Washington, her cousin, Dolley Madison, introduced her to her future father-in-law, the widower, Martin Van Buren. Only eight months later Angelica married one of his four sons, Abraham, and her elegance and education led to her leadership as White House hostess, the youngest woman to hold the unofficial position. Mrs. Van Buren's family's ownership of slaves and her elegant lifestyle helped contribute to Martin Van Buren's defeat in 1840. (*One source says she was born in 1816.) From the collection of the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.  

Unidentified artist, Abigail Adams (1744-1818), c. 1795.  When John Adams was president (1797-1801), Mrs. Adams suppressed her advocacy of women's rights, education, and the abolition of slavery/Collection of the Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York

Thomas Sully, Martha Jefferson Randolph (1772-1836), 1836.  According to the label copy, this was painted the year Mrs. Randolph died. She was Thomas Jefferson's oldest child and the wife of Thomas Randolph.  She helped maintain her widowed father's plantation, Monticello, where she was born/Loaned by Monticello, Charlottesville, VA 

M. L. Barlow, Martha Johnson Patterson (1828-1901), 1886, the daughter of President and Mrs. Andrew Johnson, served as White House hostess for her mother, Eliza Johnson (1810-1876), who did not participate in Washington life, mainly due to poor health/Courtesy of the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site, Greeneville, Tennessee

Unidentified photographer, Eliza McCardle Johnson (1810-1876), 1865-1876.
The Johnsons met in Greenville, Tennessee, when they were teens and married when he was 18 and she was 16, the youngest first lady to get married. Andrew Johnson never attended school, and Mrs. Johnson taught her husband how to read/Courtesy of the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site, Greeneville, Tennessee

Unidentified artist, Abigail Fillmore (1798-1853), 1840. A great reader and book collecter, Mrs. Fillmore kept her teaching job after marrying her husband, one of her former students. At the White House, she helped establish the reference library and invited notable authors to visit. After Millard Fillmore's presidency ended in 1853, Mrs. Fillmore lived only 26 days, dying of pneumonia at the Willard Hotel/Collection of the National Portrait Gallery

Unlike here, the exhibition is arranged chronologically, ending with contemporary first ladies, many still living:  Rosalynn Carter, Laura Bush, Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, and Melania Trump. Apparel worn by Nancy Reagan, Michelle Obama, and Jacqueline Kennedy are displayed in a protective case at the end.

Whether it's Eliza Johnson who taught her husband how to read or Edith Wilson who renovated the White House or Pat Nixon who championed volunteers, you cannot help but be impressed by all, including the hated Mary Todd Lincoln.

Elizabeth Keckley made Mary Todd Lincoln's capelet, c.1861. Do you really think Mrs. Lincoln was as bad as all the books describe her? Everyone marvels about Abraham Lincoln, but I suppose his one really big mistake, to hear the biographers tell it, was his choice of Mary Todd Lincoln to be his lawfully wedded mate.
The turned portion of the capelet shows the name of the seamstress, a South Carolinian who was the daughter of a slave and a white man who was her mother's owner/Loaned from the National First Ladies' Library, Canton, Ohio

Cecilia Beaux, Edith Roosevelt (1861-1948),1902. The label says the artist was "one of the most prominent society portraitists of her generation," who painted Mrs. Roosevelt with her daughter, Ethel, here about age nine.  Mrs. Roosevelt was Teddy Roosevelt's second wife, his first, who died in childbirth the same day as his mother. The child born that day, Feb. 14, 1884, was the notable Alice Roosevelt who established her own reputation. Edith Roosevelt was the first first lady to hire a social secretary and she established the East Wing with offices for the first lady. She was active in Washington life, renovated the White House (which had been called the "Executive Mansion" prior to her arrival) and she is rumored to have influenced decisions to start the National Portrait Gallery. She and Eleanor Roosevelt were not great friends and campaigned for their husbands' political opponents. (See Wikipedia.)/Collection of Sarah Chapman  

Edward Steichen, Lou Hoover (1874-1944), 1928. Her wistful expression evokes that of her husband's administration. The label copy notes her wealthy background blinded her to the plight of lower-class and working women who did not have Mrs. Hoover's time to volunteer and churn out good works for the sake of society which her successor, Eleanor Roosevelt, promoted, earning nods from the public for her efforts. Mrs. Hoover's were the times that tried women's souls.

This was a 1928 photograph for Vogue, taken shortly before the Hoovers moved into the White House, marking the first time the magazine featured a first lady among its pages/Collection of the National Portrait Gallery, bequest of Edward Steichen 

The arrangement at the Portrait Gallery leaves plenty of viewing space for visitors who are not scrunched and squeezed to gaze upon the ladies and wonder how they managed.  With each portrait comes a short biographical sketch and there's a catalogue to go with the exhibition, First Ladies of the United States ($19.95).

This presentation is must viewing for girls and women of all ages, to give hope, inspiration, identity, and to provide a brief sense of American history. 

Martha Greta Kempton, Bess Truman (1885-1982), 1967. This portrait depicts Mrs.  Truman as happier and more glamorous than she was usually portrayed in photographs, a rather dowdy lady who I am sure was livelier than memory tells me. Her father's suicide when she was a teen perhaps explained her constantly sad expression.  She did not like living in Washington and participated in life here only when necessary, spending a lot of time back home in Independence, Missouri. Following Eleanor Roosevelt would have been a hard act for anyone/Collection of the White House

Elizabeth Shoumatoff,  Lady Bird Johnson  (1912-2007), 1968. From the label copy:  "Lady Bird Johnson is often associated with the 1965 Highway Beautification Act, an initiative that incorporated historic site preservation, natural resource conservation, and environmental protection. For her successful efforts, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1988." The artist captured Mrs. Johnson's grace and beauty, lovely and gracious as always. The National Portrait Gallery chose this portrait to welcome visitors at one of the exhibition's entrances/Collection of the White House

 Boris Chaliapin, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (1929–1994), 1960-61.  This portrait appeared on the cover of Time magazine in 1961. Mrs. Kennedy's grace, charm and education commandeered many, including the leaders of France who, based on her efforts,  loaned the Mona Lisa to the United States. Her interest in historic preservation led to the birth of the White House Historical Association and the rescue from destruction of buildings on Lafayette Square and the Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House. Note the baby carriage on the balcony above, a symbol of the Kennedys' young family/Collection of the National Portrait Gallery, gift of Time magazine

Robert Vickrey, Pat Nixon (1912-1993), 1960.  This is my favorite of the whole show. The portrait was made for the Feb. 29, 1960 issue of Time magazine when her husband, the future President Richard M. Nixon, was running against John Kennedy in the 1960 campaign. (To me, It suggests the works of Edward Hopper and Chris Van Allsburg.)

Mrs. Nixon was a strong advocate of volunteerism. She invited single senior citizens and wounded servicemen to the White House for Thanksgiving and was the first first lady to issue a Thanksgiving proclamation.  At the White House, she added 600 paintings and antiques to the collection, the most of any administration, and she started the Map Room. At the time she was the most traveled first lady in history, earning the title of "Madame Ambassador" for her goodwill trips, including visiting 39 of 50 states during her husband's first term/Collection of the National Portrait Gallery, gift of Time magazine

There is some controversy about a likeness of President Zachary Taylor's wife, Margaret Taylor (1788-1852). Wikipedia says there are two, however, the Gallery said there were none to be found for the show. The picture above is one which family legend says the president carried with him. 

Before the White House,  Mrs. Taylor followed her husband around the country during his many military assignments which ranged from the Florida Everglades to Wisconsin. She lived in tents, cabins,  and forts which may have some bearing on her decision to spend time at the Willard Hotel for her husband's two inaugural balls, not particularly caring for Washington, D.C. life. (The Willard seems to have been a hideaway for several first ladies. ) 

White House hostess duties were assumed by the Taylors' daughter, Betty. Another daughter, Sarah, was the first wife of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy, but Sarah lived only three months after their wedding in 1835 when the newlyweds both caught malaria.

Mrs. Taylor was not a total recluse, venturing out every morning for services at St. John's Episcopal Church at Lafayette Square (yes, the very same church which was the site of the famous Bible thumping on June 1, 2020)/Wikipedia/Created Jan. 1, 1852 

Clothes worn by Jacqueline Kennedy (far left), Michelle Obama (center), and Nancy Reagan embellish the First Ladies' exhibition/Photo by Patricia Leslie

This photograph of Nancy Reagan's formal wear does not come close to conveying the gown's glamour and elegance.  Must see to believe!/Photo by Patricia Leslie

And, of course, Michelle Obama's gown she wore for her portrait which hangs nearby/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Nancy Reagan's (left) and Michelle Obama's apparel at the First Ladies' exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. Jacqueline Kennedy's suit was so plain and unimpressive. unlike she was, that I received a big surprise upon examining my pictures at home where I discovered I had not even photographed it which is visible at far right/Photo by Patricia Leslie

I hope the works are still on display when the Gallery re-opens since it is scheduled to close May 23, 2021.  Maybe, we can hope for an extension?  I was lucky to see the exhibition twice in person before the Gallery shut its doors. 

 

Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, the National Portrait Gallery’s senior historian and director of history, research, and scholarly programs was the curator. .

Every Eye Is Upon Me: First Ladies of the United States is made possible through the support of the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative, Morgan Stanley and the generosity of many other donors.

What: Every Eye Is Upon Me: First Ladies of the United States

When: Closing May 23, 2021. The National Portrait Gallery is open daily from 11:30 a.m - 7 p.m. but is closed now due to covid, however, you may see most of the exhibit virtually at the website.

Where: Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, 8th and F streets, N. W., Washington, D.C. 20001

Admission: None

For more information: 202-633-8300 or visit the website

Closest Metro station: Gallery Place-Chinatown or walk 10 minutes from Metro Center

patricialesli@gmail.com

Mary Higgins Clark's memoir is a must for writers

I've never read any Mary Higgins Clark (1927-2020), but I've listened to Mary Higgins Clark and just finished hearing her memoir, Kitchen Privileges.  

Whatever kind of writers you may be, dear readers who are writers:  Kitchen is a must.

Over many years Ms. Clark persisted at her love, never giving up, developing her craft. The recipient of countess rejection letters, she maintained her sense of humor and joined writers' groups, constantly striving to make her short stories more appealing and improve her writing skills.   

Never does she lose her cheery disposition found throughout the book, despite the many family tragedies she suffered:  the early deaths of her father, husband, and two brothers.  She lived to be 92 and died about a year ago.

The audio is blessed by her mellifluous voice which always adds to the enjoyment of a heard book when the author reads it whenever the author can come close to the beauty of Ms. Higgins' sounds.  In the book, she mimics several characters in her life and successfully produces their voices, cadences, and inflections.

The publisher, Simon & Schuster, likens Kitchen to a Bronx version of Angela's Ashes, but I find the comparison a terrible exaggeration since there is no way Ms. Clark's upbringing  remotely resembles that of the hardships endured by Frank McCourt and his family. 

She was married three times, the first and last being happy unions, but the middle marriage lasted all of approximately two sentences, about as long the marriage itself (later, annulled), and this "intrusion" in the book's theme seems out-of-place and thrown in at the last minute, perhaps by a demanding editor to keep it honest? 

 

This was one of those rare books I was sorry to see (or hear)  end.  Maybe, I will join the millions and read one of her 51 books, her second, Where Are The Children?,  published originally in 1975 when she was 45 and now in its 75th printing, according to Wikipedia.  Her first, Aspire to the Heavens, was plagued, she says in her memoir, by the title.  It was re-issued as Mount Vernon Love Story in 2000, the year before Kitchen Privileges was published.

With five children suffering the sadness of the early death of their father and Ms. Clark alone to raise them, she wrote, rising daily at 5 a.m. when everyone else was sleeping. We can do it, too.

patricialesli@gmail.com

Today is the 372nd anniversary of the beheading of King Charles I

  

This anniversary of a king's beheading is not to be forgotten by supporters who will lay wreaths at the statue of England's King Charles I (1600-1649) today, not far from his execution site, says the Royal Encyclopedia.

Killers of the King: The Men Who Dared to Execute Charles I by Charles Spencer lays out all the gory details of his death and his trial, followed 11 years later by the worldwide manhunt for the regicides, conducted by Charles's son King Charles II when royalty was restored to the throne in 1660.

With his back to the viewer, Charles I, seated in the center, faces the High Court of Justice in 1649/Wikpedia, public domain.Engraving from "Nalson's Record of the Trial of Charles I" in the British Museum. Plate 2 from A True copy of the journal of the High Court of Justice for the tryal of K. Charles I as it was read in the House of Commons and attested under the hand of Phelps, clerk to that infamous court / taken by J. Nalson Jan. 4, 1683 : with a large introduction. London: Printed by H.C. for Thomas Dring at the Harrow at the corner of Chancery Lane and Fleet Street, 1684.

It was treasonous to house the king's killers or even think about killing him and so, off with his head (sometimes hers)! 

Which is what happened to at least ten of them.

Charles was not a good king, he was not a great king but a greedy king, a king who was arrogant, extravagant, conceited and, to top it off, married to a Roman Catholic.

It was his way or the highway when it came to wars, the Scots, religion, and Parliament. He treasured his vast art collection, funded by his subjects about whom he cared little.

All the regicides were ordered to surrender, and some did, thinking their lives would be spared. Hell hath no fury like a son whose father has been beheaded.

Some were beheaded anyway, confound those promises!

In the first regicide trial, that of Colonel (later, Major General) Thomas Harrison, the judge ruled:

"'...you shall be hanged by the neck, and being alive shall be cut down, and your privy members to be cut off, your entrails to be taken out of your body, and (you living) the same to be burnt before your eyes, and your head to be cut off, your body to be divided into four quarters...'"

to be disposed at the King's pleasure.

Well!

And that wasn't the end of it.

Preceding the butchering, the guilty were hauled in a sledge on the way to the gallows, wearing only a shirt to better receive the tossed objects and insults directed at them by Londoners and to ease the butcher's job of cutting off their privates after they had regained consciousness from hanging.

Until this reading, I had never thought too much about "drawn and quartered," but Readers, it was real and literal!

(The Capitol Hill insurrectionists should be thankful this is 2021 and not 1660 when the "regicides" were hunted throughout England and beyond.)

Head for the hills, man!

And that's what some did, to the Netherlands (those wretched Dutch who turned in the prey) and to New America where a hunt for Col. Edward Whalley and Lt. William Goffe was n'er successful, be that the two were hidden often by government officials and private individuals, on farms, in the wilderness, in basements (two years) until Mr. Whalley died and Mr. Goffe (his son-in-law) was never traced to his final "settlement" which, the author suggests, just might be in Virginia.

King Charles II was so mad that his New World subjects and huntsmen could not find "the most prominent" of his father's killers, Whalley and Goffe, that he took away New Haven's independence and made it part of Connecticut. Take that, you blarney killers!

(Streets in New Haven still bear the regicides' names like 10 Downing Street in London, named after a "first-rate traitor," one of King Charles II's men, who tricked the Dutch and captured three regicides, including his former commander. Samuel Pepys called Downing [doesn't deserve a first-name listing] "a perfidious rogue.")

Then there was Dame Alice Lisle, a mother of 11 and in her late 60s who had harbored two regicides and was the wife of the regicide John Lisle, already dead by 21 years, killed by an assassin in Switzerland, but don't hold that against her, and they did.

Off with her head!

The judge became part of her prosecution and the jury debated all of 15 minutes, and Dame Alice, a community pillar, became the last woman beheaded by order of the English government. (Her sentence had been commuted from burning at the stake, the usual death sentence given to women.)

One famous regicide (or regicide supporter, depending on what you read), and still known to us today was John Milton (1608-1674), the poet who was imprisoned in the Tower of London for a few weeks and penalized financially, but he was one of the lucky ones who kept his head. (Sometimes, the writing profession can be a lifeline.)

Charles II had the body of Oliver Cromwell (the chief insurrectionist who died in 1658) and others dug up, hung at the gallows, beheaded, and spiked on poles for the thousands to see, a lesson to all you commoners who even thought about killing a king. (Wikipedia's list of the regicides excludes Poet Milton.)

Reader, if you can get through all of the names at the beginning of the book, you've overcome the most boring parts, and the pace quickens to the actual trial of the king. (The index is excellent.)

And whether at the beginning you're unsure if you support the king or the regicides, by the end you'll be rooting for the latter as did I and also, the author who dedicates the book as tribute to them (and "Charlotte").

As usual, I am asking, please, for a glossary of the players with brief biographical sketches to help the reader keep them straight, and a map of escape routes would be useful, too.

Who's got the movie rights? I want to see it, but, no gory parts, please!

The chase! The chase!

patricialesli@gmail.com

A sight for all eyes: the Marquesa at the National Gallery of Art

Francisco de Goya, María Ana de Pontejos y Sandoval, the Marquesa de Pontejos. c. 1786, National Gallery of Art, Washington

Note the lovely flowers and ribbons which adorn her engagement gown and the limp carnation in her right hand. Only women can imagine how "scratchy" the dress was/Detail of The Marquesa de Pontejos, c. 1786 by Francisco de Goya, National Gallery of Art, Washington

See her shoes and her pug which barks at you on the audio at the National Gallery of Art/Detail of The Marquesa de Pontejos, c. 1786 by Francisco de Goya, National Gallery of Art, Washington

When next you visit the National Gallery of Art after it opens again (and it will), feast your eyes (and your senses) on Marquesa de Pontejos found just beyond the Rotunda, heading east on the main floor of the West Building towards the U.S. Capitol.


Francisco de Goya (1746-1828) of Spain was the artist who painted the Marquesa (1762-1834) when she was 24. Likely it was for an engagement portrait for her first marriage to the nobleman Francisco de Monino y Redondo, the Spanish ambassador to Portugal. (Twenty-four seems rather old for a woman's first engagement for that time period and even, "old" centuries later. If this is her engagement gown, imagine her wedding apparel.)

After her husband's death in 1808 the Marquesa married a royal bodyguard, Don Fernando de Silva y Meneses, who died in 1817 before her last marriage in the same year to her most famous husband, Joaquín Pérez Vizcaino y Moles (1790-1840 and 30 years younger than the Marquesa!).

Joaquin joined forces with the militia to oppose King Ferdinand VII, which forced the couple to flee and spend 11 years traveling throughout Europe (mostly in France) before they returned to their native country.*

The Marquesa de Pontejos, c. 1786 by Francisco de Goya presides in a prominent gallery at the National Gallery of Art, Washington/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The Marquesa de Pontejos, c. 1786 by Francisco de Goya, National Gallery of Art, Washington/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The Marquesa was born on September 11, 1762, the only child of a wealthy Spanish couple. When her father died in 1807, she inherited her title.

She's a beaut, a tall lass, elongated in the manner of  Diego Velázquez  whose works Goya admired and found in the royal collection to copy. Goya was a masterful portraitist, considered "the most important Spanish artist" of his time, says Wikipedia,

Finding their way at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, overseen by The Marquesa de Pontejos, c. 1786 by Francisco de Goya/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The wonder of The Marquesa de Pontejos, c. 1786 by Francisco de Goya, National Gallery of Art, Washington/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Wonder times two at The Marquesa de Pontejos, c. 1786 by Francisco de Goya, National Gallery of Art, Washington/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The Marquesa de Pontejos, c. 1786 by Francisco de Goya, National Gallery of Art, Washington/Photo by Patricia Leslie

 

The Marquesa de Pontejos, c. 1786 by Francisco de Goya, National Gallery of Art/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Goya fancies the Marquesa in the style of Marie Antoinette, apparel which the Marquesa and others of her station declined to wear publicly because of shame and unpatriotic criticisms from common people.  (Rather like wearing a mink coat in the U.S. today: Beware of paint and PETA!)

Notes from art historians mention the Marquesa's tiny waist which was likely made possible by heavy corseting.

Look at it.  Possible?  Do you suppose artists then, as they do now, use their artistic license to remove pounds and lines? Especially for commissioned pieces?

The Marquesa's dress is strewn with fresh pink flowers, maybe roses, but alas, her expression is one of boredom, matched by the droopy, limp carnation in her right hand.  Art historians gleefully point to it as a symbol of "love," however, it matches her face and the suspected direction of a relationship we'll never know. Many women of high rank were portrayed with big smiles, missing here.

Was she unhappy at the prospects of marrying Redondo? I imagine it was an arranged marriage. for surely, Goya painted her in person without photographs (invented 40 years later). 

She stood for him in the uncomfortable gear and look at her shoes!  Ouch!  

Her head gear practically becomes a halo which, to an artist 16 years older, she might have possessed.

A pug in the lower right corner barks in the children's audio at this NGA link.

In 1786 the year of this painting, King Charles III appointed Goya the painter to the king and shortly after his coronation in 1789, Charles IV made him court painter.

Hear the NGA audio about the painting in several difference languages.

*From Jonathan Brown and Richard G. Mann, Spanish Paintings of the Fifteenth through Nineteenth Centuries, National Gallery of Art, 1990

The Marquesa de Pontejos, c. 1786 by Francisco de Goya, National Gallery of Art, Washington/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Who: The Marquesa de Pontejos

What: by Franciso de Goya

When: c. 1786

Where: The West Building, National Gallery of Art, Washington

What time: Under normal circumstances, the National Gallery is open seven days a week, but given these unnormal circumstances, please check the website.

Metro stations for the National Gallery of Art:
Smithsonian, Federal Triangle, Navy Memorial-Archives, or L'Enfant Plaza

For more information: 202-737-4215

How much: Admission to the National Gallery is always free.

patricialesli@gmail.com

Book review: 'Fallout: The Hiroshima Cover-up' is highly recommended

 

The chief message to journalists: Don't give up.

If I were in charge of reading lists for journalism students, this would be on it, a story within a story of how a civilization was decimated by the atomic bomb, and how the people bombed lived to tell about it.

Which they did to John Hersey, reporter and novelist who won the Pulitzer Prize for A Bell for Adano, his first novel, the year before the bomb was dropped.

Lesley M. M. Blume's Fallout: The Hiroshima Coverup and the Reporter Who Revealed It to the World (2020) follows Mr. Hersey's account of his interviews with six bomb victims and the secret production of the story in the New Yorker which published the report in a 31,000 word issue, the first time it devoted its entire issue to a single topic.

In the article which came out a little more than a year after the bomb dropped, Mr. Hersey describes the U.S. government's efforts to withhold the effects.

The story portrayed for the first time, Japanese as human beings, like me and you, ordinary people (p. 127). Until the story, Americans resisted considering their enemy across the sea as anything but murderers intent on destroying their nation. But the bomb drop on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 shattered the lives of civilians, children, families, people.

First atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan by B-29 superfortresses on August 6, 1945. Title from item. "Official photograph furnished by Headquarters, A.A.F. AC/AS-2"--stamped on back of print. "If published credit U.S. Army, A.A.F. photo"--stamped on back of print. Photo number: A-58914 AC. Forms part of the National Committee on Atomic Information records at the Library of Congress. PR 13 CN 1995:068 (1 AA size box)

Ms. Blum describes Mr. Hersey's three weeks in Japan interviewing survivors who became the focus of his article. How he got there and got "in" Hiroshima are important pieces of the story's puzzle.

His collaboration with the New Yorker's co-founder, Harold Ross, and an editor, William Shawn, were so secret, they kept the subject hidden from the magazine's staff who wondered about content missing for the next edition.

Two other journalists had earlier written about Hiroshima, but their reports were dismissed, although their reporting led to a requirement that reporters must be accompanied by an official.

Australian journalist Wilfred Burchett ridiculed "housetrained reporters" who simply wrote what the U.S. government wished (p. 30).

Worried about the U.S. military's response to the article, the New Yorker's trio passed it pre-publication for muster to Leslie Groves, the director of the Manhattan Project which developed the bomb. Surprisingly, with slight edits, he okayed it.

Tormented throughout his work, Hersey was horrified that a single bomb could cause so much destruction (p. 72).

One of the victims described eyes which melted, the liquid flowing down what used to be faces on people still alive.

Many ran naked through the streets.

Skin peeled off.

A baby choked on dirt swallowed in a collapsed house. The mother refused to relinquish her child's decomposing body for days (p. 85).

To escape the fires, some jumped into one of Hiroshima's seven rivers where bodies of massacred victims floated (p. 92).

Civilians appeared "like a procession of ghosts," one survivor told Mr. Hersey (p. 84).

Of 300 doctors in Hiroshima, 270 died or were wounded; nurses lost 1,654 of their 1,780 to death or injury (p. 89).

By November 30, 1945 the death count reached 78,000 with 14,000 people still missing.

Burned legs show the effects of atomic bombs on people who survived.Otis Historical Archives of “National Museum of Health & Medicine” (OTIS Archive 1)/Creative Commons, Wikipedia.

Partially incinerated child in Nagasaki. Photo from Japanese photographer Yōsuke Yamahata, one day after the blast and building fires had subsided. Once the American forces had Japan under military control, they imposed censorship on all such images including those from the conventional bombing of Tokyo which prevented the distribution of Yamahata's photographs. These restrictions were lifted in 1952  http://www.noorderlicht.com/en/archive/yosuke-yamahata/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=66792817. 

On a press tour of facilities in New Mexico, Lieutenant General Groves told reporters that the number of Japanese who died from radiation was "very small" (p. 45) and that Hiroshima was "essentially radiation-free" (p. 46).

Speaking to the Senate Special Committee on Atomic Energy, he quoted doctors who said death by radiation "is a very pleasant way to die" (p. 47). Mr. Groves had no apologies for the bomb drop, unlike some scientists who showed misgivings (p. 146).

The day after Victory over Japan was declared on August 14, 1945, a poll showed the majority of Americans approved the bombings, and almost 25% said they wished America had bombed more (p. 24).

After the story was published, the eyewitness subjects applauded Mr. Hersey's acuity in retelling their lives.

The article was printed as a book, Hiroshima, which became a worldwide phenomenon which has never gone out of print, selling three million copies and available in several languages. At publication it was picked up by 500 radio stations, including the BBC, and thrust Mr. Hersey into the limelight, a position he resisted.

The welcome epilogue brings the reader up-to-date with key characters, but a glossary of them would have amplified the content and made it easier to follow, a wish I have for most books I read.

This is a small book with an index of almost 100 pages which consumes almost a third of the total pages. I wished for more research, a longer book with additional "behind-the-scenes" descriptions.

Still, a book to be reckoned with and acknowledged as another chapter in America's gruesome past.

patricialesli@gmail.com

Update: This Christmas ain't what it's supposed to be

A close-up of one of the 2012  White House Christmas trees when President Obama was in office/by Patricia Leslie

How about a little clam chowder mixed with carrot cake? 

No?

It all started with my son telling me on the day before I was supposed to leave for Thanksgiving in Nashville, that I'd better not come. 

Thanks, William! (I don't think I'm as bad as my ex-mother-in-law, but my daughter-in-law might disagree.)

 An explosion of clam chowder/by Patricia Leslie

Then I decided, because of all the covid-fears, to cancel my Christmas trip to Orlando to see my sister which really relieved me of a lot of stress and saved me tons of money because I have to stay in a hotel, rent a car, buy food, etc. (I fly "free" on Southwest!)

A mixture of clam chowder and carrot cake with "lunch (somethings)" thrown in/by Patricia Leslie

My sister lives in a 35-years-old +++ mobile home with a sagging roof and an inside zoo (no charge for admission!). Really, the odors which waft from said zoo are enough to keep a relative outside which is where I stay when I visit.

We celebrate Christmas in her driveway in folding chairs, opening presents and drinking mimosas. When I used to go inside, her gnarling pit bull and Doberman Pinscher constantly circled my chair and were a bit unnerving. (She had to call the police more than once to separate those two. You ever read any Flannery O'Connor?)

So far, my Christmas gifts have included a used pair of Uggs (unwrapped), a drugstore calendar, and (via UPS) a smashed container of clam chowder mixed with the carrot cake in a dented plastic container, the edibles from my sister who also sent a pretty Christmas cocktail napkin and a paper plate in another box.

I'm not a big fan of carrot cake anyway, but digging among the ruins in the box, I was able to salvage some parts which tasted pretty good and were particularly moist.

Isn't clam chowder in a plastic container supposed to be refrigerated?

When I opened the box, the chowder which was not clinging to the sides of the box and had not soaked the carrot cake, splattered my brown winter coat which I wear indoors where, for many reasons, the thermostat is set at 58 (sometimes 55) degrees Fahrenheit.

The explosion and mixture of white on brown were rather Christmasy after all, like snowflakes on a mountain.

My sister also sent a whisk (?)... to stir the chowder and the carrot cake?

She works at the Walmart and to hear her tell it, you'd think she was there 90 hours a week which are actually 12 or 16. 

Yesterday she left me a message that her food stamps had been cut off. At the library she forgot her password to log on for her food stamps so she called the governor's office and someone called her back the next day and set her straight on her food stamps. 

The family which sent me the drugstore calendar usually sends nuts or cookies, but the calendar was my gift this year. You know what a drugstore calendar is, right?

Yep, a free calendar you get at the drugstore!

I know, I know, I know! I am a horrible person, especially in this horrible of horrible years and I should be grateful for anything.  I  a-m  g-r-a-t-e-f-u-l.  Thank you, friends and relatives for these wonderful gifts!

And let's see what tomorrow brings!!

Update: Tomorrow did not bring grapefruit my daughter and her family usually send. I love that grapefruit. Where, oh where can my grapefruit be?

Instead, they sent two little boxes. Unless the contents are diamonds or some other equally comparable gem, they cannot compare with grapefruit. With the slooowwww post office deliveries this year (thanks, Trump, and your new post office honcho who I hope President-Elect Biden replaces on January 20), I am hoping the grapefruit is delayed, and it is coming, coming, coming, right?

But this Christmas ain't what it's supposed to be.

Another update:  On January 12, 2021 grapefruit arrived!  Thank you, family!  This Christmas became what I wanted it to be!  Happy New Year!

patricialesli@gmail.com