A pair or not a pair - two portraits by Christoph Friedrich Reinhold Lisiewski, circa 1760

These portraits certainly seem to make up a pair. But the identification of the subjects appears to have become muddled over time. The young man is possibly Leon Michał Radziwiłł (1722-1751), husband of Anna Ludwika Mycielska (1729-1771). That identification is considered due to a handwritten inscription on the stretcher of the painting made by a later family member, Ludwik Adam, Count Mycielski. To my eyes, though, nothing about the image suggests a man of about thirty-eight. The other painting is said to be a portrait of Anna Ludwika Mycielska (1729-1771), wife of the above Leon Michał Radziwiłł. Again, nothing about her appearance gives me to believe that the subject is a woman past thirty. And, as presented here, she doesn't bear any resemblance to other verified portraits of Anna Ludwika. So my conclusion is: If he is and she isn't, they're not a pair. And if either of them is and the other isn't, they may still be a pair, perhaps siblings. And if neither is, I'm going to say they are a pair!

I love the red underpainting showing through the green of the gown.

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Christoph Friedrich Reinhold Lisiewski (or Lisiewsky) (3 June 1725, Berlin – 11 June 1794. Ludwigslust), German portrait painter. He belonged to a family of painters founded by his father, Georg Lisiewski, a native of Poland who was an active portrait painter in Berlin. From 1752 to 1772 the younger Lisiewski was court painter to the Prince of Anhalt-Dessau. During that time, he also traveled to Dresden and Leipzig to work. Then, together with his sister Anna Dorothea Therbusch, he established a workshop in Berlin where, between 1773 to 1779, the two created work together; his other sister was the portrait painter Anna Rosina de Gasc. In 1783 he became an honorary member of the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin. And as the successor to his nephew Georg David Matthieu, he was a portrait painter for the Mecklenburg-Schwerin court at Ludwigslust palace. He worked there for eighteen years until his death at the age of sixty-nine.

In and out of the shadows - Ginger Rogers in "Lady in the Dark", 1944

 

Lady in the Dark is an elaborate Technicolor musical, produced by Paramount and directed by Mitchell Leisen. The screenplay was written by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett from a 1941 musical of the same name by Moss Hart; Gertrude Lawrence played the leading role in the original stage version. In typical Hollywood fashion, when it came time to transfer the stage musical to the screen, nearly all of the original Kurt Weill/Ira Gershwin songs were cut from the score. Only two fully remained, another was used as background music, and Rogers hummed a fourth, but never sang it.

The studio portraits, at least, are credited to A. L. "Whitey" Shafer.

With co-star Ray Milland.

Her hairstyle in the film - seen in the first image and this one - was considerably more elaborate than in the portraits.

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The film is probably most remembered now for the outrageously costly mink and sequined gown worn in the circus sequences; reportedly, it totaled some thirty-five thousand dollars - in 1944, wartime dollars. Raoul Pene du Bois is the credited as the film's costume designer and set decorator. Its director, Mitchell Leisen - formerly a set and costume designer, himself - supervised and contributed his creative ideas and suggestions, as well. Edith Head is credited for Rogers' modern day dress, but she also always claimed the mink dress as her own work. (Head is, of course, now notorious for having frequently and blithely taken credit for the work of others.) Pene du Bois, apparently with Leisen's suggestions, designed the gown in question. But when the skirt, the lining of which was originally set with paste stones, proved difficult to move in - much less dance - because of its great weight, an alternate version using sequins was crafted by Karinska; the famous theatrical costume designer would go uncredited. 

Le début de la fin - the coronation of Louis XVI at Reims, by Moreau le Jeune, circa 1779

 

Moreau le Jeune's large drawing in brown ink and ink wash was the final study in preparation for an engraving to commemorate the king's coronation at the Reims cathedral on 11 June 1775; the drawing, itself, was exhibited at the Salon on 1781. In the study, the king is to be seen seated at the exact center of the necessarily crowded composition as he places his right hand on the Gospels and reads his oath from a book held in his left hand, assisted by two bishops, while the Archbishop of Reims gestures toward him.

Marie Antoinette, her sisters-in-law, and ladies of the court.

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The resulting engraving.

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Other depictions of the coronation.

Another ink and ink wash study by Moreau le Jeune, 1779.

The setting and details in this depiction, its hand-colored version, and those in the following engraving do not correspond with the actual record of the event,
 giving the impression that the images may have been "recycled" from those of an earlier coronation, possibly that of Louis XV, and merely re-captioned. 

The annointing of Louis XVI at his coronation, by François Joseph Belanger, 1814. (This sketch dated after the Restoration.)

First rate genre - Après le bal, by Charles Baugniet, circa 1867

 

This is not the sort of painting to be given an enthusiastic mention - or any mention at all - in the annals of art history; among the several strikes against it with those who decide what is "important" art and what is not, it's just too pretty. Pretty and feminine. But if one can get past the misogyny and narrowness that colors the entirety of Western art history, there is much to admire in this little painting: the palette; the lighting - the way her head leans subtly into shadow, underscoring her having fallen asleep; and, most of all, the beautifully described and rendered surfaces and the exquisite detail. Such skill!