Author: ultrawolvesunderthefullmoon

https://www.instagram.com/wolvesofgray This blog is a refugee and a survivor of the Great Tumblr Inquisition of December 17th, 2018. I am gay artist, who received training at the Rhode Island School of Design, and now, a retired high-end fine art framer living in Maryland, USA. My interests and studies in life run a wide gamut from art to history and from the scientific to the esoteric. I have been building this blog of images and texts for the last eight years. My wish is that my posts pique the interest of viewers and encourage them to experience more.

Otto Greiner

Otto Greiner, “Odysseus and the Sirens”, 1902

The images are from a color reproduction of a large-scale painting by Otto Greiner done in 1902. The original painting was lost from the Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig, Germany, during World War II.

Born in Leipzig, Germany, in 1869, Otto Greiner was a painter and printmaker. His work is based on careful graphic preparation and, in particular, on accurate life drawing of figures. He began an lithography apprenticeship in Leipzig in 1884 and also took lessons in drawing. Between 1888 to 1891, Greiner studied at the Akademie der Blidenden Künste in Munich under Sándor Liezen-Mayer, a Hungarian-born German illustrator and painter of historical scenes.

In the autumn of 1891, Otto Greiner made his first journey to Italy, visiting Florence and Rome, where he met and befriended German symbolist painter and printmaker Max Klinger. Returning to Germany, he worked in Munich and Leipzig between 1892 and 1898, when he traveled back to Rome, using Klinger’s former studio and living there until 1915. Forced by Italy fighting against Germany in World War I, Greiner returned to his homeland.

Greiner produced 112 paintings, the majority devoted to antique and fantastic subjects, and portraiture. He died in Munich in September of 1916.

J. D. Salinger: “And I’m Standing on the Edge of Some Crazy Cliff”

Photographer Unknown, (The Red Cloth)

“Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around – nobody big, I mean – except me. And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff – I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it’s crazy, but that’s the only thing I’d really like to be.”

― J. D. Salinger, Tne Catcher in the Rye

Rainer Maria Rilke: “A Broad Melody Always Wakes Behind You”

Photographers Unknown, Interactions Between Men

“Whether it be the singing of a lamp or the voice of a storm, whether it be the breath of an evening or the groan of the ocean — whatever surrounds you, a broad melody always wakes behind you, woven out of a thousand voices, where there is room for your own solo only here and there. To know when you need to join in: that is the secret of your solitude: just as the art of true interactions with others is to let yourself fall away from high words into a single common melody.”

― Rainer Maria Rilke, The Collected Works of Rainer Maria Rilke: The Complete Works PergamonMedis 

Tachi Gunto Sword

Art in a Blade: Fully Hand Forged Clay Tempered Razor Sharp Japanese Tachi Gunto Sword- Available from handmade sword.com- Price: $17500.

Steel: 1095 steel
Blade: clay tempered;
Edge: Sharp;
Hamon(Tempered line): Distinct real hamon;
Tsuka(Handle): Brass engraved with Samurai’s living & battle & with genuine cowhide accessories;
Saya: Brass plated with real gold engraved with Samurai’s living & battle & with genuine cowhide ornament;
Tang: Full tang engraved with black smith’s signature;
Tsuba: Brass engraved with waves;
Other Fittings: Brass;
Condition: Brand new & can be fully disassembled and assembled;
Blade Length(with habaki): 30″
Handle Length: 11.8″
Overall Length(with Saya): 44.1″
Blade Thickness: 0.3″
Weight (with Saya): 6 lb 2 oz
Weight (without Saya): 3 lb 8 oz

George Desvallières

George Desvallières, Pastels on Paper

Born in 1861 in Paris, George Desvallières studied at the Académie Julian with historical painter and teacher Tony Robert-Fleury and studied with Jules Valadon at the École des Beaux-Arts. His early paintings consisted of mainly portrait work.

Desvallières had a privileged relationship with Gustave Moreau, a renowned professor and one of the major figures in Symbolist painting which was steeped in mysticism. Moreau had a major influence on Desvallières’s early artwork, turning him toward an interest in mythology and religion. After a trip to Italy in 1890, his style started combining dark subjects and strong color with religious drama.

Desvallières worked with painters Maurice Denis and Albert Besnard to decorate French art and music patron Jacques Rouché’s private mansion. He also worked on a number of public and private decorative programs related to World War I: among those were windows for a church in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and for the Douaumont Ossuary, a memorial site for the skeletal remains of the soldiers who died at the Battle of Verdun in World War I.

Desvallières illustrated a number of books and plays, including “Rolla” by French dramatist Alfred de Musset and “La Princesse Lointaine” by French poet and dramatist Edmond Rostand. Collections of Desvallières’s work can be found at the Louvre in Paris and the Muséed’Orsay.

Top Image: “Joueurs de Balles”, Pastel, 1894

Bottom Image: “Tireurs a l’arc”, Pastel, 1895