june 11

JOHN CONSTABLE (June 11, 1776)

June 11 is the birthday of English painter JOHN CONSTABLE (1776-1837).

"The sound of water escaping from mill dams, etc., willows, old rotten planks, slimy posts, and brickwork, I love such things."

Constable "was an English landscape painter in the Romantic tradition. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for revolutionising the genre of landscape painting with his pictures of Dedham Vale, the area surrounding his home – now known as 'Constable Country' – which he invested with an intensity of affection. 'I should paint my own places best,' he wrote to his friend John Fisher in 1821, 'painting is but another word for feeling.'"

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Stonehenge

Cloud Study (1822)

JULIA MARGARET CAMERON (June 11, 1815)

June 11 is the birthday of British photographer JULIA MARGARET CAMERON (1815-1879).

Born in Calcutta, Cameron " is considered one of the most important portraitists of the 19th century. She is known for her soft-focus close-ups of famous Victorian men and for illustrative images depicting characters from mythology, Christianity, and literature. She also produced sensitive portraits of women and children." (Wikipedia)

Charles Darwin

Parting of Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere

King Arthur

RICHARD STRAUSS (June 11, 1864)

June 11 is the birthday of German composer RICHARD STRAUSS (1864-1949).

"I may not be a first-rate composer, but I am a first-class second-rate composer."

Noted for his lush, opulent orchestrations, among his many masterpieces are the operas "Salomé" and "Der Rosenkavalier," as well as the tone poems :Death and Transfiguration," "Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks," Also sprach Zarathustra" and Ein Heldenleben. One of his most exalted works is An Alpine Symphony, which is a depiction of a mountain-climbing expedition. In the excerpt conducted by the great Straussian Herbert von Karajan, the climbers have reached the summit ...

john knox

ERIC FRASER (June 11, 1902)

June 11 is the birthday of British illustrator and graphic artist ERIC FRASER (1902-1983).

Fraser "illustrated scenes from mythology, such as Beowulf fighting the dragon. With pen and ink he illustrated legendary scenes and several works of Shakespeare. Many of the drawings for the jackets designed in the 1960s for the Everyman's Library series (published by J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd in Britain and E. P. Dutton in America) were executed by Fraser. He also illustrated J. R. R. Tolkien's books, such as the Folio Society edition of The Lord of the Rings in 1977. He also produced designs for Royal Mail." (Wikipedia)

Cover design for Robert S de Ropp's book Drugs and the Mind (II), published by the Scientific Book Club in 1957

Untitled Woodblock

Instantly the whole sky turned black as midnight' – illustration from Sir William and the Wolf and Other Stories from the Days of Chivalry, by John Hampden, published in 1960 by J M Dent & Sons

this day in history

alexander the great

THIS DAY IN HISTORY: On June 11, 323 B.C., Alexander the Great died.