May 9
Vanity
JAMES COLLINSON (May 9, 1825)
May 9 is the birthday of Pre-Raphaelite painter JAMES COLLINSON (1825-1881).
"Collinson was a devout Christian who was attracted to the devotional and high church aspects of Pre-Raphaelitism. A convert to Catholicism, Collinson reverted to high Anglicanism in order to marry Christina Rossetti, but his conscience forced his return to Catholicism and the break-up of the engagement. When Millais' painting Christ in the House of his Parents was accused of blasphemy, Collinson resigned from the Brotherhood in the belief that it was bringing the Christian religion into disrepute.
During his period as a Pre-Raphaelite, Collinson contributed a long devotional poem to The Germ and produced a number of religious works, most importantly The Renunciation of St. Elizabeth of Hungary (1850). After his resignation Collinson trained for the priesthood at a Jesuit college, but did not complete his studies." (Wikipedia)
The Renunciation of St. Elizabeth of Hungary
Doubt
J.M. BARRIE (May 9, 1860)
May 9 is the birthday of the author of Peter Pan, J.M. BARRIE (1860-1937).
"Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves."
"Always be a little kinder than necessary."
"Dreams do come true, if we only wish hard enough, You can have anything in life if you will sacrifice everything else for it."
"God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December."
"To die will be an awfully big adventure."
Barrie "was a Scottish novelist and playwright, best remembered as the creator of Peter Pan. He was born and educated in Scotland and then moved to London, where he wrote several successful novels and plays. There he met the Llewelyn Davies boys, who inspired him to write about a baby boy who has magical adventures in Kensington Gardens (first included in Barrie's 1902 adult novel The Little White Bird), then to write Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, a 1904 West End "fairy play" about an ageless boy and an ordinary girl named Wendy who have adventures in the fantasy setting of Neverland.
Although he continued to write successfully, Peter Pan overshadowed his other work, and is credited with popularising the name Wendy. Barrie unofficially adopted the Davies boys following the deaths of their parents. Barrie was made a baronet by George V on 14 June 1913, and a member of the Order of Merit in the 1922 New Year Honours. Before his death, he gave the rights to the Peter Pan works to Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London, which continues to benefit from them." (Wikipedia)
(Silent film version of Peter Pan, 1924. It is well-known for its special effects, especially Tinkerbell.)
HOWARD CARTER (May 9, 1874)
May 9 is the birthday of British Egyptologist HOWARD CARTER (1874-1939).
Carter's greatest discovery was the intact tomb of the 18th Dynasty Pharaoh, Tutankhamun, in November 1922.
"In 1904, after a dispute with local people over tomb thefts, he was transferred to the Inspectorate of Lower Egypt. Carter was praised for his improvements in the protection of, and accessibility to, existing excavation sites, and his development of a grid-block system for searching for tombs. The Antiquities Service also provided funding for Carter to head his own excavation projects.
Carter resigned from the Antiquities Service in 1905 after a formal inquiry into what became known as the Saqqara Affair, a violent confrontation that took place on January 8, 1905. between Egyptian site guards and a group of French tourists. Carter sided with the Egyptian personnel, refusing to apologise when the French authorities made an official complaint. Moving back to Luxor, Carter was without formal employment for nearly three years. He made a living by painting and selling watercolours to tourists and, in 1906, acting as a freelance draughtsman for Theodore Davis." (Wikipedia)
RALPH GOINGS (May 9, 1928)
May 9 is the birthday of painter RALPH GOINGS (1928-2016).
"I thought, enough of this, I'm not an abstract painter, what the hell am I going to do? Should I get a job in a shoe store, sell real estate, or what? I was really depressed by the whole thing, because I felt like a painter, yet I couldn't make paintings."
Goings "was an American painter closely associated with the Photorealism movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was best known for his highly detailed paintings of hamburger stands, pick-up trucks, and California banks, portrayed in a deliberately objective manner." (Wikipedia)
TRIO
DONUTS
Cream Pie (1987)
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
LINCOLN CATHEDRAL
On May 9, 1092, LINCOLN CATHEDRAL was consecrated.
When it was completed, it usurped the Great Pyramid at Giza as the largest building in the world and maintained that title for the next 238 years. It's now the third largest cathedral in Britain.
"I have always held that the cathedral of Lincoln is out and out the most precious piece of architecture in the British Isles and roughly speaking worth any two other cathedrals we have." -- John Ruskin
Vertigo
May 9, 1958, Alfred Hitchcock's VERTIGO had its world premiere in San Francisco.
"Vertigo" "received mixed reviews upon initial release, but is now cited as a classic Hitchcock film and one of his defining works. In 1989, it was one of the first 25 films selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being 'culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.' The film appears repeatedly in polls of the best films by the American Film Institute, including a 2007 ranking as the ninth-greatest American movie ever. Attracting significant scholarly attention, it replaced Citizen Kane (1941) as the greatest film ever made in The Sight & Sound Greatest Films of All Time 2012 poll, and came in 2nd in 2022." (Wikipedia)