Printable Vintage Art: The Fierce Friend

The Fierce Friend, c1893
by Évariste Carpentier (1845–1922)

...she doesn't have to choose between being gentle or being fierce. Both exist in nature and both exist in her. That's ok. She'll know to nourish them both and when applicable, use each unapologetically.
― Steve Maraboli

Do not be afraid to bare your teeth - you were not brought into this world covered in blood to become a gentle, tamed thing.
― Nichole McElhaney

Sources:
[1] Original image from Wikimedia.
[2] The Real Victorian's digitally enhanced version of the painting (seen above), downloadable as a 4" x 3" @ 300 ppi JPEG.


Digitally enhanced reproductions of public domain paintings are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Printable Vintage Art: Girl Eating Soup by Albert Anker

Girl Eating Soup, 1898
by Albert Anker (1831–1910)

Nourishing yourself in a way that helps you blossom in the direction you want to go is attainable, and you are worth the effort.
― Deborah Day

Nothing is more simple than greatness; indeed, to be simple is to be great.
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sources:
[1] Original image from Wikimedia.
[2] The Real Victorian's digitally enhanced version of the painting (seen above), downloadable as a 11" x 8.5" @ 300 ppi JPEG.


Digitally enhanced reproductions of public domain paintings are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Printable Vintage Art: A Mother Looking at Her Child by Silvestro Lega

A Mother Looking at Her Child, 1884
by Silvestro Lega (1826–1895)

Do not ask your children
to strive for extraordinary lives.
Such striving may seem admirable,
but it is the way of foolishness.
Help them instead to find the wonder
and the marvel of an ordinary life.
Show them the joy of tasting
tomatoes, apples and pears.
Show them how to cry
when pets and people die.
Show them the infinite pleasure
in the touch of a hand.
And make the ordinary come alive for them.
The extraordinary will take care of itself.
― William Martin, The Parent's Tao Te Ching: Ancient Advice for Modern Parents

Sources:
[1] Original image from Wikimedia.
[2] The Real Victorian's digitally enhanced version of the painting (seen above), downloadable as a 8" x 12" @ 300 ppi JPEG.


Digitally enhanced reproductions of public domain paintings are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Printable Vintage Art: Winter Afternoon, Riverside Park by George Wesley Bellows

Winter Afternoon, Riverside Park, 1909
by George Wesley Bellows (1882–1925)
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
― Benjamin Franklin

Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does. It is up to you to give life a meaning.
― Jean-Paul Sartre

We were the people who were not in the papers. We lived in the blank white spaces at the edges of print. It gave us more freedom. We lived in the gaps between the stories.
― Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale

Sources:
[1] Original image from Wikimedia.
[2] The Real Victorian's digitally enhanced version of the painting (seen above), downloadable as a 5" x 4" @ 300 ppi JPEG.


Digitally enhanced reproductions of public domain paintings are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Printable Vintage Art: Embroidery Woman by Georg Friedrich Kersting

Embroider Woman, 1817
by Georg Friedrich Kersting (1785–1847)

Have love for your inner Self and everything else is done for you.
― Amit Ray, Peace Bliss Beauty and Truth: Living with Positivity

Instead of focusing on how much you can accomplish, focus on how much you can absolutely love what you’re doing.
― Leo Babauta

Sources:
[1] Original image from Wikimedia.
[2] The Real Victorian's digitally enhanced version of the painting (seen above), downloadable as a 9" x 12" @ 300 ppi JPEG.


Digitally enhanced reproductions of public domain paintings are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Printable Vintage Art: Flower Still Life by Gustave Max Stevens

Flower Still Life, c1914
by Gustave Max Stevens (1871–1946)

She cast her fragrance and her radiance over me. I ought never to have run away from her... I ought to have guessed all the affection that lay behind her poor little stratagems. Flowers are so inconsistent! But I was too young to know how to love her...
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty.
― David Hume, Of the Standard of Taste and Other Essays

Sources:
[1] Original image from Wikimedia.
[2] The Real Victorian's digitally enhanced version of the painting (seen above), downloadable as a 10" x 8" @ 300 ppi JPEG.


Digitally enhanced reproductions of public domain paintings are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Printable Vintage Art: After Sunset by Kitty Lange Kielland

After Sunset, 1886
by Kitty Lange Kielland (1843–1914)

Dusk is just an illusion because the sun is either above the horizon or below it. And that means that day and night are linked in a way that few things are there cannot be one without the other yet they cannot exist at the same time. How would it feel I remember wondering to be always together yet forever apart?
― Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook

The pale stars were sliding into their places. The whispering of the leaves was almost hushed. All about them it was still and shadowy and sweet. It was that wonderful moment when, for lack of a visible horizon, the not yet darkened world seems infinitely greater—a moment when anything can happen, anything be believed in.
― Olivia Howard Dunbar, The Shell of Sense

Sources:
[1] Original image from Wikimedia.
[2] The Real Victorian's digitally enhanced version of the painting (seen above), downloadable as a 11.5" x 8" @ 300 ppi JPEG.


Digitally enhanced reproductions of public domain paintings are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Vintage Art Appreciation: Donkey with Cart by Hanns Bolz

Donkey with Cart, 1903
by Hanns Bolz (1885-1918)

Being faithful in the smallest things is the way to gain, maintain, and demonstrate the strength needed to accomplish something great.
― Alex Harris

We have to recognise that there cannot be relationships unless there is commitment, unless there is loyalty, unless there is love, patience, persistence.
― Cornel West, Breaking Bread: Insurgent Black Intellectual Life

The road must be trod, but it will be very hard. And neither strength nor wisdom will carry us far upon it. This quest may be attempted by the weak with as much hope as the strong. Yet it is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: Small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.
― J.R.R. Tolkien


Digitally enhanced reproductions of public domain paintings are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Printable Vintage Art: Interior from Paris by Harriet Backer

Interior from Paris, 1886
by Harriet Backer (1845–1932)

It is the still, yellow kind of afternoon when one is apt to get stuck in a dream if one sits very quiet.
― Dodie Smith

I spent my life folded between the pages of books. In the absence of human relationships I formed bonds with paper characters. I lived love and loss through stories threaded in history; I experienced adolescence by association. My world is one interwoven web of words, stringing limb to limb, bone to sinew, thoughts and images all together. I am a being comprised of letters, a character created by sentences, a figment of imagination formed through fiction.
― Tahereh Mafi, Shatter Me

Sources:
[1] Original image from Wikimedia.
[2] The Real Victorian's digitally enhanced version of the painting (seen above), downloadable as a 8" x 10" @ 300 ppi JPEG.


Digitally enhanced reproductions of public domain paintings are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Vintage Art Appreciation: Hydrangeas by Philip Wilson Steer

Hydrangeas, c1901 by Philip Wilson Steer (1860–1942).
Oil on canvas. Public domain, colours enhanced.

The model for this painting was probably Miss Ethel Warwick, as may be deduced from a portrait of her in the National Gallery of South Africa, Cape Town, also of 1901, in which she is apparently wearing the same lace-edged jacket. Related drawings are in the Victoria and Albert Museum, Steer sketchbooks. (Source: The Fitzwilliam Museum)

Ethel Warwick, 1924
Ethel Maude Warwick (1882–1951) who likely posed for the painting abov became an artists model to help pay for her tuition at the London Polytechnic where she herself was studying to be an artist. This led to her meeting Herbert Draper; Draper used her as a model for several of his paintings, including The Lament for Icarus. Through him she became a favoured model for several artists, including John William Godward and Linley Sambourne, for whom she posed nude in a series of photographic studies. She was also sketched by James McNeill Whistler.

Ethel Warwick, 1930

Digitally enhanced reproductions of public domain paintings are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Printable Vintage Art: East River Park by William James Glackens

East River Park, c1902
by William James Glackens (1870–1938)

Walkers are 'practitioners of the city,' for the city is made to be walked. A city is a language, a repository of possibilities, and walking is the act of speaking that language, of selecting from those possibilities. Just as language limits what can be said, architecture limits where one can walk, but the walker invents other ways to go.
― Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust: A History of Walking

Sources:
[1] Original image from Wikimedia.
[2] The Real Victorian's enhanced version of the painting (seen above), downloadable as a 8" x 10" @ 300 ppi JPEG. Please note this is a large file of roughly 30mb.


Digitally enhanced reproductions of public domain paintings are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Printable Vintage Art: Waiting for Papa by J. Stiner

Waiting for Papa
Drawn in 1876 by J. Stiner for Popular Graphic Arts

It was one of the nights which do not come often in a lifetime,
and which people never forget.
The darkness seems full of meaning; the hush, full of sound.
God is beyond, holding the sunrise in his right hand,
holding the sun of our earthly hopes as well; will it dawn in sorrow or in joy?
We dare not ask; we can only wait.
― Susan Coolidge, What Katy Did Next

Sources:
[1] Original image from Wikimedia
[2] The Real Victorian's enhanced version of the public domain painting seen above,
downloadable as a 8.5" x 11" @ 300 ppi JPEG

Digitally enhanced reproductions of public domain paintings are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Printable Vintage Art: Child with Christmas Card by Alden Finney Brooks

Child with Christmas Card
by Alden Finney Brooks (1840–1931)

There was nothing about you
that was ever wrong in the first place.
You were not made in error;
there is no mistaking that everything
you are was intended.
The night loves all of the moon
and her many phases.
― Courtney Peppernell, Watering the Soul

Sources:
[1] Original image from Wikimedia
[2] The Real Victorian's enhanced version of the public domain painting seen above,
downloadable as a 8.5" x 12" @ 300 ppi JPEG

Digitally enhanced reproductions of public domain paintings are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Printable Vintage Art: Madonna in a Niche with Rich Floral Pieces by Leopold Brunner

Madonna in a Niche with Rich Floral Pieces, 1846
by Leopold Brunner (1788–1866)

Prayer of an Anonymous Abbess:

Lord, thou knowest better than myself that I am growing older and will soon be old. Keep me from becoming too talkative, and especially from the unfortunate habit of thinking that I must say something on every subject and at every opportunity.

Release me from the idea that I must straighten out other peoples' affairs. With my immense treasure of experience and wisdom, it seems a pity not to let everybody partake of it. But thou knowest, Lord, that in the end I will need a few friends.

Keep me from the recital of endless details; give me wings to get to the point.

Grant me the patience to listen to the complaints of others; help me to endure them with charity. But seal my lips on my own aches and pains -- they increase with the increasing years and my inclination to recount them is also increasing.

I will not ask thee for improved memory, only for a little more humility and less self-assurance when my own memory doesn't agree with that of others. Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally I may be wrong.

Keep me reasonably gentle. I do not have the ambition to become a saint -- it is so hard to live with some of them -- but a harsh old person is one of the devil's masterpieces.

Make me sympathetic without being sentimental, helpful but not bossy. Let me discover merits where I had not expected them, and talents in people whom I had not thought to possess any. And, Lord, give me the grace to tell them so.

Amen.

Sources:
[1] Original image from Wikimedia
[2] The Real Victorian's enhanced version of the public domain painting seen above,
downloadable as a 11" x 14" @ 300 ppi JPEG

Digitally enhanced reproductions of public domain paintings are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Printable Vintage Art: Suspense by Charles Burton Barber

Suspense, 1894
by Charles Burton Barber (1845–1894)

Life is like a novel. It's filled with suspense.
You have no idea what is going to happen until you turn the page.
― Sidney Sheldon

The moment seemed endless, but it was probably only half that.
― Steve Toltz, A Fraction of the Whole

Sources:
[1] Original image from Wikimedia
[2] The Real Victorian's enhanced version of the public domain painting seen above,
downloadable as a 8" x 6" @ 300 ppi JPEG

Digitally enhanced reproductions of public domain paintings are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Printable Vintage Art: A Trio of Ladies Looking

And I go looking looking for you in the streets
And I never find you
I never find you at all.
― Dorothea Lasky, Rome: Poems

Sources:
[1] Looking Across the Seine, 1884
by Paul Chocarne-Moreau (1855–1930)
Original image from Wikimedia
[2] The Real Victorian's enhanced version of the public domain painting,
downloadable as a 5" x 7" @ 300 ppi JPEG

They say when you are missing someone that they are probably feeling the same,
but I don't think it's possible for you
to miss me as much as I'm missing you right now.
― Edna St. Vincent Millay

Sources:
[1] Graziella, 1878
by Jules Lefebvre (1834–1912)
Original image from Wikimedia
[2] The Real Victorian's enhanced version of the public domain painting,
downloadable as a 4" x 7" @ 300 ppi JPEG

My feelings are too loud for words and too shy for the world.
― Dejan Stojanovic

Sources:
[1] Longing (Reverie), c1900
by Heinrich Vogeler (1872–1942)
Original image from Wikimedia
[2] The Real Victorian's enhanced version of the public domain painting,
downloadable as a 4" x 5" @ 300 ppi JPEG


Digitally enhanced reproductions of public domain paintings are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Printable Vintage Art: Still Life with Flowers by António José da Costa

Still Life with Flowers, 1883
by António José da Costa (1840–1929)

When you do something noble and beautiful and nobody noticed,
do not be sad.
For the sun every morning is a beautiful spectacle
and yet most of the audience still sleeps.
― John Lennon

The appearance of things changes according to the emotions;
and thus we see magic and beauty in them,
while the magic and beauty are really in ourselves.
― Kahlil Gibran, The Broken Wings

Sources:
[1] Original image from Wikimedia
[2] The Real Victorian's enhanced version of the painting (seen above),
downloadable as a 8" x 6" @ 300 ppi JPEG

Digitally enhanced reproductions of public domain paintings are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Printable Vintage Art: A Montmartre by Paul Gavarni

A Montmartre, 1843
- Ce qui est pointu, c'est St-Eustache.
- Oui, où qu'est l'échoppe de mon honorée mère.
- A présent, suis le bout de mon doigt...à droite de l'affaire carrée,
qui est notre église...
- contre une fumée...vois-tu ce balcon qui reluit?...
- c'est ton salon...
by Paul Gavarni (1804–1866)

Sources:
[1] Original image from Wikimedia
[2] The Real Victorian's enhanced version of the illustration (seen above),
downloadable as a 8" x 10" @ 300 ppi JPEG

Digitally enhanced reproductions of public domain paintings are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Printable Vintage Art: Walk at Dusk by Caspar David Friedrich

Walk at Dusk (Man Contemplating a Megalith),
possibly a self-portrait, c1835
by Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840)

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day.
― Albert Einstein

Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature -- the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.
― Rachel Carson, Silent Spring

A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.
― Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince

Sources:
[1] Original image from Wikimedia
[2] The Real Victorian's enhanced version of the painting (seen above),
downloadable as a 24" x 18" @ 300 ppi JPEG

Digitally enhanced reproductions of public domain paintings are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Printable Vintage Art: On the Doorstep by Filippo Palizzi

On the Doorstep, 1859
by Filippo Palizzi (1818–1899)

A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.
― Elbert Hubbard

When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.
― Henri Nouwen, Out of Solitude: Three Meditations on the Christian Life

Sources:
[1] Original image from Wikimedia
[2] The Real Victorian's enhanced version of the painting (seen above),
downloadable as a 25" x 18" @ 300 ppi JPEG

Digitally enhanced reproductions of public domain paintings are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.