Rembrandt Peale, American
Darn It. Ed Knew He Had Forgotten Something On His To Do List. Pay the Electric Bill!, 1805-08
Oil on canvas
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Info about this artist is pointed to by my comment in an earlier blog entry.
/// Paper held next to flame, one would think,
will ignite and burn up in a blink.
But the note must be warm
for the letters to form;
they’d used milk as invisible ink.
/// As the candlelight blazingly shines
on the message, he sees faint brown lines
darken into fine script
he would need to decrypt,
this ancestor of actor Ralph Fiennes.
/// Though it’s dark where he sits in the gloom
of a drape-shrouded, small-windowed room,
his one candle’s so bright
that, to salvage his sight,
he wears shades, (or, that’s what I assume).
/// When a light shines too brightly he’ll wince.
He can no longer read if he squints.
With these glasses he’ll see
special scenes in 3-D,
(if they’re drawn in cyan and red tints).