Carolus-Duran, French
“To Be Honest, Hal, I Wouldn’t Bother Too Much With That. I’d Be Shocked If Anyone Even Notices She HAS Arms,” 1883
Oil on canvas
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Info, or perhaps links that point to more info, about this artist can be found here, here (archived if necessary), here, here, here, here, here (can be read in full for free on Fridays), here, here, and here, perhaps in addition to what’s in his Wikipedia page (Google translated French Wikipedia page has more).
/// He refused her initial request
for a pose with arms folded cross chest.
Likewise, hands in her lap
got a veto. This chap
thinks an unobscured torso is best.
/// If he’ll only be painting her hand,
why did she heed the artist’s command
that she strip herself bare
and not let down her hair?
Sarah multitasks— also gets tanned.
/// He said, “We should get better acquainted.
Your form shouldn’t with clothing be tainted.”
While admiring her charms
he positioned her arms,
and a teapot’s the still life he painted.
/// Naz is painting new model, Manette
Salomon, (his most beautiful yet).
Her nude body’s perfection
and exotic complexion
make him yearn to begin to beget.
/// Holding still in an atelier airless,
it is hard for a pose to look “careless,”
but Manette makes it fresh,
showing silky smooth flesh—
a Parisienne shockingly hairless.
/// She held secrets which Naz tried to plumb,
but when questioned she’d nod and stay mum.
To detect any lie,
Manette’s pulse he would try
to take. (Felt just the pulse in his thumb.)
/// He thinks, “Manette must pose just for me!”
But she’s untamed and means to stay free.
He’s obsessed even though
she’s a Jewess, (oh, no!),
a bohemian nymph of Paris.
/// Though she’s not, to his thinking, well bred,
Naz brings tempting Manette to his bed.
She adores being wild.
Then she bears Naz’s child,
and, in time, the two lovers are wed.
/// His nude paintings of her brought them fame.
Everyone in the arts knew his name.
But the “love of his life”
was a dominant wife.
When his talent fled, she was to blame.