Julius Leblanc Stewart, American
Artist Working on His Masterpiece, “Barista Who Gets Customer’s Order Wrong,” 1875
Oil on canvas
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Artist info is pointed to in my comment at a prior blog entry.
/// He must paint many figures, he’d known,
but his model is posing alone.
Julius set up a dummy
(although it looked crummy).
Round an armature, padding was sewn.
/// Green-gray body beneath a pink head,
and distorted— a shape one could dread.
The live model felt foolish,
but this manikin’s ghoulish.
Like a corpse that has been three weeks dead.
/// Wires bent inside helped the doll pose
with the model who, next to it, froze.
Then the costume was changed
and the two rearranged.
So… which one is the dummy? Who knows.
/// When the model changed clothing and places,
Julius sometimes lost track of the faces.
Can’t distinguish between
different men in the scene.
They all look alike in many cases.
/// On a rug in the painting’s foreground
is a curly-haired sleeping black hound.
Julius hoped she would pose
in a Princess’s clothes,
but the dog had refused to stay gowned.
/// One wears red because swords sever veins,
and the color obscures the bloodstains.
His opponent, (the nude),
is a pacifist dude
who, from carrying weapons, abstains.
/// In his own self-defense he’ll take action.
To disarm his foe brings satisfaction.
He employs martial arts
and his uncovered parts,
which provide an unnerving distraction.