God and War

This painting by the Italian war illustrator Matania depicts 'A' Company of the 2nd Battlion Royal Munster Fusiliers, stopped en route to Aubers Ridge in Belgium on 8 May 1915. The central figure is Father Francis Gleeson, a Roman Catholic priest, who is pronouncing a general absolution on the soldiers before they go into battle. The next day, 19 out of 22 officers and 320 'other ranks' out of 520 died. World War I is notorious still for the high rate of attrition amongst troops, and the apparent pointlessness of the conflict - although it appeared otherwise at the time. If men weren't in charge, would this sort of thing happen?

An unknown woman

I saw this striking picture for the first time in the recent BBC-TV programme 'The Victorians', fronted by Jeremy Paxman. But nothing was said to identify the painting; and even more frustratingly it did not appear in the 'book of the series'. Other enquiries led to nothing. Finding out on the internet what a particular image is remains hard, despite the introduction of Google's 'similar pictures' feature this week: you still need to know what the first image is to find it. But after much searching on the internet, I finally tracked it down in the Bridgeman Art Library, a very useful resource which can be found at http://www.bridgemanart.com/ . It is a portrait of the French singer Rose Caron, by a rather obscure artist called Auguste Toulmouche, active in France until his death in 1890. He was perhaps not in the first rank of artists; the rendering of the dress, for instance, is lifeless compared with the paintings being done by John Singer Sargent at this period. Ms Caron herself had an interesting career - unhappily married young and then divorced in 1886, she appeared in many new French operas, and became the intimate friend of the politician Georges Clemenceau. She was the mistress of the Foreign Minister Delcasse and had two children, both predeceasing her. She is buried in the small town of Monnerville, south of Paris. Researching this also led me to the wonderful websites of Alice Guy Jr, whose site on Rose Caron is at http://rose-caron.blogspot.com/ . There are links on that to her many other sites. The site includes another picture of Rose Caron:

in one of her roles. Not many people know about Rose Caron today, but she is not forgotten.

A message from 1897

This postcard, which I bought a few years ago, was sent in 1897 by Muriel Hill, ending her singing lessons. Miss Hill can be tracked down even now, in the 1901 census records; at that time she was in her mid-twenties, living at home with her family still, in the prosperous suburb of Harrow . The postcard has survived because of the stamp it carries, although that is ordinary enough. But one wonders what lay behind the terse message. Had she grown weary of learning sentimental Victorian songs? Had Mr Cummings made unwelcome advances to his young pupil? Had Muriel decided to take up another interest - such as the then very fashionable occupation, for ladies, of cycling ? We shall never know. The inanimate object, the card, survives her and it both conveys and conceals something of one ordinary life. What will people know of us in 112 years' time?

nb: the card was written, posted, received and acknowledged all on the same day: 19 March. These were the days when men would send a postcard to their wives telling them which train they would be catching back from work, knowing the card would be delivered that afternoon. How things have improved in the postal service.........

Doing a simple task well

Today I sat in Bristol Cathedral for an hour before an appointment. This was a rare opportunity to do nothing but think and watch, without interruption. I watched an Italian-looking girl genuflecting twice before the altar, a Catholic practice in an Anglican cathedral. And I saw two of the cathedral workers tidying the huge paschal candle, which is lit for Easter. These candles are very substantial, like the example pictured here. This one was about three feet long and very heavy. One man removed it from its stand and took it away. Another brought a dustbin and removed the flower arrangement of white, gold and green from the candle holder, and replaced it with another arrangement. Then the candle, duly trimmed of molten wax at the top, was brought back over the first man's shoulder - they will break if carried in two hands - and the whole thing, stand and candle, was moved back into the quire, to stand near the altar. When I had first seen it, it had been by the temporary altar placed in the nave for the morning service. Then one of the men swept up the mess of dead flowers etc from the floor. This was a simple job for them, but one but done with care and commitment, a routine but not routine task in the life of a building dedicated to prayer. For an atheist, prayer is a difficult subject; but many atheists feel strangely at home in churches. In future posts, I hope to say more about other churches which I have been in and have felt - something.