Coffee for the moon

𝙰𝚕𝚎𝚡𝚊 / 𝙿𝚎𝚍𝚎𝚜 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚛𝚊 𝚊𝚍 𝚜𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚛𝚊 𝚟𝚒𝚜𝚞𝚜

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Windflowers, by John William Waterhouse (1902), oil on canvas.

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Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, Portrait of Julie Le Brun (1780–1819) Looking in a Mirror, 1787.

During her lifetime, Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun was not only the most celebrated female painter in France but also one of the most sought-after portraitists in Europe. Closely associated with Queen Marie Antoinette, she built a career that depended as much on artistic skill as on a carefully managed public image—something she understood with unusual clarity in the competitive environment of the Parisian art world. Her admission to the French Royal Academy in 1783, despite institutional resistance to women artists, marked a significant milestone and allowed her to exhibit regularly at the Salon.

In 1787, she presented three portraits of her daughter, Julie, at the Salon, including this particularly inventive composition. Far from being a simple maternal portrait, the work can be read as a subtle assertion of her intellectual and artistic identity. By foregrounding her role as both mother and creator, Vigée Le Brun suggests that maternity does not confine her creativity but rather coexists with and even enriches it.

In the painting, Julie appears simultaneously in profile and facing forward through the strategic use of a mirror—an intentionally impossible construction that challenges conventional perspective. This dual image not only demonstrates the artist’s technical sophistication but also engages with longstanding artistic traditions. It recalls allegorical representations of Sight and participates in Enlightenment-era debates about perception, truth, and illusion in painting. The mirror becomes more than a compositional device; it serves as a philosophical tool, inviting viewers to question what is seen and what is real, while also reinforcing the painter’s command over visual deception and narrative complexity.

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"But man has such a predilection for systems and abstract deductions that he is ready to distort the truth intentionally, he is ready to deny the evidence of his senses only to justify his logic". - Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from the Underground

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"La Somnambule", by Edouard Rosset-Granger (French, b. 1853).

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Édouard Joseph Dantan (French, 1848-1897) A corner of the workshop, 1880 Oil on canvas, 98 x 130 cm Musée des Avelines, Saint-Cloud, France © Musée des Avelines

Dantan's works followed the academic tradition of painting, and were praised by his contemporaries. His technical mastery is illustrated by such paintings as Un coin d'atelier (1880), where he depicts his father working on a bas-relief in his studio, seen from behind. The studio is cluttered with paintings and sculptures. In the foreground, a nude woman is taking a break from modelling. A critic praised the painting for following all the rules of trompe-l'oeil and stereoscopic photography.

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"What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise".

― Oscar Wilde

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"Light catcher" (2012) by Helene Beland.

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"Inner regulation begins only when you choose the side of grace, and make the ways of life in the spirit of grace the inviolable rule in your life".

St. Theophan the Recluse

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📷 @luca_m3692 on Instagram.

Pinacoteca di Brera.

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📸 "Alegoría del verano" y "Alegoría del Otoño" por Máximo Juderías (1867-1951).

@museocerralbo

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“Wise is he who does not grieve over what he does not have, but rejoices in what he has.”

— Democritus, Fragments, B231

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@katrinditrih on Instagram.

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"Everything passes away - suffering, pain, blood, hunger, pestilence. The sword will pass away too, but the stars will remain when the shadows of our presence and our deeds have vanished from the Earth. There is no man who does not know that. Why, then, will we not turn our eyes toward the stars? Why?". ― Mikhail Bulgakov, The White Guard

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@helloimaubs on Instagram

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@elle_the_home_bird on Instagram

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"The tongue can conceal the truth, but the eyes never! You're asked an unexpected question, you don't even flinch, it takes just a second to get yourself under control, you know just what you have to say to hide the truth, and you speak very convincingly, and nothing in your face twitches to give you away. But the truth, alas, has been disturbed by the question, and it rises up from the depths of your soul to flicker in your eyes and all is lost". ― Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita

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@metcloisters on Instagram