Here are two images of the painting Pierrot grimaçant (Pierrot Grimacing) by Gustave Doré, located in Strasbourg at the Musée d’Art moderne et contemporain. This undated work is said to be a self-portrait of Doré in clown form, but I don't understand why. Isn't there something beautifully, nauseatingly deformed about this Pierrot? Or perhaps it's a spiritual self-portrait. It is certainly a portrait of some spiritual part of me.
Incidentally (or perhaps not), this painting has been uploaded to WikiArt under the incorrectly translated title, Pierrot Grin. As anyone who is still following this blog after three years of silence will be aware, correcting mistranslated titles is my sole reason for being. So my motivation for posting this here is to hijack searches for Pierrot Grin and correct the misinformation!
I may as well also mention that I have been reposting nice things posted by others on my tumblr, which you can find here: http://putonflesh.tumblr.com. Every time the moon is in Pisces I also post some original poetry or photography there.
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| Portrait of Gustave Doré on woodburytype, 1870s, unknown phographer. Source. |
