#Bentinck

[longlistshort]

The expressive paintings pictured above, currently on view at Karma, are by the late Aboriginal Australian artist Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori who began painting in 2005, at eighty-one years old. Learning that her paintings are focused on the land she was forcibly relocated from adds an extra layer of poignancy to the work.

From the gallery-˜

The Kaiadilt artist’s original, nonrepresentational iconography, based on interlocking shapes, passages of pure color, and visible brushstrokes, depicts her primary subject, Bentinck Island, in Australia’s Gulf of Carpentaria, using the language of abstraction. Gestural marks trace the path of rivers; milky white forms indicate the incursion of cyclones; diagrammatic structures map the patterns left on the ocean floor by dugong grazing on seagrass. Rendered from memories of a home she was forced to leave, Gabori’s paintings are, in her words, “about a story place way out to sea.” Gabori began painting in 2005 around the age of eighty-one. While she started small, working horizontally on a tabletop, the artist soon began using wall-mounted surfaces as large as nineteen-feet wide, moving her body across her compositions as she applied acrylic straight out of the tube and mixed wet on wet directly on her canvases. The resulting paintings, which she made in the last decade of her life, often focused on six significant locations, or Countries, as the Kaiadilt refer to them, on Bentinck: Mirdidingki, Dibirdibi, Dingkari, Makarrki, Thundi, and Nyinyilki. To make these works, Gabori drew on recollections of the island’s topography: its saltpans, reefs, and mangrove swamps; the freshwater pond where she collected waterlilies; the various rivers that run alongside where she, her father, and her husband were born. In 1948, Gabori and the rest of Bentinck’s population were forcibly relocated by Christian missionaries to the nearby Mornington Island. There, parents were separated from their children and the Kaiadilt people were forbidden from speaking their language. Gabori spent the rest of her life on Mornington, only able to visit Bentinck temporarily after the passage of Australian laws that restored Kaiadilt access to the land in 1994.

Rock Cod Story Place – Freshwater (2005), one of the earliest works in this exhibition, visualizes Dibirdibi Country, the area of Bentinck associated with her husband Pat through the Kaiadilt system of naming people after places, as well as the Rock Cod, a being that, according to Kaiadilt cosmology, created the island. Concentric, ovoid rings of unmixed color radiate out from a central mass like the ripples of freshwater that flow into the island’s estuaries. The nearly neon Dingkarri (2006) associatively maps the contours of an islet that was an important fishing ground for the Kaiadilt community. Rather than a literal depiction of the Country’s appearance, Dingkarri is instead a pictorial manifestation of tides in flux: by mixing acrylics on the canvas itself, Gabori created morphing color fields that suggest movement. Though developed autonomously from Western art history, Gabori’s painterly syntax nonetheless evokes the oeuvres of the American Abstract Expressionists. Evidence of Gabori’s hand is everywhere in My Country (2009), which celebrates Mirdidingki, her birthplace. Working rapidly, she brushed together magenta and white to create a variegated field that morphs as it stretches across the vertical canvas. Close looking reveals a subterranean wash of yellow acrylic peeking through from behind Gabori’s urgent brushstrokes, complicating what at first appears duochromatic. Her jagged, brushy edges and embrace of unadulterated black call to mind Clyfford Still; her arcing, interlocking forms provoke comparison with Amy Sillman. The gestural Didirbidi Country (2010) reads as an exploration of the relations between shapes that abut each other, creating craggy borderlands at their intersections. Beyond its formalism, the work is a recollection of the stone fishing trap walls maintained by Kaiadilt women that branch off of Bentinck’s coastline. In addition to specific cultural meanings and associations encoded in paint, the works convey an affective charge that transcends geography, temporality, and identity.  Refracted through memory and mediated by dispossession, Gabori’s paintings are a living archive of a homeland.

This exhibition closes 4/12/25.

[acrossthewavesoftime]

It's the first time in a few insanely convoluted, stressful weeks that I have some leisure to engage in reading again, and what is the first thing I stumble upon? One of the absolutely most insane couple of stanzas from a Jacobite poem including not one, but three alleged affairs between the Earl of Shrewsbury and Queen Mary II, the future Queen Anne and a bishop and King William III and Hans Willem Bentinck. ...And did I mention the mpreg.

In a Court full of vice may Shrewsbury lay Molly on, Whilst Nanny enjoys her episcopal stallion And Billy with Benting does play the Italian We beseech thee to hear us ’Mist such blessed pairs, succession prevails, and if Nan of Denmark or Dutch Molly fails May pregnant Mynheer spawn a true Prince of Wales We beseech thee to hear us.

From: A Litany for the Reducing of Ireland, in Cameron, Poems on Affairs of State, p. 219–22, p. 221.

It becomes ever more clear to me as to why Bentinck (a man who had had two wives, 10 children and was very vocal about what he thought of male same sex relations in his letters to William), at the height of those Jacobite publications, wanted some space from the court.

I first encountered this excerpt from a much longer poem in an article called From the Body of the King to the Body of the Nation: Sovereignty, Sodomy, and the English Revolution of 1688, published last year in the journal Modern Intellectiual History, and can be read here for free.

While certainly an interesting read, I am always a bit saddened that all discussions of the relationship between Hans Willem Bentinck and William III tend to inevitably circle back to, or at least imply, the old dispute as to whether there was or wasn't a romantic or sexual relationship between the two, when ample contemporary evidence, including personal letters, makes it clear there was with all the likelihood we can ascertain today, none. Instead, it would be interesting to for once see someone examine their close relationship, which doesn't want to fit into any one mould, apart from the allegations of a sexual affair, which only ever crops up in negative contemporarily, and in highly political contexts. There seems to have been a wealth of trust and nuance as to how they viewed each other that is visible in their letters, which sadly is hardly ever being addressed, even today.

Still, this was another one of these cases where the past surprises - indeed, I know I should know better. People have always been people, but I certainly was not expecting... this.

As another amusing side note, in another Jacobite poem, William III is described as having "the head of a goose", and... this time, I have to say I see what the Jacobites are seeing:

Same glaring stare, same Nose. Will both hiss at and bite you, probably (goose picture bravely taken by Wikipedia user Assianir, who hopefully still has all their fingers attached to their hands).

[defensivelee]

this twitter meme is very versatile for rpf

[coquetteladyofthedeadmensworld]

It's finally here, people! Forgive the long wait:

The Trials and Tribulations of Trying to Plead to a King

Kensington Palace is now home to a bereaved husband and son. Unfortunately, this is only the start of the tragedy...

Main Characters:

William III - Following the death of his beloved wife and mother of his child, the King of England seeks justice. And he will stop at nothing to get it.

Mary II - The reluctant Queen for many reasons had only her husband and darling son to cherish. Well, until her untimely demise, that is.

Prince Edward - The heir to the British throne after his parents, he ends up caught in a tangle as he gets placed in the middle of his father and the assassin William wants rid of. He is expected to handle this affair like the prince he is. But is he going to end up spiralling downwards??

Hans William Bentinck - The loyal friend of the King who is too stricken with rage to acknowledge his presence.

Arnold Joost van Keppel - Rising to power during the furore, he too has no success trying to recover William from the trauma of the assassination.

Princess Anne - The sister of the late Queen has grown to deeply cherish her young nephew. She also does not approve of William forcing him into a full on war. Which William only realises too late...

Prince George - Anne's husband who also dotes on Edward who confides in him and his wife more than his father.

Clarissa - A young lady who has just moved in from the country. Caught up in the furore, she ends up stuck in a massive nightmare she could have never imagined for herself. There is death on all roads she is forced to travel down. Will she pull through??

Chapter One

1:40 pm, Brompton Road, September 1690:

BANG.

It was a sound absolutely no one wants to hear. Especially not on a carriage ride.

Especially not when you are on the streets, greeting your sovereigns.

BANG.

Again.

And in that moment, every smile on every face vanished, transforming into grimaces of horror, fear and shock.

You couldn't forget, no matter how much you might want to.

Especially not when screaming was heard not only on the narrow, yet crowded streets, but from the inside of the rich carriage now rapidly performing a 180 back to the grand walls of Kensington.

"Mary! Mary, oh goodness - MARY!!"

What?! It can't be -

"MARY!!"

"Drive faster, man! She's bleeding, can't you see that?!"

Who's bleeding??

William III was always known as a quiet, dull, unaffectionate man to most people.

But today, that all changed.

"DRIVE!!!!"

The scream from him was enough for the whip to go down even harder than the last time. He was now holding the unconscious Mary II tightly in his arms.

"NEIGH, NEIGH!!"

The poor horses!!

Clarissa Hemsworth couldn't move. Not even when she hit the concrete. Because all she could feel was feet stabbing her in every corner of her body. The stampede had begun.

There was no denying it.

OW OW, OOF.

2:00 pm, Kensington Palace, September 1690:

The Queen was now plunged into bed while her despairing husband was curled up in the corner of the room, shaking uncontrollably with sobs, his dear Edward drifting between the two, trying to keep composure.

Please don't die Mary, please don't die-

"Your Majesty??" That was Bentinck, shaken.

Only then did the crumpled King look up.

"Find him." A nod. "FIND HIM!! PLEASE!"

"With Godspeed!" That was Edward, with all the strength needed for a prince of England. "We demand whoever did this.. this.. act.. to be punished! IMMEDIATELY!"

Mary please don't die!! -

Mother, please be strong -

"Oh goodness me!!" Dr Radcliffe gasped, straightening back up. "This wound goes deeper than we thought!"

No. Just please, no -

"IT CAN'T BE THAT BAD IF ONE BULLET HIT THE CARRIAGE!!" the prince yelled, storming back over to the bleeding bed, William trailing behind him.

"It Can't Be!!" The King had gone from screaming to sobbing again.

However, soon after, the mob of servants outside heard nothing but silence.

The Prince and Princess of Denmark were kept outside with the servants, Anne in particular banging on the door to get in and help while George had to hold her back. But even they knew the news they were dreading was going to come out of those doors.

"NOOO!!" The King - "NO, NO! NOOO!!"

"Please!! I need in!"

"Anne please, this isn't going to work -"

"Darling Mary, wake up PLEASE!!"

"Mother please, just wake up! -"

Brompton Road, September 1690:

It had taken what seemed like years for Clarissa to find the strength to stand up.

What on dear Earth just happened? Did that just happen? I could vomit. Truly vomit.

Right here, right now.

Was this what she moved here from Devonshire for? Witnessing shootouts at carriage rides??

Well, she was here now.

You have made your grave. Lie in it.

Wait what?! It's 'bed', not 'grave'!

And at that moment, the sky darkened.

[miieandering]

When you serve so hard you manage to build a mini version of the Het Loo in your ancestral homeland😼

painting van keppel's wig was so fun. on the level of satisfying of rendering clouds. 10/10 would draw more of this slimy cat

[hassakudesu]

I am playing some rpf challenge and reached the modern profession,my friend asked me what i thought Bentink was, that reminds me of the Hague traffic police.

The YouTube account of this traffic police team is@TeamVerkeerDH

(I found the official x account just after I finished drawing according to the screenshot. I compared the high-definition picture and found some parts of the clothes were drawn wrong…😭🤓Whatever）btw I'm doing a modern college student version of William, hope I can finish it hehe

[highendsheep]

you can really do anything you want forever

[joachimnapoleon]

Excerpt:

What is certain, is that he fought with himself for a long time; it was hard for him to declare himself against Napoleon his brother-in-law, who had sometimes humiliated him, but to whom he owed all his greatness. Then, once this great step was taken, he, and the Queen still more, would have fulfilled their engagements honestly, if they had not suspected that they were being played.

[tenth-sentence]

They slept that night on the beach.

"Killing for Country: A Family History" - David Marr

[onestuarteveryday]

day one hundred and thirty eight: blaaaargh semi realistic alien William

[acrossthewavesoftime]

My commiserations to both of them on their terrible taste in boyfriends.*

*Hans Willem, who was fighting rumours about his Boy Best Friend's alleged homosexuality (with him) all his life, would disagree with my phrasing here, but his first wife would definitively agree after the whole Willem-is-jealous-because-after-Hans's-wedding-he-is-no-longer-his-bestie's-priority-number-one jealousy debacle of mid-August 1679.

[defensivelee]

Hanni's mid week encouragement

[coquetteladyofthedeadmensworld]

The Stuarts and Friends: Valentine's Day 💌💘

*Have a lovely proper romantic day out to celebrate*: Charles I, Henrietta Maria, Charles II, Catherine of Braganza, William III, Mary II, Hans William Bentinck, Anne Queen of Great Britain, George of Denmark Sarah Churchill, John Churchill

*Give their partner flowers and chocolate*: Charles I, Henrietta Maria, Charles II, Catherine of Braganza, James Duke of Monmouth, Hans William Bentinck, Arnold Joost van Keppel, Anne Queen of Great Britain, George of Denmark, Sarah Churchill, John Churchill

*Give their partner (mostly) suggestive poetry*: John Wilmot Earl of Rochester

*Are single because they prefer to celebrate Galentine's Day instead*: Mary Queen of Scots, James VI and I Anne of Denmark, Anne Hyde and Mary of Modena too probably.

Are single and enjoying it: James VI and I

Are single and NOT enjoying it: James II is desperate for a new girlfriend probably.

*VERY AGGRESSIVE SEX*: James II

[hassakudesu]

Bro ur boyfriend is really difficult to coax

图文无关的碎碎念：

Damn I just realized that I have never posted his stuff but I actually did a lot!🗿 mainly because my English is poor. maybe l’ll translate something fun when I have time,, but now I have to survive finals week

[famousborntoday]

William Henry Cavendish Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland was a British Whig and then a Tory politician during the late Georgian era. He served as chance...

Link: William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland

[tsugumichikaneshiro]