#and a lot of marriage based forgery

[bowenoke]

4 of 6 babey now we just need to get pok and sklonda into a very complicated and upsetting relationship with the thistlesprings and they'll all finally have a designated buddy if they end up in a hospital!

[yaltghoul]

This is not written with any hatred nor criticism, which I will get into more in a bit, but I feel like, among the three daughters, Penelope is the most like Portia.

Prudence and Phillipa are dense. There is no kind way to word that. They lack both emotional and intellectual quotients. There is no street nor book smarts. On top of that, they both are, especially this season, intentionally cruel to Penelope.

Portia tends to also say cruel things to Pen, but they seem to be based on a jaded perspective rather than being malicious. Like saying she shouldn’t expect to find a marriage in her third year on the Mart and that True Love is fictitious, or even scolding her for reading. Those statements were not said to hurt Penelope’s feelings, rather to advise her based on her own experiences not only as a past debutante, who we all know did not marry for love, but also as a mother who has now had to shepherd three daughters simultaneously through the Mart and hear the gossip that is said against all the girls. She always speaks with good intention, but we all know that those pave the path to Hell.

No, Portia isn’t deliberately mean. She is a huge gossip, cunning, steadfast in her convictions, a great liar and schemer, witty, and truly devoted to those she cares about. Every action throughout the series has been to assure the comfort and security of her daughters. Again, good intentions and all that.

Who else have we seen in this series who is witty, cunning, a great schemer, a huge gossip, and truly devoted to those she cares about?

Penelope.

Penelope, who is cunning and scheming enough, not only to have her own business, but to keep it a secret. A business that relies on her using her wit to spread gossip. When she opens up to someone, when she begins to care about them, that wit and cunning come out in such a force that it is only matched by her devotion to them.

Like Portia, she has good intentions when she schemes. Such as revealing Marina’s pregnancy or divulging Eloise’s unchaperoned trips to the printer. She doesn’t do both of those to be cruel or malicious. She does it to ensure the Bridgertons, namely Colin and Eloise, are safe. Safe from entrapment, in the case with Colin, and safe from the Queen’s unjustified wrath, as was the case with Eloise.

You see a lot once Penelope comes out of her shell in S3 pt1 that she matches her mom’s sharp tongue in their interactions. Squares off to her. The apple truly didn’t fall far from the tree.

But despite her cunning and scheming, she is also naturally more kind and soft than her family, which is where the Bridgertons come in. The Bridgertons are the Featherington’s Foil. Without them, Penelope would no doubt turn into Portia; unhappy, unkind, and ruthless. But her relationship with Eloise and Colin steer her toward a life of love and happiness.

Portia never cried after stabbing the young Lord Featherington in the back. She never wracked her hands over the forgery of George’s note to Marina. We never see the guilt. But Penelope… We see her sob and run to Eloise after writing about Marina. We see her break her quill after writing about Eloise. We see the grief, the shame, the guilt that she is wracked with, feelings which are only made possible by her relationships with The Bridgertons. With the love and kindness that they all exude.

This is what makes Penelope such a rich, dynamic, complex character that I love. She is flawed. She is diverse. She makes mistakes, lies, schemes, and loves with all her heart. She pines and frets. The complexity of her character is what makes her relationship with her mother feel real; makes it feel tangible, like I could grab it with my hands. It makes her relationship with the Bridgertons all the more sweet.

[yjhariani]

Stealth Mission

Simon ‘Ghost’ Riley X GN!Reader Word count: 1100± Warning: Profanity Summary: Annoying your husband in any way possible.

A/N: Still fixated on the idea of crossovering CoD and RE because. Maybe I should branch out and make the reader a part of SCP Foundation MTF.

Ever since you married Simon, you made it your objective to annoy him in any loving way possible. One of the ways to do so, you titled Stealth Mission. Not only because it required stealth, it would end up mostly redacted in the history book of your marriage.

The way you saw it was that both your work was so harsh and full of darkness that you two needed at least occasional light in between. So, you started it.

For example; Simon was getting ready to go to the gym. You scouted the area around his duffle bag. Once making sure that Simon was away from the area and that the area was clear (sometimes you bait him by putting his phone somewhere inside the house and calling it so he went to get it), you made your way in towards the duffle bag.

Eyes on and sharp, you went through his bag. You took out his shirt that was black in colour and replaced it with the package; a bright, pastel pink cropped shirt or a bright yellow tank top, maybe a neon green water bottle or red towel with hearts and flowers or cute little cats or puppies on it. 

You tucked it inside the bag, made sure that it was hidden. Once the package was delivered, you RTB (Return to Base—wherever the hell Simon was not).

A few minutes later, Simon left. In a few hours, he returned home to you waiting for him in the living room with your camera opened. He was wearing the package. Usually, you managed to take a couple of snaps before Simon looked at you disapprovingly.

Mission complete.

Another example; you waited until Simon fell asleep. Once he did, you very carefully removed yourself from the bed. You had direct intel that Simon’s phone was located on the nightstand. You located it precisely where he would usually put it.

You made your way to the other side very quietly and very stealthily. You stayed prone on the ground, but not after getting the target—Simon’s phone.

With a little bit of tech forgery, you unlocked the phone (in actuality, he made sure you could unlock his phone with a fingerprint or even your face as well as giving you the passcode). You connected the phone to a pair of earbuds that you had prepared to ensure that there would be no loud noises accidentally echoing.

From there, you downloaded the most obnoxious song—maybe Crazy Frog or Barbie Girl. Afterwards, you set his alarm with said downloaded song before making sure to disconnect the earbuds from the phone. Following that, you returned the phone to where it was before returning yourself stealthily to your side of the bed.

The next morning, you two were woken up by the most ridiculous song ever. You started the day with Simon calling you little shit.

Mission complete.

If you were not feeling too lazy, after making sure Simon could not catch you doing it, you would intentionally make an effort to pull a chair and put a lot of things on the higher shelves, just out of your reach. Every time you called for him to help you get them it would annoy him because you could simply pull a chair or something.

However, sometimes he was feeling generous and picked you up, letting you take whatever you were reaching for with your own hands. Simon rarely put you down immediately and you two ended up at least making out.

Another mission complete?

One time, you did the same thing throughout the whole week you two were home. You kept asking Simon if he had seen something that was in plain sight.

“Simon, did you see my phone?” you asked whilst holding your phone.

“In your hand, love,” Simon said.

Sometime later, you asked him, “Simon, have you seen that mug I just bought for you?” as you handed him said mug with tea that you brewed for him.

“You’re taking the piss?” Simon replied.

The next day, you just finished showering with only a towel on you and walked to where Simon was, asking, “Simon, I can’t find my towel.”

“Don’t make me rip it off you,” Simon warned.

At some point, you were doing laundry. You held the laundry basket in one hand and shouted Simon’s name.

“Everything alright, darling?” Simon asked.

“I brought the hamper here earlier, I don’t remember where I put it,” you answered.

A little frustrated, Simon was about to say something a little mean, but decided not to. Instead, he put up a finger.

“No,” he said. “I’m not doing this.”

The last one at the end of the week happened while he was lounging in the living room. You walked over, looking under the table, under the pillow, in between the seats.

Simon, at this point, knew what you were doing. He was about to ignore you, but he did not find it in his heart to do so.

“What are you looking for this time?” Simon sighed.

“I’m looking for my husband,” you stated.

There was a second passing of Simon furrowing his eyebrows before he stood up.

Uh-oh.

“Get over here,” Simon requested.

“Why?” you asked, holding back a laugh.

“Just get over here,” Simon replied and started walking towards you.

You stepped aside, around the table.

After another pause where the two of you were mapping the living room and tried to guess each other’s net move, Simon started literally chasing you around the living room. It got weird pretty quickly.

You rolled on the ground to avoid him and Simon started calculating his movement.

Hollowing your hand in front of your mouth, you said, “This is Y/N to HQ, requesting immediate backup.”

“You’re fucking kidding me,” you heard Simon muttered as he continued to chase you around the living room.

“Eyes on armed tango in the up right,” you continued. “Fucking beefy, fucking scary, and fucking handsome.”

“Y/N, stop this!” Simon insisted, but you started to see him smiling a little bit.

Grinning, you tried to make your way out of the living room, getting chased by Simon before getting tackled by him onto the sofa.

“Contact! I’m hit!” you announced. “Going dark!”

“Going dark?” Simon repeated, half chuckling.

“I don’t know why I said that,” you chuckled.

Simon only looked at you for a moment, a thin smile bloomed on his face.

“Remind me why we’re married again?” Simon said.

“Oh, we got our wages raised if we’re married and I got a house,” you said.

“Right,” Simon nodded.

“I also seem to remember that you said that I’m the best thing that’s ever happened to you,” you teased.

“I’m changing my mind just this second,” Simon said.

“And you still love me anyway. How’s that making sense?” you replied.

Instead of answering that, Simon started kissing you.

Mission complete.

If you were not feeling too lazy, after making sure Simon could not catch you doing it, you would intentionally make an effort to pull a chair and put a lot of things on the higher shelves, just out of your reach. Every time you called for him to help you get them it would annoy him because you could simply pull a chair or something.

However, sometimes he was feeling generous and picked you up, letting you take whatever you were reaching for with your own hands. Simon rarely put you down immediately and you two ended up at least making out.

Again, these missions would end up being redacted in the history book of your marriage and the only people who would know about these missions were the people involved; you and him.

However, next time, though, you might have to buy some Nerf guns.

[finnishcrimestory]

The wild 1800s in Southern Ostrobothnia, Finland

Puukkojunkkari as a term could be translated as a “knife-fighter”. Other name for these individuals was häjyt, which means the same as the Finnish word “häijy” (eng. nasty). They were people in Southern Ostrobothnia who terrorized people with their bad behaviour, and even murders and other crimes. The first murders that were done by puukkojunkkaris happened in 1790s, but the “golden age” for them was 1820s to 1880s. The towns and villages that suffered the most of them were Lapua, Kauhava, Alahärmä, Ylihärmä, Laihia and Vähäkyrö. Puukkojunkkaris reveled as uninvited guests in weddings, stole peoples horses, wandered around towns while drunk, gambled, stole and practiced something called “yöjuoksu” (= night run), which basically means that they visited young girls during the nights and did things with them that was considered inappropriate. 

Puukkojunkkaris came from all social classes. Many of the puukkojunkkaris started their criminal way of life when they were still underage. Puukkojunkkaris were cruel and tough and they fought a lot. Many people were afraid of them, but some sort of respect was present as well. That is one of the reasons why it was hard to get them convicted of their wrongdoings, because not many people were brave enough to testify against them. The respect and even glorifying was because puukkojunkkaris were brave to object against the society and authority.

Reasons

The reasons behind why people were puukkojunkkaris are many. In the 1700s the living standard in Southern Ostrobothnia rose, and because of this weddings became grandiose events with many alcoholic beverages. Young men in Ostrobothnia did not often get a chance to inherit their own farm in their home town and earn their own wealth, which led to frustration. Some people have thought that the bad police work during that time in Southern Ostrobothnia was one possible reason, and some people suggested that violence crimes were common amongst youths. 

Reino Kallio’s (Finnish non-fiction author) theory of puukkojunkkaris is based on the idea of a counter reaction caused by social control that has been taken too far. He sees youth's violent behaviour as a protest-like rebellion against the pressure exercised by the power structure; particularly against local laws and parish discipline. The resistance that started as little more than slight mischief became branded as troublemakers and led to a path towards serious crimes. This was particularly due to the fact that parish discipline, which was stricter than general law, lowered the threshold of crime. At the time, there were many new ways of youngsters spending their free time, such as wandering around outdoors at night, which was considered a breach against the curfew and a threat to the existence of class society. Therefore, district courts started punishing people for curfew at night, as well as for other breakages against parish discipline. 

The fundamentalist church and religious revivalist movements in the 1700s and 1800s, such as pietism, also had a negative view towards young people's leisure activities due to moral reasons. This led to competition between different religious groups, first leading to tighter church discipline and then to parish discipline. The situation was brought to a head by the labour shortage due to tar and peatland burning cultivation that brought more tension to the working conditions, while the rich, house-owning population competed with each other, building baronial, 1.5 to 2-storey-high residential buildings. By invoking general regulations, masters could avoid disciplinary conflicts with their children or farmhands when there was labour shortage. Furthermore, increased drinking caused both problems to families and conflicts inside communities.

The disciplinary regulations that were normally confirmed by the governor limited and regulated in detail the already scarce free time that youngsters had: in addition to curfew at night, the celebration of dances, the publication of the bans of marriage and weddings, gatecrashing, moving, gathering, drinking alcohol, cardplaying as well as general noisemaking and loitering. Because the young age groups usually took care of the heaviest physical work (farming and such), conditional fines were introduced in the 1800s to prevent days off. In Lapua, Laihia and Mustasaari, not only farmhands, but also house-owners and crofters were banned from having free days.

At worst, parish discipline even led to group criminalization of young people, as was the case in Kauhava and Vähäkyrö in the 1770s and 1780s, in Vöyri in the 1820s and 1830s, and in the greater parishes of Laihia and Lapua a couple of decades later. Parish discipline was implemented as group punishments, and they were only taken to court in certain parishes in Southern Ostrobothnia, not elsewhere in Finland – except for a few possible exceptions. All in all, troublemaking was based on the background of a long-term crisis caused by a radical socio-economic change, which triggered youth violence due to the parish discipline managed and maintained by authorities. Finally, the emerged culture of violence also started feeding itself.

The towns who had the most hardest disclipine, had also the most crime. Strict discipline was a way to strengthen patriarchal class society which was against what puukkojunkkaris were. This created tension and conflict. These towns also had the highest murder rates, that were even higher than in the early 2000s. 

The most famous ones

Antti Rannanjärvi (left) and Antti Isotalo (right)

Antti Isotalo (also known as Isoo-Antti which basically translates to “Big-Antti”) was born 30th of August 1831 in Alahärmä. He was a farmer and later in his life one of the most known and famous puukkojunkkari. He was one of the leaders of a puukkojunkkari gang called Isoo-Joukko (= “big group”) in the years 1856 to 1867. Isotalo was married three times.

Isotalo was described as restless and one of his hobbies was horse racing. He was a talented salesman and it was said that he did not need to make people gather around him, because they were interested in him anyways. He was also fearless and fierce fighter. Because of his big size he was often asked to maintain order in big happenings and he could fight well even without a knife. He was also said to be strong even when he was over 80 years old. 

Isotalo was accused of a murder in 1858 but was released because there was not enough evidence. However in 1869 new evidence and witnesses came and he was sentenced to death by beheading. After the processing in court of appeals and senate the conviction was changed to 12 years of forced labour in Hämeenlinna. Isotalo denied the murder for the rest of his life but still viewed his conviction as earned. In the prison Isotalo’s behaviour was good. 

Despite his bad and scary reputation and his crimes, Isotalo was respected person in Alahärmä. He took part in building a school there and a youth assosiation. Later in his life he apparently calmed down and stopped his criminal life, and even found God. Isotalo died in 8th of August 1911 in Alahärmä.

Trials:

1855: Proved guilty of assault with a knife.

1856: Sentenced to fines for illegal sale of moonshine and disobeying Sabbath.

1858: Released of charges of having stabbed Matti Tönkä, sentenced to fines for openly carrying a knife without reason.

1862: Sentenced to 38 lashes of a whip and public church penalty for pickpocketing.

1864: Accused of illegal distillery of moonshine.

1869: Sentenced for appearing in court drunk, openly displaying his knife, burglary, theft and arson.

1869: Because of new witness reports, sentenced to the death penalty for the homicide in 1858. Appealed to the Senate in 1870 and received pardon, but sentenced to fines, whipping, loss of honour and hard labour for 12 years.

1882: Released from prison.

1883: Assaulted a man but only sentenced to fines.

Antti Rannanjärvi was born in 4th of April 1828 in Ylihärmä and he was the co-leader of the group Isoo-Joukko. His first fine came in 1847 when he broke the curfew. He and three other people had been wandering around Lapua at night and all of them admitted on doing it. In December 1851 Rannanjärvi and couple other puukkojunkkaris terrorized a wedding in Lapua. He stabbed one guest to death and wounded two. The main perpetrator Hermanni Mäki was sentenced to life in forced labour in Siberia and Rannanjärvi was sentenced to flogging and five years to forced labour in Suomenlinna for participating in the murder and other violent crimes. 

Rannanjärvi was arrested in 1867 by a rural police chief Adolf Hägglund who was sent to Southern Ostrobothnia to try to calm the puukkojunkkari situation down. After a long trial Rannanjärvi was sentenced to flogging and fine for drinking, breaking and entering, forgery and animal thievery. The fine was so huge that people thought he couldn’t pay it. However he could pay it because he was a rich householder, but some of his sentence he had to serve in prison by vesileipävankeus (vesi = water, leipä = bread: serving time in prison and getting only water and bread to eat). 

He continued some of the puukkojunkkari lifestyle at older age as well but he did not get in contact with the authorities anymore. Rannanjärvi was killed in 12th of August 1882 by Erkki Fränti in Tappokrooppi, Ylihärmä.

Matti Haapoja was born 16th of September 1845 in Isokyrö. He was Southern Ostrobothnian murderer and puukkojunkkari. Only three murders are known to be committed by him but some have claimed that he murdered at least 20 to 25 people as well. 

He had a difficult childhood with drunk and abusive dad who often was convicted of wrong doings. Haapoja’s older brother was also abusive and cruel to him. Haapoja left his home when he was only 11 to earn his living, first as a farmhand and in 1863 serving in the army as Matts Kanon. After serving for two years he returned to his hometown.

Haapoja got into court multiple times in the 1860s for thefts and violent crimes. He acted in the same way as other puukkojunkkari’s and was proud of his crimes. He was quoted saying: “Antti Isotalo is the king in Härmä so that must make me the king in Ylistaro”.

In 1869 Haapoja killed his childhood friend Heikki Impponen who apparently had claimed that Haapoja had stolen money from him. Haapoja got mad and hit Impponen with a knife. He was sentenced for 12 years in the Kakola prison, Turku. He escaped from there 4 times between 1870 to 1880. During his runs he stole and spent time in town markets. It was hard to restrain him since he always fought violently back. Haapoja got a lot of fame and people followed his life closely. 

In 1874 Haapoja requested for the first time that his life sentence would be changed to banishment to Siberia (= Katorga). The senate accepted his request in 1880. In Siberia Haapoja fled from the prison and spend his life as drifter. He also committed some crimes, but it is unknown how many. He however committed 4 known murders.

Back in Finland in 1890 Haapoja killed a prostitute, Maria Jemina Salonen. He strangled her in cold blood and couldn’t tell any motive for why he had committed the murder. The trial was followed closely by the press. During the trial Haapoja was in Katajanokka prison in Helsinki where he became friends with Mathilda Wrede (Finnish Swede noble who dedicated her life to helping inmates and less fortunate people), who wrote that Haapoja had found God and was a changed man. Some researchers are not completely sure whether Haapoja really had found God or if he just fooled Wrede. 

People have been doubting the finding God thing, since Haapoja tried to escape prison in 1894 and while escaping, wounded two guards, later killing one of them. When the escape failed Haapoja ran to the cafeteria which was filled with people. There he stabbed himself in the chest 7 times. He survived it but in 8th of January 1895 he hanged himself. His skeleton was kept in the Museum of Crime in Vantaa for a long time, until he was finally buried in Ylistaro in 1995.

Haapoja’s victims

Confirmed

Farmer Heikki Antinpoika Impponen, who was stabbed to death on 6th of December 1867.

Prostitute Maria Jemina Salo, strangled on 8th of October 1890.

Prison guard Juho Rosted, stabbed on 10th of October 1894.

Possible

Farmers Matti Heikkilä and Hermanni Hautamäki who were clubbed to death by an unidentified man at Hämeenkyrö on 15th of November 1869. Haapoja was in the area at the time and years later he confessed an unspecified murder "that had happened in November 1869".

An unknown man who was killed in Siberia in 1886.

A convict identified only as "Jaakko H." from Alajärvi, Finland, who was killed in Siberia in 1888.

Estonian barkeeper Rugis was killed by Haapoja in Tomsk in 1889.

"Rich-Matti" Kuivalainen, who was killed in Tomsk in 1889.

Estonian convict Gustaf Sepp vanished without a trace in Simonjovka, Siberia, in 1889, after he was last seen in the company of Haapoja.

It is possible there were more victims, but only these ten cases can be identified as certain or probable.

Attempts

Brawler Juho Tenkku who was stabbed around Christmas, 1866.

Farmer Hermanni Hösö was stabbed on 6th of December 1867.

Farmer Esa Nyrhinen was shot three times (twice in the leg, once in the face) on 12th of August 1876.

A farmer identified as "Koivuniemi from Vähäkyrö" who was stabbed when Haapoja was apprehended after his last prison escape in January 1879.

Prison guards Juho Jernvall and Sven Nyman were stabbed during Haapoja's last escape attempt.

During his last escape he had a chance to attack one more guard, but did not, because this guard had always been nice to the prisoners.

Aftermath

The violence was gotten under control when in the end of 1800s church and city councils were separated as their own units. The church didn’t take part in discipline and general views on morale. The youths need for dating was recognized, and drinking and other things weren’t seen as something to discipline them about. Also the foundation of youth assosiations and  temperance movement helped a lot. Schools also made a change. When basic schools became available to everyone from every social class, the need to teach people instead of discipline changed things. As a cherry on top, when the new criminal law in 1889s - which demanded new, more humane ways to deal with criminals - was put in place, the true winds of change blew through Southern Ostrobothnia.

[typinggently]

Also hi yes 3 for Napollya too (a painter, a fire, a box) because fuck yeah Napoleon as an artist au?? OR BETTER YET MAKE PERIL THE PAINTER YOOOOOOO he would have such an interesting eye no? (I enjoy art purely from an aesthetic viewpoint and maybe appreciate some symbolism or whatnot but this is all to say that I don’t actually know a ton about art but appreciate it nonetheless)

When I tell you I love both of those options…💝💝 And there is SO much to be explored. I was briefly overwhelmed with all the possibilities. Renaissance AU with a marriage proposal portrait sitting sessions?! Avant-garde artist in the 20s and nouveau riche?! In the end, I settled on the canon timeline, mostly inspired by Napoleon’s career path.

-

Art Thief and Art Forger AU

-

Unfortunately, if you want to do something extremely well, you most likely will need some help along the way. Now, that’s not the worst thing in the world. Napoleon has worked with Gaby plenty of times and she’s an absolute angel. Fantastic behind the wheel, incredible with explosives and breathtaking in a cocktail dress.

And sure, it could work with just them – Napoleon’s quick fingers and Gaby’s fast cars could run this show, no problem. But see, there’s more to a brilliant team than a thief and a getaway car.

 “Ah, you brought pink panther.” Illya doesn’t turn as they enter, doesn’t even look up from his easel. The late morning sun spills light through dust-milky windows and makes his hair glow a particularly intense shade of gold.

Peeling wallpaper, dust-sticky wooden floors and bay windows. Next to Illya, a desk covered with prints and books, some magazines. Napoleon walks around the easel to look at the display, not wanting to step into Illya’s light. “Good to see you, too. I see you did your research.” A miniature museum on Holbein, exhibited in black and white on glossy pages. In between, loose paper filled with Illya’s delicate-neat handwriting in pencil and sketchbooks with paint-stiff pages.

This time, Illya does look up, leaning to the side to glare at him from around the easel. “I always do research.” Up close, Napoleon notices traces of green paint in his hair, where he must’ve run his stained fingers through it. “How about you do yours, too?”

“Of course you do, I wasn’t trying to imply anything.” Napoleon pulls one of the loose sheets closer, but he’s not terribly good at reading Cyrillic handwriting, so it’s little more than silver ornaments on paper. There are some sketches of noses on the back and he traces them with his fingertip. “And your suspicion wounds me.”

There’s a soft rustle of cloth and Napoleon looks up to find Illya facing him, faded t-shirt and dust-stained trousers. “You’re not burning down my studio again.” He indicates the room with his brush. “It’s close to the Bücherei.”

Napoleon clicks his tongue. “Now, Rubens, that was once.”

“Rubens?” Illya scoffs. “Don’t embarrass yourself, the job is in two months.” He returns his attention to the easel, elegant nose and round chin.

Napoleon hums, pulling one of the magazines closer to page through it. “I can tell the difference between Holbein and Rubens, don’t worry. I was talking about you. You know, the self-portrait with his wife?”

He can tell Illya stopped fiddling with his palette to look at him again, no doubt frowning. “Now, I admit you’re much more handsome. He does have that wine-sweet look on his face and all that, with the rosy-plump cheeks. But the golden hair, the blue eyes, the generally dreamy expression –“

“Dreamy expression?” Illya huffs. “Be quiet, I have to work.”

Napoleon looks up, but Illya’s turning as far away from him as possible under the pretence of observing the canvas. Still, Napoleon can make out the faintest hint of a blush on the back of his neck. He lets the magazine fall closed and straightens. “Alright, I’ll leave you to it.”

With that, he rounds the easel again on his way to the door. By the doorway, he stops and turns. “Ah, just one last thing –“ Now, he rearranges the jacket he’s slung over his arm and his overnight bag a little to open the zipper and pull out a tin. “I picked up some tea in Leningrad. I’ll put it in the kitchen for you, yeah?”

Illya’s shoulders are a tense line and he’s very intently staring at his palette. The tips of his ears are pink. “No need. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Napoleon says, smile audible in his voice, and closes the door on his way out. In the kitchen, he first puts down the tin, then pulls a sketchbook out of his open bag.

The spine is broken and the edges rounded, the fabric thin with use. It’s too risky to flip through it here, with the danger of Gaby slipping in and interrupting him, but he can already tell that it’s going to be interesting. Bold strokes and bold colours, much bolder than what Illya has to paint now, and much bolder than what he usually says.

Napoleon may not be able to read Cyrillic, but he can read art. And other than some criminally inclined young soviet masters, he knows how to take a compliment.

 -

 I strayed a bit from the whole box/fire things but I hope it still counts… Also I put way more thought into this than I could express in such a short scene but basically: They’re in Germany to steal a specific painting and exchange it for a forgery. I was thinking of Holbein’s Portrait of Simon George of Cornwall – no clue if it was in Germany at the time, but it is now, and I love it a lot. Originally, I was thinking of having Illya paint a portrait of Napoleon in a renaissance au, which I would’ve based on that painting. But well. I love the idea of Illya as a modern, cubist type of artist but alas, he’s talented and thus has to paint the old masters. But his sketchbook is definitely crammed full of little Napoleon portraits <3<3<3

Ok that’s it. Thank you so much for the prompt!!! I hope you liked it! 💝

[sweetsmellosuccess]

TIFF 2019: Day 4

Films: 4 Best Film of the Day: Marriage Story

The Burnt Orange Heresy: Elizabeth Debicki, rightfully lauded for her role in Widows, proves to be anything f but a flash in the pan in Giuseppe Capotondi‘s smartly sophisticated art forgery thriller. She plays Berenice, despite her stunning, willowy beauty, a small town girl from near Duluth, who falls in with an egoist opportunist art critic, James Figueras (Claes Bang), who’s just published a book called, hilariously, The Power of the Critic. He is given an opportunity to meet and interview a famously reclusive artist (Donald Sutherland) who lives on the estate of a wealthy art baron (Mick Jagger) but the catch is, he also has to procure one of the recalcitrant artist’s works, for his conniving benefactor, or suffer the humiliation of having his criminal past exposed by the blackmail-positive millionaire. As Berenice gets unwittingly sucked into Figuera‘s sordid scheme, she befriends the artist and is opposed to doing anything that crosses him. Sweet, breezy, and charming, Debicki acts as the soul of the film. In a milieu in which nearly everyone is one sort of masked monster or other, she is refreshingly candid without being naive. Based on the novel by Charles Willeford, the film briskly moves through its paces, clouding the waters with the schemes of duplicitous men, who’s have sold out any love of art for their greater obsession of cash and prestige. A literary thriller in the vein of The Talented Mr. Ripley, it’s become a genre all too rare in the era of blockbuster bravado. This film will remind you what a mistake that is.

Color Out of Space: At this point, I feel that it’s actually in Nic Cage’s contract that every film has to somehow result with him screaming as blood spatters his face. He doesn’t so much as act anymore, as he produces quick, quirky sound bites that are almost certain to go viral. His new film, a bloody sci-fi mess directed by Richard Stanley, based on an H.P. Lovecraft story, has him as a family man living on his father’s old country house. When a meteorite strikes his front lawn, things start shimmering a lot and morphing into gelatinous, rabid monster mutations. Naturally, the meteorite also affects the family’s mental grip – or at least Cage’s anyway (actually, maybe that one you can’t pin on the meteorite) – such that the actor has many chances to speak his lines as outrageously as possible. It has nearly always been Cage’s penchant, rather than developing full-bodied characters, to rely upon his nuthouse delivery (much mileage is attained simply by having him say the word “alpaca” over and over) to do the work of making his performance interesting. It has worked out pretty well for him, I suppose, but it actually tends to diminish the work of those around him, which seems like a raw deal.

Marriage Story: Noah Baumbach’s latest film, about the dissolution of married couple – played extraordinarily well by Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson – will no doubt get comparisons made to Bergman’s brilliant Scenes From a Marriage. But whereas that 1972 film concerned the relationship itself, its highs and lows and metamorphoses, Baumbach’s film is much more about the logistics, legal and otherwise, of ending a very much shared life together. Driver plays Charlie, a driven avant garde theater director of a small troupe in Brooklyn, of which Nicole (Johansson) is a starring member. When Nicole gets an offer to shoot a TV pilot in L.A., she jumps at the chance to go back home, taking their young son with her. As the film begins, they have already agreed to the split, Charlie wanting to eschew lawyers and keep things amicable as possible. Nicole, however, quickly hires a high-power lawyer (Laura Dern), forcing Charlie to do the same, and thus ensues the brutal obscenity of having lawyers set the narrative back and forth of what used to be a committed, loving relationship. As with Scenes, there is one extraordinary scene near the end in which the characters lay bare their darkest feelings for one another. In it, Driver, who is known for his enormous power and force as an actor, is matched in authority by Johansson, in what has to be considered a command performance from the pair of them. It’s a fantastic film, laced with Baumbach’s usual mixture of pathos, humor, cringe-making truths, and unflinching vulnerability. While it has its harrowing moments, thought to be at least semi-autobiographical (the director divorced actress Jennifer Jason Leigh a few years back), it’s interesting to note the film doesn’t end in depressing finality; but rather on a more hopeful note, speaking as to the ways in which two caring people can ultimately redirect their lives.

Ema: To be fair, by the time I made it to Pablo Larraín’s film, about a young dancer, Ema (Mariana di Girolamo), who, along with her estranged husband (Gael García Bernal), her choreographer, return a difficult child they adopted back into foster care, and regret the decision, I was utterly exhausted. Thus, Lorraín’s intentionally obtuse storytelling method (for reasons only really made clear in the film’s last minutes, Ema keeps donning a flame thrower and burning things throughout Santiago), in which characters do and say confounding things, was particularly difficult for me to interpret. I was more than ready to throw the towel in on it, but in the end, I’m sincerely glad I stayed, because it’s only at the end in which all of Ema’s bizarre, seemingly random actions, prove to have been part of a much more coherent plan than the audience is expecting. It is visually striking, and structurally formidable, but I would strongly suggest having a good amount of rest before tackling it.

Tomorrow: I begin my day with Cory Finley’s Bad Education; flit over to the documentary, Desert One; and then a public screening of Steven Soderbergh’s The Laundromat; before closing out with another public screening, the Safdie brothers’ Uncut Gems.

Photo: Marriage Story

[46ten]

Eliza Hamilton biography review

Tilar J. Mazzeo's Eliza Hamilton: The Extraordinary Life and Times of the Wife of Alexander Hamilton Let me preface this review by stating that I'm not the target audience for a book like this, but I’ll try to be fair. A major challenge in writing a biography of Elizabeth S. Hamilton is that the period of her life when the general public has the most interest - the years of her marriage to Alexander Hamilton - are those in which we largely only have contemporaneous sentimental accounts of her as a wife (letters from AH and P. Schuyler, brief mentions from McHenry and Stephen Van Rensselaer), daughter (letters from P. Schuyler), and sister (letters to/from Angelica S. Church and Margarita/Peggy S. Van Rensselaer, and letters between her siblings and father). But that's not all that EH - or any woman - was.  Based on the lack of information provided in this biography, Mazzeo's not terribly interested in the role of upperclass women in the late 18th century, the dynamics of marriage in that era, class distinctions between women, labor dynamics, childbearing and -rearing customs (she doesn't know about naming customs either), handicrafts, household management, women’s roles in education, the Republican Court, or any of a range of topics that would flesh out EH's world. Mazzeo doesn’t elaborate on the common conceit of the era that women had a political and social duty to the republic, including in helping to regulate the affairs of men through their “complementary” traits. She largely treats the social gatherings of women as arenas for gossip, titillation, and regular old social duty, not as opportunities for soft diplomacy, influence, and favor currying, which they most definitely also were. The women in this biography just sort of move across the stage of male dominance.* Since Mazzeo largely does not contextualize EH's 18th century life and seems to fall into the trap of, “the work of men is important; the work of women is only of side interest,” she's left repeating lots of gossip and conjecturing about romantic thoughts and feelings, as if these were largely all that women had to offer in the 18th century. Mazzeo clearly read letters that have not been included in the standard Hamilton narrative and found some things - mostly gossipy items - really interesting and was willing to go down the rabbit-hole on those, but was also comfortable relying on Hamilton biographies without going to primary sources on many subjects.  The Good Mazzeo does add some valuable context of the events in Albany especially.  She also adds Schuyler family voices to the narrative. I also liked how solidly she showed the interconnection of the Schuylers and AH with other wealthy and influential families. Although Mazzeo doesn't completely make the link, the tension of life near the frontier, wars, and the assassination attempts on her father's life may have played a role in EH's anxiety, such as it was, about being separated from her husband, esp. as he was also subject to threats of assassination at times. She could have more clearly made a counterargument to biographers' claims of EH's nervous anxiety by pointing out the terrors that EH really did face, but she does not do this. While for dubious reasons (based on how she sees EH as a character), Mazzeo raises issues around the Reynolds Pamphlet. It needs to be taken more seriously that Maria Reynolds denied - to at least two parties on the record - that an extramarital affair ever happened and volunteered a handwriting sample** to prove that the letters in AH's supposed possession were not written by her.  I appreciate that Mazzeo brought up that AH's explanation for his involvement with James Reynolds was not universally accepted at the time - Monroe had serious doubts, as did Callendar.  Unfortunately, some of Callendar's pamphlets detailing why he thought both were possible - AH was a sleaze who could have both had an affair with MR AND been engaged in shady financial dealings with her husband - are also lost to history.  I am also gleeful that I'm not the only person who has noticed that there is a similarity between EH's spelling style and MR's as re-printed. (I have also entertained the thought that EH forged those MR letters herself, or were AH forgeries copying parts of his wife's letters.)  I also appreciate that she points out that AH's claim of an affair with MR became widespread knowledge in the political sphere within a very short period of time. The Bad While Mazzeo adds to the record with facts from the Schuyler family letters, she relies heavily on Hamilton biographies, and not even the thorough, well-sourced ones, for others.  Based on the notes at the end of the book, she didn't bother to go to (or check for) primary sources for a lot of facts about AH. She states that Edward Stevens was "likely" AH's half-brother, which has largely been dismissed as a possibility. There are bizarre dating errors, wrong years, even wrong kids named - by my rough estimate, on average there are factual errors at least on every other page. Did Mazzeo not have a fact-checker - even someone decently acquainted with the facts around the persons she’s writing about? (She also contradicts herself on information she’s provided, so maybe she didn’t have a good proofreader either.) It's head-scratching that Mazzeo would do enough research to conjecture that "Polly" (from Tench Tilghman's May 1780 letter, recorded in his memoir) was Mary Tilghman, but not bother to read AH and GW letters to know more about EH's 1794 pregnancy.  Similarly, she gets it right that William S. Hamilton was born in NYC, but then thinks Eliza traveled to Albany right after. (Although a letter from PS to EH from late August contradicts that claim.)  She even repeats the shoe bow story, but claims it did happen in 1789 (incorrect), and says the person mistakenly thought Peggy was unmarried because of the way she behaved? Stephen Van Rensselaer was a reasonably well-known man. Back to the Reynolds Pamphlet: Mazzeo uses as evidence of AH's drafting of the MR letters the similarity between them and Pamela. It's not really evidence that someone - anyone - would write using common idioms and expressions of the time. AH did it quite frequently himself, as I've written about on this blog - he's doing it when he uses the popular phrase, "best of wives, best of women," not making some reference to the Nut-brown maid poem. This isn't proof that the MR letters were forged. Mazzeo hypothesizes that the real reason for the Pamphlet was further financial scandal cover-up, but never conjectures as to the wheres/hows. (If only she could see my many pages of notes on the interactions between AH, John Church, and Church's financial associates.) I'm also baffled as to Mazzeo's explanation for EH going along with the coverup of a financial scandal of the Reynolds Pamphet - because she was afraid of her husband going to jail? That this was EH's biggest fear? Where is the evidence for that? The Ugly The treatment of Peggy! Harsh and man hungry and scared of being a spinster - though a theme with Mazzeo is all of these women being obsessed with flirtations and afraid of ending up husband-less. The treatment of Angelica! The treatment of JOHN CHURCH, whom she describes as a "scoundrel." AH is a "rogue," seemingly with a drinking problem, visiting prostitutes (yet somehow having MR as a mistress would be too much), staying out late at night. It's a wonder that Mazzeo's AH ever accomplished anything in his life, with all of the 18th century character flaws and errors in judgement she gives him.  Most especially with sexual activities, she repeats gossip from AH detractors several times in the book, while her sources are John Adams (as much as two decades later) and Benjamin Latrobe (good friend to Jefferson).  Mazzeo repeats a story, more than once, about AH sexually assaulting Sarah L. Jay that Adams related decades later and that even Adams' cousin William Cunningham said sounded like nonsense, and guesses as to EH's parlor-room reaction to it.  Yet AH and Church would have had about zero social standing if this were really how they had behaved (or if these anecdotes had been widely known at the time). And then there's all of the fantasy treated as fact - without letters to draw on from the period of her childhood and marriage, Mazzeo spends a lot of time imagining EH's feelings and thoughts and presenting them as facts. As one illustration, Mazzeo invents a wedding scene in which Eliza and Alexander exchange rings. Nevermind that EH's actual wedding ring was interlocking and AH likely never had a ring - Mazzeo has AH give Eliza the "Elizabeth" ring, and her give him the "Alexander &" ring. Why would they exchange rings with their own names? Finally, there's a good deal of documentation of EH's life after AH, including more letters from her, more evidence of her financial management, and actually more about her beliefs, thoughts and feelings than are available during her marriage. This is the period when EH's "voice" is most clearly recorded, along with her actions outside the management of her household and her husband's public career. Yet this gets very short-shrift by Mazzeo. The Ugly left a strong impression - it doesn't seem that Mazzeo is neutral about the personages, but actively dislikes them. At various times, she slams pretty much everyone who made up EH's closest circle during her marriage: her parents, her sisters, her husband, her brother-in-law, and then goes against acceptance of the Reynolds Pamphlet not through analysis of the evidence but because she wants an EH that is more palatable to her.  EH, ultimately, comes across as a cypher. Mazzeo does have a strong narrative style, and I wish that this book could have been a collaboration between a historian (or at least someone with stronger scholarly skills) and herself, to at least tease out a real world.  I think we're a good 50 years past writing women from other eras as if they're completely unknowable except as wives, mothers, and daughters. *In patriarchal cultures, there are always women cooperating with the dominant culture as a means to their own ends. The compromises and nuances of how that plays out in societal rules are fascinating. But, I guess, not to Mazzeo.

**This really needs further comment in my epic John Church-AH shenanigans post, where Jeremiah Wadsworth gets more attention, but I’ll point out here that AH asked Wadsworth to confirm MR’s handwriting, from AH to Wadsworth, 28Jul1797 (in NYC, writing to Wadsworth in Hartford, CT): 

My Dear Wadsworth

I regretted much, that I did not find you here.

I know you have seen the late publications, in which the affair of Reynold’s is revived. I should have taken no notice of them had not the names of Mughlenberg Monroe & Venable given them an artificial importance. But I thought under this circumstance, I could not but attend to them. The affair has so turned that I am obliged to publish every thing.

But from the lapse of time I am somewhat embarrassed to prove Mrs. Reynold’s hand writing. Thinking it probable, as she was a great scribbler you must have received some notes from her when she applied to you for assistance, I send you one of her notes to me and if your recollection serves would be much obliged to you to return it with your affidavit annexed—“That you received letters from Mrs. Reynolds, conceived yourself to be acquainted with her hand writing & that you verily believe this letter to be of her hand writing.”

If your memory does not serve you then return the letter alone to me. If I remember right I never knew of your agency towards procuring Reynold’s relief, till after he was discharged. If your memory stands in the same way, I will thank you to add a declaration to this effect.

Dont neglect me nor lose time.

Yrs. truly

This was Wadsworth’s response (2Aug1796), truncated by me: 

your favor of the 28th July arrived late last evening. I have not the least knowledge of Mrs. Reynolds’s hand writing nor do I remember ever to have recd a line from her if I did they were destroyed but a letter or two for you which by Your request I returned to her or destroyed. ...[S]he immediately fell into a flood of Tears and told me a long storey about her application to You for Money when in distress in her husbands Absence & that it ended in a amour & was discovered by her husband from a letter she had written to you which fell into his hands. I told her I would see Mr. Woolcott & G Mifflin The next Morning I told Mr. Woolcott what had passed he then related the transaction for which Clingn & Reys had been committed. I then went to Mifflin and told him I came at ye request of Mrs. Reynolds. he imediately told me that she had told him the Story of the amour. ...A Mr. Clingman whom I had never seen before and seemed to have been sent for was present part of the time. From this interview I was fully confirmed in my Opinion before formed that the whole business was a combination among them to Swindle you. Mrs Reynolds called on me again and urged me deliver letters to You. You refused to receive them & desired me to return letters for You or destroy them I do not know which. I rec’d several Messages from her and again went to her house told her you would hold no correspondence with her and gave her my Opinion as at first that her husband must undergo a trial. I can not be particular as to time & date and I do not remember that I ever knew how he was liberated untill I lately saw Mr Woolcott. I certainly never considered myselfe as having any agency in procureing Reynolds’s relief nor do I remember ever to have had any conversation with You on the subject untill after your meeting with the Mess Munroe Melenburg & Venables. and had supposed Reynolds to have been ⟨released⟩ by their influence he was ⟨ashamed⟩ to have been so ⟨–⟩ after an Explanation with you. I am sorry you have found it necessary to publish any thing for it will be easy to invent new Calumnies & you may be kept continualy employed in answring. be Assured it never will be in the power of your enemies to give the public an opinion that you have Speculated in ye funds, nor do they expect it: I should have replied by this days Post—but the Mail arrives here at nine at night & goes out at Two in the Morning. I am D sir truly yours

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[mastcomm]

‘The Scream’ Is Fading. New Research Reveals Why.

“The Scream” is fading. And tiny samples of paint from the 1910 version of Edvard Munch’s famous image of angst have been under the X-ray, the laser beam and even a high-powered electron microscope, as scientists have used cutting-edge technology to try to figure out why portions of the canvas that were a brilliant orangeish-yellow are now an ivory white.

Since 2012, scientists based in New York and experts at the Munch Museum in Oslo have been working on this canvas — which was stolen in 2004 and recovered two years later — to tell a story of color. But the research also provides insight into Munch and how he worked, laying out a map for conservators to prevent further change, and helping viewers and art historians understand how one of the world’s most widely recognized paintings might have originally looked.

The art world is increasingly turning to labs to understand how paintings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries are behaving. Vincent van Gogh’s chrome yellows, some of which have started to brown, and his purples, some of which have turned blue, have been widely studied. But less is known about Munch’s palette, and scientists, using updated technologies and tools like transmission electron microscopes, are breaking new ground.

Jennifer Mass, the president of the Scientific Analysis of Fine Art lab in Harlem, whose team is on “The Scream” research, explained the science recently in her lab. She pointed to a photograph of what looked like a set of stalagmites: It was the surface of “The Scream” seen under a microscope.

“This is really, really not what you want to be seeing,” she said. Nanocrystals are growing on the painting, held by the Munch Museum — stark evidence of the degradation near the central figure’s mouth, in the sky and in the water.

Conservators and researchers at the Munch Museum contacted Dr. Mass, who has been working as a fine art scientist since she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1995. She is also a professor at the Bard Graduate Center and has partnered with many major institutions in research.

Eva Storevik Tveit, paintings conservator at the Munch Museum, said the museum had sought out Dr. Mass because of her expertise in cadmium yellow, which she had studied in Matisse’s work, and because of the high-quality scientific tools the lab has at its disposal. (One of Dr. Mass’s colleagues, Adam Finnefrock, once took tiny samples of Cézanne’s emerald green pigments to a particle accelerator at Stanford University.) And the museum, which moves to a new building later this year, needs to figure out how to best display the painting, balancing conservation concerns with viewing experience.

Munch’s materials have now been more fully analyzed, and the research, due out this spring, fleshes out a more complete story about the painting. Dr. Mass’s team was able to narrow down Munch’s paint choices using his paint tubes, some 1,400 of which are held by the Munch Museum. Over time, with exposure, the yellow cadmium sulfide has oxidized into two white chemical compounds, cadmium sulfate and cadmium carbonate.

The analysis, Dr. Mass said, has implications for Impressionist through Expressionist paintings made between the 1880s and the 1920s painted with cadmium yellow, 20 percent of which she estimates are experiencing similar phenomena.

Dr. Mass and her team work with museums, private clients, auction houses, art fairs and artists on everything from large-scale contemporary outdoor sculpture in the Hamptons to ancient Roman sculpture. They are a part of a niche in the art world — boutique labs that operate outside of large institutions, though often in tandem with them — something that’s become more common as the demand for scientific research has increased. Perhaps best known was James Martin’s Orion Analytical, which was purchased by Sotheby’s and became the first in-house lab of its kind at a major auction house.

Other such companies include Geneva Fine Art Analysis, based in Geneva’s Free Port, and the London-based Art Analysis & Research. Often they are called in by collectors or potential buyers who are interested in questions of authenticity. “There’s been a real explosion in the field,” Nicholas Eastaugh, founder and chief scientist at Art Analysis & Research, said. “There are a lot more people coming in with new approaches, new ideas, and new insights.”

Whether for conservation or authentication, the work often reveals something about an art object that the naked eye can’t see — how old a painting really is, whether it contains drawings underneath its surface, or what factors in the environment might be causing it to deteriorate. This last question is particularly important when it comes to artists working in the same period as Munch, as research is just starting to illuminate the era.

“There tends to be an interest in the bigger-name artists, for obvious reasons,” Dr. Eastaugh said. “But actually these are problems that will affect all artists of that period if they are using these materials.” He said that more research would be helpful in showing “more general patterns” in the pigment degradation mechanism.

The colors of the late 19th century and early 20th century are fading especially rapidly because of changes that took place in paintmaking. Paints had been made by hand-grinding minerals extracted from the ground or using dyes made from plants and insects. The industrial revolution brought about the production of synthetic pigments like cadmium or chrome yellows, which artists would mix with oil and fillers. Artists began experimenting with these synthetic pigments, which were sometimes haphazardly prepared and untested for the purposes of longevity but were exceptionally bright — enabling the brilliant palettes of Fauvism, Post-Impressionism and modernism.

At that moment, many artists were abandoning traditional painting techniques, said Lena Stringari, deputy director and chief conservator of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, who has studied color change and pigments in van Gogh’s work. “Many artists were working in plein-air, and they were experimenting with various paints and color theories,” she said. “There was this explosion of color with the rejection of the academy.”

That made the new pigments popular, Dr. Mass said, but they were unpredictable. “We can’t say, ‘Oh it’s a tree, so we know that the foliage would be green,’” she explained, “because in the case of Matisse or Munch, that’s not necessarily true, so we need to turn to science.”

Recapturing these hues is impossible, but science can get us closer. Koen Janssens, a professor in the department of chemistry at the University of Antwerp who has studied the pigments of van Gogh, Matisse and others, said, “The idea is to try, in a sort of virtual way, to reverse time.” Conservators wouldn’t apply new pigments to a canvas — but digital reconstructions can gesture at the past. Dr. Mass predicts a shift toward augmented reality in reconstructions, so that you might hold up your phone to a painting and see its former color layered on the canvas.

It hasn’t always been a totally easy marriage between physics, organic chemistry and the art world, said Kilian Anheuser, head scientist at Geneva Fine Art Analysis. “Until very recently, the art historian expert reigned supreme, and it was really the art historians who insisted on having the last word,” he said. “And then in recent years we’ve had quite a number of forgery scandals where things have come to light through scientific investigation, and this has turned the tables a bit.”

Ronald Varney, an independent fine art adviser, said: “There’s probably a bit of resistance to the world of science in the art market. This is still a business that depends enormously on the expertise of individuals rather than machines.”

The study of degradation may be increasingly important to buyers, he added, as “condition is something that’s ferociously important now.”

Research has certainly altered the way art historians see some of van Gogh’s works. The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and the Metropolitan Museum have mounted exhibitions in recent years highlighting his disappearing hues. Teio Meedendorp, an art historian and senior researcher at the Van Gogh Museum, said: “It’s something we’ve really only realized in the last 10 years. Research that has focused specifically on the technical aspects has changed the way we think.”

Interestingly, van Gogh, among other artists, was aware of the pitfalls of the new pigments. “I’ve just checked — all the colours that Impressionism has made fashionable are unstable,” van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo, in 1888, “all the more reason boldly to use them too raw, time will only soften them too much.”

In a later letter, he wrote, “The paintings fade like flowers.”

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Cartomancy Card Combinations - Tarot Readings Where Aces Or Tens Appear

Cartomancy, based on Tarot reading, involves divination with a normal outdoor patio of playing cards. The particular Aces and Tens of the various suits have special meanings when present in combinations with certain other cards. Learn to recognize these special meanings and what they can predict for you.

Cartomancy and the Tarot

Card divination is rooted in the Tarot, and it has been executed by readers since ancient times. These early units were hand drawn and illustrated, providing a large spectrum of quality in their color and craftsmanship. Later, with the introduction of the printing press, cartomanti a basso costo decks of cards could be massed produced, provided the illustrations were minimal and simplified. For this reason, playing cards developed without the highly illustrated Significant Arcana of the Tarot. As divination with credit cards, was a common enjoyed hobby, meanings for the new card deck were developed. These meanings were actually handed down orally from readers to reader. Later, they were gathered, printed, and sold with the credit cards themselves. The following meanings come from these collected sources.

Aces and Special Mixtures

The Ace card of each of the four suits is the main card of that suit, carrying strong individual traits related with their suit. For example, the Ace of Hearts calls for love, friendship, and happiness in your home. When the Ace of hearts falls next to another heart, it phone calls for a new companionship to appear. When it falls between two center cards, it predicts a strong love affair for the client. When the Ace of hearts comes between two diamonds playing cards, it predicts a windfall of money and souple. And when it falls between two spade cards, it predicts quarrels and squabbles for the consumer. The Ace of Diamonds by itself predicts money or a communication for the client. Additionally , when this Ace falls next to the eight of Night clubs, it calls for a business proposal to come your way. The Ace of Spades alone calls for emotional conflict, or a bad love affair. It can also predict Death to someone near you. However, when this Expert falls with the Ruler of Clubs, it predicts involvement with a Presidential candidate; when it falls alongside the Ten of Spades, it predicts a serious job or undertaking on account. Lastly, when the Ace of Spades drops with the four of Hearts, it predicts a new birth for someone near you.

Tens and Special Combinations

The 10 of Hearts alone anticipates good fortune and joy for the client. In addition the Ten of Hearts will cancel the influences of adjacent credit cards of ill-fortune, and strengthen the power of surrounding cards of good lot of money. This is a very good credit card to used a reading. The Ten of Diamonds by itself is a card of change, guessing marriage, money, or a journey for the consumer. Nevertheless, when the Ten falls next to the two of hearts, it almost always means a privileged marriage with the works. The Ten of Spades by itself is a card predicting misfortune and get worried for the client. In addition , this Ten cancels the potency of cards of good bundle of money adjacent to it, and multiplies the power of cards of ill-fortune which fall beside it. The Ten of Spades next to a Club card predicts serious business troubles, while the Ten of Spades between two Club credit cards predicts theft, forgery, or a catastrophic business damage for the client. This specific is one of the worst cards possible in a reading.

Conclusion

Aces and Tens in the dominant suits of Minds, Diamonds, and Spades have special meanings when they occur in a Cartomancy reading. Always look for the cards and interpret their blend meanings in order to gain complete insight into what fate has in store for you.

[unforgivablekrp-blog]

             THE SHRIEKING HARPY HAS THE SCOOP ON                                      the infamous kim jinsol !

— DID YOU KNOW?

Here’s what our columnist found out about this 24 year old...

blood status: pure (in theory), mixed (in actuality) lineage: quarter veela occupation: owner/potions maker of an artisan apothecary (swan song) residence: mabeob-gu wand: veela hair & poplar  faction: cult of the moon alignment: silver spoons organization: n/a silhak speciality: potions sejong major: potions

— EXCLUSIVE INFORMATION!

Inside resources have said Jinsol... 

smells black coffee, fresh cut grass, pine trees, and sea salt upon taking amortentia sees the harpy form of a full-blooded veela when facing a boggart conjures a swan when performing expecto patronus. 

— HISTORY EXPOSED!

jinsol was born into a family that lingered on the outskirts of the powerful. it wasn’t that they started out as derelicts, or got swept into new money with few connections. but his parents didn’t hold a position in the council, the government – didn’t work to amend laws. though his father did help in getting others there and winning elections. in the circles of campaign management, jinsol’s father is well known as a spin doctor, a pr maverick. he’s worked closely with the moon family for the later half of his career, helps to ensure that their scandals are painted over in a happier light, that corruption stays buried and out of the public’s view, and that if their nephew wants to be elected onto the board of muggle relations, it will happen. his wife came to him through an arranged marriage set up by their parents, loveless and based on blood, as was tradition. the mistress his father took was practically tradition as well, half veela and pretty enough to make a career out of entertaining the rich and wanting. it was like this that jinsol was born into a world filled with lies.

he shouldn’t have existed, and he assuredly shouldn’t have been raised the way that he has. he’s a betrayal in physical form for the sole fact that he hasn’t upheld both of his parents’ bloodlines like was expected, worse even is the fact that he’s not technically pure. a quarter veela might not seem like much, but it’s enough to poison the well of half his ancestors. he should have been turned away in the arms of his real mother as she dug for more gold around a rich enough man desperate to take them both in. but she’d been greedy, had tried blackmail on for size and it all ended in tragedy, forced insanity at the end of a wand and jinsol rehomed into the arms of his father’s real wife. he probably would have been cast aside, left on the steps of some charitable cause or another if not for the fact that she’d been having terrible luck having children, and keeping an illegitimate child they already had claim to under wraps was a whole lot easier than progressing along with the possibility of adoption.

everything was covered up, how couldn’t it be when jinsol’s father was who he was? documents were forged through connections, and everyone was whisked away to a summer home for long enough that when everyone emerged as a happy new family, it was a believable enough lie to stomach. lies and half-truths were jinsol’s father’s lifeblood, after all. no scandal has ever been too big to cover up, not even the birth of his own son. the status of jinsol’s own blood is under metaphorical lock and key, hardly anyone knows aside from jinsol’s immediate family and the few living confidants that had been recruited initially to help with the document forgery. even jinsol himself had been spared from the truth for a large chunk of his childhood. he’s kim jinsol, the careless pure blood who turns up in the gossip column every few weeks – arrogant and mouthy – the truth is buried, and it would certainly force him from his current seat at the table of the rich and famous.

he was never treated terribly, but there was always something off about their family dynamic. jinsol sometimes felt more like a pet than a son, like he wasn’t quite human. underneath them. he grew up in it though, to the point where it was normalized, with teachings of the moon cult planted into his head at a very young age, supported by the tentative leanings of the death eaters as their sentiments slowly crept their way into his family’s circles. secrets eventually found their way out of the woodwork though, and jinsol pieced together the mystery of his being through half-crumpled letters he discovered and a few old pictures of his mother tucked away in a formerly-locked drawer in his father’s home office. jinsol collected the full story in bits and pieces over the course of years, either in drunken tirades or in admonishments turned blame game when jinsol got older and started toeing the line of trouble. act who you’re supposed to be, not what you are became something of a moniker to live by, or at least, his father muttered it at him enough to the point where it seemed like it.

he gravitated to potions in school for the simple reason that he was good at it. his parents briefly entertained the idea of pushing him into a field that would keep them in the moon’s good graces, but it became progressively obvious that jinsol’s attitude wasn’t cut out for it. he’d inherited his mother’s erratic temper, it was all jinsol could do to keep himself in check – let alone manage all the dirty little secrets of everyone else around him. he never minded the attention though, didn’t mind when he became part of a group that the tabloids liked to trace for entertainment, either. jinsol finds it exceedingly hilarious that’s he’s all but a socialite when his father’s always wanted to keep him hidden in the shadows. his parents do not. but that doesn’t stop jinsol from carrying on wild and reckless, pretending that the reality of himself isn’t a bitter pill to swallow. pretending that he doesn’t care.

jinsol spent a good year after he graduated from sejong doing absolutely nothing, falling back on his trust fund and skirting from party to party. it’s a hazy time, too much to drink and potions of his own invention that were an inch away from something that the department of potion and drug enforcement could confiscate from him. after a scandalous headlight or two surfaced his father’s patience had worn thin enough to threaten him into getting a job if he still wanted access to his trust. jinsol obviously did, and eventually came up with a half-cocked idea to open his own apothecary. the building he rents it out from is absurdly expensive, especially for the incredibly odd hours he opens shop (though in a half cocked excuse, he often crashes in the expansive room on the second floor above the shop), but it’s earned it’s own reputation of sorts as an artisan shop, and his array of odd creations is enough to keep it afloat, even if he’s probably been in the red for at least a few months here and there. but he has his own accountant to worry about that, hired enough people to take care of the back end of the business that he really only has to worry about creating, brewing, and occasionally being in the shop for long enough to actually sell things, even if it ends up being at one in the morning and half hung over.

his life feels tenuous, like a rubber band stretched too thin. he’s anxious about who he is, really is. his relationship with his parents is entirely fake, and he knows where he stands in their hierarchy, in the moon’s hierarchy. veela-blooded witches and wizards might be good enough as a high-class sidepiece, but if the truth was barred, jinsol’s entirely sure that the life he’s managed to haphazardly construct would be shattered. he hates it, and he hates himself. he finds himself wanting, desperately. but he’s still not sure what it will take to fill the gap in his chest, to make him feel right. as it stands, everything’s off-kilter. including jinsol himself.