Hans Baluschek: Illustration for Peterchen’s Trip to the Moon, 1920

 

Hans Baluschek: Illustration for Peterchen’s Trip to the Moon, 1920

Little Peter's Journey to the Moon is a fairy tale written by Gerdt von Bassewitz. It was first appeared in 1915 as a storybook for children with illustrations by Hans Baluschek. It is the story of Little Peter and his sister Anneli, who help a May beetle named Mr. Zoomzeman to get back his missing sixth leg from the Moon. After a fantastic and dangerous overnight adventure they recover the leg and are returned to their beds at home. 

Pierre Puvis de Chavannes: Sleep, 1867-70

Pierre Puvis de Chavannes: Sleep, 1867-70
oil on canvas, 66,4 x 106 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art

This is a smaller replica of an 1867 painting (Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille) that Puvis regarded as his "favorite work." He associated the composition with a fragment from the Aeneid by the ancient Roman poet Virgil: "It was the hour when the first rest of weary mortals begins" (book 2, line 268). The text refers to a brief (and illusory) respite from war, but Puvis portrays untroubled repose after harvesting. By depicting sleepers of all ages, ranging from an old man to a mother cradling her baby, the artist creates an image of communal rest and protection.

Pierre Puvis de Chavannes: Au clair de lune, 1885

 

Pierre Puvis de Chavannes: Au clair de lune, 1885
oil on canvas, 46 x 38,1 cm

Despite its title, the painting Au Clair de la Lune, French for By the Light of the Moon, does not show the moon at all. Instead, the celestial body is evident through its reflection on a distant lake and in the soft sheen on the face of a woman who leans against freshly cut sheaves of summer hay. This ethereal-looking woman seems immersed in contemplation as she drapes her arm languidly over the hay and turns toward the unseen moon. Au Clair de la Lune is a mural study by the 19th-century French artist Pierre Puvis de Chavannes. 

Puvis used soft colors laid out in smudgy planes that suggest forms rather than clearly defining them. Puvis painted in this style so that his art would harmonize with the walls it adorned. Thus, he made his figures flat and selected his colors to match the stone of the wall. The pale, golden tones of this study suggest that the finished artwork was meant for a warmly colored wall. The painting serves as an allegory for the summer harvest season—the woman in classical garb lounges on a newly mown haystack as she considers the fleeting beauty of a summer moon. via

Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer: Bilitis, 1900

 

Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer: Bilitis, 1900
pastel on canvas, 55,5 x 66,4 cm
Private collection