Watercolour painting by me

 

Wassily Kandinsky

 

Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (1866-1944), was a Russian painter widely credited as the pioneer of abstract art. He felt that art should have no recognizable objects or forms, but rather should destroy reality in order to arrive at the underlying truth of existence. He called his spiritual desire for art “inner necessity”. Kandinsky studied law and economics at the University of Moscow, and was offered a professorship at the University of Dorpat, but he abandoned his career in 1896 at the age of 30, and went to Munich to study art. But before leaving Moscow, he saw an exhibit of paintings by Monet. It had a profound effect on him, and may have influenced his later venture into abstract art.

In 1896 Kandinsky settled in Munich, studying art at the Academy of Fine Arts. But he returned to Moscow in 1914. After the Russian Revolution he seemed to have been involved with Russian Marxist revolutionary Anotoly Lunacharsky, becoming an insider in the cultural administration. However because “his spiritual outlook was different to the argumentative materialism of Soviet society” he returned to Germany in 1920. There he taught art at the Bauhaus School until Hitler closed it down in 1933. He then moved to France producing some of his most prominent work until his death a few days before his 78th birthday.

Wassily Kandinsky was an early champion of abstract painting and believed that abstract art could be used to express the “inner life” of the artist. His favorite color was blue, and he believed that the circle was the most peaceful shape and represents the human soul.

Sir Humphry Davy

 

 

Sir Humphry Davy (1778-1829) was a British Chemist. Davy discovered the elements potassium and sodium (1807), and barium and calcium (1808). These discoveries resulted from his researches in electro-chemistry. He was the first to isolate magnesium and strontium (1808) independently of the French chemist Gay-Lussac and Thenard. His miner’s safety lamp (1815) was a major contribution to industrial safety. Although two other men claimed this invention, Davy is generally given the credit.

Davy was born in Cornwall. As an apprentice to an apothecary and surgeon, he became interested in chemistry. In 1799 as an assistant in the Pneumatic Institution of Bristol, he made important discoveries of the properties of nitrous oxide. This accomplishment won him an appointment, at 23, as professor of chemistry at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, London.

Davy’s talent for storytelling, combined with his brilliant scientific record, made him one of the most popular lecturers of his day. Although Britain and France were enemies at this time, Davy was awarded the Napoleon Prize of the French Institute in 1808. He was knighted in 1812 and was made a baronet in 1818. He became president of the Royal Society in 1820.

As a poet, over one hundred and sixty manuscript poems were written by Davy, the majority of which are found in his personal notebooks. Most of his written poems were not published, and he chose instead to share a few of them with his friends. Eight of his known poems were published. His poems reflected his views on both his career and also his perception of certain aspects of human life. He wrote on human endeavors and aspects of life like death, metaphysics, geology, natural theology and chemistry.

The Industrial Revolution - Soot Portrait (Drawn by me using a black pen)

 

The Industrial Revolution - In A More Favorable Light (Drawing by me)

 

Michael Faraday

 

Michael Faraday (1791-1867) was an English physicist and chemist. Faraday’s discovery of electromagnetic induction led to his invention of the electric motor and electric generator. His inventions laid the basis for much of the technology of the 20th century. In 1821 he had used a magnet and a wire containing an electric current to produce mechanical motion, thereby creating an electric motor. Ten years later Faraday reversed the process: using magnetism to produce an electric current, he invented the dynamo, or generator.

Faraday formulated the basic laws of electrolysis during his early work in chemistry. Ion, anode cathode and electrode are some of the chemical terms he introduced. In 1825 he became the first to liquefy gases under pressure. In 1845 he discovered the Faraday Effect of magnetism on polarized light. His later days were spent in formulating a general electromagnetic field theory, later completed by James Clerk Maxwell. The farad is named for him.

The son of a blacksmith in Newington, Surrey, Faraday received little formal schooling. He became interested in science while apprenticed to a London bookbinder. In 1813 he got a job as laboratory assistant to Sir Humphry Davy at the Royal Institution in London. Faraday became director of the laboratory in 1825 and professor of chemistry in 1833. He scorned wealth and worldly honors, refusing knighthood and the presidency of the Royal Society. While other men made money from his discoveries Faraday devoted himself exclusively to scientific research.

Oil Pastel

 

Water colour

Oil Pastel

 

Oil Pastel

 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) was an American Poet. At the time of his death Longfellow was regarded both at home and abroad as the greatest American poet. His reputation in England rivaled that of Tennyson. His translations from German, Italian and Scandinavian had much the directness and sincerity of his own verse, and attracted many American readers.

When critical taste turned toward a sterner brand of realism, Longfellow’s faults were noticed more than his very solid virtues. He has been called “The poet of the Commonplace,” but he had the gift of illuminating the ordinary and surrounding it with music. The simplicity that endears him to children and many adults often is interpreted as triteness or mediocrity. Nevertheless, Longfellow has earned a permanent place as a skilled lyricist of pure, sweet and gentle tone. Longfellow’s mastery of the ballad form and his proficiency with the sonnet are generally acknowledged.

A tragedy occurred in 1861 that shadowed the remaining years of his life. While his wife was melting sealing wax, a match set fire to her dress and she was burned to death in spite of Longfellow’s efforts to save her. He was seriously burned. Though the poet’s fame continued to grow, the peak of Longfellow’s creative life had passed. His translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy (1867), to which he turned for solace after his wife’s death, was competent but too literal to possess the musical quality Longfellow ordinarily summoned.

At the 50th anniversary of the graduation of his class at Bowdoin, Longfellow read a poem “Morituri Salutamus” (“We Who Are About to Die Salute Thee). After being stricken with dizziness in 1881, he died from an attack of peritonitis on March 24 of the following year. He was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery.

A poem he wrote was "The Secret of the Sea" and in it the following verses appear.

Ah! what pleasant visions haunt me

As I gaze upon the sea!

All the old romantic legends,

All my dreams, come back to me.

Sails of silk and ropes of sandal,

Such as gleam in ancient lore;

And the singing of the sailors,

And the answer from the shore!

Most of all, the Spanish ballad

Haunts me oft, and tarries long,

Of the noble Count Arnaldos

And the sailor's mystic song.

Like the long waves on a sea-beach,

Where the sand as silver shines,

With a soft, monotonous cadence,

Flow its unrhymed lyric lines;--

Telling how the Count Arnaldos,

With his hawk upon his hand,

Saw a fair and stately galley,

Steering onward to the land;--

How he heard the ancient helmsman

Chant a song so wild and clear,

That the sailing sea-bird slowly

Poised upon the mast to hear,

Till his soul was full of longing,

And he cried, with impulse strong,--

'Helmsman! for the love of heaven,

Teach me, too, that wondrous song!'

'Wouldst thou,'--so the helmsman answered,

'Learn the secret of the sea?

Only those who brave its dangers

Comprehend its mystery!'

In each sail that skims the horizon,

In each landward-blowing breeze,

I behold that stately galley,

Hear those mournful melodies;

Till my soul is full of longing

For the secret of the sea,

And the heart of the great ocean

Sends a thrilling pulse through me.