The Battle of Marion (December 17–December 18, 1864) was a military engagement in the American Civil War that occurred when Major General George Stoneman, commander of the Union Army in Kentucky and Tennessee, raided Southwestern Virginia. General Stoneman's plan was to destroy anything that might benefit the Southern war effort and was approved by his commanding officers on December 6, 1864.

The Confederates managed to hold the key positions on the battlefield against numerous Union charges. Eventually, the Confederates ran short of ammunition and were forced to withdraw. The total casualties for this battle were 274, relatively low for a battle during the Civil War.

After the battle, the Union expedition set out to destroy the salt mines, lead works, and anything else in the area that could be of benefit to the Confederates.

Location
The town of Marion is in southwest Virginia on the Middle Fork of the Holston River in Smyth County, Virginia. It was about half way between the salt works at Saltville and the lead mines near Wytheville. Since it is near the Mason–Dixon line, many of the town's families were divided and fought on opposing sides. Until the winter of 1864, the town of Marion had been protected from fighting by the mountains and geographic location.

Background

Union army

Proposition
Major General George Stoneman, commander of the Union Army in Kentucky and Tennessee, proposed another expedition into southwest Virginia to destroy all facilities and supplies of benefit to the Confederate war effort. This gained the approval of Major General John Schofield on December 6, 1864.

Preparations
Stoneman would use troops under General Alvan Gillem and those commanded by General Stephen Burbridge—including the 5th and the 6th U.S. Colored Cavalry  who had participated in the failed previous attempt to destroy the salt works at the first Battle of Saltville. Stoneman ordered Burbridge to bring his army of 4,200 men through the Cumberland Gap to join Stoneman and General Gillem at Knoxville, Tennessee where Gillem was refitting his own command into a picked force of 1,500 men. Stoneman did not reveal the objectives of the expedition to his subordinates until three days after it had departed Knoxville on December 10. On December 12, Stoneman's force flanked and forced back Confederate General Basil Duke's cavalry at Rogersville, Tennessee. The Federals defeated and scattered the Confederates the next day at Kingsport, Tennessee. There General Gillem captured 84 prisoners, including Col. Richard C. Morgan and the brigade's supply train.

On the 14th, the Union army began to push Duke's cavalry back toward Abingdon, Virginia. The next day, Stoneman and his cavalry went into camp at Glade Spring, Virginia, which was about  west of Marion. On December 16, Stoneman's cavalry rode toward Marion, destroying infrastructure and public buildings along their path.

Confederate army
The opposing force of General Stoneman was the army of Major General John C. Breckinridge, who was the commander of the Department of Southwest Virginia. Breckinridge's command consisted of approximately 1,000 regular troops with another 500 militia reserves. Most of the army had been transferred to the Army of Northern Virginia to help in the defense of Richmond.

Preparations
Breckinridge's army consisted of Colonel Henry Giltner's brigade, (which was formed from the soldiers of the 4th Kentucky Cavalry and the 10th Kentucky Cavalry); the 10th Kentucky Mounted Rifles (later renamed to the 13th Kentucky Cavalry), and the 64th Virginia Mounted Infantry. Breckinridge's army also included General Basil Duke's cavalry, General George Cosby's cavalry and Colonel Vincent Witcher and his 34th Battalion of Virginia Cavalry.

On the night of December 16, General Breckinridge and his troops moved out of Saltville, Virginia in an effort to stop Stoneman. Taking the regular troops with him, Breckinridge left Colonel Robert Preston in charge of the 500 militia men to defend the salt works. General Breckinridge sent Witcher and his men of the 34th on ahead of his main force and ordered them to harass the Union army.

At about 3 a.m. (Local Time), Breckinridge and his small army began to travel across Walkers Mountain. In the last few days before the march, 4" of rain fell, making travel difficult across the muddy roads. At 4:00 a.m. (Local Time), they reached the main road near Seven Mile Ford, Virginia where Breckinridge waited for daylight before continuing.

Battle

Advance
Around noon of December 17, 1864, Breckinridge's men mounted their horses rode toward Marion. Meanwhile, General Stoneman sent some of his Tennessee regiments to Wytheville, Virginia to destroy anything that looked valuable. Stoneman also sent two regiments of cavalry to destroy the lead mines and smelting facilities that were about ten miles (16 km) from Wytheville.

Stoneman and Burbridge continued on toward Marion where they encountered Witcher and his men. Burbridge's front regiment easily pushed back Witcher's small regiment, who stopped just so they could fire a volley into the Union cavalry. They then continued to retreat toward Marion. Witcher sent a courier to inform Breckinridge that they were coming to join them at Marion.

First day
General Breckinridge's front regiment was the 10th Kentucky Mounted Rifles, under the command of Colonel Benjamin Caudill. Caudill's men dismounted and fired into the Union cavalry, causing several casualties. As the rest of Breckinridge's troops began to arrive on the scene, General Stoneman's men secured the high hill overlooking the river. Breckinridge observed that these hills were the best defensive positions in the area; following which he ordered the men of the 10th Kentucky Mounted Rifles to charge up the hill and drive out the Union army. The rest of Giltner's Brigade also joined in the charge, routing the Union soldiers. The result of the charge ended in Confederate favor, and the Confederates gained control of the hill.

Burbridge then began to form his men up in columns to counterattack the Rebel defenses. As soon as the men were in position, he ordered all columns to charge in unison. After the signal, the Union Army surged forward. The first Confederate volley of shots depleted the Union forces considerably. Even after the volley, the Rebel forces were still vastly outnumbered. Confederate Artillery commander Major Richard Page and his battery of four 10-pounder Parrott rifles began to fire, attempting to slow the charge. The overwhelming fire forced the Union soldiers to fall back with many casualties.

The Union officers then reorganized their men and with a yell of their own, charged again. Like the previous charge, this charge also was repelled. One more charge occurred that day. Courageously, the men formed and prepared to face the withering fire that they knew would come from the breast works in their front. For the final time that day, the Union army charged into Confederate fire with the same results as the previous charges. The Rebels had held on to their position during the first day of battle.

Breckinridge ordered his men to move forward and build new breastworks. These new defensive positions placed the two armies less than one hundred fifty yards apart. During the night, one Union officer was ordered to take positions at the covered bridge near the river. He and 75 men took up positions in and around the covered bridge. This was the only advance of that night by the Union army.

Second day
The Union army that was positioned at the covered bridge fired the first few volleys at the rebels to harass their front positions. General Burbridge attacked just as the fog lifted. To entertain themselves, soldiers from both armies began to hurl insults across the fields between them. About midmorning Burbridge decided that the light rain probably would not stop falling any time soon and had his officers prepare to commence the battle.

Both armies yet again raised their battle cries. Columns of Union men charged across the fields into the same fire they had received the day before. A combination of the colored and the white troops managed to push the 4th Kentucky Infantry and General Cosby's positions back. Cosby rallied his men and counterattacked, retaking their breastworks. The Union soldiers that had taken positions at the covered bridge the night before began to take pressure from the 4th Kentucky in their front. They realized their location was not safe one and some began to try to run back to the Union lines. As these men would attempt to retreat from their positions at the bridge, the rebels of the would pick most of them off. The remaining Union soldiers at the bridge decided to wait out the battle. Later in the day General Burbridge ordered one of his regiments to charge across the bridge on horseback to relieve the pressure on the trapped men. The regiment solely received a few casualties and then retreated.

On the far right, General Duke was being pressed hard by the heavy columns of attacking soldiers. Seeing this, Colonel Giltner sent his regiment to reinforce Duke. Before the 2nd arrived, Duke and his men counterattacked the Union line and routed it. Duke and Witcher then combined forces and charged the Union's extreme left flank. This Union colored regiment was also completely routed.

Burbridge and his men then went into a disorderly retreat. The confederate rail breastworks had held, but the holding of the line had resulted in the use of a huge amount of ammunition. Each Rebel defender had shot at least seventy-five rounds, and some having fired as many as a hundred shots. The Union army then ordered another charge with a large cavalry regiment that reinforced the Union infantry. The unexpected fighting capabilities of the small Confederate army had temporarily created a reprieve for the salt works.

Aftermath
Breckinridge ordered his field officers to make an inspection of the troops and to report back with the condition of his army. The number of men wounded and killed had depleted his army to the point that he could judged that he could no longer hold back the Union army at the front lines. Ammunition in the camp was also running low; each man had no more than ten cartridges apiece. With their supplies destroyed by Stoneman's army at the towns of Wytheville and Abingdon, there was little hope of being resupplied or reinforced in time.

Breckinridge then ordered his men to retreat from the battlefield. Though the men faced miserable conditions, they were confident they could hold the field the next day. Angrily they obeyed orders and silently began to move out with Colonel Ben Caudill and his Mounted Rifles leading the way.

Outcome
The battle at Marion was a Union victory. The vastly outnumbered Rebels had inflicted moderate casualties and slowed the advance on Saltville, but were unable to stop it. Finding their own path to Saltville's defenses blocked, Breckinridge and his men retreated further south, while the Union raiders advanced. Saltville would fall to a night attack on December 20 - December 21 and the salt works would be destroyed by the Union army.

The damage to the leadmines near Wytheville would keep them out of production for three months, and then only partial production would be possible. Salt production would not be resumed for over a month. All railroad locomotives, cars, depots and bridges in the vicinity had been destroyed by the raid. General Stoneman claimed to have captured 34 officers and 845 enlisted men during the raid.

References

Other websites
 About the Battle
 About the Battle
 History of Marion County
 History of one of the Regiments
 Step by step of the battle
 About the Battle
 About the Battle

Marion
December events
1864 in Virginia

Battle of Marion


"Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar?" or the cookie jar song is a sing-along game of children's music. The song is an infinite-loop motif, where each verse directly feeds into the next. The game begins with the children sitting or standing, arranged in an inward-facing circle.

The song usually begins with the group leader asking who stole a cookie from an imaginary (or sometimes real) cookie jar, followed by the name of one of the children in the circle.  The child questions the "accusation," answered by an affirmation from the "accuser," followed by continued denial from the "accused."  The accuser asks who stole the cookie, followed by the accused's saying the name of another child in the circle. The call-and-answer is potentially infinitely recursive, limited only by the number of participants or the amount of time the participants wish to spend on it.

Sometimes, a clapping or snapping beat is used by the children in the circle.  Sometimes, the other children in the group sing along with the "accuser" after the "accused" has been identified.  Some variations on the theme include the use by teachers of the song as a lesson in keeping with a beat and improvisation.  As with many children's songs, there can be many variations on the execution of the performance.

The song's lyrics are usually:
Accuser: (name of a child in the circle) stole/took the cookie/cookies from the cookie jar.
Accused: Who, me?
Accuser/Group: Yes, you!
Accused: Not me!
Accuser/Group: Then who?
This is followed by the "accused" saying the name of someone else, as "(name of a child in the circle) stole the cookie from the cookie jar," and the subsequent back-and-forth lines are repeated.  The song may be repeated ad infinitum or it may end - if it is being performed as part of a game, where members of the group are eliminated by failing to keep up with the prescribed beat or eliminated as a result of being chosen as one of the accused.

The fourth line is often changed to "Couldn't be!" Sesame Street's version also changed the third line to "Yeah, you!"

See also
 The priest of the parish

External links
Example of a lesson plan used by teachers, with lyrics, and appropriate grade level.
A variation on the performance of the piece, noting the importance of keeping to a rhythm.

English children's songs
English folk songs
Traditional children's songs
Year of song unknown
English nursery rhymes
Sing-along
Songs about crime
Cookies in popular culture

Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?


Lenore "Lee" Krasner (born Lena Krassner;  October 27, 1908 – June 19, 1984) was an American Abstract Expressionist painter and visual artist active primarily in New York. She received her early academic training at the Women's Art School of Cooper Union, and the National Academy of Design from 1928 to 1932. Krasner's exposure to Post-Impressionism at the newly opened Museum of Modern Art in 1929 led to a sustained interest in modern art. In 1937, she enrolled in classes taught by  Hans Hofmann, which led her to integrate influences of Cubism into her paintings. During the Great Depression, Krasner joined the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project, transitioning to war propaganda artworks during the War Services era.

By the 1940s, Krasner was a prominent figure among the American abstract artists associated with the New York School, with a network including seminal figures like Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko. Despite her critical success, Krasner's work was often overshadowed by the career of her husband, Jackson Pollock, whom she married in 1945. Their life was marred by Pollock's infidelity and alcoholism, which had a deep emotional impact on Krasner. The late 1950s to the early 1960s were characterized by a more expressive and gestural style, influenced by, among other aspects, the untimely death of her husband in 1956. In her later years, she received broader artistic and commercial recognition and her work saw a shift towards large horizontal paintings marked by hard-edge lines and bright contrasting colors defining her style.

During her life, Krasner received numerous honorary degrees, including Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from Stony Brook University. Following Krasner's death in 1984, critic Robert Hughes described her as "the Mother Courage of Abstract Expressionism" and a posthumous retrospective exhibition of her work was held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in Springs, New York and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation were established to preserve the work and cultural influence of her and her husband. The latter has since focused on supporting new artists and art historical scholarship in American art.

Early life
Krasner was born as  Lena Krassner (outside the family she was known as Lenore Krasner) on October 27, 1908 in Brooklyn, New York. She was the daughter of Chane (née Weiss) and Joseph Krasner, Ukrainian-Jewish immigrants from Spykov
(now Shpykiv, a Jewish community in what is now Ukraine). The couple fled to the United States to escape antisemitism and the Russo-Japanese War, and Chane changed her name to Anna once she arrived. Lee was the youngest of six children,  and the only one to be born in the United States.

Education

From an early age, Krasner knew she wanted to pursue art as a career. Her career as an artist began when she was a teenager. She specifically sought out enrollment at Washington Irving High School for Girls as they offered an art major. After graduating, she attended the Women's Art School of Cooper Union on a scholarship. There, she completed the course work required for a teaching certificate in art. Krasner pursued yet more art education at the National Academy of Design in 1928, completing her course load there in 1932. When Krasner attended high school, she almost didn't graduate based on her grade in art, which was the subject she attended the school for, and was only given 65 to pass the class.

By attending a technical art school, Krasner was able to gain an extensive and thorough artistic education as illustrated through her knowledge of the techniques of the Old Masters. She also became highly skilled in portraying anatomically correct figures. There are relatively few works that survive from this time period apart from a few self-portraits and still lifes because most of the works were burned in a fire. One image that still exists from this period is her "Self Portrait" painted in 1930, now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She submitted it to the National Academy in order to enroll in a certain class, but the judges could not believe that the young artist produced a self-portrait en plein air. In it, Krasner depicts herself with a defiant expression surrounded by nature. She also briefly enrolled in the Art Students League of New York in 1928. There, she took a class led by George Bridgman who emphasized the human form.

Krasner was highly influenced by the opening of the Museum of Modern Art in 1929. She was very affected by post-impressionism and grew critical of the academic notions of style she had learned at the National Academy. In the 1930s, she began studying modern art through learning the components of composition, technique, and theory. She began taking classes from Hans Hofmann in 1937, which modernized her approach to the nude and still life. He emphasized the two-dimensional nature of the picture plane and usage of color to create spatial illusion that was not representative of reality through his lessons. Throughout her classes with Hofmann, Krasner worked in an advanced style of cubism, also known as neo-cubism. During the class, a human nude or a still life setting would be the model from which Krasner and other students would have to work. She typically created charcoal drawings of the human models and oil on paper color studies of the still life settings. She typically illustrated female nudes in a cubist manner with tension achieved through the fragmentation of forms and the opposition of light and dark colors. The still lifes illustrated her interest in fauvism since she suspended brightly colored pigment on white backgrounds.

Hans Hofmann "was very negative" his former student said "but one day he stood before my easel and he gave me the first praise I had ever received as an artist from him. He said, 'This is so good, you would never know it was done by a woman". She also received praise from Piet Mondrian who once told her "You have a very strong inner rhythm; you must never lose it."

Early career

Krasner supported herself as a waitress during her studies but it eventually became too difficult due to the Great Depression. In order to continue provide for herself, she joined the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project in 1935, working in the mural division as an assistant to Max Spivak. Her job was to enlarge other artists' designs for large-scaled public murals. As murals were created to be easily understood and appreciated by the general public, however, the abstract art Krasner produced was undesirable. While happy to be employed, she was dissatisfied since she did not like working with figurative images created by other artists. Throughout the late 1930s and early 1940s, she created gouache sketches in the hopes of one day creating an abstract mural. As soon as one of her proposals for a mural was approved for the WNYC radio station, the Works Progress Administration turned into War Services and all art had to be created for war propaganda. Krasner continued working for War Services by creating collages for the war effort which were displayed in the windows of nineteen department stores in Brooklyn and Manhattan. She was intensively involved with the Artists Union during her employment with the WPA but was one of the first to quit when she realized the communists were taking it over. However, by being part of this organization, she was able to meet more artists in the city and enlarge her network.

After she quit, she joined in 1940 the American Abstract Artists. While a member, she typically exhibited cubist still life in a black-gridded cloisonne style which were highly impastoed and gestural. She met future abstract expressionists Willem de Kooning, Arshile Gorky, Franz Kline, Adolph Gottlieb, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, Clyfford Still, and Bradley Walker Tomlin through this organization. She lost interest in their usage of hard-edge geometric style after her relationship with Jackson Pollock began.

Career
Krasner is identified as an abstract expressionist due to her abstract, gestural, and expressive works in painting, collage painting, charcoal drawing, and occasionally mosaics. She would often cut apart her own drawings and paintings to create her collage paintings. She also commonly revised or completely destroyed an entire series of works due to her critical nature; as a result, her surviving body of work is relatively small. Her catalogue raisonné, published in 1995 by Abrams, lists 599 known pieces.

Her changeable nature is reflected throughout her work, which has led critics and scholars to have different conclusions about her and her oeuvre. Krasner's style often alternates between classic structure and baroque action, open form and hard-edge shape, and bright color and monochrome palette. Throughout her career, she refused to adopt a singular, recognizable style and instead embraced change through varying the mood, subject matter, texture, materials, and compositions of her work often. By changing her work style often, she differed from other abstract expressionists since many of them adopted unchanging identities and modes of depiction. Despite these intense variations, her works can typically be recognized through their gestural style, texture, rhythm, and depiction of organic imagery. Krasner's interest in the self, nature, and modern life are themes which commonly surface in her works. She was often reluctant to discuss the iconography of her work and instead emphasized the importance of her biography since she claimed her art was formed through her individual personality and her emotional state.

Early 1940s
Throughout the first half of the 1940s, Krasner struggled with creating art that satisfied her critical nature. Throughout the 1930s the New York painting scene consisted of a very intimate group of artists that studied each other's efforts but was not yet shown in galleries. The 1940s marked a transition from an "age of innocence" to a modernist mindset of pure expression. She was highly affected by seeing Pollock's work for the first time in 1942, causing her to reject Hofmann's cubist style which required working from a human or still life model. She called the work produced during this frustrating time her "grey slab paintings." She would create these paintings by working on a canvas for months, overpainting, scraping or rubbing paint off, and adding more pigment until the canvas was nearly monochrome from so much paint buildup. She eventually would destroy these works, which is the reason there is only one painting that exists from this time period. Krasner's extensive knowledge of cubism was the source of her creative problem since she needed her work to be more expressive and gestural to be considered contemporary and relevant. In the fall of 1945, Krasner destroyed many of her cubist works she created during her studies with Hofmann, although the majority of paintings created from 1938 to 1943 survived this reevaluation.

Little Images: 1946–1949

Beginning in 1946, Krasner began working on her Little Image series. Commonly categorized as mosaic, webbed, or hieroglyphs depending on the style of the image, these types of paintings, totalling around 40, she created until 1949. The mosaic images were created through the thick buildup of paint while her webbed paintings were made through a drip technique in which the paintbrush was always close to the surface of the canvas. Since Krasner used a drip technique, many critics believed upon seeing this work for the first time that she was reinterpreting Pollock's chaotic paint splatters. Her hieroglyph paintings are gridded and look like an unreadable, personal script of Krasner's creation. These works demonstrate her anti-figurative concerns, allover approach to the canvas, gestural brushwork, and disregard of naturalistic color. They have little variation of hue but are very rich in texture due to the buildup of impasto and also suggest space continuing beyond the canvas. These are considered her first successful images that she created while working from her own imagination rather than a model. The relatively small scale of the images can be attributed to the fact she painted them on an easel in her small studio space in an upstairs bedroom at The Springs.

Many scholars interpret these images as Krasner's reworking of Hebrew script. In an interview later in her career, Krasner admitted to subconsciously working from right to left on her canvases, leading scholars to believe that her ethnic and cultural background affected the rendering of her work. Some scholars have interpreted these paintings to represent the artist's reaction to the tragedy of the Holocaust.  Others have claimed that Krasner's work with the War Services project caused her to be interested in text and codes since cryptoanalysis was a main concern for winning the war.

When she completed the Little Image series in 1949, Krasner again went through a critical phase with her work. She tried out and rejected many new styles and eventually destroyed most of the work she made in the early 1950s. There is evidence that she began experimenting with automatic painting and created black-and-white, hybridized, monstrous figures on large canvases in 1950. These were the paintings that Betty Parsons saw when she visited The Springs that summer, causing the gallerist to offer Krasner a show in the fall. Between the summer and the fall, Krasner again had shifted her style to color field painting and destroyed the figurative automatic paintings she made. The Betty Parsons show was Krasner's first solo exhibition since 1945. After the exhibition, Krasner used the color field paintings to make her collage paintings.

Early collage images: 1951–1955

By 1951, Krasner had started her first series of collage paintings. To create them, Krasner pasted cut-and-torn shapes onto all but two of the large-scale color field paintings she created for the Betty Parsons exhibition in 1951. This period marks the time when the artist stopped working on an easel since she created these works by lying the support on the floor. To make these images, she would pin the separate pieces to a canvas and modify the composition until she was satisfied. She then would paste the fragments on the canvas and add color with a brush when desired. Most of the collage paintings she created recall plant or organic forms but do not completely resemble a living organism. By using many different materials, she was able to create texture and prevent the image from being entirely flat. The act of tearing and cutting elements for the collage embodies Krasner's expression since these acts are aggressive. She explored contrasts of light and dark colors, hard and soft lines, organic and geometric shapes, and structure and improvisation through this work. These collage paintings represent Krasner's turn away from nonobjective abstraction. From this period onwards, she created metaphorical and content-laden art which alludes to organic figures or landscapes.

From 1951 to 1953, most of her works were made from ripped drawings completed in black ink or wash in a figurative manner. By ripping the paper instead of cutting it, the edges of the figures are much more soft in comparison to the geometric and hard-edged shapes in her previous works. From 1953 to 1954, she created smaller-sized collage paintings that were composed of fragments of undesired works. Some of the discarded works she used were splatter paintings completed by Pollock. Many scholars have expressed different interpretations about why she used her partner's unwanted canvases. Some assert that she simultaneously demonstrated her admiration for his art while also recontextualizing his aggressive physicality through manipulating his images into a collage form. Others believe that she was creating a sense of intimacy between themselves, which was lacking in their actual relationship by this time period, by combining their works together. By 1955, she made collage paintings on a larger scale and varied the material she used for the support, using either masonite, wood, or canvas. These works were first exhibited by Eleanor Ward at the Stable Gallery in 1955 in New York City, but they received little public acclaim apart from a good review from Clement Greenberg.

Earth Green Series: 1956–1959

During the summer of 1956, Krasner started her Earth Green Series. While she started making this work before Pollock's death, they are considered to reflect her feelings of anger, guilt, pain, and loss she experienced about their relationship before and after he died. The intense emotion she felt during this time caused her art to develop along more liberated lines of her self-expression and pushed the boundaries of conventional, developed concepts of art. Through these large-scale action paintings, Krasner depicts hybridized figures that are made up of organic plant-like forms and anatomical parts, which often allude to both male and female body parts. These forms dominate the canvas, causing it to be crowded and densely-packed with bursting and bulging shapes. The pain she experienced during this period is illustrated through the principal usage of flesh tones with blood-red accents in the figures which suggest wounds. The paint drips on her canvas show her speed and willingness to relinquish absolute control, both necessary for portraying her emotions.

By 1957, Krasner continued to create figurative abstract forms in her work, but they suggest more floral elements rather than anatomical. She used brighter colors which were more vibrant and commonly contrasted other colors in the composition. She also would dilute paint or use a dry brush to make the colors more transparent.

In 1958, Krasner was commissioned to create two abstract murals for an office building on Broadway. She created two collage maquettes which depicted floral motifs for two entryways of the building. These murals were later destroyed in a fire.

Umber Series: 1959–1961

Krasner's Umber Series paintings were created during a time when the artist was suffering from insomnia. Since she was working during the night, she had to paint with artificial light rather than daylight, causing her palette to shift from bright, vibrant hues to dull, monochrome colors. She also was still dealing with the death of Pollock and the recent death of her mother, which led her to use an aggressive style when creating these images. These mural-sized action paintings contrast dark and light severely since white, grays, black, and brown are the predominant colors used. Evidence of her animated brushwork can be seen through the drips and splatters of paint on the canvas. There is no central spot for the viewer to focus on in these works, making the composition highly dynamic and rhythmic. To paint on such a large scale, Krasner would tack the canvas to a wall. These images no longer implied organic forms but instead are often interpreted as violent and turbulent landscapes.

Primary Series: 1960s

By 1962, she begins using bright colors and allude to floral and plant-like shapes. These works are compositionally similar to her monochrome images due to their large size and rhythmic nature with no central focal point. Their palettes often contrast with one another and allude to tropical landscapes or plants. She continued working in this style until she suffered an aneurysm, fell, and broke her right wrist in 1963. Since she still wanted to work, she began painting with her left hand. To overcome working with her non-dominant hand, she often would directly apply paint from a tube to the canvas rather than using a brush, causing there to be large patches of white canvas on the surfaces of the images. The gesture and the physicality of these works is more restrained.

After recovering from her broken arm, Krasner began working on bright and decorative allover painting which are less aggressive than her Earth Green and Umber Series paintings. Often, these images recall calligraphy or floral ornamentation not blatantly related to Krasner's known emotional state.  Floral or calligraphic shapes dominate the canvas, connecting variable brushwork into a single pattern.

By the second half of the 1960s, critics began reassessing Krasner's role in the New York School as a painter and critic who greatly influenced Pollock and Greenberg. Prior to this, her status as an artist was typically overlooked by critics and scholars due to her relationship with Pollock. Since he served as such a large figure in the abstract expressionist movement, it is still often difficult for scholars to discuss her work without mentioning Pollock in some capacity. This reevaluation is reflected in her first retrospective exhibition of her paintings which was held in London at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1965. This exhibition was more well-received by critics in comparison to her previous shows in New York.

In 1969, Krasner mostly concentrated on creating works on paper with gouache. These works were named either Earth, Water, Seed, or Hieroglyphics and often looked similar to a Rorschach test. Some scholars claim that these images were a critique of Greenberg's theory about the importance of the two-dimensional nature of the canvas.

Late career

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the painter's work was significantly influenced by postmodern art and emphasized the inherent problems of art as a form of communication.

Starting in 1970, Krasner began making large horizontal paintings made up of hard-edge lines and a palette of a few bright colors that contrasted one another. She painted in this style until about 1973. Three years later, she started working on her second series of collage images. She began working on these after cleaning out her studio and discovered some charcoal drawings mostly of figure studies that she completed from 1937 to 1940. After saving a few, Krasner decided to use the rest in a new series of collages. In this work, the black and gray shapes of the figure studies are juxtaposed against the blank canvas or the addition of brightly colored paint. The hard-edged shapes of the cut drawings are reconstructed into curvilinear shapes that recall floral patterns. Texture is induced through the contrast of the smooth paper and rough canvas. Since the figure studies are cut up and rearranged without consideration of their original intention or message, the differences between the old drawings and new structures are highly exaggerated. All of the collages' titles from this series are different verb tenses interpreted as a critique of Greenberg's and Michael Fried's insistence on the presentness of modern art. This series was very well received by a large audience when they were exhibited in 1977 at the Pace Gallery. It is also considered a statement about how artists need to reexamine and rework their style in order to stay relevant as they grow older.

Krasner and Pollock's mutual influence on one another
Although many people believe that Krasner stopped working in the 1940s in order to nurture Pollock's home life and career, she never in fact stopped creating art. While their relationship developed, she shifted her focus from her own to Pollock's art in order to help him gain more recognition due to the fact that she believed that he had "much more to give with his art than she had with hers".

Throughout her career, Krasner went through periods of struggle where she would experiment with new styles that would satisfy her means for expression and harshly critique, revise, or destroy the work she would produce. Because of this self-criticism, there are periods of time where little to none of her work exists, specifically the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Krasner and Pollock both had an immense effect on each other's artistic styles and careers. Since Krasner had learned from Hans Hofmann while Pollock received training from Thomas Hart Benton, each took different approaches to their work. Krasner learned from Hofmann the importance of the abstracting from nature and emphasizing the flat nature of the canvas while Pollock's training highlighted the importance of complex design from automatic drawing. Krasner's extensive knowledge of modern art helped Pollock since she brought him up to date with what contemporary art should be. He was therefore able to make works that were more organized and cosmopolitan. Additionally, Krasner was responsible for introducing Pollock to many artists, collectors, and critics who appreciated abstract art such as Willem de Kooning, Peggy Guggenheim, and Clement Greenberg. Through her friendship with collector and artist Alfonso Ossorio, Pollock also became acquainted with Ossorio and Joseph Glasco.  Pollock helped Krasner become less restrained when making her work. He inspired her to stop painting from human and still life models in order to free her interior emotions and become more spontaneous and gestural through her work.

Krasner struggled with the public's reception of her identity, both as a woman and as Pollock's wife. When they both exhibited in a show called "Artists: Man and Wife" in 1949, an ARTnews reviewer stated: "There is a tendency among some of these wives to 'tidy up' their husband's styles. Lee Krasner (Mrs. Jackson Pollock) takes her husband's paint and enamels and changes his unrestrained, sweeping lines into neat little squares and triangles." Even after the rise of feminism in the 1960s and 1970s, Krasner's artistic career was always put into relation to Pollock since remarks made about her work often commented on how she had become a successful artist by moving out of Pollock's shadow. In articles about her work, Pollock is continually referred to. Krasner is still sometimes referred to as "Action Widow", a term coined in 1972 by art critic B. H. Friedman who accused the female surviving partners of Abstract Expressionist artists of artistic dependence on their male partners. Typically in the 1940s and 1950s, Krasner also would not sign works at all, sign with the genderless initials "L.K.", or blend her signature into the painting in order to not emphasize her status as a woman and as a wife to another painter.

Legacy

Mary Beth Edelson's Some Living American Women Artists / Last Supper (1972) appropriated Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper, with the heads of notable women artists, including Krasner's, collaged over the heads of Christ and his apostles. The image, addressing the role of religious and art historical iconography in the subordination of women, became "one of the most iconic images of the feminist art movement."

Krasner died on June 19, 1984, age 75, at New York Hospital. Krasner led a successful commercial career and was in charge of her husband's estate, and tat he time of her death, her estate was worth over $20 million.

Six months after her death, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City held a retrospective exhibition of her work. A review in The New York Times noted that it "clearly defines Krasner's place in the New York School" and that she "is a major, independent artist of the pioneer Abstract Expressionist generation, whose stirring work ranks high among that produced here in the last half-century." As of 2008, Krasner is one of only four women artists to have had a retrospective show at this institution. The other three women are Louise Bourgeois (1982), Helen Frankenthaler (1989) and Elizabeth Murray (2004).

Her papers were donated to the Archives of American Art in 1985; they were digitized and posted on the web for researchers.

After her death, her East Hampton property became the Pollock-Krasner House and Studio, and is open to the public for tours. A separate organization, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, was established in 1985. The Foundation functions as the official estate for both Krasner and Pollock, and also, under the terms of her will, serves "to assist individual working artists of merit with financial need." The U.S. copyright representative for the Pollock-Krasner Foundation is the Artists Rights Society.

On November 11, 2003, Celebration, a large painting from 1960 sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art for $1.9 million and in May 2008, Polar Stampede sold for $3.2 million. "No one today could persist in calling her a peripheral talent," said critic Robert Hughes.

In 2016 her work was included in the exhibition Women of Abstract Expressionism organized by the Denver Art Museum.

In 2017 Krasner was one of the subjects of the book Ninth Street Women: Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler: Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art by Mary Gabriel.

In 2023 her work was included in the exhibition Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction 1940-1970 at the Whitechapel Gallery in London.

In popular culture
Krasner was portrayed by Marcia Gay Harden in the film Pollock (2000), which is about the life of her husband Jackson Pollock. Harden won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the film.

In John Updike's novel Seek My Face (2002), a significant portion of the main character's life is based on Krasner's.

Personal life

Relationship with Jackson Pollock
Krasner and Jackson Pollock established a relationship in 1942 after they both exhibited at the McMillen Gallery. She was intrigued by his work and the fact she did not know who he was even though she knew many abstract painters in New York. She went to his apartment to meet him. By 1945, they moved to The Springs on the outskirts of East Hampton, New York. In the summer of that year, they got married in a church with two witnesses.

While the two lived in the farmhouse in The Springs, they continued creating art. They worked in separate studio spaces with Krasner in an upstairs bedroom in the house while Pollock worked in the barn in their backyard. When not working, the two spent their time cooking, baking, gardening, keeping the house organized, and entertaining friends.

By 1956, their relationship became strained as they faced certain issues. Pollock had begun struggling with his alcoholism and was having an extramarital affair with Ruth Kligman. Krasner left in the summertime to visit friends in Europe but had to quickly return when Pollock died in a car crash while she was away.

Religion
Krasner was brought up in an orthodox Jewish home throughout her childhood and adolescence. Her family lived in Brownsville, Brooklyn, which had a large population of poor Jewish immigrants. Her father spent most of his time practicing Judaism, and her mother kept up the household and the family business. Krasner appreciated aspects of Judaism like Hebrew script, prayers, and religious stories.

As a teenager, she grew critical of what she perceived as misogyny in orthodox Judaism. In an interview later in her life, Krasner recalls reading a prayer translation and thinking it was "indeed a beautiful prayer in every sense except for the closing of it...if you are a male you say, 'Thank You, O Lord, for creating me in Your image'; and if you are a woman you say, 'Thank You, O Lord, for creating me as You saw fit.'" She also began reading existentialist philosophies during this time period, causing her to turn from Judaism even further.

While she married Pollock in a church, Krasner continued to identify herself as Jewish but decided to not practice the religion. Her identity as a Jewish woman has affected how scholars interpret the meaning of her art.

Some institutional holdings
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
 Self Portrait, 1929
 Gansevoort, Number 1, 1934
 Night Creatures, 1965
 Rising Green, 1972

The Museum of Modern Art, New York City
 Still Life, 1938
 Seated Nude, 1940
 Untitled, 1949
 Number 3 (Untitled), 1951
 Untitled, 1964
  Gaea, 1966

Other institutions:
 Composition, 1949, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia
 Untitled, 1953, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
 Milkweed, 1955, Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, New York
 Polar Stampede, 1961, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
 Gold Stone, 1969, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
 Comet, 1970, Robert Miller (art dealer) Gallery, New York City
 Imperative, 1976, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

Art market
At a 2003 Christie's auction in New York, Lee Krasner's horizontal composition in oil on canvas, Celebration (1960), multiplied its presale estimate more than fourfold as it ended its upward course at $1.9 million. In 2019, Sotheby's set a new auction record for Krasner when The Eye is the First Circle (1960) sold for $10 million to Robert Mnuchin.

See also

 Pollock-Krasner House and Studio

References

Sources & further reading

 Cheim, John. Lee Krasner: Paintings from 1965 to 1970. New York: Robert Miller, 1991.
 Gabriel, Mary.  Ninth Street Women: Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler: five painters and the movement that changed modern art. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2018
 Haxall, Daniel. "Collage and the Nature of Order: Lee Krasner's Pastoral Vision", Woman's Art Journal, Vol. 28, No. 2 (Fall-Winter 2008): 20-27. JSTOR. Web.
 Herskovic, Marika.  American Abstract and Figurative Expressionism Style Is Timely Art Is Timeless (New York School Press, 2009.) . p. 144-147
 Herskovic, Marika. American Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s An Illustrated Survey, (New York School Press, 2003.) . p. 194-197
 Herskovic, Marika. New York School Abstract Expressionists Artists Choice by Artists, (New York School Press, 2000.) . p. 16; p. 37; p. 210-213
 Hobbs, Robert. Lee Krasner. New York: Abbeville Press, 1993.
 Hobbs, Robert. "Lee Krasner's Skepticism and Her Emergent Postmodernism", Woman's Art Journal, Vol. 28, No.2, (Fall-Winter 2008): 3 – 10. JSTOR. Web.
 Howard, Richard and John Cheim. Umber Paintings, 1959–1962. New York: Robert Miller Gallery, 1993.
 Kleeblatt, Norman L., and Stephen Brown. From the Margins: Lee Krasner|Norman Lewis, 1945 - 1952 . New York: Jewish Museum, 2014.
 Landau, Ellen G. "Channeling Desire: Lee Krasner's Collages of the Early 1950s", Woman's Art Journal, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Autumn, 1997 – Winter, 1998): 27 – 30. JSTOR. Web.
 Levin, Gail. "Beyond the Pale: Lee Krasner and Jewish Culture", Woman's Art Journal, Vol. 28, No.2 (Fall-Winter 2008): 28 – 44. JSTOR. Web.
 Levin, Gail. Lee Krasner: A Biography. (New York: HarperCollins 2012.)
 Pollock, Griselda, Killing Men and Dying Women. In: Orton, Fred and Pollock, Griselda (eds), Avant-Gardes and Partisans Reviewed. London: Redwood Books, 1996.
 Robertson, Bryan;  Robert Miller Gallery New York, Lee Krasner Collages (New York : Robert Miller Gallery, 1986)
 Robertson, Bryan. Lee Krasner, Collages. New York: Robert Miller Gallery, 1986.
 Rose, Barbara. Krasner|Pollock: A Working Relationship. New York: Grey Art Gallery and Study Center, 1981.
 Rose, Barbara. Lee Krasner: a retrospective Lee Krasner: A Retrospective] (Houston : Museum of Fine Arts; New York : Museum of Modern Art, ©1983.)
 Strassfield, Christina Mossaides. Lee Krasner: The Nature of the Body—Works from 1933 to 1984. East Hampton: Guild Hall Museum, 1995.
 Tucker, Marcia. Lee Krasner: Large Paintings. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1973.
 Wagner, Anne. "Lee Krasner as L.K.", Representations'', No. 25 (Winter 1989): 42 – 57. JSTOR. Web. 17 March 2015.

External links

 Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner papers, circa 1905-1984, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
 The Pollock-Krasner Foundation
 Oral history interview with Lee Krasner, 1964 Nov. 2-1968 Apr. 11
 Oral history interview with Lee Krasner, 1972, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
 Entry for Lee Krasner on the Union List of Artist Names
 1978 Lee Krasner video interview by Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel
 Women Artists and Postwar Abstraction | HOW TO SEE with MoMA curator Starr Figura

1908 births
1984 deaths
Painters from Brooklyn
Jewish American artists
American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
20th-century American painters
Abstract expressionist artists
Abstract painters
American abstract artists
American contemporary painters
American printmakers
American women painters
American women printmakers
Modern painters
Jewish painters
Art Students League of New York alumni
Cooper Union alumni
People from East Hampton (town), New York
Federal Art Project artists
20th-century American women artists
Jackson Pollock
Burials at Green River Cemetery

Lee Krasner


Charles Lowell Walker (1832–1904) was a Latter-day Saint hymnwriter, most noted for having written the words to the hymn "Dearest Children, God is Near You".

Walker was born in Leek, Stafforshire, England. His family moved to Manchester when he was seven. He joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in 1845 when he was baptized by his father, William Gibson Walker. He left England bound for Utah Territory in 1849. He traveled as far as St. Louis that year, but many who he was with suffered from cholera. Walker moved to Kentucky and began to work to earn money to bring his parents to America. He later returned to St. Louis where he served as second counselor in the bishopric of a ward there.

In 1855, Walker obtained a job as a teamster transporting merchandise to Salt Lake City. His sister Ann Agatha was married to Parley P. Pratt and so Walker was able to get a job working for Pratt.

Walker then became a blacksmith. In 1861, he married Abigail Middlemass, also a convert to the LDS Church and a native of Popes Harbour, Nova Scotia. In August 1862, Walker was called to go to St. George, Utah, as part of the Cotton Mission. It was here that Walker's gift for writing songs was first utilized. According to J. Spencer Cornwall, many said that Utah's Dixie was settled with "faith, toil, and Charley's songs".  In times of death or other distress, Erastus Snow, the presiding church authority in Southern Utah, would come to Walker and ask, "Charley, write a song to lift our sadness".

Walker also kept a daily journal of his life in St. George. A version of Walker's diary was published by Utah State University Press in 1980. This diary was edited by Karl Larson and Katherine Larson.  In 1893, Walker recorded in his journal that John Alger (brother to Joseph Smith's plural wife Fanny Alger) had reported in a sacrament meeting in St. George a childhood memory of Joseph Smith reporting his First Vision. In Alger's recollection, Smith related, with Alger present, that God touched his eyes at the beginning of this visionary experience. This is the last recording of a First Vision account given by someone who had heard Smith tell of the event firsthand.

Walker—along with Orson Pratt, Jr., Joseph Orton, and George A. Burgon—published the first newspaper in St. George.

Besides marginally successful attempts at growing fruit trees and successful work as a blacksmith, Walker also worked as a stonemason on both the St. George Temple and the St. George Tabernacle. The choir at the dedication of the temple sang a song that Walker had written for the event, and Walker was also one of the two witnesses to the first baptism for the dead performed in the temple.

Walker was the Assistant City Marshall and a lieutenant in the local contingent of the Nauvoo Legion. He also served as a counselor in a bishopric in St. George.

In 1877, Walker took a plural wife, Sarah Smith. Walker had eight children with each of his wives, for a total of 16. Four of Walker's children died while still children and two of his married daughters also died before him.

Notes

References
Cornwall, J. Spencer. Stories of Our Mormon Hymns. Salt Lake City: bookcraft, 1975, p. 189-191.
Chapter on Walker from Saints Without Halos
bio of Charles Walker
Charles L. Walker & Zaidee Walker Miles Papers, MSS 8222; 20th Century Western & Mormon Manuscripts; L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University.

1832 births
Converts to Mormonism
English Latter Day Saints
English emigrants to the United States
Mormon pioneers
English Latter Day Saint hymnwriters
1904 deaths
People from St. George, Utah
People from Leek, Staffordshire
19th-century English musicians

Charles L. Walker


Richard Farrelly (17 February 1916 – 11 August 1990) was an Irish songwriter, policeman and poet, composer of "The Isle of Innisfree", the song for which he is best remembered.  His parents were publicans and when Farrelly was twenty-three he left Kells, County Meath for Dublin to join the Irish Police Force. He served in various Garda stations throughout his thirty-eight-year career, ending up in the Central Detective Unit (CDU) Dublin Castle as the pay Sergeant up to his retirement. At heart Farrelly was very much a songwriter and poet.  He was a private, modest and shy man who wrote over two hundred songs and poems during his lifetime.   He married Anne Lowry from Headford, County Galway in 1955 and the couple had five children.  His two sons Dick and Gerard are professional musicians.

Composed on a bus

On a bus journey from his native Kells, Farrelly got the inspiration for his now timeless composition the "Isle of Innisfree" and by the time he reached Dublin he had written the words and music.  Farrelly's poignant words express the longing of an Irish emigrant for his native land.  It was recorded by Bing Crosby for whom it became a huge international hit.  It has since been recorded by a great many artists worldwide but above all, it endures in the hearts of many to this day as one of the great songs of Ireland.

Professor Des MacHale who writes extensively on Dick Farrelly in his book, "Picture The Quiet Man", goes on to say – "Film director John Ford heard it and loved it so much that he decided to use it as the principal musical theme of The Quiet Man... The melody is featured at least eleven times throughout the film, including its use during the opening sequence.  "Sadly the composer of The Isle of Innisfree, Richard Farrelly received no mention in the screen credits".

In more recent times "Isle of Innisfree" was also used in the film  ET (1982) where a scene from The Quiet Man is shown, and again the melody can be heard in the soundtracks of the films, Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988) and Breakfast on Pluto (2005).

A few years earlier in 1948, Anne Shelton recorded Farrelly's first success, "If You Ever Fall in Love Again", becoming a hit for her in the UK.  Guy Lombardo and his Orchestra, instrumental pop group, The Three Suns, and singer Bill Lawrence recorded the song in the USA.  Other Farrelly songs include, "Cottage by the Lee", which was popularised by Joe Lynch (singer & actor), and "The Rose of Slievenamon", recorded by Joseph Locke.

Songs in later years
Farrelly continued to write songs throughout his lifetime some of which include:

"The Gypsy Maiden" recorded by Diarmuid O'Leary & The Bards, The Irish Descendants and Sinead Stone & Gerard Farrelly.

"Annaghdown" recorded by Larry Cunningham reaching No 6 in the Irish charts, Sonny Knowles and Sinead Stone & Gerard Farrelly.

"Man of the Road" recorded by The Café Orchestra featuring singer Sinead Stone and a Scottish release by singer Julie Keen.

"We Dreamed our Dreams", written by Farrelly in 1988. It was first recorded by The Fureys & Davy Arthur in that same year. There are also recordings by Sean Keane, Cathy Ryan, The BBC Radio Orchestra featuring Finbar Furey on an album of the same title.  There is also a highly acclaimed interpretation of this song by Sinéad Stone and Dick's son, musician Gerard Farrelly on their album "Legacy of a Quiet Man".  The album is a collection of songs written by Dick Farrelly and was the subject of an RTÉ television documentary 'Nationwide'. In July 2011 "We Dreamed our Dreams" was covered by Maura O'Connell/Cherish The Ladies in the US.

Farrelly was involved in the Castlebar International Song Contest on several occasions coming runner-up in 1968 with The Gypsy Maiden, winning the Pop section in 1972 with "That's What Love is Made Of" sung by Mary Lou and in 1976 his song "Who's Gonna be the Preacher" reached the finals and was placed 3rd over all.

Farrelly also wrote songs in the Irish language two of which are "Siobhan" and "Seolta Bána" (meaning, White Sails); both songs are recorded for the first time on the album, Legacy of a Quiet Man.

Isle of Innisfree – Recordings

"The Isle of Innisfree" has been recorded by innumerable artists some of which include: Celtic Woman, Tommy Fleming, Sean Tyrell, Bing Crosby, Sinead Stone & Gerard Farrelly, The Cafe Orchestra, Phil Coulter, Anne Shelton, Vera Lynn, Dublin Screen Orchestra – ("The Quiet Man" soundtrack album), Connie Francis, Joe Loss & His Orchestra, Eamonn Cambell, James McNally, Finbar Furey, Paddy Reilly, Frank Patterson, Norrie Paramor & His Orchestra, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Paddy Cole, Diarmuid O'Leary, Joseph Locke, Charlie Landsborough, Val Doonican, Daniel O'Donnell, Geraldo & His Orchestra, James Galway, John McNally, Jimmy Young, Victor Young & His Singing Strings, The Irish Tenors, Glen Curtin, Dublin City Ramblers, Sean Dunphy, Jimmy Griffin, Tony Kenny and Alec Finn to name but a few.

References

IMDb The Internet Movie Database
IMRO The Irish Music Rights Organisation
 Garda Review Magazine. Scroll down to article – An Garda Siochana & 'The Quiet Man' Connection
 Lyrics for "The Isle of Innisfree"
  Lyrics for "Cottage by the Lee"

External links
 Irish Music Rights Organisation – 'Legacy of a Quiet Man CD' article
 Dick Farrelly & 'Legacy of a Quiet Man' album.
 Legacy Tara Music – Legacy of a Quiet Man
 Musician Gerard Farrelly's site
 Picture The Quiet Man, book by Des MacHale

1916 births
1990 deaths
Irish male songwriters
Musicians from County Meath
20th-century classical composers
Castlebar Song Contest winners
People from Kells, County Meath

Dick Farrelly


Marco Frusoni (born September 19, 1977 in Rome) is an Italian operatic tenor.

Early life
Frusoni was born in Rome, and raised in Florence. His father was the tenor Maurizio Frusoni. He began studying contemporary piano and electric bass, and
also graduated in modern literature at Sapienza University of Rome.
Frusoni's passion for opera arrived late, despite attending several opera productions around the world with his father. At the age of 18 he made his opera debut as a mime.

Early studies
Frusoni attended several masterclasses, at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana of Siena and Ateneo Lirico of Sulmona, studying with Renato Bruson, Raina Kabaivanska, Giorgio Merighi, Marcello Giordani, Alberto Gazale and Fernando Cordeiro Opa.

Debut as an operatic tenor

In March 2008, he made his debut as an operatic tenor at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma in La camerata Bardi.
He then sang both in Italy and abroad in operas such as: Der Rosenkavalier by R. Strauss, Otello by G. Verdi, Falstaff by G. Verdi, Elisir d'amore and Anna Bolena by G. Donizetti, Gianni Schicchi and La Bohème by G. Puccini, The Greek Passion (opera) by L. Martinu, Una notte a Venezia by J. Strauss, The Merry Widow, Rigoletto by G. Verdi, Carmen by G. Bizet, La Traviata by G. Verdi, Tosca of G. Puccini, Un giorno di regno by G. Verdi, Messa di Requiem by G. Verdi, Messa di Requiem by W. A. Mozart and Turandot by G. Puccini.

References

External links
 Marco Frusoni at marcofrusoni.com
 Marco Frusoni Teatro Verdi di Salerno
 Marco Frusoni at operabase.com
 Marco Frusoni at gbopera.it
 Marco Frusoni at operamusica.com

Italian operatic tenors
Living people
1977 births
Singers from Rome

Marco Frusoni


Death-Watch, first published in April 1935, is a detective story by American writer John Dickson Carr, featuring his series detective Gideon Fell. It is a mystery novel of the whodunnit type.

The novel's plot begins with three people standing over the body of a dead police detective, one holding a pistol. Yet, the man was stabbed to death with the hand of a clock. An eyewitness is unconscious in the back yard of the house where the murder occurred, and a dead-drunk man holds an important clue. Although the evidence points to one person, Fell is convinced someone else is responsible for the death.

Plot summary
As Dr. Gideon Fell and Professor Melson walk back to Melson's rooms at Lincoln's Inn Fields, a horrific scream draws them into the home of clockmaker Johannus Carver. At the top of the stairs is a dead tramp. Standing over the body is Eleanor Carver, Calvin Boscombe, and former Chief Inspector Peter Stanley. Boscombe has a gun, but the tramp has been stabbed in the neck by the minute hand of a large clock. The tramp, in fact, is Detective-Inspector George Finley Ames, who was investigating the stabbing death of a floorwalker at a local department store.

Fell is confronted with three seemingly surreal stories. The prim Boscombe and the nerve-shattered Stanley claim they intended to play a joke on Ames, threatening to shoot him with an unloaded pistol just to see his reaction. Don Hastings, claims he was on the roof for a lover's tryst with Eleanor when he saw, through a skylight, Ames enter Boscombe's room and die. Neither Boscombe nor Stanley were near him, Hastings says. When he tried to climb down from the roof, he fell and was knocked unconscious. Christopher Paull, a drunkard living in the Carver home, swears that he awoke in a stupor in the middle of the night and found the murderer's blood-stained glove in the hall near the landing. In the glove was a key to the rooftop trap-door.

The murder weapon came from a large standing clock which Johannus Carver was making for Paull's uncle. Someone broke into a locked workroom and stole both hands from the clock. Complicating matters, female solicitor Lucia Handreth (who rents a combined apartment-office on the first floor of the Carver home) and housekeeper Millicent Steffins point the finger at Eleanor Carver as the murderer.

Chief Inspector David Hadley arrives to take the case in hand. Hadley reveals that an anonymous informant had told Ames that someone in the Carver household had killed the department store worker. Ames had gone undercover as a local tramp to investigate. Fell and Hadley quickly discover that Stanley shot and killed Don Hastings' father 14 years earlier. Carlton Hope-Hastings had been accused of embezzlement; the unjustified shooting led to Stanley's dismissal from the police force. Fell and Hadley also discover that Eleanor Carver is a kleptomaniac, and in a secret compartment in her room they find the second clock hand and other highly incriminating evidence.

Hadley is convinced that Eleanor Carver impulsively killed Ames when she discovered him in the darkened house. Fell, however, is equally convinced that Eleanor Carver is being framed by the true murderer. Without any evidence to support his supposition, Fell asks an unreliable ally to help him unmask the killer.

Literary significance and criticism
Death-Watch was first published by Harper & Brothers in the United States in April 1935.

This novel is the first time in which author John Dickson Carr offered the reader a solution to the crime, only to have his detective reveal the real killer at the end. As in other Gideon Fell cases, Fell lists several points which must be explained in order for the crime to be properly solved.

This is the second of 10 Dr. Gideon Fell adventures in which Chief Inspector Hadley appears. Hadley is on the verge of retirement in the case, but instead stays on and is, in fact, promoted to Superintendent for identifying the killer. Death-Watch is notable for being the only time in which Hadley relaxes around others, telling anecdotes and joking with his friends.

Carr biographer Douglas G. Greene, reviewing Death-Watch, says the novel contains several well-written set-piece scenes and has a number of memorable characters. Yet, the killer's motivation and the plot would have been better suited to an Henri Bencolin novel, he concludes, and Death-Watch is at best a flawed work.

References

Sources

1935 American novels
Novels by John Dickson Carr
Harper & Brothers books

Death-Watch


The Nan Pa'ch ceremony (also Paach ceremony) is a corn-veneration ritual celebrated in San Pedro Sacatepéquez, San Marcos in Guatemala. On December 7, 2013 UNESCO officially recognized the ceremony as Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding.

The ceremony gives thanks for good harvests in a ritual that highlights the close connection between humans and nature. The ritual features prayers in the Mam language as well as the dressed ceremonial corncobs.

The Paach ceremony has become increasingly infrequent, with some young people seeing it as irrelevant and old fashioned, while economic insecurity has caused some bearers to withdraw from the practice due to a loss of faith.

References

Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding
Rituals
Guatemalan culture

Nan Pa'ch ceremony


Rufim Boljević (;  1673 – d. January 1685) was the Serbian Orthodox Metropolitan (vladika) of Cetinje from 1662 or 1673 until his death in January 1685. He succeeded Mardarije Kornečanin (fl. 1640–59), and was succeeded by Vasilije Veljekrajski.

Life
Boljević was from Crmnica, and belonged to the Plamenac brotherhood, and is scarcely mentioned as Rufim Plamenac (Руфим Пламенац).

It is generally believed he succeeded Mardarije Kornečanin, mentioned between 1640 and 1659. The Cetinje see seems to have been unseated from 1660 until early 1662, when an unnamed Metropolitan of Cetinje is mentioned in a source from the Bay of Kotor. Boljević is mentioned in sources from 1673, 1675, 1682 and 1685. He funded the construction of water reservoir in Hilandar before being ortinated as Vladika. It has been theorized that it was Boljević who was mentioned in 1662 (by I. Stjepčević and P. Kovijančić). If he indeed had taken the seat in 1662, it means that he (as the Metropolitan) was one of two arbiters in the feud between harambaša Lazarić and Karučan from Crmnica, mentioned on November 2, 1662; as Boljević was from Crmnica, this has been taken as proof. It would also mean that he was active during the Cretan War (1645–69), in which many hajduks (brigands) from the region of Montenegro participated in, in the service of the Republic of Venice. A notable leader was Bajo Pivljanin.

After the Cretan War, he was an active protester against Catholic propaganda, famous for his conversion of Kuči Vojvode Lale Drekalov from Catholicism to orthodoxy. He had notable influence on the Montenegrin tribes, meeting with common folk and stopped blood revenge, and cursing evil-doers. He had been a staunch supporter of the Republic of Venice, and upon his death in January 1685, the Venetian Senate sent a letter to the Venetian governor of Kotor, expressing their "sorrow for the Metropolitan of Cetinje, who always showed interest in our service". He was the most loyal friend of Venice of his time. He was buried in Gornje Brčele monastery.

He was succeeded by Vasilije Veljekrajski, who is only mentioned by Nićifor Dučić, without a lifespan or service period.

A descendant of his, Arsenije Plamenac, also served as Metropolitan (1781–1784).

See also
List of Metropolitans of Montenegro

Annotations
Name: His name is mostly spelled Rufim Boljević (Руфим Бољевић), while his given name can be spelled as Ruvim (Рувим) as well.

References

17th-century Serbian people
17th-century Eastern Orthodox bishops
Bishops of Montenegro and the Littoral
People from Bar, Montenegro
1685 deaths
Date of birth unknown

Rufim Boljević


Euro.nm is a pan-European network of regulated markets dedicated to growth companies. Formed on March 1, 1996 by the European Association of European Emerging Exchanges, members of this market network include Euronext Amsterdam, Euronext Paris, Euronext Brussels, Deutsche Börse AG, and Borsa Italiana. These growth markets share harmonious admission, trading and disclosure rules, access to all Euro.nm markets through cross-membership of financial intermediaries, a common infrastructure for the dissemination of market information, trading, and delivery, and joint marketing agreements to promote companies internationally. The Nasdaq Stock Market is the model for Euro.nm.

References

Stock exchanges in Europe

Euro.nm


Praefectus, often with a further qualification, was the formal title of many, fairly low to high-ranking, military or civil officials in the Roman Empire, whose authority was not embodied in their person (as it was with elected Magistrates) but conferred by delegation from a higher authority. They did have some authority in their prefecture such as controlling prisons and in civil administration.

Praetorian prefects
The Praetorian prefect (Praefectus praetorio) began as the military commander of a general's guard company in the field, then grew in importance as the Praetorian Guard became a potential kingmaker during the Empire. From the Emperor Diocletian's tetrarchy (c. 300) they became the administrators of the four Praetorian prefectures, the government level above the (newly created) dioceses and (multiplied) provinces.

Police and civil prefects
Praefectus urbi, or praefectus urbanus: city prefect, in charge of the administration of Rome.
Praefectus vigilum: commander of the Vigiles (firemen and police).
Praefectus aerarii: nobles appointed guardians of the state treasury.
 Praefectus aerarii militaris: prefect of the military treasury.
Praefectus annonae: official charged with the supervision of the grain supply to the city of Rome.

Military prefects
Praefectus alae: commander of a cavalry unit.
Praefectus castrorum: camp commandant.
Praefectus cohortis: commander of a cohort (constituent unit of a legion, or analogous unit).
Praefectus classis: fleet commander.
Praefectus equitatus: cavalry commander.
Praefectus equitum: cavalry commander.
Praefectus fabrum: officer in charge of fabri, i.e. well-trained engineers and artisans.
Praefectus legionis: equestrian legionary commander.
Praefectus legionis agens vice legati: equestrian acting legionary commander.
Praefectus orae maritimae: official in charge with the control and defense of an important sector of sea coast.
Praefectus socium (sociorum): Roman officer appointed to a command function in an ala sociorum (unit recruited among the socii, Italic peoples of a privileged status within the empire).

For some auxiliary troops, specific titles could even refer to their peoples:
 Praefectus Laetorum (Germanic, notably in Gaul)
 Praefectus Sarmatarum gentilium (from the steppes, notably in Italy)

Prefects as provincial governors
Roman provinces were usually ruled by high-ranking officials. Less important provinces though were entrusted to prefects, military men who would otherwise only govern parts of larger provinces. The most famous example is Pontius Pilate, who governed Judaea at a time when it was administered as an annex of Syria.

As Egypt was a special imperial domain, a rich and strategic granary, where the Emperor enjoyed an almost pharaonic position unlike any other province or diocese, its head was styled uniquely Praefectus Augustalis, indicating that he governed in the personal name of the emperor, the "Augustus". Septimius Severus, after conquering Mesopotamia, introduced the same system there too.

After the mid-1st century, as a result of the Pax Romana, the governorship was gradually shifted from the military prefects to civilian fiscal officials called procurators, Egypt remaining the exception.

Religious prefects
 Praefectus urbi: a prefect of the republican era who guarded the city during the annual sacrifice of the Feriae Latinae on Mount Alban in which the consuls participated. His former title was "custos urbi" ("guardian of the city").

References

Ancient Roman occupations
Ancient Roman titles

Praefectus


Jude Felix Sebastian (born 26 January 1965) is an Indian field hockey player. He competed at the 1988 Summer Olympics and the 1992 Summer Olympics. He has capped over 250 matches, including 2 World Cups, 2 Asian Games, and 3 Champions Trophy tournaments.

Jude Felix captained the National Hockey Team from 1993 to 1995, leading the side in the 1994 World Cup at Sydney and the Asian Games at Hiroshima. Named one of the 7 most contemporary players in the world by the International Hockey Federation (FIH) in 1995, he is known for his skillful reverse flick.

He has excelled both as a player and a coach, having received the Arjuna Award and Dronacharya Award, among the highest accolades in the field of sport in India. Under his mentorship, the Indian side has won several medals over the years, including Gold for the Senior Men's Team at the 2014 Asian Games, and Silver for the Junior Team at the 2018 Sultan of Johor Cup.

He is a familiar figure in international hockey circles as well, having coached various clubs from 1997 to 2011, including the Racing Club de France – Paris, Singapore Recreation, Scottish Hockey Association, and the Netherlands Hockey Federation.

Jude Felix has also championed social initiatives in the sport, as the Founder, Trustee and President of Jude Felix Hockey Academy (JFHA). The academy has been transforming the lives of young members of the community through the sport of hockey since 2009.

References

External links

1965 births
Living people
Indian male field hockey players
Olympic field hockey players for India
Field hockey players at the 1988 Summer Olympics
Field hockey players at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Field hockey players from Bangalore
Anglo-Indian people
Recipients of the Arjuna Award
Recipients of the Dronacharya Award
Asian Games silver medalists for India
Medalists at the 1990 Asian Games
Medalists at the 1994 Asian Games
Asian Games medalists in field hockey
Field hockey players at the 1990 Asian Games
Field hockey players at the 1994 Asian Games

Jude Felix Sebastian


Wilhelm von Kobell (6 April 1766 – 15 July 1853) was a German painter, printmaker and teacher.

Biography
Kobell was born in Mannheim, the son of Ferdinand Kobell, a landscape painter who cited Claude Lorrain as his influence. Wilhelm's initial lessons were supplied by his father and his uncle, Franz Kobell. He received further training under Franz Anton von Leydendorf and Egid Verhelst in the art of engraving at the Zeichnungsakademie in Mannheim. He studied the works in the galleries of Mannheim and Düsseldorf, especially those of Wouvermann, which he copied. During this time he practiced various styles, including 17th-century Dutch painting and 18th-century English art.

In 1778, he went to Rome, was made court painter at Mannheim after his return, and afterwards followed his father to Munich, where he became professor at the Academy in 1808. He was supported by Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria, who compensated him an annual sum of 500 florins from 1792 until Theodore's death in 1799. In 1809, he visited Vienna, and in 1810 Paris, to make studies for his battle pieces.

Works
His early paintings were landscapes, rural genre scenes, and animal pieces, of which the galleries of Bamberg, Weimar, Mannheim, Karlsruhe, Berlin, Darmstadt, Frankfort, and Wiesbaden contain fine specimens.
Throughout his life Kobell traveled to England, France and Italy but ultimately based his style on Dutch art.
He gained a reputation through clever work on battle scenes and horses, as well as his very fine etchings and his especially fine aquatint engravings after Wouverman, Berchem, Roos, Ruysdael, and others, in which he reproduced the peculiar style of each master with uncommon success. His battle pieces contain many portraits of famous contemporaries. The New Pinakothek in Munich contains "The Third Day of the Battle of Hanau" (1808), and the Banquet Hall of the Königsbau the "Surrender of Brieg," "Cavalry Skirmish at Arnhofen," and the "Battles of Eckmühl and Wagram."

Selected paintings

References
This article incorporates text from publications now in the public domain.

Further reading
 Kobell, Luise von, Unter den vier Königen Bayerns (Munich, 1894)

External links

1766 births
1853 deaths
18th-century German painters
18th-century German male artists
German male painters
19th-century German painters
19th-century German male artists
Artists from Mannheim

Wilhelm von Kobell