Sunday, March 11, 2007

REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST

This is me at eighteen. Down there is one of Titian's Courtesans. Re-incarnation would explain my love of long velvet dresses, red hair and antique jewells. It would also explain my loathing of fleas, lice, unwashed bodies and chamberpots. I have a portrait taken at seventeen with my hair done in almost the same way. I look a bit sad, Titian probably hadn't coughed up the fee for the sitting.




12 comments:

The Editor said...

JahTeh! I remember you now!!! You were GREAT!

BwcaBrownie said...

You don't "look a bit sad" in the photo here.
Not at all.
That expression is worth a thousand words.
Challenging, definitely; possibly 'suspicious', but clearly a
"I take no crap"-face, yessiree.
The person we know now, was evident then.
Perfect grooming and ensemble - weren't the Sixties wonderful.
The Elly Lukas School Of Deportment would be proud of you; and you look like a girl who could have and do, anything you wanted to.
I hope you did.

(and Gerry you tramp, we will ignore that remark's inference, and assume you mean that JT was the kind of young lady you would dream of talking into a date.)

not at all

R.H. said...

That photo's an MLC girl. And the Titian resemblance is uncanny.
Or is it a mock up?

I don't know.

SIR ROBBERT!!!

Lord Sedgwick said...

Titian's oils aint oils, Ms Witch.

Rubens is the lad to do you justice in oils.

JahTeh said...

Ruebens, the great lover of lumps and bumps, my hero.

Do you mean 20thC girl or Rennaissance trollop, oh great unwashed bear?

Just look at us Brownie, you can take the girl out of Elly Lukas but you can't take the Lukas training out of the girl. She'd be proud of our elegance in pre-middle age.

It's uncanny Sir Robbert and not a mock-up. I like this age with indoor plumbing, hot water, soap and flea powder. Did you know they had tiny jewelled boxes for keeping the fleas in, the ones they picked off their lady loves? How charming to go in for the clinch and see crawlers.

The Editor said...

Oooooh...Lah dee dah, Brownie...

The Lady and the Tramp? Hmmm...

Well, I wouldn't have knocked her back, if that's what you mean... ;-)

Middle Child said...

Wow! Nothing wrong with classical faces.... and do you have trouble sitting still too...I reckon she may have had to sit still for long hours for that painting.

It is an uncanny likeness...I love history and paintings so much...to see faces from so long ago makes me wonder about us humans etc etc etc

Link said...

You don't look sad, more like you're the holder of some mysterious piece of JahTeh esoterica, that the person taking the photograph defintely doesn't know and probably doesn't want to know, but you know it and maybe that's what makes you sad. But no, its much more a look of the cat who got the cream and knew it.

JahTeh said...

I have to admit MC, I love looking at portraits, not so much of men but the women. There's always a piece of them in the eyes but I'm always drawn to any jewellery first.

Link, I never noticed until someone pointed it out to me that I always had that right eyebrow up in a sort of question mark. I can't do it to order, it just appears. A girlfriend was with me and was giving me a hard time because her face broke out in spots and mine was clear. Bitch.

JahTeh said...

This was my in between age Bear, I was between a soldier and a sailor.

Kerryn Goldsworthy said...

What does Gerry mean, you "were" great? Pff.

You really do look spookily like the Titian, except -- indeed -- much less sad. I've got a pic taken at a simliar age in which I look far less knowing and more gormless.

These days I look more knowing but equally gormless.

JahTeh said...

The trouble is PC, we've reached an age when our inner self is supremely magnificent but there's a dearth of men blessed with second sight. Their first sight is usually focused on the 38DD walking past.