Author Archives: picturesinpowell

Jenkins meets his Uncle Giles in the lounge of the Ufford Hotel. Among the bleak, faded decor, he notes “an engraving, placed over the fireplace, of Landseer’s Bolton Abbey in the Olden Times.” [AW 10/4] Sir Edwin Henry Landseer, RA … Continue reading →

The Ufford hotel had a large double drawing room, divided by a pair of doors, apparently permanently closed,  into a lounge and a writing room. Jenkins surmises: “Perhaps, like the doors of the Temple of Janus, they are closed only … Continue reading →

We have recently discovered that we failed to note this reference to the works of John Tenniel when we first went through QU. With this addition, we have now assembled all of our QU posts into a single page so … Continue reading →

The Omnipresent is the last art work mentioned in BM. The reference is brief:  as he is admitted to the Widmerpools’ apartment for the first time, Jenkins sees Widmerpool sitting reading The Times.  In Jenkins’ first glance around the apartment … Continue reading →

After Mr. Deacon’s funeral, Nick finds himself behind Mr. Deacon’s shop with Gypsy Jones and is more or less seduced into sleeping with her. In the aftermath of that most abstractly described liason, Nick is bewildered by Gypsy’s apparent indifference … Continue reading →

As he recalls Mr. Deacon’s birthday party, Nick remembers meeting Quiggin arriving uninvited, brought along by “a strapping black-haired model called Mona.”  A bit later, Quiggin “looked across the room to where Mona was talking to Barnby and said: ‘It … Continue reading →

Holbein’s Portrait of Erasmus [BM 193,196/183,186]) hangs at the far end of the Long Gallery at Stourwater. Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1547) was born in Augsburg, in what is now Germany.  Holbein arrived in London in 1523 with a recommendation to … Continue reading →

Mark Members looked around the room at Mr. Deacon’s birthday party and said: “You must admit it looks rather like that picture in the Tate of the Sea giving up the Dead that were in it.” [BM 253/243] Lord Frederic … Continue reading →

Daguerreotypes of Deacon’s mother and of Walt Whitman in oval frames stood on Mr. Deacon’s mantlepiece. The features of his mother “so much resembled her son’s as for the picture, at first sight, almost to create the illusion that he … Continue reading →

As Nick is leaving Stourwater, Jean Duport somewhat awkwardly invites Nick to “dinner, or something,” with her husband Bob Duport.  Nick reflects on Jean’s manner: “she reminded me of some picture.  Was it Rubens and Le Chapeau de Paille: his … Continue reading →