Creole Mourning Folk Art by Andrew LaMar Hopkins "Till We Meet Again"

"Till We Meet Again" 12 x 12. Available

https://squareup.com/store/andrew-hopkins/item/till-we-meet-again-x

https://squareup.com/store/andrew-hopkins/item/till-we-meet-again-x

My latest painting finished on October 1st, is titled "Till We Meet Again" 12 x 12. Available thought my square account in. October gives us a opportunity to talk about traditions in death and Mourning in Creole New Orleans. This morning scene takes place in the year 1817. A white Creole Gentleman is mourning the lost of his recently departed complain, a Free Woman of Color. Who is depicted departed away in a cloud to the right of the Neoclassical Tomb. They are both dressed in the latest fashion from Paris for the year 1817. The tomb depicted in the painting is a fancy step tomb. One of the earliest types of tombs built in Creole New Orleans. Most of these early types of step tombs were built around a coffin that was placed on the ground and the tomb constructed above it. Then, as today, more affluent families prefer tombs as a sign of status and culture. In French, the word for tomb is "caveau"(cellar), or "caverne"(cave); "una tombe" is also a French term which may be applied.  The Symbols on the tomb: Draped Urn. The design represents a funeral urn and is thought to symbolize immortality. 

Cremation was an early form of preparing the dead for burial. In some periods, especially classical times, it was more common than burial. The shape of the container in which the ashes were placed may have taken the form of a simple box or a marble vase, but no matter what it looked like it was called an "urn," derived from the Latin uro, meaning "to burn." As burial became a more common practice, the urn continued to be closely associated with death. The urn is commonly believed to testify to the death of the body and the dust into which the dead body will change, while the spirit of the departed eternally rests with God.

The cloth draping the urn symbolically guarded the ashes. The shroud-draped urn is believed by some to mean that the soul has departed the shrouded body for its trip to heaven. Others say that the drape signifies the last partition between life and death. Winged Hourglass: Hourglasses represent the passing of time and the end of a person’s time on earth. A winged hourglass on a gravestone is a symbol of the fleetingness of life. Upside-down Flaming Torch:

Flames represent eternal light or life. An upside-down torch symbolizes light that cannot be extinguished. Cross: A Christian symbol of faith and the hope of ‘resurrection’ to ‘eternal life’ in ‘heaven’. 

History of the Symbolism of the Willow Tree

The willow tree has a long history of symbolism rooted in spirituality and cultural traditions. There are references to the willow tree in Celtic and Christian tradition, among others. One of the most valuable traits of the willow tree is its flexibility. The willow tree is one of the few trees that is capable of bending in outrageous poses without snapping. Life on Earth can't exist without water, which is why the willow, a tree found in or near watery bodies, figures so prominently in creation legends, biblical references, Shakespearean tragedy and modern associations. The meaning of a willow tree shifts from author to author, but it's always an important symbol or representation in literature and mythology.

Biblical references to willow trees include Psalm 137, in which Jews held in captivity to Babylon weep remembering their homeland: "There on the willow trees, we hung up our harps." Instead of a source of power, the willow here symbolizes loss, along with the hope of future retrieval. But the willow maintains its life force in Ezekiel 17:5 where the prophet plants a fruitful seed and "sets it like a willow tree," suggesting permanence and revival. It's also celebratory, as Leviticus 23:40 commands believers to take "willows of the brook" as a festival offering.

 The most obvious meaning of a weeping willow would seem to be the “weeping” part…for mourning or grieving for a loved one.  The saying “she is in her willows” implies the mourning of a female for a lost mate.  And while the Victorians took the art of mourning to new heights, the weeping willow was not just a symbol for sadness. 

     A native of Asia, the weeping willow is a fast growing tree that can reach fifty feet high and fifty feet wide.  It tolerates most any soil and roots easily from cuttings.  Because of this, they are often the first trees to appear in a disturbed site, giving them a reputation as “healers and renewers.” In many cultures, the willow is a sign of immortality, and is associated with the moon, water and femininity.  The weeping willow also has connections to Greece as Orpheus, their most celebrated poet, carried willow branches with him on his journey through the Underworld. The Greek sorceress Circe planted a riverside cemetery with willow trees, dedicated to Hecate and her moon magic.  It was common to place willow branches in the coffins of the dead, and then plant young saplings on their graves, with the belief that the spirit of the dead would rise up through the tree.

Plaçage was a recognized extralegal system in French and Spanish slave colonies of North America (including the Caribbean) by which ethnic European men entered into civil unions with non-Europeans of African, Native American and mixed-race descent. The term comes from the French placer meaning "to place with". The women were not legally recognized as wives but were known as placées; their relationships were recognized among the free people of color as mariages de la main gauche or left-handed marriages. They became institutionalized with contracts or negotiations that settled property on the woman and her children, and in some cases gave them freedom if they were enslaved. The system flourished throughout the French and Spanish colonial periods, reaching its zenith during the latter, between 1769 and 1803.

It was widely practiced in New Orleans, where planter society had created enough wealth to support the system. It also took place in the Latin-influenced cities of Natchez and Biloxi, Mississippi; Mobile, Alabama; St. Augustine and Pensacola, Florida; as well as Saint-Domingue (now the Republic of Haiti). Plaçage became associated with New Orleans as part of its cosmopolitan society.

"Till We Meet Again" 12 x 12. Available

https://squareup.com/store/andrew-hopkins/item/till-we-meet-again-x

"Neptune's Bathroom" By Creole Folk Artist Andrew LaMar Hopkins

 Neptune's Bathroom 12 x 12 by Creole Folk Artist Andrew LaMar Hopkins Available 

My latest painting "Neptune's Bathroom" 12 x 12 is inspired by Christian Dior’s beautiful Neoclassical inspired Bathroom from his Château de la Colle Noire. The French designer bought the 123-acre Château in the South of France in 1951 and loving began renovating the 29-room Château and landscape the grounds where he mentioned he hoped to retire someday in his 1956 autobiography Dior on Dior.

“I think of this house now as my real home, the home to which, God willing, I shall one day retire, the home where perhaps I will one day forget Christian Dior, Couturier, and become the neglected private individual again.”

Christian Dior unfortunately passed away in 1957 and never realized his retirement dream. The Château was bought and sold many times over the years and the contents auctioned off. In 2013, Christian Dior Parfums bought the home and spent the last three years renovating it and buying back original furnishings.

Christian Dior's Bathroom MONTAUROUX, VAR, FRANCE  : La Colle Noire castle once owned by fashion designer Christian Dior now fully restored following a two and half year restoration project initiated by Bernard Arnault of Christian Dior Parfums . 

  Christian Dior design his bathroom himself after studying French period Barthrooms from the    Directoire, Consulate, and Empire periods. Thank goodness the original fixtures remain in the castle.  

Christian Dior's Bathroom today @ Château de la Colle Noire:

A wonderful shell encrusted bust of Neptune I used in my painting 

Nice English Neoclassical design I used on the marble bathtub 

The nude 

Neptune's Bathroom 12 x 12 by Creole Folk Artist Andrew LaMar Hopkins Available 

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"Wintertime in 18th century Louisiana"

"Wintertime in 18th century Louisiana" 8 x 10 Available.

My latest Masterpiece is titled "Wintertime in 18th century Louisiana" 8 x 10 Available. It shows a late 18th century Louisiana interior with fashionably dressed Free Woman of Color playing a lute,seated in a gilt wood Louis XVI style chair next to a fire in a Creole Neoclassical style carved wrap-around mantel. On the mantel is a Mahogany, marble and ormolu Louis XVI style Lyre shaped clock, a George III ormolu mount blue john vase. Blue John (also known as Derbyshire Spar) is a English semi-precious mineral, a form of fluorite with bands of a purple-blue or yellowish color. Blue John was so popular in the 18th and early 19th century for its ornamental value it was mined out. And Hurricane globe with mid 18th century brass Louis XV candlestick. Next to the curtain is a Passementerie Bell pull. #outsiderart #folkart #Art #artist #artcollector #blackhistorymonth #artistsoninstagram #creole #Passementerie #instaart #contemporaryart #creoleartist #arte #artcollectors #modernart #creoleart #artbrut #fineart #Freepeopleofcolor #AfricanAmericanartist #selftaught #folkartpaintings #southernfolkart #naiveart #vernacularart #blackart #originalart #Neworleansart #folkartist #Louisianaart

Today's Purchase! Federal period coin silver spoon. Part 1.

Early 19th century New York city made coin silver tablespoon in the Fiddle pattern. Made by New York city silversmith Maltby Pelletreau 

Today I bought a Fiddle pattern American Federal period coin silver table spoon in a French Quarter junk shop. When I fist saw the spoon I had hoped it might be a rare piece of New Orleans made Creole silver. After looking up the mark I found it was made by New York city silversmith Maltby Pelletreau (American b. 1791) of French Huguenot ancestry and still might have a New Orleans connection. The Pelletreau family originated from France and arrived in Massachusetts with twelve other Huguenot families in 1686. The family moved to Southampton, New York in 1728. Maltby Pelletreau's Grandfather Elias Pelletreau was the first silversmith in the family, working from 1750 - 1810 making gold jewelry, shoe buckles, tankards, silverware, etc. He became well-known as a silversmith in early America selling his wares to clients between Connecticut and New Jersey. He is considered a local hero for his role as Captain of the Suffolk County Militia and his financial backing of and participation in the American Revolution. His Grandson who made this spoon 🥄, Maltby Pelletreau was the third generation of this illustrious American silversmithing family. He worked in New York city from 1813 to 1840. Maltby Pelletreau, who had been in business in New York City since at least 1813, was engaged in a series of partnerships in Charleston South Carolina, and New Orleans where his New York city made silver was exported to the South. Researching antiques is just as exciting as finding them. This one ☝️ 200 year old spoon 🥄 found in a junk shop in New Orleans, made in New York City 🌃 by a person of French Huguenot Heritage is steeped full of American history is just more then a spoon 🥄. In a day where most people would rather have flatware 🍴 from IKEA 😳! Here @ Le Château de Hopkins we are sticking to the old stuff full of history and Beauty!

"A Receipt for Creole Courtship" by Creole Folk Artist Andrew LaMar Hopkins

"A Receipt for Creole Courtship" by Creole Folk Artist Andrew LaMar Hopkins 

My latest masterpiece is titled "A Receipt for Creole Courtship" 12 x 9, Available. It depicts two New Orleans Creole free people of color in a early 19th century Creole Federal interior, the home of the free woman of color. A free man of color hands a free woman of color a receipt for courtship. The setting is a parlor in a Creole cottage in the French Quarter that is elegantly furnished with the latest fashion of Creole/French furniture and decorative arts! A quarter of the houses along the main streets of Creole New Orleans were owned by free blacks, many of whom were single women. 

Creole cottages are mostly modest homes on the exterior. Creole's did not show off with the architecture of homes, like the Americans that were flooding the area. But Creole interiors were elegantly furnished like this room. During the antebellum period, Louisiana's free people of color enjoyed a relatively high level of acceptance and prosperity, a legacy of the state's French and Spanish founders. The Free woman of color is seated on a Louisiana Creole Campeachy chair and dressed in a white linen flowing dress in the classical Greek fashion made popular in the early 19th century. 

She wears a Parure (matching set of jewelry comprising a diadem, a necklace, two earrings and bracelets ) made of coral and gold. In the 18th-19th century people thought that coral was a powerful protector against both sorcery and the Evil Eye, this substance also wards off nightmares. Coral is to be rubbed against a baby’s gums to aid with teething and hung around the necks of older children to keep them safe from witchcraft.

Red coral is especially beneficial, offering protection to ships and houses against storms. This shade will also turn pale if its wearer’s health takes a turn for the worse but will return to its original hue as the patient recovers. The furnishings and decorative arts in the room is a mix of Creole and French. To the left of the painting is a mahogany Creole armoire in the Federal manner dating from the early 19th century. It has inverted reeded baluster legs ending in brass paw feet. The free woman is seated in a Louisiana Creole Campeachy arm chair. 

Campeachy chairs originated in the Mexican port city of Campeche. This style of chair was made locally in Creole Louisiana in the 18th and early 19th century. To the right of the chair is a Creole Federal style serving table with brass ball feet. On the serving table is a Empire Old Paris porcelain coffee pot and two coffee cans and saucers with coin silver spoon. Next to the porcelain is a ornate French painted tole basket. Over the serving table is a copy of "The Prince Henryk Lubomirski as Love of Glory" by French female artist Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun painter to French Queen Marie Antoinette. 

At age six, Henryk Lubomirski (1777–1850) was abducted by a wealthy but distant relative, who, regretting her lack of a male heir, reared him as her own. Vigée Le Brun presents the handsome boy in the pose of a famous Crouching Venus of antiquity, as interpreted by the French sculptor Antoine Coysevox. Creoles loved copies of Old Master paintings. On the side of the Federal drapery treatment are a pair of Federal Style Sheild Back Brass Candle Wall Sconces for light. On the floor is a Neoclassical wall to wall carpeting with laurel leaf wreath and star motif.

#TheNewClementineHunter #ClementineHunter #CreoleRenaissance #Creolemythological #mythological #classicalmythology #Greekmythology #Creolemythology #GrandmaMoses #BlackHistoryMonth #BlackArt #BlackArtHistory #ArtHistory #ArtLife #blackart #nolatricentennial #whereyartist #gonola #visitnola #originalart #supportlocalart #buylocalart #neworleansartist #neworleansart #neworleanstricentennial #united4nola300 #nola #nola300 #nola300 #300for300

"The Birth of Creole Venus" by Creole Folk Artist Andrew LaMar Hopkins

"The Birth of Creole Venus" 20 x 16 by Creole Folk Artist Andrew LaMar Hopkins 

A true great Artist paints throughout the year but only creates a few true Masterpieces during that time. This is one of them. This is the first painting in a series and period I have entered called my "Creole Renaissance Period" I give to the world "The Birth of Creole Venus" 20 x 16, Available. My good French friend Pierre de Pontalba who saw the beginning stages of this painting said "This looks like a crossover of Botticelli, Dali and Hopkins" ! 

My painting depicts the goddess Creole Venus arriving at a Louisiana shore after her birth, when she had emerged from the Bayou fully-grown ,called Venus Anadyomene. In the center the newly-born goddess Creole Venus stands nude on a peal in a giant oyster shell. An Eastern Brown Pelican, the state bird of Louisiana spreads his wings after just landing on Creole Venus large oyster shell as well as a White Heron. at the base of the giant oyster shell Louisiana blue crab and a Alligator turtle come to greet Creole Venus. Mud crayfish's mound's can be seen by the alligator. At the left the wind god Zephyr blows at her, with the wind shown by lines radiating from his mouth. He is in the air, and carries a young female, "Aura", personification of a lighter breeze, who is also blowing, Creole Venus to the Louisiana shore. Both have wings. 

Their joint efforts are blowing Creole Venus towards the shore, and blowing the hair and clothes of the other figures to the right. To the left a Louisiana Indian arrives to pay homage to Creole Venus by a cypress dugout pirogue. Above Creole Venus head two doves kiss with one holding sassafras leaves for making Creole gumbo filé. Oleander flowers from the gods are blown along with the two flying figures. At the right a female figure holds out a rich cloak or dress to cover Venus when she reaches the shore, as she is about to do. She is one of the three Horae or Hours, Greek minor goddesses of the seasons and of other divisions of time, and attendants of Venus. She stands on a Louisiana shore with orange trees and banana trees! A alligator open month is at her feet.

#TheNewClementineHunter #ClementineHunter #CreoleRenaissance #Creolemythological #mythological #classicalmythology #Greekmythology #Creolemythology #GrandmaMoses #BlackHistoryMonth #BlackArt #BlackArtHistory #ArtHistory #ArtLife #blackart #nolatricentennial #whereyartist #gonola #visitnola #originalart #supportlocalart #buylocalart #neworleansartist #neworleansart #neworleanstricentennial #united4nola300 #nola #nola300 #nola300 #300for300

18th century English Georgian carved Carnelian of Antinous Watch Fob seal.

18th century English Georgian carved Carnelian of Antinous Watch Fob seal. 

In the collection of Le Château de Hopkins, A 18th century English Georgian Carnelian Watch Fob seal pendant with a Intaglio profile bust of Antinous (c. AD 110/11-30), a favourite, or lover, of the Roman emperor Hadrian. He was deified after his death, being worshiped in both the Greek East and Latin West, sometimes as a god (theos) and sometimes merely as a hero (heros). This representation of Antinous is closely related to the famous "Antinous Marlborough Gem" The Marlborough Sardonix is a black stone jewel intaglio with the image of Antinous that was signed by Antoninianus of Aphrodisia, the only artist known to have signed his name on his work. 

The Marlborough Sardonix is a black stone jewel intaglio with the image of Antinous. It is generally regarded as one of the finest portrait gems from antiquity. The British house of Marlborough still owns the original. It is thought to have been worn as a ring by Emperor Hadrian himself. 

The Marlborough Sardonix is generally regarded as one of the finest portrait gems from antiquity. The British house of Marlborough still owns the original. It is thought to have been worn as a ring by Emperor Hadrian himself. That relief immediately became immensely popular in Georgian, England; Nathaniel Marchant RA (1739–1816) was an English gem engraver and Edward Burch one of the most celebrated gem engravers of the late eighteenth century England made high quality copies of "The Antinous Marlborough Gem" Intaglio gems are hard semi-precious stones which have been cut with intaglio figures and designs so that they can be set, usually in finger rings, and used as seals if you press them into sealing wax or clay. They are, moreover, often set in expensive and exquisite jewelry mounts or rings.

With the growth of a wealthier middle class during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as well as the rise of manufacturing, the demand for masculine accessories grew as well. Men’s fashion in the eighteenth century tended to lean toward the flamboyant side, with men showing off nearly as much jewelry as their female counterparts. Men’s accessories also followed a strict protocol which was dictated by the aristocracy; one had to make sure to be dressed both correctly as well as completely.

 Jeweled rings, watch chains, diamond shoe buckles, and in some cases even diamond buttons were part of the aristocratic male’s fashion repertoire. Even as men’s accessories became less pronounced as the eighteenth century progressed into the nineteenth, masculine dress still retained certain features of personal adornment: jeweled cravat pins, watch fobs and seals, gem and paste rings. As is the same with female accessories. 

An important accessory to the seventeenth and eighteenth century man, a watch fob and seal was an object directly attached to the chain of one’s pocket watch. A watch chain was used to suspend one’s watch from the waistcoat’s “fob pocket,” from which also hung the watch fob, usually with an attached seal at the bottom end of the fob. Fobs were often cone-like in form, attached to the watch chain with a metal loop at the narrow end of the fob. The seal was on the wide, circular end of the fob.