That is Priceless by Steve Melcher for January 27, 2023

  1. Avatar 3
    Solstice*1947  almost 2 years ago

    /// Frederikke is Hammershøi’s mother.

    His and Whistler’s resemble each other. /

    They both sat in profile

    for a very long while,

    barely breathing. (They thought they would smother.)

    /// Still, the differences here are apparent.

    Just one painter’s behavior’s aberrant.

    Both moms hated the sight / of her “bad side”— (the right).

    Vilhelm hated his feminine parent.

    /// And they don’t just face opposite ways.

    There’s the question of where they can gaze.

    At framed art on the wall—

    or at nothing at all.

    Frederikke is bored to malaise.

     •  Reply
  2. Missing large
    rmremail  almost 2 years ago

    Vilhelm wanted to make his mother a nice portrait for her birthday, but he was too scared to look her in the face after admitting that he had dropped out of medical school in order to be an artist.

     •  Reply
  3. Sammy on gocomics
    Say What Now‽ Premium Member almost 2 years ago

    Vilhelm was such a terrible artist that no one would put his works on their walls.

     •  Reply
  4. Img 0910
    BE THIS GUY  almost 2 years ago

    The Dutch version… something got lost in the translation.

     •  Reply
  5. Zooey girl
    ronaldspence  almost 2 years ago

    Someday there will be a tv on that wall…

     •  Reply
  6. Avatar 3
    Solstice*1947  almost 2 years ago

    /// With the poison still fresh in her tummy,

    Norma sat in her chair like a dummy.

    In a few years her flesh,

    with no way to stay fresh,

    dries ‘til Mrs. Bates looks like a mummy.

     •  Reply
  7. Bluedog
    Bilan  almost 2 years ago

    Vilhelm’s mom after she unknowingly had some of his hash brownies.

     •  Reply
  8. Edb4beaa 19ab 437d a460 cf4fba2a5e74
    syzygy47  almost 2 years ago

    In Mad magazine many years ago, in this kind of thing, captions in classic work, this one read after three identical panels, “That Ed McMahon just cracks me up”

     •  Reply
  9. Lemontong p1
    Kwen  almost 2 years ago

    After spending the last 20 years hand-weaving her top range 35 feet cinema screen, Edith couldn’t wait for movies to be invented.

     •  Reply
  10. Missing large
    PraiseofFolly  almost 2 years ago

    According to the article presented in Wikipedia, “Hammershøi’s melancholic vision has now regained its place in the public consciousness. He is now one of the best-known artists in Scandinavia.” The dour Dane as exemplified in “Hamlet”?

    There is a BBC Documentary about Vilhelm Hammershøi’ available to view on YouTube:

    “In 2005, Hammershøi’s life and oeuvre was featured in a BBC television documentary, Michael Palin and the Mystery of Hammershoi, with the British comedian and writer Michael Palin. In the programme, Palin, fascinated by Hammershøi, whose pictures he conceived as having a distinct enigmatic coolness and distance about them, sets out to unlock the mysteries and find out about the background of Hammershøi. Palin, wanting to know of his inspirations and the reason for these mystical pictures, started his search in Hayward Gallery in London, goes to Amsterdam and finally to Copenhagen…”

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fhQmS8KJeUo

     •  Reply
  11. Strega
    P51Strega  almost 2 years ago

    His mom still remembers his promise of an HD TV “as soon as he makes it big”. Every time he visits, she pulls her chair over and stares at the spot it would go.

     •  Reply
  12. Missing large
    jel354  almost 2 years ago

    The other profile view of Whistler’s Mother’s mugshot.

     •  Reply
  13. Missing large
    jdculhane46  almost 2 years ago

    Still better than watching The View

     •  Reply
  14. Missing large
    Econ01  almost 2 years ago

    Granny was appalled by the stripper, but, it would be rude to leave in the middle of his performance.

     •  Reply
  15. Missing large
    Egrayjames  almost 2 years ago

    No one dared asked Margarite what she was thinking. For years she had been obsessed with how to catch fleas and squeeze their tiny little heads off with a pair of tweezers. She really was best left sitting alone.

     •  Reply
  16. Missing large
    rmremail  almost 2 years ago

    Compare this classic Dutch painting with yesterday’s French one. Is it any wonder people prefer to vacation in France?

     •  Reply
  17. Pirate63
    Linguist  almost 2 years ago

    See! I told you that even adults were given Time-Outs and had to sit for hours in the Naughty Chair staring at a blank wall.

     •  Reply
  18. Missing large
    wincoach Premium Member almost 2 years ago

    Apparently, no one puts baby in a corner, but people do put Whistler’s Mother in a corner

     •  Reply
  19. Missing large
    epaphus8  almost 2 years ago

    Is that a weather vane attached to her head? No wonder Whistler’s Mother keeps getting turned around.

     •  Reply
  20. Duke
    Rev Phnk Ey  almost 2 years ago

    “No, I won’t and you can’t make me!”

     •  Reply
  21. Rwljlogo2
    The Wolf In Your Midst  almost 2 years ago

    “One day my son will finally put in that picture window.”

     •  Reply
  22. Joe the bugatti mulhouse clipped
    Call me Ishmael  almost 2 years ago

    “Whistler’s mother, the return trip.”She

    She had planned on a week of biking/

    But the temperatures were spiking/

    Her ride was a beast !/

    Now she’s headed back east//

    California was not to her liking !

     •  Reply
  23. Cheshirecat chandra complg 1024
    Silly Season   almost 2 years ago

    From: @Call me Ishmael

    https://www.gocomics.com/profile/2288699

    ~

    “Whistler’s mother, the return trip.”

    She had planned on a week of biking/

    But the temperatures were spiking/

    Her ride was a beast !/

    Now she’s headed back east//

    California was not to her liking !

     •  Reply
  24. Unnamed
    Another Take  almost 2 years ago

    Before the advent of television

     •  Reply
  25. Missing large
    Buzzworld  almost 2 years ago

    I see some very weird images and a frame in the light gray section. I think she sees them too.

     •  Reply
  26. Missing large
    prrdh  almost 2 years ago

    Freja was devastated upon being told her stegt flæsk wasn’t crispy enough.

     •  Reply
  27. Joe the bugatti mulhouse clipped
    Call me Ishmael  almost 2 years ago

    Nuthin is as gleeful as a Danish Mom “ennui-ful” in the mor-or-ornin…

     •  Reply
  28. Gkholman closeup 1500x1500
    Ken Holman Premium Member almost 2 years ago

    Sitting with her face in the draft of the air conditioning and in the dark was the only way Mabel was going to keep cool in the heat.

     •  Reply
  29. Missing large
    harebell  almost 2 years ago

    Hamlet’s mother Gertrude, a melancholy Dane.

     •  Reply
  30. Image
    MuddyUSA  Premium Member almost 2 years ago

    She: Be picky my parents said…be picky…now look at me never a bride…just an oldbroad!

     •  Reply
  31. T
    T...  almost 2 years ago

    Sorry, check your map…

     •  Reply
  32. Img 0634
    Beowulf 406 Premium Member almost 2 years ago

    Whistler through the looking glass; a bit darker and facing the wrong direction.

     •  Reply
  33. Gibapple
    Glibster  almost 2 years ago

    To a person in the Southern Hemisphere, Whistler’s mom’s left/right orientation would be the same but she’d appear upside-down.

     •  Reply
  34. The wanderer
    anomaly  almost 2 years ago

    “You’re going to sit there and think about what you did, Granma! That delivery guy was so embarrassed! Where did you get that thong, anyway?”

     •  Reply
  35. Gustave courbet   le d sesp r
    mabrndt Premium Member almost 2 years ago

    Frederikke Hammershøi, the artist’s mother

    Paste (including the quote marks) 

    "File:Frederikke Hammershøi by Vilhelm Hammershøi.jpg" site=commons.wikimedia.org 

    (syntax supported by the Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, and Yandex search engines) in the browser address bar (or search for it using one of those search engines) and choose the first File: found for info and links that point to more info about this roughly square, B3 paper size painting.

     

    Again, a larger strip image is shown by (Ctrl- or right-) clicking the image in Mr. Melcher’s MASTERPIECE #3069 (January 27, 2023) blog entry, accessible by the Check out the blog! box after the last comment, and using the dropdown menu (even larger if you trim what’s after .png from the URL). I have added a comment there pointing to info about this artist I used to point to here. So far, 3 works by this artist have been used here, the October 8, 2018, strip bring the prior. The artist info URLs in my comment there, plus a few more, are pointed to by my blog comment.

     •  Reply
  36. Missing large
    d1234dick Premium Member almost 2 years ago

    right facing granny, is looking wrong way. that is why she will never lose her virginity. the men are in the card room.

     •  Reply
  37. Playpen 1952
    l3i7l  almost 2 years ago

    Vilhelm was going to paint a nude today. His plans changed when his mother volunteered to sit in, after the young model didn’t show up.

     •  Reply
  38. Buffaloanimatedrunningrightoneofearliestanimatedmovies001
    Running Buffalo Premium Member almost 2 years ago

    I am going to stare until I can figure out what the cat was staring at.

     •  Reply
  39. Missing large
    JH&Cats  almost 2 years ago

    Gaslighter’s eye chart.

     •  Reply
Sign in to comment

More From That is Priceless