Eclectic Musings

Covers from the popular Jazz Age humor magazine, “College Humor”. It was particularly popular during the 1920’s, but continued to publish until 1943. It was not affiliated with a particular university, though it would often reprint material from student publications. But it was not written exclusively by students. Writers included F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Robert Benchley, Carl Sandburg, even Groucho Marx.

“The Music Lesson”, porcelain, modeled by Joseph Willems, based on two engravings by Francois Boucher, c. 1765

Alexis Mata, ‘The Sky is Falling”, 2026

Joe Jackson - not the 80’s rock star, the “Shoeless” baseball player, nor the Jackson Five patriarch - was an Austrian cycling champion (born Joseph Jiranek in 1873), who put on clown makeup and turned his skills into a trick bicycle act in vaudeville ahd circuses on both sides of the Atlantic. As such, he pretty much set the tone for comedy bicycle acts for decades to come.

Generally accepted as the first organized auto race in history, the Paris-Bordeaux-Paris race took place on this date (6/11) in 1895. Photos of participants.

English landscape painter John Constable was born on this date (6/11) in 1776.

17th century miniature painting from Mughal India, ‘“Jahangir Preferring a Sufi Shaikh to Kings”. The main portion of the painting is by the Hindu artist Bichitr, while the ornate margins were done by Muhammad Saddiq. Emperor Jahangir is sitting radiantly on the throne, taking counsel from a Sufi shaikh, rather than from the Ottoman sultan below the Sufi, or from English King James I, shown below the sultan. The figure in the lower left, underneath King James, is Bichitr himself. Circa 1615-18.

Frances Gumm was born on this date in 1922. A few years later, Frances (“Baby”) joined her two older sisters, Dorothy and Mary Jane, expanding the Gumm Sisters song-and-dance act from a duo to a trio. This clip was filmed one day after Frances’ seventh birthday, showing her as a little trouper right from the start. In 1935, Frances changed her name to Judy Garland, and her older sisters became a duo once again.

“The Dance”, 1906, by Andre Derain, born on this date in 1880.

Gustave Courbet was born on this date in 1819. In these two self-portraits, from 1847-48, he portrays himself as a cellist, an instrument he did not play, which will likely be obvious to anyone who does.