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Description
oil on canvas, 760mmX610mm

When I started this, I had thought of naming it 'Hymns to the Night'. That would have been my second interpretation of Novalis' work of the same title.

Novalis was a german poet (1772-1801). The death in 1797 of his young fiancé, Sophie von Kühn, [they fell in love when she was 12] led him to write Hymnen an die Nacht (Hymns to the Night), a set of six prose and verse lyrics first published in 1800. Seven months after the publication of Hymns to the Night, Novalis died of tuberculosis, the same disease that had claimed his fiancé.

Although the cryptic diction and syntax of Hymns to the Night make it an extremely difficult work to try to translate, there have been a few attempts to render it in English.

If anyone knows German, I would strongly urge them to read it in original. This is the best of the world literature, with only Nabokov coming to a close second in his mastery of a language, according to me. A good english translation can be found at the link below -

[link]

My earlier painting based on this work is called - Night Descends

[link]

On nearing completion of this piece, I realised this is not quite as close to Novalis as 'Night Descends' is.

I toyed with the idea of calling it -'decisions' then, ruled that out too, it being rather prosaic.

Finally I am calling it 'a past'. Though shades of other two titles too remain valid. Hence the elaboration!

By the way, the woman is almost the same as in my recent painting - ivory tower.

[link]

Description
oil on canvas, 760mmX610mm

When I started this, I had thought of naming it 'Hymns to the Night'. That would have been my second interpretation of Novalis' work of the same title.

Novalis was a german poet (1772-1801). The death in 1797 of his young fiancé, Sophie von Kühn, [they fell in love when she was 12] led him to write Hymnen an die Nacht (Hymns to the Night), a set of six prose and verse lyrics first published in 1800. Seven months after the publication of Hymns to the Night, Novalis died of tuberculosis, the same disease that had claimed his fiancé.

Although the cryptic diction and syntax of Hymns to the Night make it an extremely difficult work to try to translate, there have been a few attempts to render it in English.

If anyone knows German, I would strongly urge them to read it in original. This is the best of the world literature, with only Nabokov coming to a close second in his mastery of a language, according to me. A good english translation can be found at the link below -

[link]

My earlier painting based on this work is called - Night Descends

[link]

On nearing completion of this piece, I realised this is not quite as close to Novalis as 'Night Descends' is.

I toyed with the idea of calling it -'decisions' then, ruled that out too, it being rather prosaic.

Finally I am calling it 'a past'. Though shades of other two titles too remain valid. Hence the elaboration!

By the way, the woman is almost the same as in my recent painting - ivory tower.

[link]