Xavier Mellery

Listen
...With faint dry sound,
Like steps of passing ghosts,
The leaves, frost-crisp'd,
break free from the trees
And fall.
.
Adelaide Crapsey

.

This time of year, I always think of the marvelously moody artwork

of the symbolic Belgian artist Xavier Mellery. In this painting,

Feuilles d'Automne, or Leaves of Autumn, 1893, Mellery has

enchantingly depicted the curled falling leaves of autumn as women,

entangled in a spider's web.

Those of you bloggy readers, who have been around awhile, probably

remember Mellery's The Rondo of The Hours, was my blog header

this time last year. I love this evocative piece, in which the women

represent the hours of time, dancing around a winged Death, sickle

raised. I might just have to put it up again, later this week, for

Halloween, and for Marc, who likes it so much.

.

This dramatic, atmospheric interior scene is titled My Hallway,

Light Effect, and aptly so. The chiaroscuro is conveyed in a

wonderful manner, with the soft interior lights playing off the walls

and ceiling at night. One of my faves is also Mellery's The Stairway,

(below, left) which reminds me so much of the front stairs at Willow

Manor (right).

.