Johnyxxx
Senior Member
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2014
- Member Type
- Interested in Language
- Native Language
- Czech
- Home Country
- Czech Republic
- Current Location
- Czech Republic
Hi,
I would like to ask if ivory means a white canvas/paper he is painting on. (a girl´s head on a white canvas)
Next, I can not understand why he gave a bit of a start, having come straight from my ivory. (Because his had been painting the girl and suddenly there was an ugly chap in front of him?)
And finally, I am at sea what a well of lustre could mean. (a well of water with those flashes one can see in fairy tales?)
I was working that evening at one of the prettiest little things I'd ever done: a girl's head on ivory, that I'd stippled up just like … oh, you'd never have thought it was done by hand at all. The daylight had gone, but I knew that "Prussian" would be about the colour for the eyes and the bunch of flowers at her breast, and I wanted to finish.
I was working at my little table, with a shade over my eyes; and I jumped a bit when somebody knocked at the door—not having heard anybody come up the steps, and not having many visitors anyway. (Letters were always put into the box in the yard door.)
When I opened the door, there he stood on the platform; and I gave a bit of a start, having come straight from my ivory, you see. He was one of these very tall, gaunt chaps, that make us little fellows feel even smaller than we are; and I wondered at first where his eyes were, they were set so deep in the dark caves on either side of his nose. Like a skull, his head was; I could fancy his teeth curving round inside his cheeks; and his zygomatics stuck up under his skin like razorbacks (but if you're not one of us artists you'll not understand that). A bit of smoky, greenish sky showed behind him; and then, as his eyes moved in their big pits, one of them caught the light of my lamp and flashed like a well of lustre.
Benlian, Oliver Onions, 1911.
Thank you very much
I would like to ask if ivory means a white canvas/paper he is painting on. (a girl´s head on a white canvas)
Next, I can not understand why he gave a bit of a start, having come straight from my ivory. (Because his had been painting the girl and suddenly there was an ugly chap in front of him?)
And finally, I am at sea what a well of lustre could mean. (a well of water with those flashes one can see in fairy tales?)
I was working that evening at one of the prettiest little things I'd ever done: a girl's head on ivory, that I'd stippled up just like … oh, you'd never have thought it was done by hand at all. The daylight had gone, but I knew that "Prussian" would be about the colour for the eyes and the bunch of flowers at her breast, and I wanted to finish.
I was working at my little table, with a shade over my eyes; and I jumped a bit when somebody knocked at the door—not having heard anybody come up the steps, and not having many visitors anyway. (Letters were always put into the box in the yard door.)
When I opened the door, there he stood on the platform; and I gave a bit of a start, having come straight from my ivory, you see. He was one of these very tall, gaunt chaps, that make us little fellows feel even smaller than we are; and I wondered at first where his eyes were, they were set so deep in the dark caves on either side of his nose. Like a skull, his head was; I could fancy his teeth curving round inside his cheeks; and his zygomatics stuck up under his skin like razorbacks (but if you're not one of us artists you'll not understand that). A bit of smoky, greenish sky showed behind him; and then, as his eyes moved in their big pits, one of them caught the light of my lamp and flashed like a well of lustre.
Benlian, Oliver Onions, 1911.
Thank you very much
