Edmund Blunden Sketch (1) 2023

After a lengthy pause, I am returning to the project of sketching portraits of the War Poets of The Great War. It’s been 3 years (!) since I did my sketch of Robert Graves, but I’m back with a portrait of Edmund Blunden, whom I featured on the blog once before. This time I’m including one of his other poems but please do follow the link to the previous Blunden post to read Thiepval Wood and the explanation of it.

Here is my sketch and the photo I used for reference (via Wikipedia).

Edmund Blunden as a young soldier

Les Halles d’Ypres by Edmund Blunden

A tangle of iron rods and spluttered beams,
On brickwork past the skill of a mason to mend:
A wall with a bright blue poster—odd as dreams
Is the city’s latter end.

A shapeless obelisk looms Saint Martin’s spire,
Now a lean aiming-mark for the German guns;
And the Cloth Hall crouches beside, disfigured with fire,
The glory of Flanders once.

Only the four square tower still bears the trace
Of beauty that was, and strong embattled age,
And gilded ceremonies and pride of place—
Before this senseless rage.

And still you may see (below the noon serene,
The mysterious, changeless vault of sharp blue light),
The pigeons come to the tower, and flaunt and preen,
And flicker in playful flight.

Robert Graves – Sketch (3) 2020

The poet/author Robert Graves has been featured here previously. I wrote about his experiences during the Great War and his inclusion in the memorial to the War Poets in Westminster Abbey. As well as being a fascinating character and a wonderful writer, he also has an excellent face: strong chin, full mouth, penetrating gaze, good bones… and so this week I chose to draw the young poet: Robert Graves.

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And the photo I used for reference:

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Marie Curie – Sketch (1) 2020

I recently listened to an audio production of the play: The Half Life of Marie Curie, one of the free listens you get every month with your Audible subscription. [By the way, Audible.com?] Huge fan. I definitely get my money’s worth from my subscription. The play was marvelous and I learned a few things about the famous scientist that I did not know. She had a scandalous affair with another scientist after her husband Pierre died. She carried a vial of radium in her pocket after its discovery and ultimately it led to her death from cancer. In fact, Mme. Curie’s notebooks are so radioactive that at the Bibliotheque Nationale where they reside, they must be stored in lead boxes. To view them, you must wear protective clothing. Besides winning not one but two Nobel Prizes: one in physics, the other in chemistry, she also invented a portable x-ray machine for use by doctors close to the Western Front during World War One. The x-ray machine was fitted into an ambulance and could move with the field hospitals as needed. She also volunteered during the war as an ambulance driver, doing her part for her adopted country, France. Here is my first sketch of 2020:

Madame Marie Curie