Foolish Nuptials I

Notes: Painted in Provincetown, MA, companion piece to "Foolish Nuptials II", 1916, now lost. Journal, March 28, 1916: "making 2 panels 24" sq. [for Foolish Nuptials]." To HDB, July 12, 1963, & January 29, 1963: "Nearly 50 years ago I did 2 24 x 24s of a gt. bell in the top of a steeple at night, tipped way back clanging. At the R a string quartette was playing, & at the left a couple in bed. The 2nd one showed the same belfry but in the light of early morning. Seen through the belfrey-slits was a smiling meadow & river, far down. The big bell was at rest, the couple asleep, the musicians asleep, & their instruments lying about - broken." "A man & a red haired girl are lying in bed in a church belfrey. The big bell's elipse [sic] is high in the air & a string quartette is playing like sixty. Night & stars are seen out the big slits. The 2nd piece shows the couple asleep, the bell is quiet. The fiddlers had dropped or were gone; their fiddle sticks lay broken and through the belfrey slits far below is seen a smiling sunny meadow with a winding stream, as I recall."

To Richard Parmenter, Dec. 17, 1965:"The two 20/20s [sic] of the lovers in the belfry, a nocturne, with the bell, at the top of a 190 swing to the R and a string quartette `at it'. The 2nd, the same place, the bell at rest, sticks broken, and the early sunshine on a pastoral scene."