The Ekphrastic Review
  • The Ekphrastic Review
  • The Ekphrastic Challenges
    • Challenge Archives
  • Ebooks
  • Prizes
  • Book Shelf
    • Ekphrastic Book Shelf
    • Contributors' Book Shelf
    • TERcets Podcast
  • Workshops
  • Give
  • Submit
  • Contact
  • About/Masthead

Maria Blanchard's Two Sisters, by Diane Kendig

10/2/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
Two Sisters, by Maria Blanchard (Spain). Early 1900s, exact date uncertain.


Maria Blanchard's Two Sisters

I have a portrait like it, a photo of myself in profile, left arm
slung over my little sister’s shoulder. We are ages two and four,
and I’m half naked in the summer grass, she wears a sweet dress.
In Blanchard’s painting, the sisters are grown, wearing
long-sleeved floor-length gowns, one red, one green, 
both women have the long braids my sister and I were known
for in school. She held onto her hair longer than I,
and I still have the braid she saved before chemo.

“Magnificent in size and colour,” clearly cubistic 
in the underlying shapes of arms and background, but moving 
beyond Gris’s cubism to her more human faces, especially  
the visage of the embraced sister, who looks at us as the other
looks down, this painting holds a story at the left on the table
with its ball of yarn, crossed through with a needle,
and a jar of flowers. Years later, deepest in the penury 
she knew all her life in Paris, Blanchard scraped up 

the money to buy it back, because, she said, the purchaser, though 
a sensitive woman, did not see the sad story that Maria saw
“on this table that I love.” A perfect example of what her grandniece
means when she says in an interview, “Maria had no business sense
whatsoever.” 

Diane Kendig

Diane Kendig’s four poetry chapbooks include Prison Terms (forthcoming), while her editing includes the recent anthology In the Company of Russell Atkins. A recipient of two Ohio Arts Council Fellowships in Poetry and a Fulbright translation award, she has published poetry and prose in journals such as J Journal and Ekphrasis, and she blogs at “Home Again” (http://dianekendig.blogspot.com/).
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    The Ekphrastic Review
    Picture
    Current Prompt
    COOKIES/PRIVACY
    This site uses cookies to deliver your best navigation experience this time and next. Continuing here means you consent to cookies. Thank you.
    Join us on Facebook:
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture



    ​
    ​Archives
    ​

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015

    Lorette C. Luzajic theekphrasticreview@gmail.com 

  • The Ekphrastic Review
  • The Ekphrastic Challenges
    • Challenge Archives
  • Ebooks
  • Prizes
  • Book Shelf
    • Ekphrastic Book Shelf
    • Contributors' Book Shelf
    • TERcets Podcast
  • Workshops
  • Give
  • Submit
  • Contact
  • About/Masthead