Art & Music Appreciation: Week Nine (September 29, 2025 – October 3, 2025)

ART APPRECIATION

^{Jungle Tales (Post-Impressionism) by James Jebusa Shannon}

Jungle Tales features two girls listening to their mother read a story. Since James Shannon’s forte was portraits, the girls’ faces are clearly and expertly painted with glowing skin. Lace on the mother’s dress and cotton on the girls’ nightgowns can almost be felt, they are so realistic.
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James Jebusa Shannon (1862-1923) born in New York, moved to Canada at a young age, and then moved to England where he began studying art at age 16. After only three years, he won an award, which got the attention of the queen. His career took off! He was soon a leading portrait painter in London. In 1922, he was knighted and became Sir James Jebusa Shannon. 
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MUSIC APPRECIATION

“Dido’s Lament” (When I am laid in earth) (1689)

This piece is an aria at the end of an opera written by Purcell. The opera is based on Virgil’s epic poem, The Aeneid. Dido is a queen in the poem who falls for the hero Aeneas. Aeneas falls in love with Dido as well, but he leaves her behind in Carthage to continue his journey to Greece. She builds a pyre and sets it on fire so that Aeneas can see it burning as he sails away. She kills herself over Aeneas’s betrayal.
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Henry Purcell (c. 1659-1695) was one of England’s greatest composers, arguably the most original and significant figure of the Baroque era produced by the nation. In a remarkably productive but tragically short life, he synthesized English traditions with continental European styles (particularly French and Italian) to create a unique musical language marked by expressive depth, harmonic boldness, and melodic invention. Revered in his time and often referred to as the “Orpheus Britannicus,” his work spans sacred anthems, court odes, instrumental fantasies, innovative theatre music, and England’s most celebrated early opera.  ⁴