Friday, October 25, 2013

Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena

Pam Sorooshian and I had just been in the "European Art : 17th – 18th Centuries" rooms for a few moments when I said I was going to look for a wheelbarrow. The very next painting I saw had one. Cool!!!



The painting is by Jan Steen, a Dutch artist, in around 1668. Part of the description was "In front of an inn, a hopelessly inebriated young woman is being helped into a wheelbarrow." The title is "De wijn is een spotter," translated to English as "Wine is a Mocker."


More from the museum's site (added here July 24, 2014):
Wine is a Mocker, 1663-64
The inscription above the door is from Proverbs 20:1, which reads: “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.” In front of an inn, a hopelessly inebriated young woman is being helped into a wheelbarrow. Although the woman’s low-cut dress and red stockings mark her as a prostitute, her rich and exquisitely delineated clothing indicate a more privileged status. Jan Steen subtly conveys the message that not only are those of superior position as susceptible as the lowly to the sins of drink, but that their disgrace is perhaps more pitiable because of the distance they have fallen.



Note added June 6, 2026:

Near the end of Bilbo's eleventy-first birthday celebration in The Fellowship of the Ring, Chapter 1, "A Long-expected Party," Tolkien describes the departure of the guests:

"About midnight carriages came for the important folk. One by one they rolled away, filled with very full but very unsatisfied hobbits. Gardeners came by arrangement, and removed in wheel-barrows those that had inadvertently remained behind."

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When I went to get the quote (because I'm separated from my library these days, Google's AI told me some other things about wheelbarrow-removal of drunks in art, literature, and history. I might track them down and make individual posts later, but here's this in case I don't: https://share.google/aimode/kJsmlUtuqcZWcSBPD

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