Mother Liberty and the Seducer - Berthe Morisot with Veil

Alex McDonald
Berthe Morisot with Veil
Mother Liberty and the Seducer
Curated by Alex McDonald

Curator's Note: The Mother Liberty and Seducer story arc has come to a close. I now leave you with two stories of thematic importance.

Manet’s brush pushes against the canvas. Colors blend. Shapes take form. Sweat dribbles down the artist’s brow. He works with a mission.

We are going to get your voice heard, Berthe, he promises. There are worse artists out there prospering. Why should you have to starve because of your sex?
            
Manet hears a muffled reply.

Speak up, darling. I can’t hear you.

He does not make out the next gurgled cries.

Berthe, this isn’t going to work if you can’t sit still.

Manet’s portrait stands close to completion. He hopes for his painting to attract attention to his suffering sister in law’s art career. A woman can’t make it anywhere in the world, Manet tells himself. She needs his help. If he can show the world through his art that Morisot demands the critics' attention, she can make it big. Like him. His talent will be the tool she uses to foster her own.
          
I am almost done. I just need to complete the mouth.
A raspy croak sounds from the other side of the canvas. Manet doesn’t look up.

Be quiet, I don’t want to get this wrong. Manet looks up and drops his brush in shock.

Morisot’s mouth is sewed shut. Her eyes stare at Manet with an accusing gaze. A gaze that says all the words Morisot’s mouth cannot say.
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Mother Liberty and the Seducer - Penelope Unraveling Her Web

Alex McDonald
Penelope Unraveling Her Web, Joseph Wright of Derby, 1783-1784
Penelope Unraveling her Web
Mother Liberty and the Seducer
Curated by Alex McDonald

Curator's Note: The Mother Liberty and Seducer story arc has come to a close. I now leave you with two thematically linked stories.

Rumors circulate of Odysseus' death at sea. His absence creates a void in his family, which Joseph Wright of Derby’s Penelope Unraveling her Web depicts. Penelope, Odysseus’ wife, has become the object of all men’s obsessions. They circle her like vultures waiting to sink teeth into a good piece of meat.

What can she do?

Her husband has been gone for years and every man she meets looks her up and down.

What can she do?

Society comes crashing down on her. A woman with a child can’t be single forever.

What can she do?

She weaves. Penelope knows Odysseus lives. No one can convince her differently. So she tells her suitors, admirers, and stalkers once she has finished a veil for her father-in-law, she will pick her new husband.

The men howl with glee. But unbeknownst to them, Penelope will never finish the veil. The unraveling of her web occurs every night while no men watch. The circling wolves are kept at bay.

So now she sits by her slumbering son, waiting for Odysseus. Penelope keeps guard over her family, like the faithful dog besides her. Odysseus’ stone form watches over his wife and son as well, trying to fill the gap left in Penelope’s heart.


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Mother Liberty and the Seducer - Loved One

Alex McDonald
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Loved One, 1915
Loved One
Mother Liberty and the Seducer
Curated by Alex McDonald

Curator's Note: This is the fifth installment in a series of blog posts where I have presented short fiction based off the paintings in my collection. If , please read the prior four posts. Thank you.

Crimson lips, loose dress, and blood-stained fingertips; the Girl becomes the Seducer. With the toss of her hair or wink of an eye, she can control any man, scores of men. They are her puppets, the strings leading to their hearts. The cycle has been broken, the Seducer, the Woman, has the power.

A Rococo Man vaguely offends her. The Devil tears at her side. She runs to her Loved One, naked and wounded.
Help me. The Women clutches her bleeding side.

Who did this to you?

The Rococo Man. Oh, the Rococo Man.

What do you want me do to him?

The Devil sits on the Seducer’s shoulder and whispers suggestions into her ear.

The Seducer leans in closer to the Man and kisses him. When they part, the red mark of slavery lays on his lips, imprisoning his mind. Her hand tugs at his heart strings.

Sterilize him.

The Loved One nods and goes about his task.

The Seducer stays behind and laughs with the Devil. She has the power. The cycle has been broken and a new one born. Mother Liberty’s hopes of equality disappear. The shackles of slavery find a new host.

The Devil has had his say. The Rococo Man dealt with. Mother Liberty enshrined as an image of freedom. And the minds of men devoured by the Seducer.

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Mother Liberty and the Seducer - Liberty Leading the People

Alex McDonald
Eugene Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People (July 28th 1830), 1830
Liberty Leading the People
Mother Liberty and the Seducer
Curated by Alex McDonald

Curator's Note: This is the third installment in a series of blog posts where I have presented short fiction based off the paintings in my collection. If lost, please go read two prior posts. Thank you.
In her dream, the scrolls entitled Time, Truth, and History contained two words. Never again.  The Girl nods and repeats, never again.
Years pass and the Girl becomes a Woman, struggling against the Rococo Man’s society. Rich men bathe in excess, taking everything they want regardless of the harm done to others. The poor are beaten and unrepresented.

The Woman walks the streets, finding evidence of social degradation. Men lose it. Women bleed. Children starve. The words never again come to mind.

 Finally, when the masses have taken enough, they revolt. The woman realizes never again happened again… She picks up the flag and joins the fray for independence. The steel of a gun against her hand feels right. Soon she stands over the hapless forms of the dead on the front lines . Her bare feet brush against their dead membranes.

This must be what standing in a womb feels like.

The woman’s breast strap has broken. Her chest exposed. The enemy troops stare at it with the eyes of the Rococo Man. She doesn’t care. Those close enough to see her breasts are close enough for her to see the life fade from their eyes.

She turns to face her people. The abused rally behind her. One falls to her hands and knees before the woman.
Oh Mother Liberty, how can I be as free as you?
The Woman smiles. Never again will she be the helpless. Never again will the Rococo Man or the Devil haunt her nightmares. Never again.
The woman’s image, captured by Eugene Delacroix in Liberty Leading the People, will spread and with it, so will her power and influence.

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Mother of Liberty and the Seducer - Time, Truth, and History

Alex McDonald
Time, Truth, and History, Goya, undated
Time, Truth, and History
Mother Liberty and the Seducer
Curated by Alex McDonald

Curator's Note: This is the second installment in a series of blog posts where I have presented short fiction based off the paintings in my collection. If one finds themselves lost, please go read my post on Garnier's The Defenseless Rose. Thank you.

Daughter of Eve, you have been violated.

The Devil towers over the young broken Girl. Screeching bats out of Hell encircle the couple.

The forbidden fruit has been forced upon you, your innocence gone to Heaven and the rest remains here with me, in Hell.

The Girl cries in agony. After suffering the Rococo Man’s abuse, she lies naked and vulnerable, facing her inner Devil.

The Devil laughs at her cries. He is strong and vicious, like the Rococo Man. With the wings of an angle, he lures women in, but his face reveals the true nature of the beast.

Another figure enters the barren landscape. She doesn’t have wings, but possess the shape of a true angel.

Get up, my daughter. There is nothing he can say or do to make things worse.

The Devil turns the Angel. What can you possibly offer this shell of a girl? You can’t restore her purity. No deity can.

The Angel kneels before the weeping Girl and helps her up. The Devil doesn’t dare interfere. The Angel then hands the Girl a scroll.

What is this?

Time, Truth, and History. Read it and you shall taste the real fruit, enlightenment.

The Devil recoils in fear. What are you doing?

The Angel takes the Devil’s hand and a bright light obliterates the darkness. The Devil’s wings spread apart to soak in the radiance, but his body can’t take it. His face rots, and he falls to the ground.

The Angel does not take her eyes off the Girl. Slowly, the Girl opens the scroll and wakes up. Her nightmare is over.

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