La Gloire de Jour Est Arrivée (Sunset, Thursday, 14 July 2011)

William Theodore Van Doren, LA GLOIRE DE JOUR EST ARRIVÉE (Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

For Bastille Day – and I hope I did it right – I’ve inverted a line from La Marseillaise. Instead of “the day of glory has arrived,” the glory of the day.

The View en Rose. Sunset, Wednesday, 14 July 2010

William Van Doren. Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

Sunset, Tuesday, 14 July 2009

Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on paper, 16 x 20.

Dedicated to the vainqueurs of the Bastille. I think we in the States tend to minimize Bastille Day (my birthday!) because we always hear that the prison wasn’t necessarily that important, the storming of the place wasn’t such a big deal, etc. – so I was surprised to learn that 98 of the liberators were killed that day.

Tonight’s sunset was followed by one of the strangest twilights I think I’ve ever seen. If I feel I can remember the composition and the colors well enough, I may add it tomorrow.