austinkleon:

Rembrandt’s drawing of a child learning to walk

David Hockney, on why it’s his favorite drawing:

There’s a drawing by Rembrandt, I think it’s the greatest drawing ever done. It’s in the British Museum and it’s of a family teaching a child to walk, so it’s a universal thing, everybody has experienced this or seen it happen. Everybody. I used to print out Rembrandt drawings big and give them to people and say: “If you find a better drawing send it to me.”

And::

“I used to say to people, ‘I have a reproduction of the best drawing ever made in my pocket’ and I would pull it out and I would convince them, within a minute, that it was the best. It is a Rembrant from the British Museum of a little family teaching a little girl to walk. Everybody at home has a picture like that. The Rembrant, for me, tells me about who you are. I’m looking at the marks and I can feel his arm. That wouldn’t be possible with a photograph – it would be a performance. Rembrant was not intervening in any way, meaning it is the greatest work of art. You don’t see it at first. It is a virtuoso drawing but it doesn’t shout out.”

And:

When I look at these marks, I know a Chinese master of the seventeenth century would recognise instantly that this drawing was the work of a master. Very few people could get near this… The tenderness this drawing shows is not possible with photography.

bluetattoolove:

(It’s that time of year again!)

“They have called this day the eleventh of March! And whomsoever of you gets through this day, unless you are shot in the head or somehow slain, you will stand at tiptoe when e’er you hear the name again.  And you will get excited at the name March the eleventh! We happy few, we few, we band of brothers… our names will be as like… household names!  And those who are not here… be they sleeping or doing something else, they will feel themselves sort of crappy!  Because they are not here to join the fight on this day the eleventh of March!

Move out.”

-Sgt. Buck Frobisher, March 11, 1999

Due South finale “Call of the Wild”