THE ROYAL MUSIC BAROQUE

BY JAMES C. CHRISTENSEN September 26, 1942 – January 8, 2017

©1993 SIGNED NUMBER 260/2750

WITH COA FROM THE GREENWICH WORKSHOP

CREATIVE IMPRESSIONS COLLECTION

ALL ORIGINAL PAPERS AND ENVELOPE

EMBOSSED, FOIL PRINTING

LOVELY!

19" SQUARE

HERE IS A DESCRIPTION:

You don't need to listen to a recording of George Frederick Handel's Water Music while viewing The Royal Music Barque, but it wouldn't hurt. "This piece has a little flavor of Handel's work," James Christensen says. Instead of an English king floating down the Thames, however, this image shows Christensen's fantasy revelers floating along to the music of the artist's imagination.

His creativity fueled by history and myth, Christensen has made this Royal Music Barque a feast for both eye and mind. "This ship, the instruments, and even the angel are based on things I've seen or researched," he says, "but I took off from there." The finished work is rich in detail. There is so much jewelry, filigree, decoration, and gilding that it inspired The Greenwich Workshop to take a new step into "the land a little left of reality."

The Royal Music Barque takes full advantage of the printer's craft as well as the painter's art. Clear-foil stamping makes the gems and filigree sparkle, and gold-foil stamping makes the royal flag and princess' hairband shine. A textured foil technique called "mezzotint" gives the king's robe the proper look of royalty, and sculptured embossing makes Christensen's oval frame into a golden portal, through which you can glimpse another world.

The barque's passengers include a musician king and his entourage. "The king's lion's-head lute is based on one I saw in the Victoria and Albert Museum music collection," Christensen explains. "The mouse seemed to sit nicely in the crow's nest. He makes the whole barque diminutive, because I'm more willing to accept a little king than a gigantic mouse. The mouse's instrument is a three-stringed ancestor of the violin. The angel has butterfly wings, and the bird is simply listening...or maybe doing vocals."

The Royal Music Barque, like all Christensen's work, is really just a starting point for your own imagination. Despite all its inspirations and antecedents, there are only a few sure things on this amazing boat ride. "It's evening, they're up in the sky, and it's a very pleasant thing that's happening," Christensen says. "From there, it's all up to you."