HvS KIDS | Art by Brigid Marlin in NYC (Tepper Marlin Collection), Daphne and Apollo

"Daphne and Apollo", c. 1975. Mische Technique on
Board. 19"x27". Reproduced by permission of the artist.

I didn't plan on getting a catalog started so soon of Brigid Marlin's art, but sometimes serendipity takes over.

Today I received an edition of the poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay that combines the ones in A Few Figs from Thistles (Harper & Brothers, 1922) with those in Second April (Harper & Brothers, 1921).  This edition was published in 2000, the year that Millay's copyrights expired - 50 years after her death in 1950. You might call a publisher like this a copyright-expiration chaser.

As I read through the poems, one in iambic tetrameter caught my eye, because it matches one of our paintings by Brigid Marlin, "Daphne and Apollo". That's Daphne at left, having chosen to become a rooted laurel rather than allow herself to be ravished by Apollo. Here is Millay's poem, which seems to have been addressed to an over-eager lover. This published the year before Millay and her husband-to-be, Eugen Boissevain, met, so the reference is not to him.

Daphne
Edna St. Vincent Millay (from A Few Figs from Thistles, 1922)

Why do you follow me? -
Any moment I can be
Nothing but a laurel-tree.

Any moment of the chase
I can leave you in my place
A pink bough for your embrace.

Yet if over hill and hollow
Still it is your will to follow
I am off; - to heel, Apollo!

Here is a version, slightly abbreviated, of the story as told by Bullfinch:

Daphne was Apollo's first love. It was not brought about by accident, but by the malice of Cupid. Apollo saw the boy playing with his bow and arrows; and being himself elated with his recent victory over Python, he said to him, "What have you to do with warlike weapons, saucy boy? Leave them for hands worthy of them.... Venus's boy heard these words, and rejoined, "Your arrows may strike all things else, Apollo, but mine shall strike you." So saying, he took his stand on a rock of Parnassus, and drew from his quiver two arrows of different workmanship, one to excite love, the other to repel it. The former was of gold and sharp pointed, the latter blunt and tipped with lead. With the leaden shaft he struck the nymph Daphne, the daughter of the river god Peneus, and with the golden one Apollo, through the heart. ...

Apollo loved her, and longed to obtain her ... He saw her eyes bright as stars; he saw her lips, and was not satisfied with only seeing them. ... It was like a hound pursuing a hare, with open jaws ready to seize, while the feebler animal darts forward, slipping from the very grasp. So flew the god and the virgin - he on the wings of love, and she on those of fear. Her strength begins to fail, and, ready to sink, she calls upon her father, the river god: "Help me, Peneus! open the earth to enclose me, or change my form, which has brought me into this danger!"  Scarcely had she spoken, when a stiffness seized all her limbs; her bosom began to be enclosed in a tender bark; her hair became leaves; her arms became branches; her foot stuck fast in the ground, as a root; her face became a tree-top, retaining nothing of its former self but its beauty, Apollo stood amazed. ...

"Since you cannot be my wife," said he, "you shall assuredly be my tree. I will wear you for my crown; I will decorate with you my harp and my quiver; and when the great Roman conquerors lead up the triumphal pomp to the Capitol, you shall be woven into wreaths for their brows. And, as eternal youth is mine, you also shall be always green, and your leaf know no decay." The nymph, now changed into a Laurel tree, bowed its head in grateful acknowledgment.

Millay was Hilda van Stockum's aunt and wrote the introduction to her first book, A Day on Skates (1934). They met once in Holland - described on pp. 268-270 of Nancy Milford, Savage Beauty.

Meanwhile, I did make a little progress on posting a catalog of Brigid's art. Here is the first page. It takes a long time to scroll through. It was pasted in using Numbers, the Mac version of Excel.

Title	Year Painted	Year Sold	Purchaser
Ben by Window	1953	1953	Dorothy Oakley
Dalkey with Ben	1952	1952	Mary Shaw
Shane O’Neill	1954	1954	The O’Neills
Alan Jones	1954	1954	Mr/Mrs Alan Jones, The Mall, Tralee, Eire
Oakley Mother	1954	1954	Dorothy Montgomery, Berrawinnia, Rice Hill, Cavan, Eire
Under the Pont des Arts	1955	1961	Jack & Jill Hesketh, South Hill Close, Hitchin, UK
Self Portrait	1955	1955	American (Iowa?). (Gallery Living Art; Exhibition, Dublin; reviewed.)
Red Cabbage	1955	1967	England (Gallery - Hampstead Open Air Exhibition)
Marcella	1955	1968	Mr/Mrs E R Marlin
Muirrean	1956	1966	Eliz Russelle, 35 Merrion Ave., Blackrock, Dublin (One-man show, Dublin 1964)
Rue de l’Abbaye	1955	1957	Margot Munzer, Berlin
Noreen	1956	1960	Noreen Wall, 41 Burton, Montreal
Lorraine	1956	1960	Mrs. Vincent, Montreal
Eleanor	1956	1965	Mr/Mrs Tom Paulsen, USA
Yellow Trees	1956	1960	Kevin Dwyer, Canada
Autumn Storm	1956	1960	Jacek Makowski
Red Trees	1956	1957	Mr/Mrs Randal Marlin
Spring Birches	1956	1960	Mr/Mrs Des Gibbons, England
Blue Nude	1956	1956	Mary Grohman, England
Kathleen	1956	1956	Kathleen Franc, NY
Blue Vase	1956	1964	Mr/Mrs E R Marlin, Washington, DC (gallery sale)
Montreal houses	1956	1960	Lost
Susie	1956	1978	Richard Jones
The Old Dancer	1956	1960	Mrs. Makowski, Canada
Blue Shell	1957	1958	Shane O’Neill
Yellow Self-Portrait	1957	1969	Millie McKelvey (special mention, one-man show 1964)
Baby and Snake	1958	1960	Mr/Mrs E R Marlin, Washington, DC
Aubergine	1958	1964	Mrs. Moy, England
Mexican Boy	1958	1961	Canada (Montreal Spring Exhibition, special mention)
Des Portrait	1957	1957	Mr/Mrs Des Gibbons, Bulbourne Close, Hem Hemp

I tried to paste in a table that includes thumbnail photos of the art but the photos did not come through the process. I will include below one of the photos I don't know how to process - the van Stockum still life with onion and egg shells (1961). It is located in the home of Mary Ann Raven Anderson in Heathrow, Florida, 12 miles north of Orlando.

HvS "Spring", Still Life,
1961, at home of Mary
Ann Raven Anderson. 

Brigid Marlin Art Owner	Subject	Thumbnail Photo	Year/Notes
Raven, Jayne	Marlin, Brigid, “Sheila”, the year before Sheila went to Holland to study art, Montreal, Canada.		1958. Painting given to her by the daughter of a friend of her mother, Patsie Kottmeyier. They lived in Montreal in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Hilda van Stockum Art Owner	Subject	Thumbnail Photo	Year/Notes
Anderson, Mary Ann Raven	van Stockum, Hilda,  “Spring” (Still Life: Onion and Egg Shells)		1961
Raven, Jayne	van Stockum, Hilda, “French Scene”.		1955. Painting purchased by her mother.
Owner	Email address	Notes	Location
Anderson, Mary Ann Raven	maryaraven(at)aol.com	Sister of Jayne Raven. Correspondence by email with Brigid and John, May 16 2014.	Heathrow FL (Orlando) - sister of Jayne Raven
Raven, Jayne	jraven(at)shaw.ca	Sister of Mary Ann Anderson. Correspondence by email with Brigid and John, May 16 2014.	Montreal and BC