The White Duck Beneath the Waves

The White Duck illustrated by Ivan Bilibin

The Russian folktale Белая уточка (The White Duck) also bears some resemblance to the story of Лебединое озеро (Swan Lake) ballet, and may have been another possible source. The contemporaries of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky recalled the composer taking great interest in the life story of Bavarian King Ludwig II, whose tragic life had supposedly been marked by the sign of Swan and who—either consciously or not—was chosen as the prototype of the dreamer Prince Siegfried.

Audrey Hepburn received a Tony Award for her theatrical performance in the 1954 Broadway play Ondine, directed by Alfred Lunt

The original Swan Lake was based on the story of Ondine, a German myth with a theme common in Romanticism that was adapted by Hans Christian Andersen for his story The Little Mermaid.

In that German tale known as Sleep of Ondine, Ondine (from Latin: Unda, “a wave”) is a water nymph. She was very beautiful and, like all nymphs, immortal. However, should she fall in love with a mortal man and bear his child, she would lose her immortality.

Undine beneath the waves of the Danube. Illustration by Arthur Rackham

Ondine eventually falls in love with a handsome knight, Sir Lawrence, and they are married. When they exchange vows, Lawrence vows to forever love and be faithful to her. A year after their marriage, Ondine gives birth to his child. From that moment on she begins to age. As Ondine’s physical attractiveness diminishes, Lawrence loses interest in his wife.

One afternoon, Ondine is walking near the stables when she hears the familiar snoring of her husband. When she enters the stable, she sees Lawrence lying in the arms of another woman. Ondine points her finger at him, which he feels as if kicked, waking him up with surprise. Ondine curses him, stating, “You swore faithfulness to me with every waking breath, and I accepted your oath. So be it. As long as you are awake, you shall have your breath, but should you ever fall asleep, then that breath will be taken from you and you will die!

In Marcel Proust’s Remembrance of Past Things, Volume II: Madame Swann at Home, the narrator’s girlfriend Gilberte is referred to as Undine: “… she assumed that vague air, full of reticence and kept secrets…like the Undine that she was…”

And Genesis’ 1973 song Firth of Fifth (from the album Selling England by the Pound) makes reference to Ondinal Songs.

Apr 23

Swan’s Way

Blazon

For the Countess of Peralta

The snow-white Olympic swan,
with beak of rose-red agate,
preens his Eucharistic wing,
which he opens to the sun like a fan.

His shining neck is curved
like the arm of a lyre,
like the handle of a Greek amphora,
like the prow of a ship.

He is the swan of divine origin
whose kiss mounted through fields
of silk to the rosy peaks
of Leda’s sweet hills.

White king of of Castalia’s fount,
his triumph illumines the Danube;
Da Vinci was his baron in Italy;
Lohengrin is his blond prince.

His whiteness is akin to linen,
to the buds of the white roses,
to the diamantine white
of the fleece of an Easter lamb.

He is the poet of perfect verses,
and his lyric cloak is of ermine;
he is the magic, the regal bird
who, dying, rhymes the soul in his song.

This winged aristocrat displays
white lilies on a blue field;
and Pompadour, gracious and lovely,
has stroked his feathers.

He rows and rows on the lake
Where a golden gondola waits
For the sweetheart of Louis of Bavaria.

Countess, give the swans your love,
for they are gods of an alluring land
and are made of perfume and ermine,
of white light, of silk, and of dreams.

Ruben Darío

Photo: Bruce Weber

Carmen Dell’Orefice by Norman Parkinson, 1980

Swaroski logo

Bathyllus in the swan dance, Aubrey Beardsley

Henri Matisse making a study of a swan in the Bois de Boulogne, c. 1930

Advertisement illustrated by René Gruau

Illustration to Garcia Márquez’s short story Bon Voyage Mr. President, by Josie Portillo

Still from The Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky, 2010)

Anna Pavlova

Still from The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 (Bill Condon, 2011)

Helena Bonham Carter

Laetita Casta. Photo: Mario Testino

Uma Thurman and Mikahil Baryshnikov as The Swan Prince. Photo: Arthur Elgort

Truman Capote styled his beautiful and wealthy female friends “swans”

Accompained by Lee Radziwill and Jane Haward

With socialité Babe Paley in Paris

Escorting CZ Guest

Capote and Gloria Vanderbilt Lumet arrive at New York’s 54th Street Theatre for the opening performance of Caligula., 16 Feb 1960

Gloria Vanderbilt ad campaigns

Ludwig II (Luchino Visconti, 1972). He was sometimes called the Swan King

Mirror, Mirror (Tarsem Singh, 2012)

Robert Redford and Mia Farrow in The Great Gatsby (Jack Clayton, 1974)

Leonardo di Caprio. Photo: Annie Leibovitz

Madonna. Photo: David LaChapelle

David Bowie

Ad campaign featured in Vogue, January 1997

Tory Burch swan-print wedge sandalias

Swan Evening dress by Charles James, 1951

Kate Moss wearing a Givenchy gown by Ricardo Tisci, Spring-Summer collection 2011

Giles Deacon Spring-Summer 2012 collection

Erin O’Connor wearing a gown by Alexander McQueen. Photo: Tim Walker

Eglingham Children and Swan on Beach, Tim Walker, 2002

Apr 6

The Peacock Enthroned

Earthquake Damage. Lily Cole photographed by Tim Walker in Whadwhan Palace, Gujarat (India), 2005

La Grande Odalisque, 1814, Jean AugusteDominique Ingres

The Peacock Room, 1876-7, James McNeill Whistler

The Peacock Throne is the most notable piece of furniture of the Moorish Kiosk, a building located at Linderhoff Palace in Bavaria, Germany. It’s the smallest of the three palaces built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria