Vintage Art Appreciation: 1910 Poster for Biological Exhibition by Theodorus van Hoytema

The Peace of Wild Things
by Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

The above illustration was in a poster advertising a biological exhibition at the zoo in The Hague from June 11-21, 1910. It was produced by printamaker Theodorus van Hoytema (1863–1917), and was originally found on Wikimedia. My digitally enhanced version of the painting can be downloaded as an 11” x 7” @ 300 ppi JPEG here.


Digitally enhanced reproductions of public domain fine art are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Free Vintage Outdoor Illustration for Collage, Graphic Design, Papercrafts or Scrapbooking: A Summer Shower

August rain: the best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born.
The odd uneven time.
― Sylvia Plath

It’s not that we have to quit
this life one day, but it’s how
many things we have to quit
all at once: music, laughter,
the physics of falling leaves,
automobiles, holding hands,
the scent of rain, the concept
of subway trains... if only one
could leave this life slowly!
― Roman Payne

Vintage illustration of a Victorian woman caught in a summer shower. Luckily, she is prepared for the capricious weather with her rain boots and umbrella! 6” x 9” @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark here.


From my personal collection of ephemera. These images are to be incorporated into your creative works. Not for resale “as-is.” Credit to FieldandGarden.com appreciated but not required.

My Photo Journal: Summer Phlox (1)

The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year,
like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning.
The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring,
and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn,
but the first week of August is motionless, and hot.
It is curiously silent, too, with blank white dawns and glaring noons,
and sunsets smeared with too much color.
― Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting

All in all, it was a never-to-be-forgotten summer
— one of those summers which come seldom into any life,
but leave a rich heritage of beautiful memories in their going
— one of those summers which, in a fortunate combination of delightful weather,
delightful friends and delightful doing, come as near to perfection as anything can come in this world.
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne's House of Dreams

What is currently blooming in your garden this summer? Phlox and black-eyed Susans are obviously enjoying their moment in the sun but other perennials presently thriving in my garden are Buddleia (butterfly bushes), Echinacea (coneflowers), various lilies, summer roses, hardy hibiscus, and Japanese anemones, just to name a few.

I've harvested massive handfuls of tomatoes and baskets full of Swiss chard, okra, strawberries and early potatoes from my vegetable beds. The garden is teeming with life and beauty, and my senses are overloaded with nature's plenty. I feel blessed and thankful as summer asserts its glow on my heart.

True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future,
not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have,
which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing.
The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach.
A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.
― Seneca

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