Free Vintage Nature Poem: January by Frank Dempster Sherman

Here is another winter poem (also entitled "January"), written by poet, architect, genealogist, and mathematician Frank Dempster Sherman. This short work originally appeared in the January 10, 1888 issue of Harper's Young People magazine.

JANUARY
by FRANK DEMPSTER SHERMAN (1860–1916)

JANUARY, bleak and drear,
First arrival of the year,
Named for Janus ― Janus who
Fable says has faces two ―
Pray is that the reason why
Yours is such a fickle sky?
First you smile, and to us bring
Dreams of the returning spring;
Then, without a sign, you frown,
And the snow-flakes hurry down,
Making all the landscape white,
Just as if it blanched with fright.
You obey no word or law:
Now you freeze, and then you thaw,
Teasing all the brooks that run
With the hope of constant sun,
Chaining all their feet at last
Firm in icy fetters fast.
Month of all months most contrary,
Sweet and bitter January!

I have paired the poem with a vintage wallpaper texture in the preview image above. If you would like to download the high-res 7" x 5" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark, you can find it here. You can also find the black and white illustrated poem without the vintage paper texture here.


From my personal collection of ephemera. These images are to be incorporated into your creative endeavors and not for resale or re-distribution "as-is". Please credit FieldandGarden.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Vintage Art Appreciation: Portrait of O. F. Tomara by Valentin Serov

I have learned that to be with those I like is enough.
― Walt Whitman

When what you want is a relationship, and not a person, get a dog.
― Deb Caletti, The Secret Life of Prince Charming

The above public domain artwork is titled "Portrait of O. F. Tomara" and it was painted in 1892 by Valentin Serov (1865–1911). You can find the image of the original painting on Wikimedia here and you can download my digitally enhanced version of the painting as a 6" x 9" @ 300 ppi JPEG here. I thought this might be a pretty addition to a garden journal or scrapbooking project but you can also simply print and frame for tabletop or wall art.


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

Free Vintage Garden Illustration for Collage Art, Graphic Design, Papercrafts or Scrapbooking: Victorian Lady in the Garden 3 & 4 (Set 2)

There are two types of appointments in life!
Appointments you know and appointments you don't know!
It is this second type of appointment that makes life interesting and but also scary.
Sometimes life will arrange a meeting for you; sometimes good, sometimes bad
and sometimes even tragic meeting, but you don't know about it!
― Mehmet Murat ildan
Two antique illustrations from 1892 showing a Victorian lady in a public garden. In the first image on the left, the drawing shows a close-up of her with some tall hollyhocks or gladioli in the background. The second illustration on the right depicts her standing on the terrace, looking towards another couple who are strolling arm-in-arm in the garden.

You can download the two illustrations as a single high-res 10" x 8" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark for collage art, graphic design, papercrafts or scrapbookingprojects here.


From my personal collection of ephemera. These images are to be incorporated into your creative endeavors and not for resale or re-distribution "as-is". Please credit FieldandGarden.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Free Vintage Outdoor Illustrations for Collage, Graphic Design, Papercrafts or Scrapbooking: Victorian Ladies in the Field, 1893

No walk is lovelier than the walk you make inside a field!
― Mehmet Murat ildan

A field which feeds you, a river which gives you water
are much holier than all other so-called holy places!
― Mehmet Murat ildan
A pair of vintage line drawings from 1893 showing two Victorian ladies in the field. The illustration on the left shows a lady resting her elbows on a fence rail, a pair of field glasses in her right hand, perhaps to observe birds with? The illustration on the right shows a lady leaning back against a fence, a basket of wildflowers in her left hand.

You can download theese antique drawings as a free 8" x 8" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark for collage, graphic design, papercrafts or scrapbooking projects here.


From my personal collection of ephemera. These images are to be incorporated into your creative endeavors and not for resale or re-distribution "as-is". Please credit FieldandGarden.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Free Vintage Outdoor Illustration for Collage, Graphic Design, Papercrafts or Scrapbooking: Ice Skating Party in the Park, 1896

A few feathery flakes are scattered widely through the air,
and hover downward with uncertain flight, now almost alighting on the earth,
now whirled again aloft into remote regions of the atmosphere.
― Nathaniel Hawthorne
A vintage outdoor illustration from 1896 showing a young Victorian lady in a warm winter outfit, her hands in a muff, skating dreamily on an iced-over pond in a park. She seems undisturbed by the merrymaking crowd all around her, as she waltzes lightly across the ice on her skates.

You can download theis antique drawing as a free 6" x 8" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark for collage, graphic design, papercrafts or scrapbooking projects here.


From my personal collection of ephemera. These images are to be incorporated into your creative endeavors and not for resale or re-distribution "as-is". Please credit FieldandGarden.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Free Vintage Nature Poem: January by Mary Rowles Jarvis (Part 2)

Here is a winter poem, originally published in 1896, that depicts the month of January as a fierce warrior king whose strength is tempered with a kind heart.

"JANUARY"
by Mary Rowles Jarvis
(Part 2)

His rod of iron, outstretched upon the land,
Arrests the stir and music of the rills;
Again the rushing rains of his right hand
Lay bare the lasting hills.

Yet fear we not this warrior, fierce and bold,
The year has turned, the light shall lengthen soon;
The onslaught of his keen, relentless cold
Shall make straight paths for June.

His ways are stern, his meanings are benign;
Behold, unharmed, the snowdrop on his crest,
While the gold splendour of the celandine
Shines starlike on his breast!

You can find PART 1 here.

The painting above is called "Winter Landscape" by Ivan Fedorovich Choultsé (1874 – 1939). You can find the image of the original painting on Wikimedia here and my digitally enhanced version of the painting here.

If you would like to download the poem as it originally appeared in The Girl's Own Paper (as seen above) with its accompanying black and white illustration, you can find the high-res 9" x 8" @ 300 ppi JPEG here.


From my personal collection of ephemera. These images are to be incorporated into your creative endeavors and not for resale or re-distribution "as-is". Please credit FieldandGarden.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Free Vintage Nature Poem: January by Mary Rowles Jarvis (Part 1)

Here is a winter poem, originally published in 1896, that depicts the month of January as a stern warrior king, bringing snow and ice in his wake as he rides through the fields.

"JANUARY"
by Mary Rowles Jarvis
(Part 1)

Victorious on the utmost crags of time,
From the dread conflict of the midnight sea,
The first-born month draws near with song and chime,
A monarch great and free!

In the red storm-light of the wintry dawn
We see him stand, austere and tempest-crowned,
With sword and spear on many an ice-field drawn
To work his will profound.

His chariot is the north wind that hath crossed,
By leagues of drift and berg, the Polar main;
His sandals are the ploughshares of the frost
That rend the clods in twain.

Continue to PART 2 here.

The painting above is called "Winter Morning in Engadine" by Ivan Fedorovich Choultsé (1874 – 1939). You can find the image of the original painting on Wikimedia here and my digitally enhanced version of the painting here.


From my personal collection of ephemera. These images are to be incorporated into your creative endeavors and not for resale or re-distribution "as-is". Please credit FieldandGarden.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Free Vintage Flower Illustration for Collage Art, Papercrafts, Scrapbooking or Wall Art: The Butterfly and the Rose 1

To love at all is to be vulnerable.
Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken.
If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal.
Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements.
Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness.
But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change.
It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.
To love is to be vulnerable.
― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

An antique botanical illustration showing a butterfly on a stalk of pink cabbage roses (Provence rose, Rosa x centiflora). The engraving was done by Langlois after a drawing by Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1759 - 1840).

The form of Rosa centiflora portrayed by Redouté in this print is a triumph of the hybridiser's art; of its kind, it is surely near perfection. It is not surprising that Centiflora roses came to be identified with the so-called Queen of Roses cultivated by the Greeks and Romans. This notion is romantic, but informed opinion now belives it to be mistaken. Rosa centiflora is thought to be a complex hybrid of four species known in western Europe in the late sixteenth century, which was evolved pver a period of about a hundred and thirty years and perfected in the early eighteenth century. The four species involved were Rosa rubra (the Apothecary's Rose or Rose of Provins), Rosa phoenicea (the Damask Rose or Crusaders' Rose), Rosa moschata (the Musk Rose) and Rosa canina (the Dog Rose).
[Source: Eve and Norman Robson, Plants (London: Studio Editions, 1990), p.84]

Download and print for wall art or to use in various altered art, graphic design, papercrafts or scrapbooking projects. You can find the free high-res 8" x 11" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark here.

Below, you can see how I have paired the above botanical illustration with a vintage piece of French sheet music called "Le Papillon et La Rose." You can find the high-res JPEG of the sheet music here.

If you would like to download the combined illustration and sheet music image, you can find the high-res JPEG here.

From my personal collection of ephemera. These images are to be incorporated into your creative endeavors and not for resale or re-distribution "as-is". Please credit FieldandGarden.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Free Victorian Sheet Music for Collage Art, Graphic Design, Papercrafts or Scrapbooking: Le Papillon et La Rose, 1893

A 19th century French musical composition called "Le Papillon et La Rose" that was originally published in an 1893 issue of La Famille. Download and print for wall art or to use in various altered art, graphic design, papercrafts or scrapbooking projects. You can find the free high-res 8" x 11" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark here.

Below, you can see how I have paired the above sheet music with an antique Redouté illustration that shows a butterfly resting on the leaf of a stalk of roses. You can find the high-res JPEG of that nature illustration here.

If you would like to download the combined illustration and sheet music image, you can find the high-res JPEG here.

From my personal collection of ephemera. These images are to be incorporated into your creative endeavors and not for resale or re-distribution "as-is". Please credit FieldandGarden.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Free Vintage Flower Illustration for Collage Art, Papercrafts, Scrapbooking or Wall Art: Fortune's Double Yellow Roses

The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering,
known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths.
These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life
that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern.
Beautiful people do not just happen.
― Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Youth is happy because it has the capacity to see beauty.
Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.
― Franz Kafka

An antique botanical illustration (from c1860) of Fortune's Double Yellow roses. Download and print for wall art or to use in various altered art, graphic design, papercrafts or scrapbooking projects. You can find the free high-res 8.5" x 11" @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark here.


From my personal collection of ephemera. These images are to be incorporated into your creative endeavors and not for resale or re-distribution "as-is". Please credit FieldandGarden.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Vintage Art Appreciation: Elena Among Roses by Joaquin Sorolla

Elena Among Roses, 1907
by Joaquín Sorolla (1863–1923)

Let me tell you this: if you meet a loner, no matter what they tell you,
it's not because they enjoy solitude.
It's because they have tried to blend into the world before,
and people continue to disappoint them.
― Jodi Picoult, My Sister's Keeper

I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am,
the more I will respect myself.
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

I had already found that it was not good to be alone,
and so made companionship with what there was around me,
sometimes with the universe and sometimes with my own insignificant self;
but my books were always my friends, let fail all else.
― Joshua Slocum, Sailing Alone around the World

Free Vintage Garden Illustration for Collage Art, Graphic Design, Papercrafts or Scrapbooking: Victorian Ladies in the Garden (Set 1)

Be healthy by being outdoors in the natural daylight with nature!
― Steven Magee, Light Forensics
Two antique illustrations from 1886 showing a pair of Victorian ladies walking around the garden. You can download these free high-res 6" x 9" @ 300 ppi JPEGs without a watermark for collage art, graphic design, papercrafts or scrapbookingprojects here and here.


From my personal collection of ephemera. These images are to be incorporated into your creative endeavors and not for resale or re-distribution "as-is". Please credit FieldandGarden.com as your source when sharing or publishing.