Mysteries of the Blowjob Well

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ART OF THE BLOWJOB WELL
JOHNSON HOUSE, HANOVER ⎔ MOON AND COW ⎔ MUSKOX ⎔ MYSTERIES ⎔ OXBOROUGH ⎔ VESUVIUS

I’ll be covering a few unidentified pieces as we go, but I’m also going to talk about all the paintings in the well from bottom to top, to point out the way that paintings sit above and below each other. Fuller analyses of the individual paintings will follow in the next pages, if you want to skip ahead.

The first piece, which Wendy’s past by the time her shot starts here, is the Nicholas de Grandmaison painting to Danny’s right when he stops at the sight of the twins in the twin hall.

The following piece is Nicholas Hornyansky’s Mill on the Cliff. Perhaps we should also note that this painting hangs above the 6th and 7th steps, since those numbers have their own significance to the film, and Hallorann’s role in the film.

This is followed by Gagnon’s Trapper’s Camp.

Next are pieces likely depicting Mont St. Michel (left) (129:25-129:27), and Derwentwater (right) (129:27-129:29). There’s a few St. Michel pieces that look just right, but the one I’ve featured has the most things in just the right spots in the image. I’ve had so many near misses, I guess I have trouble believing anything will be the right one, but this one is from 1881 and is by Emmanuel Lansyer. The Derwentwater one is virtually identical to the film version with only the slightest of differences (bearing in mind that both the film images are only seen streaming by, and out of focus), except for the fact that the whole painting (by Roland Stead) is much wider than the film version. I’ve boxed off the similar bit in red, but you can see the overhang with your own eyes.

My reasons for thinking I’ve got the subject matter correct for this is somewhat complex. I’ll try to be simple. Mont St. Michel is a tidal island (meaning it’s only an island when the tides come in and wash away the land bridge that connects it to mainland France) next to another little island called Tombelaine. In the novel, the Torrances live beneath a bickering, fighting couple named Tom and Elaine before heading to the Overlook. The island is known for its abbey, and was written into the book, The Tides of Mont St. Michel by Roger Vercel, and the ghost of the hotel’s manager, Horace Derwent, is teasing a man named Roger who capers about in a dog mask at the ghost ball. Vercel’s book is about a disintegrating marriage between two people stuck on the island who really aren’t right for each other. And the idea of an island that only becomes an island at flood time goes with the Pillars of Hercules theme. As for Derwentwater, again, the ghostly manager is Horace Derwent, and Derwentwater was frequently painted by an Edward Horace Thompson. So, while Kubrick likely went with a different artist, I’m guessing he made the connection through that realization. Also, it’s as Jack is on his way to witnessing Derwent torment Roger the dog boy, that he hears a ghost say, “Great party, isn’t it?” and here Wendy’s on her way to see her own mask avatar, before hearing a ghost say those same words (with two missing dog paintings behind him).

I also just want to point out how these two pieces being (likely) of France and England’s west coast regions is reminiscent of the two dog paintings in the War hall, being of dogs raised in the west coast regions of France and Germany.

Also, fun fact: Clarence Gagnon, who painted the piece that appears before the possible Mont St. Michel, painted the tidal island himself once.

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Then there’s two Oxborough kid portraits across from the Gagnon, one of which repeats at the 2nd entrance, which Jack is just about to pass through to start his chase against Danny.

Above the Nicholas Hornyansky piece is Colville’s Moon and Cow, which we’ll get to in a second.

Then there’s Carl Schaefer’s The Johnson House, Hanover, which we’ll get to in a second. This is across from the Oxboroughs, and above Trapper’s Camp.

Above the Mont St. Michel piece is a dark portrait of a young woman, in the style of Thomas Eakins, it seems to me (129:47-129:50; 130:03-130:11). Although I also recently discovered a one Luigi Napoleone Grady who did one that’s similar enough, so now I’m wondering if this could be a lost Grady painting, which would go with the theme of character names.

That said, Eakins was embroiled in scandal, and was forced to resign from a teaching position, thanks to his apparently relaxed attitude toward nudity at the time, which, coupled with an apparent scheme by the younger teachers at the college to oust him, would seem to go with the theme of Conquest here. And the idea of a teacher being ousted from their career goes well with Jack’s backstory.

I also just want to say that the Eakins theory was from my early days of image hunting, and I’ve since found a great many portraits where the light and shadow operate along the general boundaries of the film’s painting, so it might be next to impossible to ever nail it down with complete confidence.

And above the Derwentwater piece is a piece depicting Vesuvius erupting beneath a full moon by an unknown artist; this piece also sits across from Moon and Cow.

The outside one of the muskox appears to be a reproduction/reimagining of a piece by Elizabeth Anne McClelland, an artist who produced colouring books about animals and animal illustrations for academic journals, known for their anatomical accuracy. This is possibly incorrect, but no other image I’ve found has come anywhere close to this.

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Above the two Oxborough kids are two pieces, one inside the blowjob room, and one outside. The one inside is half-obscured by a jutting wall, but I’ve wondered at times if it was something like a reclining otter, or part of an ocean-liner crossing the arctic, to what I now think which is a Doris McCarthy painting of Broughton Island.

Why I suspect Broughton is because Lt. Broughton (for whom the island was named) is the one who named Mt. Hood, which is the mountain we see the Overlook being situated upon in the aerial shots.

All these last three were visible from 129:50-130:00.