-------- Original Message --------
Thanks to Don, Alexey, Jansey and Barry for your helpful answers to my
five-petaled lilac question. A few thoughts:
Alexey is right that the Serov painting doesn't exist and is probably a
composite of a couple other paintings by Serov. Don, I read your Worlds
in
Regression LATH essays but see no mention of Bel's poem. Maybe a
different
essay? W.W. Rowe, in his essay about dogs in VN's work, relates the
poem to
VN's comments in his OE commentary re: "the hour between dog and wolf."
But
he doesn't really say how that applies to the narrative in LATH.
Jansy wondered about the origin of the Lupine Lodge. In LATH it appears
as
"the Lupine Lodge, Estes Park." In the 1972 Vogue interview included in
SO,
VN gives a list of places where he captured butterflies, including
"Columbine Lodge, Estes Park." Estes Park, btw, is in Colorado, USA. So
that
seems to be the inspiration. But this also confirms that "Lupine" here
was a
choice by VN, unless of course there was also a Lupine Lodge in Estes
Park.
Matt