Figure 1 – Big Pink Heart postcard Valentine’s from ~ 1910. From the Wikimedia Commmons and in the public domain because it was first published before 1923.

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone.  I thought that we should celebrate with this early twentieth century photographic postcard image from circa 1910 – a Big Pink Heart Valentine’s.  There is not enough information available; so we have to guess that the original was perhaps an autochrome.  They definitely had a great love for redheads in those days.  The image has some very classic pictorialist features, the toga, the hair style, the headband, and the sense of fecundity that the figure portrays.  In this last regard I am reminded of the bride in “The Arnolfini Wedding 1434,” a painting where every little detail signifies something.

The nice thing about the image and about Valentines Day, in general, is the theme of love.  The world could use a whole lot of love about now, and the fact that our grand and great grand parents would have sighed and said the same thing a century ago as we say now about the need for love is really kind of pathetic.

So my recommendation is that we all hold our loved ones tight this Valentines Day! Spread the love, people.<3