The Clark to see Whistler's Mother and the Van Gogh one more time with lectures and brunch

It was a perfectly planned outing. 
As members of the Clark, we were there at 9 and let in to see the Whistler's mother.  I did not really understand there was only one.  Mona Lisa exists in so many varieties.  What would the actual Whistler's Mother be doing at this isolated museum in Williamstown Massachusettes.
But there it was.   This piece that had made so much history.  On load from
http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/history-of-the-museum/home.html

http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/works-in-focus/search/commentaire/commentaire_id/portrait-of-the-artists-mother-2976.html

The "talk" was really fine.  We learned a good deal.  With the centerpiece were other prints that whistler did to make the money he needed after he sued John Ruskin for libel.
http://www.loyno.edu/~history/journal/Landry.htm

He won a farthing.

And then he had all the lawyers to pay.

I did not expect the subject of some of his prints to be fisherman and wharves.  This one is actually on the wall in the Whistler's Mother painting.

http://etchings.arts.gla.ac.uk/catalogue/subject/display/?catno=K042&rs=1&key=s_stairs

Because I have no sophisticated art skills, I tend to like bits of boats and water and fish.  Then too I like those that have stories around them.  Even Mad Magazine (you know, the one that J. Edgar Hoover sued) was involved. 

http://www.madmagazine.com/blog/2015/06/05/don-martins-whistlers-mother
https://www.google.com/search?q=whistler's+mother+mad+magazine+cover&tbm=isch&imgil=2fB3iaq6jLiJeM%253A%253BKhRp6M5qL-yjeM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.legendaryauctions.com%25252Flot-48125.aspx&source=iu&pf=m&fir=2fB3iaq6jLiJeM%253A%252CKhRp6M5qL-yjeM%252C_&biw=1280&bih=540&usg=__4QXjYcPzP5RA3llGOwXLccns3AA%3D&ved=0CCoQyjdqFQoTCI3t4o275cYCFQrQgAodm5sH8A&ei=Uq-qVY38LoqggwSbt56ADw#imgrc=2fB3iaq6jLiJeM%3A&usg=__4QXjYcPzP5RA3llGOwXLccns3AA%3D

Poor Whistler lost so much to lawyers that he had to hock the painting and for ten years it was with creditors. Then the French bought it and it became the first American Painting to be displayed in the Louvre.

She was a pious and conservative mother.
He was an extravagant and "dandy" sort of fellow.

It must have been hard living together in his studio.

That is how she ended up posing.  His model did not show up.  He wanted her to stand, but after a couple days she got tired. So she sat.  She was sour because these were long sessions and because photography had taught folks not to smile.  It was too hard to hold a smile for those old cameras.

The frame was also probably original and that in itself was exciting.  It was like the frames that Whistler loved, thick and gold.  I liked it.

Some of his prints were in "nocturne" style where things are a bit dark.    Then there were some very colorful Japanese prints.  I was to see these in the Van Gogh exhibit as well.

When Depression hit, Whistler had a better American audience and there was an American Tour of "Whistler's mother" that was very popular.  Before that he had a better French than American or British audience. 
In 1934 there was a postage stamp

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We then went to brunch, a buffet of great fruit, thin and crispy bacon, grand sausage, good coffee and some pastry.  I went off the diet for a bluebetty muffin and I did not pay for it.

After the food the lunch included a fine lecture on Van Gogh with slides and lots of information.  He was a letter writer and has 800 letters that survived.  They are on line. Some are collected here

http://vangoghletters.org/vg/

Much of the focus of this exhibit was Van Gogh's love of nature.  I don't respond well to Impressionist painting, but I did like this theme in connection with other writers of the time and before. 

I did like some of the painting. 
"Rain" is so sad.  It was his last.  He had been in and out of mental facilities.  He put a bullet in his brain.

In many ways his life is very sad.  He sold one painting.  Now, here he is being celebrated by people all over the world. He never knew that might happen.

Just as the crowds of people were arriving, we were leaving.  How nice!
I love being a member.  What it cost we have retrieved many times over.  We hardly ever visit without Elizabeth buying something at the gift shop and as members we get 10%.

Also, Elizabeth went once with Ann Marie and they assumed she was part of the family dual.

Finally, we are able to visit for a few hours and then go home without thinking that we had wasted out entry fee.  An art museum to me is like a buffet.  There are many more things to enjoy than is possible to enjoy in one visit. 

Elizabeth spent most of her time in the Van Gogh, but I went in search of my regular favorites.  They are well documented in other visits/posts.

I was introduced to these as new to me.

Albert
Bierstadt's Pugent Sound on Pacific Coast.
This was actually on load as a football wager. 
http://artery.wbur.org/2015/01/29/museum-super-bowl-bet

The Poacher by DeCamps

Death and the Maidens  Chavannes

I really get this painting. I want to choose just the maidens.  However, there is the old fellow just waiting for me.

Gainsborough's Elizabeth and Thomas Linley

I was really caught by this portrait.  The photo does not do justice to the what the faces were developed. It was stunning.  I'll be adding this one to the favorites I visit each trip.

I liked this one. Another card playing painting.  From 1631 by Dirck Hals

And finally, I spent a bit of time with the little Goya they have and wished I was in the Prado or eating wild pork at El Pardo.  To decorate El Pardo for the king, Goya painted this in 1786 and others that were so celebratory and light.  I love them.  So did Christine from France who toured the museum with me many years ago.

All in all it was a great visit and I can't wait to go again.

SOMEDAYS JUST DON'T WORK AS PLANNED

I woke up refreshed.  The humira did not seem to bother me or tire me out.  The stomach elusive infection or whatever seemed gone. 
It seemed like a good day to go to the Clark museum.

Elizabeth wanted me gone. She is reading a book and I interrupt with questions and exclamations of frustration.

Well, this is the last Monday that the Clark is closed.
I found that out at the door.
So much for the new smart phone.

So no chance of seeing this painting that has just been verified as Rembrandt



So I walked about Williamstown and poked in some shops.  I did the art galleries.  This was one.  It too was closed.

 

It had some pieces in the window I could see.




I could see that this did reflect the sort of county scenes I passed in the car.

 This above was a cool sort of use for rocks when they are too big to make card protectors out of them.  Of course, the prices on this "art" at a gift store were outrageous. 

 

 I used my phone to find a great buffet at Spice Root

http://www.spiceroot.com/

But when I got to the Thai place there was no buffet and I was confused.
I had miso soup and some duck with cashews.  it was good.  I tasted the jasmine rice and that was fine later on the blood.

It was only on exiting that I discovered that Spice Root was next door. 
And THEY WERE CLOSED!!

I poked and drove a bit.  I went toward Bennington but was getting too tired to go and find out that the museum there was closed, so I got a good price on gas and used the GPS to take me home a really scenic route.  Wonderful views.  Farms and animals and hills and fields.

Elizabeth was disappointed that I was home so early.

I made up some supper. 
One thing about my own refrigerator.  It is never closed in the same way as these other places.

 

 

 

To the Clark with Casey

We gave Casey his first taste of the Clark today after a fine meal at Bob's Country Kitchen
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g41634-d523438-Reviews-Bob_s_Country_Kitchen-Lanesboro_Massachusetts.html

Great spot, but hard again to go no carb.  I was not counting today, and it made no difference, but a little exercise got the sugar down to 89.

Casey was positive about the Clark and engaged a good bit of it for a 5 year old.  After a while he got tired, but even then he opted to to for a walk there in the woods before we came home.  With out membership, we were all free.  $3 got us a little earphone and a computer that told about some of the paintings, but I think that Casey is a bit too young for that.
He loved having the digital camera Boppy let him use for the day.  He had a grand time at the pool and late in the woods. 

The large pond behind the Clark is lined with stones.  The water is crystal clear and the colors of the stones fascinated Casey.

In the woods Casey took this abstract shot of a decaying log.  Pretty cool

That attraction on the bridge was a spider.

 

Here is Casey's drink at the Clark 

Casey loves tractors and heavy equipment.  We passed this back hoe doing road work  and he took this shot.

 

He especially engaged one silver piece.  He wanted a postcard, but there were none.  Howe ver, there was a picture on line that pretty much is the piece or one very much like it made by Sterling Silver Cream Jug by Peter & Anne Bateman - Antique Georgian

Here are some photos I took of the walk in the woods.

 

 

At Ioka Valley Farm we hoped to see animals and get some pancakes, but they only open on weekends.  No one was home, so we stopped long enough on the way back to photograph the cows.  Casey walked up to the fence and all these young cows galloped over to him, so He got some interesting shots.

 . 
http://www.iokavalleyfarm.com/
We were afraid they might break through the fence and tample him. 
But they did not, and he got some photos.



He caught this shot through the window of the car




At home he fished while I bailed the boat.  It was too cold for him to swim.  I thought it was fine, but the bailing was enough for me.  No bites. 
Then we watched a cartoon movie, The Nut Job
https://www.google.com/search?q=cartoon+movie+animals+in+Central+park&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=M6mEVYC2BoWkyASemJf4Dg&ved=0CB4QsAQ&biw=1067&bih=450#tbm=isch&q=cartoon+movie+animals+rats+raccoon&imgrc=leeshxnKFAc1rM%253A%3BKFJHgcNu31hy5M%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.fatmovieguy.com%252Fwp-content%252Fuploads%252F2014%252F01%252FThe-Nut-Job-Image-3.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.fatmovieguy.com%252Freview%252Fthe-nut-job%252F%3B1920%3B1080

It was a good movie.  Plenty of action.  And the violence was of the old cartoon sort where no one was actually hurt.

Elizabeth cooked chicken and rice and summer squash with green beans.  I was very hungry and I guess I overate. 

 

NEXT :OLD POSTS MOVED FROM POKER BLUEGILL

I MOVED ALL THE OLD MASS POSTS FROM POKER BLUEGILL SO AS TO HAVE THEM HERE.  SO THEY ARE OUT OF ORDER. 

Old Post Harvey and Alice Lennox

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Lennox Mass.

last Sunday we met old friends Harvey and Alice for a fine meal in this old town of quaint shops and quiet winter streets. Busy with tourists in the summer, Lennox was settled down and comfortable, a perfect setting for a fine visit.

Old Post Rhode Island

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Journey to Providence

Frank flew into Providence for a conference on Rebellious Law and we met him at his old friend Matt's apartment. Matt teaches American Literature at the University of Rhode Island. Matt was teaching; I was sorry not to see him. He is one of my favorite people. In college I loved American literature, Melville, and the history of American thought; I especially was interested in the period called the American Renaissance (1820-1865) and the Transcendentalists. American literature and thought is Matt's specialty and I always like to hear him talk about it, and to follow as best I can his current research and perspectives. He works hard in the world of ideas, knows a great deal, and processes that knowledge in sophisticated and intricate ways. His bookshelves are full of texts I should have read and studied. There are many of the pieces of intellectualism out of my past, my intellectual road not traveled.

Frank did share one of Matt's current interests, integrating crictical approaches of F.O. Matthiessen with an ethic of aesthetics Frank told us Matt calls "vitality," as well as Matt's interest in relating those ideas to others of the philospher Foucault and arguing ways in which such thought might transcend some of the currently politically correct critical approach to literature paradigms. I'm not claiming to have fully understood that conversation, but it did get me struggling to think in ways I rarely explore these days; I have always wondered if I would have been bright enough to explore and study at these intellectual levels had inner city teaching not been my first choice.

So Matt's apartment was for me a bit magical: a large map of American in 1864 graces his wall, a fine little gargoyle called "baby goyle" hangs over one shelf in much the way a gargoyle from Notredame in Paris hangs over one of mine. And scattered in with the American Renaissance books were volumes of Pablo Neruda's poetry. It is always a bit eerie when someone else's intellectual interests touches our own.

We went to breakfast at a fine little diner where they served Portuguese chorizo in spicy patties. The woman actually served tea that she had steeped with boiling water in an oversized china cup.
In very few places in America can you get tea that is drinkable. Usually you get some water that starts out luke warm and is further cooled by being dumped in a cold little cup.
An unwrapped tea bag is on the side.
You are careful to rip the bag from the paper so as not to set the tea loose, but you know that the water is cooling all the while you are ripping. Finally, you can force the dry bag down into luke warm water; you watch the tea bleed out is slow streaks like diluted dried blood. And when you sip, it tastes like something from the dishpan.
The waitress comes nine times to fill the coffee drinkers' cups and but never once will she say a word to you, or perhaps on the eighth trip, if you look longingly at her, she will ask if want "more hot water" making you feel a little like Alice in Wonderland because you know you have yet to have any hot water whatsoever. This was very different. It was just Lipton tea, but it was very good. I had two cups, and I never once envied the coffee drinkers. Perhaps I'll drive to Providence for all my diner breakfasts.
















We tried to go outside and see a bit of the water and the town, but it was very cold and we would up visiting inside, hearing about Frank's new job at a law firm that focuses on employee benefits and other parts of his life and dreams. Frank shared many of the details of his personal and law college life, including his push for individuation and his new part time job with a law firm that deals with employee benefits. It was a great afternoon catching up on all the details. He seems to be doing very well in every way, to be more healthy, more balanced, and moving toward becoming a lawyer. He is ready to get out of classes and into work. It was really great to see him and have so much uninterrupted time to talk and banter.









In the evening we went for Chicken wings, burgers, and a sample of the local beer at a famous Providence BrewPub, Trinity House. Dana drove up from Boston to meet us. Here the conversation drifted to the "Dungeons and Dragons" video game which Dana has helped develop. It was to be released today and is destined to become very popular around the country.








Dana also answered some of our questions about blogging and other computer issues. It was so fine to have these two boys together for a while. It was fun to listen to them talk together, to laugh and banter. And the chicken wings washed down with a nice Trinity brew were not bad either.