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Pony Pals™ know that I like to maintain a certain level of paranoia towards blogging about work, but when I saw this lineup of lovely lasses in painting conservation, I just couldn't resist. What an unlikely trio! And yet, look at how their postures echo and mirror each other. Neat!
From left to right, they are Copley's Anne Fairchild Bowler, 1763, Modigliani's Madame Amédée, 1918, and the saucy Young Woman in White by a follower of David (look how yellow she used to be!), c.1798. Totally ruining the effect in the background is that attention whore, Renoir's horrible Girl with a Goddamn Watering Can (ugh), and in the foreground is some generic Madonna.
Bonus! Also visible is the back of this weird little painting.
19 comments:
It's wonderful to see them grouped together in such and informal setting. The photo has me totally geeking out. Thank you for posting it!
And thank you for insulting an Impressionist. I spent the 90s working in a museum with one Impressionist exhibit after another. *traumatized*
I don't totally hate the impressionists; I do think Monet was an excellent painter.
What really bores me about their stuff is the complete shallowness of their subject matter: pretty girl, pretty garden, pretty mountain, pretty boats on a pretty river.
As Marcel Duchamp said: too retinal.
The Renoir here is a total sellout, a blatant attempt to make the supposedly "radical" style commercial. I can't blame him for that; he needed the money and was such an asshole that he was otherwise, apparently, unemployable. What I can't forgive is the awful composition: the figure is just stuck right in the middle of the canvas. Furthermore, the figure is simply not drawn well, and fudged like crazy: how, exactly, is she holding that watering can? It's just bad drawing.
A coworker who also hates the painting charitably offered, "It's an important painting in our collection for children." OK.
Oh! And I've always maintained, and this may surprise you, that Cassatt was the most radical and misunderstood impressionist. In her case, she used bland subject matter as fodder for utterly wild paintwork, and her skills as a draftsman and, especially, as a composer are unparalleled.
LOVE Modigliani.
That is a stunning photo! Thank you.
The most amazing thing about Modigliani, to me, is that his portraits all look like Modiglianis, you know, like his style, but if you compare them to photographs of his subjects, the fidelity is absolutely astonishing. I think he was the greatest portrait painter of the 20th Century.
His early death is one of the worst tragedies in art history.
The Young Woman in White looks a little drugged out.
In total agreement that Modigiliani died way too young.
BTW, Today is Mary Cassatt's Birthday!
Renoir is so overrated. And is particularly HORRIBLE at painting women. It's as if he never had actually seen one. Monet has his moments. Renoir had one.
That photo is everything that is wonderful about working in museums, and about talking about and appreciating art, and that it also gets in a little dig at Renoir only makes it that much more a treasure.
Fascinating to see them this way.
Out of the galleries and out of their frames and in this weird grouping in a mundane ol' workshop. They look so human and crafted by humans (rather than gods)
Which only makes them all the more marvelous.
i wish i knew you.
Ah the Renoir!! How many times have I seen that hanging in homes of the shallow, vapid, and pretentious wannabees...can't you tell a lot about a person by the art they choose!!!
Although you have to admit it is satisfying to see that Renoir as a coaster set :-)
A coaster set? Unauthorized! Not on my watch, Mister.
i love that "weird little painting"!
Wonderful!
Can I come too when Lulu gets to know you?
So much to be thankful for in this post!
--an amazing montage of different painting styles
--your comments about the great Cassatt
--slam of Renoir, aka "BORING"
I want to work where you work!
Loving this!
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