Homer Not Alone

One Thanksgiving a number of years ago, I visited my brother for a few days while he was living in Rochester, NY. On the day of my departure, with a few hours until my train left, he, our parents, and I went to the Memorial Art Gallery at the University of Rochester.

I was living in New York City at the time, so I was a spoiled museum-goer. I also was a bit of a snob. I viewed my visit to MAG mostly as a way to kill time. I assumed I would see a handful of decent works. I saw much more. Not just decent art, but some exemplary achievements in both painting and sculpture.

The first gallery we visited was taken up by a dimly lit sculptural installation by George Segal. The piece apparently was on loan to the museum; I can't find it on the MAG website. I don't remember many details, just a characteristic white figure seated on a bed. The work was affecting, and I took a lot of time circling it and taking it in.

From there we moved on to the permanent collection. What's most striking to me is the breadth of paintings the museum owns. Its holdings in 17th-century Dutch and Flemish works are particularly strong, with respectable portraits by van Dyck, Hals, Rembrandt (all gifts of George Eastman), and Jordaens. The MAG also has a fine still-life by de Heem and genre scenes by Steen, and Teniers the Younger. 17th-century Spain is represented by a vibrant and dramatic late work by El Greco.

The MAG's roster of all-stars from the history of western painting continues with Tintoretto, Gainsborough, Cezanne, Corot, Courbet, Degas, Vuillard, Bonnard, Matisse, Monet, Milton Avery, Stuart Davis, Jacob Lawrence, Georgia O'Keefe, and Winslow Homer, whose The Artist's Studio in an Afternoon Fog is seen above and is the focus of this edition of "Permanent Collections."

This elegant painting is composed of four horizontal bands of varying monochromatic values. The dark, almost black strip of beach contrasts starkly with the the white foam of water that slices between the beach and the silhouetted buildings above. The beach also contrasts with and heightens the intense glow of the sun cutting through the gray afternoon fog.

The painting's simple structure reminds me of abstract paintings that would be created by other American artists decades later. In fact, my first thought when seeing The Artist's Studio in an Afternoon Fog on the MAG website was that Arthur Dove must have been influenced by the way Homer straddles abstraction and representation in his work.

Thanks to the breadth of the Memorial Art Gallery's collection, visitors can see first hand the apparent influence of Homer on Dove by looking at the latter artist's Cars in a Sleet Storm, which also hangs on the museum's walls.

Cézanne at the Hammer Museum

Paul Cézanne's Boy Resting, in the collection of The Hammer Museum at UCLA, is the focus of this edition of "Permanent Collections," my series about paintings in American museums.

The Hammer houses the personal collection of the oil magnate Armand Hammer, which includes paintings by many of the heavy hitters of Western art. The museum also puts on contemporary exhibits throughout the year.

I first went to the Hammer about a twenty years ago, and during many subsequent trips to L.A., I often considered returning. After seeing Paul Cézanne's Boy Resting on the museum's website, I finally returned.

Boy Resting is a bit unusual for Cezanne. He, of course, made many paintings of bathers outdoors and many portraits. However, as far as I know, a single, clothed figure in a landscape is a rarity. I didn't remember having seem this novelty in my previous visit to the Hammer, so I figured it was time to return.

It's a relatively simple work, with slightly tilted horizontal bands interrupted by vertical trees. The cool greens, blues, and violets, applied in thin layers, give the painting a characteristically moist essence, an effect that is underscored by the pond or river right behind the boy.

The relatively warm flesh tones, along with the yellow-ochre and rust-red hues in the background, provide contrast that echoes the opposing vertical and horizontal elements. Within this dichotomy the boy (presumably, according to the museum's wall text, Cézanne's son) provides a lazy, third feature: the diagonal. He quietly animates the painting with his left foot pointed forward.

Resting Boy is thus a portrait of comfortable country life. Is it a monumental work? No. But it is an intriguing one that I am happy to have discovered.

Matisse in Minneapolis

As I've mentioned before, this blog is an outgrowth of my hobby of wandering around the Web looking at the collections of art museums. One of my favorite areas to visit at a museum's site is the recent acquisitions page. Tonight I discovered Henri Matisse's Les Pensées de Pascal, a recent gift to the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

I don't have too much to write about this painting other than to say I'm envious of art lovers in Minneapolis. This is not a monumental painting in Matisse's career, but I would be happy if it turned up on the walls of a museum here in the Boston area.

The painting has many familiar elements from Matisse's works of the 1920s: the vase of flowers, the curtains, the view through the window, the tropical landscape. And take a look at that diagonal, purple line. It punctuates the scene and gives the painting a sweet vitality.

The painting was donated by Ruth and Bruce Dayton.

Getty Finally Gets the Turner

Update to the post below: Earlier this year, the U.K government granted the Getty Museum an export license from for Turner's Modern Rome - Campo Vaccino. The painting is now on view at the museum.