Sunday, September 12, 2010

Beauty on a Saturday Morning

We spent yesterday morning at the Joslyn Art Museum. A visiting exhibit of Impressionist artists ends today and we'd been meaning to get down there for ages. I'm so glad we did.

We saw the gorgeous On the Heights by Charles Courtney Curran. This painting makes me feel, quite simply, happy:

 

And John Singer Sargent's Dolce Far Niente. He does amazing things with light:


Breton took our breath away with Fin du Travail:


A companion exhibit of some post-Impressionists included one of my favorites, Van Gogh. When Ramona saw this she said, "Oh, I know! That's Van Gogh. He has a very distinctive style." (I'm a proud mommy.) I'm not sure whence my affinity for Van Gogh's distinctive style came, but a little piece of my heart seizes up every time I see one of his works in person: 



The girls were also happy to see some old favorites at the Joslyn, such as this Renoir:


and this Cassatt:


We had hoped to see this Bouguereau -- The Knitting Girl -- but it was not out yesterday:


The Greek pottery reminded me that I need to do more Keats with the girls:



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty ...."

And now I'm off to attend to another kind of beauty as I get some homemade bread in the oven.  Have a blessed and beautiful feast of the Holy Name of Mary!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

'Our situation today shows that beauty demands for itself at least as much courage and decision as do truth and goodness, and she will not allow herself to be separated and banned from her two sisters without taking them along with herself in an act of mysterious vengeance.'
Hans Urs von Balthasar

Melanie Bettinelli said...

Wonderful. I love all those pieces.

Emily said...

Have you read the novel, "Lydia Cassatt reads the morning paper"? It's a great look at the life of the artist's SISTER, who was in so many of her paintings, and her relationship w/ Mary.

Karen Edmisten said...

Emily, I haven't read that -- thanks!

Melanie, somehow I knew I'd hear from you. :)

And TQ -- great quote -- thanks so much!

Melanie Bettinelli said...

Emily, That sounds fascinating. Thanks for the recommend. We've got a child's biography of Cassatt that my daughters love. I think she's currently their favorite artist.

Karen, I'm so looking forward to trips to the MFA in Boston with my gang. I'm not sure we're quite ready for that yet. But maybe in a couple of years. Oh it will be wonderful.

Bridget said...

Too bad that we didn't get to see the exhibit! And we live right near there, too! Oh, well!
You should have stopped by the Fr. Corapi conference!

love2learnmom said...

Beautiful! We have a poster of that first painting hanging on the wall of our basement stairs. :)

Karen Edmisten said...

You'll have such fun with them, Melanie!

Bridget, did you go to hear Fr. Corapi? We heard him speak -- he gave a mission here at our parish -- about 10 years ago.

Alicia, what a coincidence -- that painting is the one we bought a print of, too!

Tabatha said...

Lovely selections! Wonderful to be able to share them as a family.