From Paris to Provence: A visit to the Barnes

[lblanchard]

There is a very lovely, very shallow pool at the entrance to the Barnes Foundation

This exhibition of works from the Barnes Foundation permanent collection, presented in a new context while their galleries are being refurbished, closes August 31. A number of people in other social media spaces and in real life have expressed an interest in this exhibition, so I am making this entry public.



According to the terms of Dr Barnes's will, the artwork must remain exactly as he placed it in his suburban Philadelphia galleries. Under the terms of the Orphans' Court agreement that allowed the collection to move, it must be displayed in precisely the arrangement at the time of his death and in a precise replica of his galleries. (The galleries were photographed and measured to the millimeter on the day of his death to assure the preservation of Dr. Barnes's vision, and the replica galleries are faithful to this vision -- to the millimeter.) The new building also has a separate purpose-built gallery that has revolving displays of materials borrowed from other collections and/or from the portions of the collection not in the galleries.

Dr. Barnes moved his gallery collections around regularly during his lifetime to accommodate new acquisitions or new aspects of his theories on how to see art. So the current arrangement is, in effect, a frozen moment from a dynamic process. Who knows what he might have done with it had his life not been cut short by that fatal automobile accident... He would certainly have kept his requirement that there be no contextual signage to distract a viewer from seeing the object and paying attention to color, line, light, and space. He placed his paintings in conversation with folk art objects -- furniture, ceramics, iron work -- in ensembles that I personally found jarring on my first viewing, although familiarity has bred some comfort. See the collection section of the Barnes Foundation website for examples. Click on any image and then select "ensemble" from the menu: https://collection.barnesfoundation.org/

The Orphans' Court agreement does allow for the removal of art for conservation, or when the galleries must be closed for refurbishment -- as in this case, when the floors in the first-floor galleries are being refinished. Here, then, is an opportunity to view upwards of 50 works with contextual labels. Out of consideration for folks' feeds, I have placed the art behind a cut tag. Most images can be enlarged to their original size by clicking on them, but there may be significant deterioration in quality. They are, after all, iPhone photos.

The move of the Barnes collection from Merion to Center City Philadelphia was contentious and litigious. Wikipedia has a relatively neutral entry on the Foundation and the controversy here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnes_Foundation



And now for the images. All image captions are transcriptions of the wall labels in the exhibition, not original work. I have made two remarks on my own, which are set off in brackets. Reminder: you can click to enlarge.




From Paris to Provence: French Painting at the Barnes. Introductory panel. Enlarge to read the text.


Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841-1919)
Woman with Fan, 1886. Oil on canvas (later mounted to cradled panel)


Places they worked.


Paris and the North


Pierre-August Renoir (French, 1841-1919)
Portrait of Mademoiselle Marie Murer, 1877, oil on canvas.
Marie Murer was the half sister of Eugène Murer, an early patron of the impressionists. The siblings ran a restaurant and pastry shop in Paris in the 1870s, where they hosted regular dinners for artist friends. Renoir's dense, multihued brushwork, punctuated by touches of vivid color, animates this painting, giving Marie a lively demeanor despite her pensive pose.


Pierre-August Renoir (French, 1841-1919)
Portrait of Jeanne Durand-Ruel, 1876, oil on canvas
Renoir posed six-year-old Jeanne, the youngest daughter of the art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, against a charming floral wallpaper. Like the painting of Delphine Legrand nearby, this full-length picture recalls 17th-century court portraits of children that Renoir would have seen at the Louvre Museum. Yet the colors here are experimental and modern -- note the sweeps of bluish purple in the girl's hair.


Pierre August-Renoir (French, 1841-1919)
Girl with a Jump Rope (Portrait of Delphine Legrand), 1876, oil on canvas
Standing assertively on her jump rope is Delphine Legrand, daughter of the art dealer Alphonse Legrand, who helped mount the second impressionist exhibition in 1876 while working for Paul Durand-Ruel. Renoir's depiction of Delphine's bright blue dress shows the radical brushwork introduced by the impressionists: brushstrokes are rapidly applied, moving in different directions, each one visible and unblended.


Édoard Manet (French, 1832-1883)
Laundry, 1875, oil on canvas
A woman washes laundry in the garden of a Parisian home. She gazes tenderly at the child holding on to the pail of suds, who seems transfixed by the water being wrung from the cloth. This scene of domestic contentment provided an opportunity for Manet to paint light and air outdoors, a subject that aligned the artist with his impressionist friends. Flashes of white paint -- offset by grays and blues -- suggest sunlight on the drying fabric.


Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841-1919)
Before the Bath, c. 1875, oil on canvas
An ordinary Parisian woman, half undressed, prepares for a bath. The hair under her arms and the rumpled bedding in the background shocked viewers when Renoir first exhibited this painting at an 1875 auction in Paris. Rather than depicting idealized figures from mythology, Renoir and his fellow impressionists aimed to represent contemporary life.


Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906)
Madame Cézanne, 1888-1890, oil on canvas


Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906)
Plate with Fruit and Pot of Preserves, 1880-1881, oil on canvas


Edgar Degas (French, 1834-1917)
Jockeys and Race Horses, c. 1890-95, oil on panel
As a member of the upper class, Degas attended races in both Paris and Normandy. From the 1860s onward, racehorses and jockeys appeared frequently in his work. This late example shows how the motif became abstracted after decades of exploration. Three jockeys, their faces smudged or omitted, exercise their horses in an indistinct landscape. Despite their colorful attire, the soft brushwork and blurred forms convey a melancholy tone.


Pierre-August Renoir (French, 1841-1919)
Luncheon, 1875, oil on canvas
The boater hat hanging from the chair suggests this couple is taking a break from a rowing trip. By the late 19th century, boating had become a popular leisure activity for Parisians looking to escape the city, and many lunch spots had cropped up along the banks of the Seine river, which winds through Paris's suburbs. In the summer of 1875, Renoir spent time in the western suburb of Chatou painting such convivial scenes.


Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926)
The Studio Boat, 1876, oil on canvas
The figure in the boat is likely Monet, who outfitted his floating studio with all the supplies he needed to paint from the middle of the Seine river. Inspired by the boating culture in Argenteuil, where he lived, he had this vessel built to his specifications. Monet often anchored his boat to paint; at other times, he worked while drifting down the river, creating landscapes that are more a collection of momentary glimpses rather than a depiction of one specific spot.


Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926)
Madame Monet Embroidering, 1875, oil on canvas
Monet's first wife, Camille Doncieux, sits by the curtained window of their rented house in Argenteuil, quietly absorbed in her needlework. The Monets had moved to this suburb northwest of Paris in 1871, probably at the recommendation of Édouard Manet, who had a home nearby. Even indoors, light remained a primary concern for Monet; touches of white flicker acros the front of Camille's dress, creating a tapestry-like texture that may allude to her handiwork.


Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-1890)
The Factory, 1887, oil on canvas
Van Gogh depicts a glass factory in Clichy, an industrial suburb on the northern edge of Paris. Instead of focusing on leisure activities as the impressionists did, Van Gogh chose to paint a factory as the site of modern life. The objects stacked along the pathway are glass balls, which may have served as lantern globes for gas streetlights in Paris.


Detail of The Factory, showing brushwork


Édouard Manet (French, 1832-1883)
Tarring the Boat, 1873, oil on canvas
On a summer visit to Berck-sur-Mer, a fishing village on the northwest coast of France, Manet painted the daily activities of its fishermen. Here, two men apply tar to a boat to make the hull watertight. Manet's blunt, black paint evokes the thick, sticky pitch they used. Despite his signature use of black, Manet was encouraged by the seaside environment to brighten his palette and produce sketch-like works similar to those of his impressionist friends.


Georges Seurat (French, 1859-1891)
Entrance of the Port of Honfleur, 1886, oil on canvas
Unlike his impressionist predecessors, when Seurat traveled to the northwest coast, he visited a commercial port. Using the pointillist technique, he instills the busy harbor of Honfleur with an unexpected stillness. Although the steam trailing from a ship suggests a moment captured, the precision of the dotted brushwork conveys a sense of permanence. The composition is further anchored by the mooring post in the foreground, whose stark shadow indicates the work was painted in the early afternoon.


Detail, Entrance of the Port of Honfleur, showing brushwork


Georges Seurat (French, 1859-1891)
Top: Four Boats at Grandcamp, c. 1885
Bottom: Two Salboats at Grandcamp, c. 1885
Oil on panel


Paul Gauguin (French, 1848-1903)
Mr. Loulou (Louis Le Ray), 1890, oil on canvas
Beginning in 1886, Gauguin frequently painted in the Breton town of Le Pouldu, a place he perceived as untouched by modernization. Here, he paints Louis Le Ray, the son of a local couple; thick contour lines transform the figure into a flattened arrangement of colored shapes. Gauguin was inspired by preindustrial arts like medieval and Byzantine enamelwork. [The boy clearly would prefer to be elsewhere.]


Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919)
Sailor Boy (Portrait of Robert Nunès), 1883, oil on canvas
Robert Nunès's father was the cousin of impressionist artist Camille Pissarro. The family lived in Yport, a resort town on the northwest coast that Renoir visited in August 1883. Dressed in a sailor-boy outfit, Robert stands on a seaweed-strewn beach holding a metal-tipped stick used to pry shellfish off rocks. Behind him, the ocean dissolves into the white chalk cliffs in the distance. The contrast between the sharply drawn figure and the loosely brushed landscape suggests that Robert posed at the Nunès home rather than on the rocky beach.




Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-1890)
Still Life, 1888, oil on canvas
Van Gogh painted this canvas during a stretch of rainy days when he couldn't work outside. He had moved to Arles a few months earlier seeking the Mediterranean light that had attracted generations of European artists before him. The bright yellow background setting off the blues and purples of the local wildflowers demonstrates the dynamic color contrasts he developed in the south.


Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-1890)
The Smoker, 1888, oil on canvas
During his stay in Arles, Van Gogh often painted the local farmworkers, whose simple lifestyle he both admired and idealized. He endeavored to capture what he saw as their sunburnt, weather-beaten quality. In this man's jacket, for example, Van Gogh scraped the paint to reveal the texture of the canvas, showing the coarseness of the fabric. He also used surprising colors -- like the bright green in the whites of this man's eyes -- to give his humble sitters a spiritual radiance.


Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-1890)
The Postman, 1889, oil on canvas
Van Gogh probably met Joseph Étienne-Roulin, a postman at the Arles train station, when the artist rented a room above the nearby Café de la Gare. The two shared left-leaning political views and became close friends; in fact, Roulin helped care for Van Gogh during one of his hospital stays. This iconic portrait is signed, unlike other versions Van Gogh painted, suggesting that the artist gifted this specific work to Roulin.


The Postman, detail


Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-1890)
Houses and Figure, 1890, oil on canvas
During the last year of his life, Van Gogh was a patient at a psychiatric hospital in Saint Rémy. With limited access to the outdoors, he had to paint what could be seen out the window -- or, as is the case here, what he could picture in his mind. This painting is a remembrance of his native Netherlands, showing the thatched cottages that dotted the Dutch landscape.


Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841-1919)
Embroiderers, c. 1902, oil on canvas


Pierre-August Renoir (French, 1841-1919
Bather and Maid, 1900-1901, oil on canvas


Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841-1919)
Nude in a Landscape c. 1917, oil on canvas
During the last decade of his life, Renoir lived and worked at Les Collettes, his estate in Cagnes. Surrounded by olive trees and rolling hills, the property represented for Renoir a kind of preindustrial Eden, far removed from the urban crush of Paris. It was here that he produced countless scenes of sensual nudes lounging in sun-dappled landscapes -- fantasies of the female body in total harmony with nature.


Henri Matisse (French, 1869-1954)
Blue Still Life, 1907, oil on canvas
Beginning in 1905, Matisse spent many summers in Collioure on the Mediterranean. The southern sun inspired his vibrant colors, such as those found in this still life. The bright yellows and reds of lemons and pomegranates pop against the cool tones of the tablecloth and background.
Matisse had been studying the work of Cézanne, who had just died in 1906; the tension here between two and three dimensions, as in the way the design of the folding screen continues into the tablecloth, attests to the Provençal painter's influence.






Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906)
Millstone and Cistern under Trees, 1892-94, oil on canvas
From the late 1880s to the early 1900s, Cézanne rented a room in a dilapidated villa known as the Château Noir, which gave him access to the grounds to paint. Here, he focuses on a water cistern framed by trees that rise and join to create an arched vault; a discarded millstone at left echoes the cistern's rounded form. These artifacts of a preindustrial era, now integrated into nature, attest to the long history of human settlement in this region, a point of pride in Provence.


Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906)
Mont Sainte-Victoire, 1892-95, oil on canvas
Mont Sainte-Victoire, which towered over Aix, was one of Cézanne's favorite subjects. He spent his childhood exploring its terrain, and he painted it several dozen times from different vantage points over the course of 40 years.
The mountain also held symbolic meaning to the artist, representing the ancient countryside -- the authentic France -- during a moment of rapid industrialization. The railway viaduct on the right side of the canvas resembles an ancient Roman aqueduct.


Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906)
Gardanne (Horizontal View), c. 1885, oil on canvas
Cézanne lived in Gardanne from the summer of 1885 until the spring of 1886. The horizontal format of this painting allows for a panoramic view of the village that highlights the staggered, geometric structures of the orange-roofed houses, culminating in the historic bell tower. Cézanne viewed these kinds of small Provençal villages as an idyllic contrast to Paris.


Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906)
Bathers at Rest, c. 1876-77, oil on canvas
Despite the reference to Mont Sainte-Victoire in the background, this bathing scene does not seem grounded in reality. The figures, who don't interact, look as if they were cut and pasted from works of historical art. Cézanne's interest in male bathers stemmed from fond boyhood memories of visiting swimming holes around Aix with his good friend Émile Zola. The emotion here comes from the freshness and juxtaposition of the colors.


Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906)
Three small paintings of bathers -- single views below
Although Cézanne's bathing scenes do not depict a particular location, the settings are inspired by Provence. The forests and hills in the countryside around his family estate became the stage for his reinvention of this classical subject. While maintaining the poses of bathers from ancient Greco-Roman sculpture and historic European painting, he stripped them of their symbolism, giving meaning instead to the treatment of form, space, and color.


Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906)
Three Bathers, 1876-77, oil on canvas


Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906)
Five Bathers, 1877-78, oil on canvas


Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906)
Bathers, 1902-04, oil on canvas


Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906)
Rocks and Trees, c. 1904-05, oil on canvas
The vertical composition of this landscape emphasizes the steep rocky hill and tall pine trees. It was painted either on the grounds of the Château Noir, a neo-Gothic mansion near Aix, or within the forest of Fontainebleau, southeast of Paris. When Cézanne painted in locations outside Provence, he often incorporated aspects of his native soil -- like the red-orange earth here -- creating a nostalgic landscape that was particular to his practice.


Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906)
Bibémus Quarry, c. 1895, oil on canvas
Bibémus, a rock quarry to the east of Aix, was first mined in ancient Roman times. It was abandoned by 1885, when its limestone deposits were largely depleted. The quarry's landscape of eroded geometric shapes fascinated Cézanne, who rented a cabin there in the late 1890s. This painting highlights the steep, sheer rock face at right, cut into rectangular blocks of ocher and gray. Cézanne balances the manmade changes to the landscape with the soft greenery of shrubs and pine trees.




Photos of the Jas de Bouffan -- captions are more legible if you enlarge the next photo




Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906)
Portrait of a Woman, c. 1899, oil on canvas
The woman who sat for this painting was likely a domestic worker from the Jas de Bouffan. Cézanne renders his subject with monumentality and dignity, reflecting his respect for the working class. The woman's red-striped dress is set against patches of green and blue on the wall. The roundness and solidity of her form rhyme with the cauldron on the floor behind her, suggesting a parallel between the functional object and her steadfast presence.


Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906)
The Farm at the Jas de Bouffan, c. 1887, oil on canvas
The farmhouse at the Jas de Bouffan was next to the manor, the edge of which is visible at left behind the trees. Though Cézanne depicted the farmhouse in broader views of the grounds, this is the only painting that features the building on its own. This portrait of the humble farmhouse, drenched in sun and outlined against the sky, can be understood as part of Cézanne's interest in celebrating rural Provençal architecture.


Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906)
The Allée of Chestnut Trees at the Jas de Bouffan, 1886-87, oil on canvas
This dramatic allée formed by two rows of chestnut trees leads to the entryway of the manor house. Cézanne had painted this scene numerous times; this work, done shortly after his father's death, is perhaps the most haunting. The viewer is placed on the path under a thick canopy of trees that closes off the sky. Cézanne applied green earth -- a pigment he didn't often use -- to create the dark, somber tones of the foliage.


Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906)
Peasant Standing with Arms Crossed, c. 1895, oil on canvas
Paulin Paulet, a farmhand at the Jas de Bouffan, likely posed for this picture, as he did for Cézanne's famous Card Players. His tall stature is emphasized by the vertical line of the doorframe while the horizontal red band at the wainscoting locks him in place. His casual stance, with arms crossed self-consciously, indicates that he is working as a model for Cézanne rather than as a manual laborer.


Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906)
Terracotta Pots and Flowers, 1891-92, oil on canvas
Cézanne painted this work during the winter of 1891-92, in the greenhouse of his family estate. Geraniums and rhododendrons grow from the pots and rise to the top of the picture plane, as if toward pale winter sunlight. Their vertical network of leaves compresses the already shallow space; a single fallen bloom adds a note of melancholy.


Detail, Terracotta Pots and Flowers


Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906)
Still Life, 1892-94, oil on canvas
Cézanne used the same props repeatedly in his still lifes. The white milk pitcher and leaf-patterned curtain here appear in numerous compositions, like actors playing different roles. The distinctive red band above the wainscoting at left identifies the setting as Cézanne's studio in the manor. [Note the same milk jug in The Flowered Vase, below.]


Detail, Still Life


Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906)
Still Life with Skull, 1890-93, oil on canvas
This still life is notable not only for the skull -- a subject that Cézanne had recently taken up again -- but also for the folding screen in the background. He had painted the six-panel screen as a young artist in 1859. In the close-up view of one panel at right, the triangular hem of a woman's ocher skirt flows into a cluster of plants. Cézanne kept this screen from the Jas de Bouffan his whole life and featured it in several paintings, including A Table Corner nearby.


Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906)
A Table Corner, c. 1895, oil on canvas


Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906)
Young Man and Skull, 1896-98, oil on canvas
Likely the son of a worker at the Jas de Bouffan, the young man leans on his hand, recalling Renaissance representations of melancholy. His vacant gaze overlooks the skull in front of him, however, contradicting the idea that he is contemplating his own mortality. The painting thus points to its own artificiality, featuring a slightly bored model waiting for the sitting to be over. Yet Cézanne's interest in depicting skulls in the 1890s -- when his own health was declining due to diabetes -- inevitably makes this work a reflection on death.


Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906)
The Flowered Vase, 1896-98, oil on canvas


Detail, The Flowered Vase




Photos of the locations of the Paris-area studios of Modigliani, Soutine, de Chirico, and Miró. Captions below.




Amedeo Modigliani (Italian, 1884-1920)
Portrait of the Red-Headed Woman, 1918, oil on canvas
This unidentified woman was likely part of Modigliani's international bohemian circles in Paris. With short, curly red hair and a full face of makeup, she leans her shoulder over the chair and looks at the viewer with an unapologetic gaze. Her revealing dress shows how bold new fashions could represent a form of freedom. Modigliani used a thick round brush to describe the model's flesh, and the textured surface seems to invite touch.


Chaïm Soutine (Russian, active in France, 1893-1943)
Woman in Blue, c. 1919, oil on canvas


Amedeo Modigliani (Italian, 1884-1920)
Girl with a Polka-Dot Blouse, 1919, oil on canvas


Giorgio de Chirico (Italian, 1888-1978)
Sophocles and Euripides, 1925, oil on canvas
After almost ten years in Italy, De Chirico moved back to Paris in 1925 to work on sets for the ballet. Reflecting his theatrical interests, the mannequin-like figures here represent the ancient Greek tragedians Sophocles and Euripides. They stand back-to-back on a wooden stage, dressed in costumes composed of colorful architectural forms and carpenter's squares.


Detail, Sophocles and Euripides


Giorgio de Chirico (Italian, 1888-1978)
The Pirate, 1916, oil on canvas
The Pirate features a number of tools for nautical navigation, including a wooden sundial and, at right, a map -- possibly of Greece, the artist's birthplace -- indicating routes taken or to be taken. De Chirico thought of his canvases as sails that would transport viewers to new lands. This painting celebrates travel and adventure, a spirit that took the artist from Greece to Italy to France and back again.


Chaïm Soutine (Russian, active in France, 1893-1943)
Group of Trees, c. 1922, oil on canvas
Here, Soutine paints a reeling townscape, perhaps Céret, seen through a lattice of undulating trees. His thickly applied paint and vigorous brushwork suggest the influence of Van Gogh's landscapes of the South of France. Like Van Gogh, Soutine flattens the space, blending foreground and background in a whirling image that seems to merge the physical landscape with his emotional experience of it.


Juan Miró (Spanish, 1893-1983)
Group of Personages, July 9, 1938, oil on canvas
Group of Women, July 15, 1938, oil on canvas
Miró assigned specific dates to these two works, reflecting the recordkeeping used in the evolving field of photojournalism during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), a period he spent in exile in Paris. Group of Women, with its flailing figures set against a smoky background, evokes the terror of aerial bombardment. Photographs of the war were widely circulated in international newspapers to publicize the Spanish Republic's resistance to General Francisco Franco's fascist regime.


Group of Personages


Group of Women


Chaïm Soutine (Russian, active in France, 1893-1943)
Flayed Rabbit, c. 1921, oil on canvas
A flayed rabbit lies splayed on a white cloth, its clouded eye just visible. Reinterpreting hunting and still-life paintings from historic European art, Soutine here gives us an overhead view of the rabbit's innards and musculoskeletal system. The artist likely obtained his subject rom a local butcher in Céret. Its furry hind feet, still intact, preserve the memory of the living, hopping animal.



As noted earlier: you can view these works, including their regular positions in Dr. Barnes's "ensembles", on the "collection" section of the Barnes Foundation website:  https://collection.barnesfoundation.org/

Comments

[kazzy-cee.livejournal.com]

I recognise so many of those from the Art History classes I took a while back. Thanks for sharing - some really lovely things there!

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

I missed a whole gallery — four van Gogh, three Renoir, and a Matisse. I just went back and added them, and am returning to labeling them.

Edited to add: I missed more than that, but they're all up now, with the captions.

[kazzy-cee.livejournal.com]

That was a lot of work! Thanks! I enjoyed seeing them all.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed doing that so much that I might do more virtual exhibitions, if I can find a way that's slightly more efficient.

[shirebound]

WONDERFUL news about your eyes!

Thank you for this wonderful art-full post.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

The edits are all finished -- captions and all -- and this post is now public.

[shirebound]

Oh wow, that's a lot of work. I appreciate the captions!

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

That is an exhibition and a half. One of those wow kind! And maybe I'm imagining things but I am fairly certain I have seen a few of those paintings on loan to other exhibitions.
Miró, Renoir....

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

The Barnes is prohibited from loaning works by the terms of Dr Barnes' will. There was one exception — a traveling exhibition in the mid 90s when the old building had to close.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...well then I've seen a lot of art books during my art appreciation studies. LOL

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

Also…those guys painted similar scenes over and over and over. Cézanne did 40 paintings of Mont Sainte-Victoire, for example.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

Yes, I know. And some are like clones of each other,more or less.
I did a lot of art history and appreciation studies back in the Middle Ages (or so it feels).

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

Could be...although photographic reproductions of the works were also prohibited until fairly recently. Dr. Barnes believed with great fervency that no reproduction could do justice to the original. He also jealously guarded access to the collections, especially from art historians and critics whom he disliked.

[livejournal.livejournal.com]

Hello! Your entry got to top-25 of the most popular entries in LiveJournal!
Learn more about LiveJournal Ratings in FAQ (https://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse?faqid=303).

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

Ha! This is why most of my entries are locked.

[thoughtsbykat.livejournal.com]

What a wonderful collection! Thank you for sharing.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. Works from the Barnes Foundation don't travel, and they're usually arranged, umm, idiosyncratically -- so I thought that folks might like this.