Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.
It’s a gloriously beautiful day here as summer starts to wane. Next week we are expected to be back in the heat wave. I will remember it fondly when we are in the dead of winter.
More drawings this week, it’s the latest rotation of the drawing corridor at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Selections from the Department of Drawings and Prints: Journeys. This is a link to the Overview page which also links to all the objects in the exhibit.
https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2018/drawings-and-prints-july-rotation. The drawings are rotated on a quarterly basis and I have calendar reminders set for the three month periods so I don’t forget. In the Overview you can see that the Met has over a million drawings in their collection which makes it extremely unlikely that I’ll get to see all of them but I certainly want to enjoy as many of them as I can.
I was actually at the Met viewing the DeLacroix exhibit when it was being hung but didn’t want to wait until it was officially opened. I guess if my eyesight was better I could have viewed it that day as the bulk of the drawings were on view but behind a rope barrier about five feet from the wall they were hung on. I’m very nearsighted and need to get so close to the paintings that I wouldn’t be surprised if people who see me think I’m trying to smell them. Anyway this was another exhibit of their lesser known artists, certainly for the most part lesser known by me. The theme of Journey’s is explained this way, “This installation features works that respond to journeys made across land and sea, as well as into spiritual and imaginative realms.” I confess I’m not sure I understand what they are trying to convey although I assume they mean journeys of imagination rather than physical traveling. At any rate below are some things that I found interesting. Be sure to click on the images to enlarge.
James Barry – Barry was an Irish painter of the 18th Century. He’s an interesting character and you can read more about him here on his Wikipedia page.
https://tinyurl.com/nh9omr7 Study for Divine Justice - This drawing reproduces figures from the center of Barry’s painting Elysium and Tartarus, celebrating patrons of the arts. I was particularly struck by the copy which pointed out that, “the sublime form of Divine Justice tilts her scales toward the abyss to suggest that evil has generally prevailed over good in history.” This seems remarkably apropos for the current age. Divine Justice and The Angelic Guards were done for his six large paintings which collectively are known as, “The Progress of Human Culture and Knowledge,” and reside in the Great Room of the Royal Society of Arts in London.
https://tinyurl.com/y9lx694q You can get a better view of Divine Justice in this subsequent etching.
https://tinyurl.com/y9yt7x3q This is a review of a book published in 2015 on Barry and his paintings.
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/james-barry-s-murals-at-the-royal-society-of-arts-review-to-the-grand-manor-born-1.2077173.
The Angelic Guards – This copy explains what Tartarus and Elysium are, “Four angelic beings, reminiscent of similar figures by Michelangelo and Raphael, protect the heavenly realm of Elysium from Tartarus: the dark, ill-defined abyssal zone at right.” The evil is personified by the snake at the bottom of the drawing.
https://tinyurl.com/ya3ywp5v Orpheus Instructing a Savage People in Theology and the Arts of Social Life – Orpheus is the inventor of music and it struck me that this etching illustrates the first live concert in history.
https://tinyurl.com/y92fn9ju Job Reproved by His Friends – My first knowledge of Job came not from the Bible but from the music group Seatrain whose “Song of Job” appears on their second album. I’ve always liked this group and you can hear the song at this link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnJNT_xzDMA Job’s tale also brings to mind another song, Bad Luck and Trouble.
https://tinyurl.com/y7a3gl5d John Sell Cotman - Cotman was a 19th Century English marine and landscape painter, etcher, illustrator, author and a leading member of the Norwich school of artists. This is his Wikipedia page.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Sell_Cotman Of the three examples below, two are watercolors and one is an etching.
Boats off the Coast, Storm Approaching – The tan sail in the right center of the painting immediately draws you in. It’s a wonderful composition, the rolling waves set against the stormy sky, with the birds flying overhead and the men working to secure the boat. Like so many artists he was influenced by Turner, in this case his Dutch Boats in a Gale which you can see here,
https://tinyurl.com/y8jovr3r https://tinyurl.com/yarpcyp7 The Abbatial House, Abbey of St. Ouen, Rouen – This watercolor was done from his imagination as the Abbey had been demolished several years earlier, a great loss if it looked anything like his depiction of it. It’s also a wonderful work with a lot going on, men and women in period dress, birds flying, dogs in various stages of activity, a statue of what looks to be a discus thrower and what I take to be somebody’s cloak and hat draped on the wall at the bottom of the painting. The details of the façade are exquisite.
https://tinyurl.com/y84yk3ta Lakenham, Near Norwich – There’s something about derelict buildings which appeals to me as does this one. The little girl and her dog playing in front of it lead you to surmise that this is their humble home.
https://tinyurl.com/y6uzag6l Antoine Watteau - Standing Woman Holding a Spindle, and Head of a Woman in Profile to Right – Watteau is an 18th Century French painter and I’ve linked to many of his red chalk drawings of which this is one. The Morgan Library and the Met have large collections of his works.
https://tinyurl.com/y9wlxq8b Andrea Del Sarto – A 16th Century Italian painter, this is also a red chalk drawing. Several years ago I wrote about a small exhibit of 3 oil paintings and 45 drawings by Del Sarto at the Frick which was really wonderful. This is a link to the Frick website showing the exhibit. If you click on Complete Checklist you can see all the items in it.
https://www.frick.org/exhibitions/del_sarto https://tinyurl.com/y829x5xj As always a visit to the drawings corridor is a pleasant thing, whether it’s to see greatly renowned artists or to come into the acquaintance of others for the first time.
Time now for the Flickrs I would think.
Andy G.
Schizophrenia
https://www.flickr.com/photos/35212767@N06/43200384555/ 77
https://www.flickr.com/photos/149823568@N02/38816740591/1909 Male Ballerina in a Dress and Sash
https://www.flickr.com/photos/162657292@N02/43241394784/ Red Sissy (5)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fairyboyprincess/39963354374/yellow dress
https://www.flickr.com/photos/158274655@N05/29389492238/Went to a RuPaul’s Drag Race viewing party last night dressed in drag!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/164347564@N04/41982720124/Oktoberfest 2014
https://www.flickr.com/photos/145162776@N03/42097672635/Retrospective
https://www.flickr.com/photos/natalia_femina/40801306545/IMG_1971
https://www.flickr.com/photos/142770228@N05/41354629400/A wedding dress ...what else :-)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/25488909@N03/41442926430/
Topic: This year’s Summer Flickr (Read 13827 times)
