Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.
I don’t want to get into an argument about global warming but it’s November 19th and the temperature is in the 60’s here which I think we can all agree is unusual. But the cold weather is coming and I hope to hear from my plumber soon as several of my radiators don’t heat up across the bars from one end to the other. It’s been tolerable while the weather is mild but once we actually hit Winter weather I’m definitely going to want the radiators to cooperate across the board.
As I haven’t retired yet I had to choose whether to visit Sotheby’s or Christie’s this morning as both are having their American art previews. While Sotheby’s has the larger selection I chose Christie’s. First because they have a painting I especially wanted to see which I will describe shortly and secondly by proximity, the way I chose my college actually. Christie’s is just closer to the Port Authority and I wanted to get back home early so as to put my free Shop-Rite turkey in the oven. As I live alone Thanksgiving has never been a big holiday for me; when my elderly relatives were alive we got together for the Jewish holidays and no one made a big deal about Thanksgiving. And I periodically cook a turkey for dinner during the year which then gives me a bunch of lunches as well. You have to spend $400 during the more or less five week period prior to the end of the promotion. It had been $300 and I remember having trouble reaching it. Then they raised it and I figured I would never be able to do it. But I’ve managed to do it each year, sometimes helped by the need to buy Nexium for my acid reflux which is not an inexpensive item, even with the coupons I usually have to lower the cost. This year I was helped considerably by being able to buy the Saturday and Sunday newspapers in the store which helped to the point that I didn’t need the Nexium to qualify. And when I’m retired it really will be easy because then I will be able to buy the newspapers during the week as well and I’ll qualify with ease. My friend was surprised that I qualified since I live alone but aside from what I’ve explained I can also add that everything I eat during the month comes from the Shop-Rite, that is, I don’t eat out and I don’t shop for food anywhere else. So even though I live alone it’s still not unreasonable to spend that much over the course of five weeks for the meals I eat.
Anyway, now that we’ve discussed my grocery shopping let’s turn to art.
I walked over to Christie’s this morning and saw some wonderful things. The painting I especially wanted to see was Southwest Entrance to Camden Harbor by the 19th Century maritime painter Fitz Henry Lane.
http://tinyurl.com/jpqslu6 Lane is someone my brother came across some time in the last fifteen years and he’s someone we both really enjoy. For some odd reason he was known as Fitz Hugh until 2005 when historians discovered it was Fitz Henry. He was born in Gloucester Massachusetts in Cape Ann and there is a museum there devoted mostly to his art. I’m pleased to say that my brother and I had occasion to visit the museum which is filled with his paintings as well as a few by protégé’s and other American artists. It was really a treat. Be sure to enlarge the images and remember the Internet really doesn’t do them justice.
Among other things I especially liked:
Two Petunias by Georgia O'Keeffe – a very simple pencil on paper drawing of the flowers, simple but very beautiful. The provenance shows it only passing from the artist to two individuals, the latter putting it up for auction now.
http://tinyurl.com/j4vf5rm It sat right next to a magnificent oil painting of hers - Sand Hill, Alcalde
http://tinyurl.com/zgmdnbk The Old Mill by Maxfield Parrish – Again, this doesn’t look like much on the screen but standing in front of it in the gallery it really glows. The colors are like neon they shine brightly off the canvas, it’s not a surprise that his work was in great favor during the 60’s psychedelic era, these are paintings to fall into.
http://tinyurl.com/hqqp4h8 It sat right next to paintings by Norman Rockwell and David Brega. The Rockwell, The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter, is a sentimental portrait of the old lighthouse keeper sitting next to his little girl as she mends his coat.
http://tinyurl.com/zt4ps4f while the Brega is a Saturday Evening Post cover of a young woman asking a Gendarme for directions in French while looking at her phrase book. The cover is dog eared and pinned to a trunk with labels around it in a trompe l’oeil effect.
http://tinyurl.com/zy2jnl7 A wonderful Jasper Cropsey, Sunset on Greenwood Lake.
http://tinyurl.com/gm2uu8f It shows a cottage on a lakefront surrounded by beautiful Fall foliage with someone in a boat on the lake. If you look very carefully you can see someone sitting on the front porch of the cottage.
This picture by Rockwell Kent, Iceberg; Sledge Dogs, Greenland tickled me as it shows a team of dogs as seen from the perspective of the driver moving along the snow leaving their paw prints as they pass. The vast whiteness of the plain and the snow mountains set off against the deep blue sky is grandiose.
http://tinyurl.com/jh4om9s There was a portrait by John Singer Sargent which was typical of his work for hire but there was also a lovely watercolor which he did for a friend, the painter Dwight Blaney, as the inscription shows. The Piazza; On the Verandah shows Blaney and his wife and two daughters lounging on the veranda. Very relaxed and it explains on the website, “far more sympathetic, both humanly and artistically, than his commissioned portraits of the rich and fashionable.â€
http://tinyurl.com/z2pnvny Asher Brown Durand, After a Summer Shower. A lovely serene landscape in a bucolic setting with the farmer bringing the cows home while several are still grazing by the water. The green trees set against the blue sky with the white clouds, a very peaceful scene.
http://tinyurl.com/jg6xtwl And I’ll close with one of my favorite Hudson River painters, Sanford Robinson Gifford, Sunrise on the Seashore. A beach scene with the waves rolling in, the sun just starting to peak out behind the brown clouds while off to the side you see a very small and slender quarter moon.
http://tinyurl.com/zyn6bwx This is a link to all the paintings in the auction, many other beautiful things to be seen.
http://www.christies.com/salelanding/index.aspx?lid=1&intsaleid=26089&saletitle=&pg=all And so, on to the Flickrs.
Andy G.
IMG_5315
https://www.flickr.com/photos/katy-caitlin/29727973892/45EV5681
https://www.flickr.com/photos/125427358@N02/14949661564/Caroline Cossey
https://www.flickr.com/photos/trannilicious2011/26399535950/Haute Couture de EBAY
https://www.flickr.com/photos/25488909@N03/16561430497/BlackLeatherDress
https://www.flickr.com/photos/celiahmorgan/12995186153/amandadrag
https://www.flickr.com/photos/75757976@N06/16366690506/wendy175
https://www.flickr.com/photos/wendy_tgnj/24082886624/Blonde Bombshell
https://www.flickr.com/photos/103977268@N06/29195373373/IMG_2370
https://www.flickr.com/photos/143021864@N05/29155026056/IMG_0530
https://www.flickr.com/photos/145721948@N08/29402515114/Kazumi Takahasi
https://www.flickr.com/photos/27401732@N05/28502655433/
Betty's Pub 20.1
Topic: Oh dear, it looks like the Fall Flickr has snuck up on us already! (Read 11427 times)
