Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.
We had our second encounter with a Nor’easter this week and while it wasn’t as benign as the previous one it certainly could have been worse. At least for me and the people from my community. There were wildly varying amounts of snow in New Jersey with some accumulations reaching two feet but we were lucky and only received about six inches. And the next day was milder and the snow started to melt. Today was a bit chilly as it was windy and felt colder than it should have. Daylight savings seems to have come very early this year and I hadn’t given any thought to it until today. Usually it pops up on my radar at least a few days before. Not looking forward to losing the hour of sleep as I plan to call friends at 10AM and I’ll have to get up very early to get in my usual Sunday morning routine.
I was back at the Met again this week for the recently opened new Japanese rotation, The Poetry of Nature: Edo Paintings from the Fishbein-Bender Collection. I’ve been looking forward to this for a while, the Met generally rotates their Japanese collection twice a year so each iteration is up for some time. Since I’ve become attuned to Asian art I’ve enjoyed each version, albeit some more than others. This particular exhibit is wonderful as it plays into my likes with many scrolls, screens and wood block prints. Out of the more than 100 objects in the exhibit 40 come from the Fishbein-Bender collection and are gifts or promised gifts to the museum. Many have never been displayed in the western world. Longtime residents of New York and supporters of The Met, Estelle P. Bender and her late husband, T. Richard Fishbein, shared a love of art and travel, especially to Europe and Japan, since the time they met in the late 1970s. I expect the second rotation to appear in the summer.
I’ll list some of the many things I liked. Be sure to read the descriptions on the website.
Fudō Myōō Threatening a Novice - Tsukioka Yoshitoshi – I’ll start with my favorite form of Japanese art, the wood block print. This brilliant triple panel is a colorful depiction of a dream by the monk, Abbot Yūten. You can see the implicit violence as a statue of a deity comes to life and threatens the monk with his sword.
https://tinyurl.com/yb3hvl8s Honoring the Three Gods of Poetry: Women Composing Poems - Chōbunsai Eishi – Another triptych wood block print, this is a busy illustration of women at work composing poems. The women are depicted in their beautifully decorated robes while we can see the landscape through the open windows at the back and also the artwork adorning the walls of the room behind.
https://tinyurl.com/y8eefmth The Courtesan Hinazuru of the Chōjiya Brothel (Chōjiya Hinazuru), from the series Beauties of the Pleasure Quarters as Six Floral Immortals (Seirō bijin rokkasen) - Chōbunsai Eishi – Here’s a single panel by Eishi of one of the six courtesans, the courtesan, Hanaōgi, also appears in the exhibit.
https://tinyurl.com/y7a6xelt Courtesan Holding a Poetry Slip - Chōbunsai Eishi – Another of Eishi’s courtesans, this time depicted on a scroll. We see her red kimono decorated with cherry blossoms and spider webs while her outer robe seems about to drop off her shoulders.
https://tinyurl.com/ycrpdopp Puppies in the Snow - Nagasawa Rosetsu – These four sliding panels have been in previous exhibits and I linked to them a few years ago but its sparse playfulness appeals to me so I’m bringing it back for an encore.
https://tinyurl.com/yakobbdu Crane and Pine Tree with Rising Sun - Suzuki Kiitsu – This remarkably beautiful hanging silk scroll vibrates with vivid colors, the bright red of the sun, the lush green of the tree and the black and white crane with the dab of red at its crown.
https://tinyurl.com/y9mfvbhe Egrets and Crows - Shibata Zeshin – The whiteness of the egrets shown isn’t painted, the artist cut them out of the gold leaf paper. The whiteness of the two egrets offsets the blackness of the three flying crows.
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/77169 Red Shōki, the Demon Queller - Katsushika Hokusai – While there were none of his wood block prints in this exhibit we have this hanging silk scroll. It was painted towards the end of his long life, he was 87 and passed away at 88. Shōki appeared as an exorcist in a dream of a subsequent Chinese emperor and vowed to quell demons and banish disease. Hokusai used red pigment for the painting as folklore thought it warded off smallpox.
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/45818 Winter Scene with Ducks and Pine Trees - Matsumura Goshun – A snowscape depicting a brisk but not bitter cold day with ducks floating gently in a serene setting.
https://tinyurl.com/y8aajnjuSeiken-ji and Mount Fuji - Soga Shōhaku – This large hanging scroll is a panoramic view showing Mount Fuji looming over the landscape and the small village with the Seiken-ji temple.
https://tinyurl.com/y7de9f9kThis is a link to the overview page of the exhibit.
https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2018/poetry-of-nature This is a link to the Met’s press release.
https://www.metmuseum.org/press/exhibitions/2018/poetry-of-nature This is a link to all the objects in the exhibit.
https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/objects?exhibitionId=74a68abf-52fa-4240-9460-cf7909d2d83a#!?perPage=100&offset=0 Lots of beauty here to be appreciated. Look forward to the second rotation.
I visited the Met a second time this week for another of their small exhibits consisting entirely of works from the permanent collection, American Painters in Italy: From Copley to Sargent. This was a wonderful compilation of drawings and watercolors with heavy emphasis on John Singer Sargent. As I’ve commented before, how amazing to be able to just pull all of this out of your attic for an exhibit.
There wasn’t anything I didn’t like so I’ll just show some examples.
Perseus - John Quincy Adams Ward – This pencil sketch is of Perseus holding the head of Medusa, a topic that I addressed in the Medusa post recently. Very spare and beautiful.
https://tinyurl.com/y8zqwbuq Creation of Adam; Sleeping Adam, after Michaelangelo; Other Figures; Profile of Head of Man in Helmut - Thomas Sully – This is an ink drawing based on Michelangelo’s Adam. Very timely after the recent post on Michelangelo. Down below we’ll see Sargent’s recreation of Michelangelo.
https://tinyurl.com/y86jzr27 Torre dei Schiavi, The Roman Campagna (from Cropsey Album) - Jasper Francis Cropsey – Cropsey is one of the Hudson River painters and the notes on the website point out that the Roman Campagna was a favorite milieu for American painters and mentions several who also painted the ruins, one of whom is Sanford Robinson Gifford , another painter I’m fond of. His oil painting is the second link. This drawing is fairly tiny, roughly 4” x 6”.
https://tinyurl.com/yblx7cgk http://hoocher.com/Sanford_Robinson_Gifford/Torre_dei_Schiavi-Roman_Campagna_1857.jpg Castel San Elmo (from Cropsey Album) - Attributed to Jasper Francis Cropsey – It’s authenticity as a genuine Cropsey may be in doubt but regardless it’s a wonderful depiction of a 14th Century Neapolitan Castle.
https://tinyurl.com/y9hcphv8 Girgenti (The Temple of Juno Lacinia at Agrigentum) - William Stanley Haseltine – More ancient ruins here, a splendid pencil and watercolor depiction of the Temple. It’s hard to conjure how men were able to build these giant monuments without the aid of modern day devices. The number of men it took must have been phenomenal.
https://tinyurl.com/ycokxp6x Interior of Church, Sienna - Julian Clarence Levi – Levi was an architect and this pencil and watercolor painting was created with an architect’s eye.
https://tinyurl.com/y8nob6no Note in Pink and Brown - James McNeill Whistler – Whistler is someone else I’ve always enjoyed, both his paintings and etchings of which there are many. I’ve been lucky to see a number of exhibits of both. The website says this is one of a hundred pastels he created in Venice and based on that I’m surprised I haven’t seen more of them over the years.
https://tinyurl.com/yav6b5ea Night - John Singer Sargent – Sargent was born in Italy and spent his childhood there. He especially admired Michelangelo and was only 14 years old when he drew this recreation of Michelangelo’s sculpture. You can see that in the second link.
https://tinyurl.com/ydaplok6 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_(Michelangelo)#/media/File:Florenz_-_Neue_Sakristei,_Nacht,_Grabmal_Giuliano_II.jpg The Marriage at Cana (from scrapbook) - John Singer Sargent – He created this pencil and watercolor drawing just a few years after Night. This is a recreation of a work by Tintoretto, who along with Titian was someone else Sargent admired. You can see the original at the second link.
https://tinyurl.com/y8bg6vgvhttps://www.wikiart.org/en/tintoretto/marriage-at-cana-1561 There are 12 paintings in the exhibit by Sargent and I thought the four below were a nice representation of his vibrant watercolors. In several it’s commented that he painted them as if from a gondola looking up.
Garden near Lucca - John Singer Sargent
https://tinyurl.com/ya5zrhnj Venetian Canal - John Singer Sargent
https://tinyurl.com/ybxuayel Giudecca - John Singer Sargent
https://tinyurl.com/y76fr83l Venetian Passageway - John Singer Sargent
https://tinyurl.com/yd64u74n This is the overview of the exhibit.
https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2018/american-painters-in-italy This is a link to all the objects in the exhibit.
https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/objects?exhibitionId=75478179-fe6a-457b-98b3-ed4f35ee6a5a#!?perPage=100&offset=0 A good week all around for viewing art.
Now let’s view this week’s Flickrs.
Andy G.
I brought you daffodils in a pretty string, but they won't flower like they did last spring
https://www.flickr.com/photos/158316858@N03/39761432695/ Book Cover - Paul to Paula – Having come across this the other day I see the link has now been disabled. But apparently the book is legit, see second link. And the third link is the author's Facebook page.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/159957718@N03/26719515298/ https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/PaulTravers https://www.facebook.com/paultopaula/ dressed perfectly
https://www.flickr.com/photos/10129697@N08/37599903606/ Carol33
https://www.flickr.com/photos/153136683@N05/36155192896/I'm a full service French maid
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rgaines/30013630154/Lace and legs...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/107544285@N05/25966339638/ summer dress
https://www.flickr.com/photos/152202283@N04/24950671657/Prom Night
https://www.flickr.com/photos/147817670@N03/24765576007/ That Next Sequin minidress.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gemmasmith_tvuk/39681688122/sissy maxine
https://www.flickr.com/photos/149738729@N02/39723703272/ 
Betty's Pub 20.1
Topic: There’s no denying we are now in the Winter Flickr (Read 13700 times)
