This weekend's Wall Street Journal had a nice appreciation of Frederic Edwin Church's "The Heart of the Andes," which happens to be my favorite painting. I have spent countless hours at the Met just sitting in front of it and taking it in, and I never get tired of it. No matter how perfect your computer's resolution, seeing it on the screen does it no justice; the next time you're uptown you should definitely go take a look.
Monday, February 8, 2010
10
When I hear "heart of the Andes" I think of cannibalistic Uruguayan soccer players. Sorry.
Oh Balk, you make my heart sing!
Also, if anybody's interested - and I know you're not but I'm telling you anyway - we've got a great sculpture of Von Humboldt in Philly's Fairmount Park. It was put up by the city's German citizens in honor of the Centennial in 1876.
Andes, NY, right? In the Catskills?
Funny. I've had a similar fix on Jean Louis David's portrait of "Monsieur Lavoisier and his Wife," conveniently also at the Met.
The single best thing about living in New York: the "visible storage" room in the American Wing at the Met. Leaving aside how much fun it is to pretend that you're the wife of a Goldman bonus baby picking out home furniture in the private shopping area of ABC, being able to see dozens upon dozens of Churches, Bierstadts, Winchesters, Peales (each of them), Whistlers etc. just hanging on a rack with no forced contextualization is one of the most exhilarating experiences I've ever had. I've forcibly dragged every friend visiting the city to that room, and every time they're still wandering around awestruck 90 minutes later.
Also, I'm a fan of this one, but Church's whallop-me-in-the-head painting for me will always be Twilight In The Wilderness, painted on the eve of the outbreak of the Civil War. Chills.
http://www.southalabama.edu/history/faculty/faust/Frederick%20Church%20Twilight%20in%20the%20Wilderness.jpg
What? Mr. Whooping it up over Football now puts his inner artiste on display. Smells like preemptive blowjob protection.
That is quite lovely! Nice depth, nice use of light - I'd imagine it's quite engaging in person.
Another wonderful painting in the Met: http://www.metmuseum.org/works_of_art/collection_database/american_paintings_and_sculpture/daniel_crommelin_verplanck_john_singleton_copley/objectview.aspx?collID=2&OID=20010869
A painting depicting the marvels of nature, held by a museum that is itself just such a marvel. The Met totally rocks.