Dennis Dixon is heading West!: Day Twenty: Scottsbluff, NE - Denver Art Museum - Denver Public Library - Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center

The first stop today was the Scotts Bluff National Monument

I was surprised when I saw the sign

What are Green Harbors doing all the way out here? And what is that industrial facility in the background?

I wonder how Claude Monet would interpret today's "Haystacks"?

Which gets us to the Denver Art Museum - a pity it is as ugly outside as the paintings are beautiful inside

I knew they had single paintings by Albert Bierstadt, Alfred Jacob Miller, and Thomas Moran. I showed my "Where's The Art" app to the info lady, and she said "Well, then you'll have to visit the second floor of the Museum and it's special Thomas Moran exhibit." My face suddenly got this great big grin!!

Here is a link to the Museum's Moran webpage click here

The art in the exhibit is wonderful. Thomas Moran worked with the Boston lithographic firm, L. Prang & Co., and in 1876 published "The Yellowstone National Park, and the Mountain Regions of Portions of Idaho, Nevada, Colorado and Utah". It was a portfolio consisting of 15 chromolithographs of his watercolors. Since it was "published", a chromolithograph is a print - but these chromolithographs are beautiful! The colors are vibrant, the lines are crisp and clear, and they stand the test of time. This exhibit displays all 15 chromolithographs plus assorted watercolors (many matching the chromolithograph, so you can compare them) and oils. If you are in Denver before January 19, 2014, I urge you to make the trip to the museum. Side Question: Since these are prints, why can't they just "print new ones"?

Aside from the special exhibit, the Museum displays 6 paintings by Albert Bierstadt, 1 by William Bradford (Whalers/Ice which looks like a Frederic Church), 1 by Thomas Cole, 1 by John Kensett, 2 by Alfred Jacob Miller, 1 by Claude Monet, and 4 by Thomas Moran (3 oils, 1 watercolor). The principal gallery is lovely:

and although Albert Bierstadt's "Estes Park" is very impressive (on loan from the Denver Public Library across the street) [2 views to show the effect of overhead lighting]

I think that my favorite today is one of Thomas Moran's oils: "Sunset Cloud, Green River, Wyoming", 1917

In my trip next door to the Denver Public Library (since their Bierstadt "Estes Park" is on loan to the Art Museum, I didn't expect to find anything), I discovered another Albert Bierstadt hanging in their Western History/Genealogy Research Room: "Bridal Veil Falls (in the Valley of the Yosemite)", not dated:

Which takes us 68 miles south to the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, with a huge John Singer Sargent (with the sad eyes) "Portrait of Miss Elsie Palmer (A Lady in White)", 1890

and "Teton Range, Moose, Wyoming", 1863 by Albert Bierstadt

and "New England Landscape", 1847, by Frederick Edwin Church

and some fun modern art/sculpture!!

Of course, a beautiful sunset brings an end to the day

Tuesday, Oct. 1
Super 8, Scottsbluff, NE
1/4 hour -- Scotts Bluff National Monument, Nebraska
3 1/4 hours -- Denver Art Museum/Denver Public Library, Denver, Colorado
1 1/4 hours -- Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado Springs, Colorado
2 hours -- Super 8 Trinidad, 1924 Freedom Rd, Trinidad, CO

here is today's playlist:

Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me (06-08-2013)