Canada - Day Six (Sunapee, NH - St. Paul's School - Currier Museum of Art - Amesbury, MA - home)

Saturday, May 30 - heading home:


Sunset the night before, at The Burkehaven Lodge, Sunapee, NH:


At St. Paul's, I was the Form of 1971, so it was my 44th Reunion (I was the only one from 1971); it was, however, the 45th Reunion for the Form of 1970. They were responsible for assembling the LOVE sculpture for one day in the Fall of 1969, so they recreated it:


I don't think it looks as cool as the original (from my 1970 Yearbook):


and, to give credit where credit is due, it was assembled by the Art Association (are they spelling any letters in their photo?)


There was a 10 AM Chapel Service, which gave me a chance to see "The St. Paul's School War Memorial" ("Death and Youth") by Daniel Chester French


Den and Wen at the Parade


After lunch, we went down to the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, NH ("the other Manchester"). Wow - it has works by:

Laura Alma-Tadema
Albert Bierstadt (3)
William Bradford
Alfred Thompson Bricher
John Linton Chapman
Frederic Edwin Church
Thomas Cole (2)
Jasper Francis Cropsey (2)
Simon de Vlieger
Thomas Doughty
Asher B. Durand
Sanford Robinson Gifford
William M. Hart
William Stanley Haseltine
Martin Johnson Heade (2)
David Johnson (2)
John Frederick Kensett
Claude Monet
Frederic Remington
Joseph Ropes
John Singer Sargent
William Louis Sonntag
Joos van Cleve
Jacob van Ruisdael
Thomas Worthington Whittredge
Andrew Wyeth

Highlights include:
Laura Alma-Tadema - A Knock at the Door, 1897

It reminds me of yesterday's John Singer Sargent - Fumée d'ambre gris (Smoke of Ambergris) at The Clark.

Albert Bierstadt - Moat Mountain, Intervale, New Hampshire, about 1862


Alfred Thompson Bricher - Gerrish Island, Kittery Point, Maine


a magnificant Jasper Francis Cropsey - An Indian Summer Morning in the White Mountains, 1857


Simon de Vlieger - Sailing Ships in a Gale, about 1645-50


Asher B. Durand - A Reminiscence of the Catskill Clove, 1858


Sanford Robinson Gifford - Torre dei Schiavi, Roman Campagna, 1857-62


a wonderful William Stanley Haseltine - Rocks at Narragansett, 1863


Martin Johnson Heade - Singing Beach, Manchester, Massachusetts, 1861


Andrew Wyeth - Spindrift, 1950

with a PERFECT frame around it.

Then an hour down the road to dinner with friends in Amesbury, and Wendy drove me home that night. WOW - 1731 miles!! What a GREAT TRIP! Thank you, God!

Music today (easy - one album!):

The Allman Brothers Band - Eat a Peach (1972)

Canada - Day Five (Schenectady - Clark Art Institute - Hyde Collection - Quechee Gorge - Sunapee, NH)

A good day today (Friday, May 29) - 5-1/2 hours of driving - 2 Museums, plus the Quechee Gorge in Vermont


A beautiful drive through eastern New York and the northwest corner of Massachusetts to visit The Clark Institute of Art in Williamstown. Wendy and I had been there a couple of years ago, when everything was in a state of construction. It is all done now, and although not "beautiful in a classical sense", it is great if you like that sort of thing:


The Clark has a super collection of its own, but through July 19 it also has a fabulous Bierstadt - Puget Sound on the Pacific Coast, 1870

It is on loan from the Seattle Art Museum because we won a bet on the Superbowl! (New England Patriots beat the Seattle Seahawks 28-24) - with a little luck, Wendy and I will see it again out in Seattle when we visit Deede this fall.

Other highlights from their BEAUTIFUL collection include
Winslow Homer - Eastern Point, 1900


Winslow Homer - Undertow, 1866


Claude Monet - Spring in Giverny, 1890


Auguste Rodin - The Thinker, modeled 1880, cast 1906


Pierre-Auguste Renoir - Venice, the Doge's Palace, 1881


John Singer Sargent - Fumée d'ambre gris (Smoke of Ambergris), 1880


Joseph Mallord William Turner - Rockets and Blue Lights (Close at Hand) to Warn Steamboats of Shoal Water, 1840


Giovanni Paolo Panini - Interior of the Pantheon, 1734


Hubert Robert - Roman Ruins with Laundresses, c. 1777


Then 1-1/2 hours northwest back into New York to visit The Hyde Collection in Glens Falls. The main house was inspired by Isabella Stewart Gardner's home in Boston. Highlights include Albert Bierstadt - Yosemite Valley, ca. 1865


School of Francesco Guardi - St. Mark's Square, Venice, with the Doge's Palace, last quarter 18th century

(sorry I couldn't move the furniture ...)

and then 2 hours east to hike in Quechee Gorge State Park




An hour east to dinner at the Lake in Sunapee, NH, and a good night's sleep at the Burkehaven Lodge! Thank you God for a great day!

Music today (I listened to albums):

Bob Marley - Exodus (1977)


Frank Turner - England Keep My Bones (2011)


The Beach Boys - Endless Summer (1974)


various artists - Endless Highway: The Music of The Band (2007)


Pete Townshend - Empty Glass (1980)


Elvis Presley - ELV1S: 30 #1 Hits (2002)

Canada - Day Four: New York State (Fair Haven - Corning - Elmira - Cooperstown - Schenectady)

Note - traveling with my wife is wonderful - she even lets me listen to my music at a decent volume! But because we are "sharing time together", I have no time to blog (some sacrifices must be made), so these are being written upon our return home. Although the "correct" date appears on the dixonheadingwest blog itself, email subscribers only see the date-and-time it was posted. So I will be including day-and-date in my writings.

A big day today (Thursday, May 28) - 6 hours of driving, and 4 Museums (hey, the "National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum" has the word "Museum" in it!)


A good early breakfast, then 2 hours down the road to The Rockwell Museum of Western Art in Corning, NY. We drove down the west side of Seneca Lake - one of the "Finger Lakes" and it was beautiful. Through the town of Watkins Glen (I would like to explore the Watkins Glen State Park - some other time ...). I feel that The Rockwell Museum is one of the Top-10 Museums for Western Art (Bierstadt, Moran, Thomas Hill), and it was my first stop on my 1st trip west in September 2013. The highlight is Mount Whitney by Albert Bierstadt (c. 1877), which is right in front of you as you come up the stairs for the third floor:


Other gems include
Thomas Moran - Clouds in the Canyon, 1915


Thomas Hill - Yosemite, c. 1908


Ogden Minton Pleissner - Lost Lake, Wyoming, c. 1940


This was the most-western point on our trip, so east 20 miles to the Arnot Art Museum in Elmira, NY. Although they have two beautiful paintings by Bierstadt and Thomas Cole, their Hudson River paintings are only on display in the fall - so maybe I will return in Sept. or Oct.
Meanwhile, they had a nice painting by Willem van de Velde, the Younger: Man-of-War in a Storm


and two woodblock prints by Katsushika Hokusai
The Great Wave of Kanagawa


Mt. Fuji from Kajikazawa


2-1/2 hours northeast on a beautiful sunny day in New York State takes us to the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown - an old mansion on Otsego Lake


Thomas Cole - Landscape, Scene from The Last of the Mohicans, ca. 1827


Asher Brown Durand - Hudson River Looking Toward the Catskills, 1847


They also have an exhibition of the Kodak Colorama, which used to be in Grand Central Station from 1950 until 1990. I remember seeing it as I walked through Grand Central Station when I commuted from the Upper West Side to A.I.P.S.O. at Third Avenue and 45th Street. The pictures were always awe-inspiring!



and, of course, since I am in Cooperstown, I had to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame! Here is Stan Musial's plaque (Wendy is from St. Louis!)


There are two fun pieces of art:
Norman Rockwell - Game Called Because of Rain (Tough Call), 1949


LeRoy Neiman - The Hall of Famer, 1996


An hour up the road to the Super 8, Schenectady, and a great dinner out and a good night's sleep! Thank you God for a great day!

Music today (I listened to albums):

sorry - don't remember which music I played today ...