Pennsylvania Art Museums: Day 1/4

Thursday, October 31, 2019 - Wendy has a Retreat this Friday-Saturday-Sunday up in New Hampshire, so I'm leaving a day early for a 4-day road-trip, mostly focused on Pennsylvania Art Museums. I knew that I could get as far west as Pittsburgh (in 2 days):

Pisstburgh is far-left, and the other museums-I-could-get-to are on this map (Philadelphia on the far-right).

I needed to do a mid-week day visit to see the University art collections (Penn and Drexel), so Friday I would visit Philadelphia Art Museums:


Which left me Thursday to get down to that area. After my Thursday Mens Breakfast in Boston, I banged the corner in Albany, then headed south:


In addition to the Hudson River School, I really like Jackson Pollock's "drip paintings", and have been blessed to have seen 33-of-the-84 works he did between 1943 and 1954. Today I get to see "Number 12, 1952" (1952 oil) at the Empire State Plaza Art Collection, Albany, NY. Pretty impressive area:



The indoor mall area - not so impressive:


but it was great seeing the Pollock:


and also Paul Jenkins - "Phenomena Mistral Veil", 1970 acrylic:


45 minutes later I was down at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site:

Their 2019 exhibit was "Thomas Cole's Refrain: The Paintings of Catskill Creek", which ran from May 4 through Nov. 3, 2019 (ends Sunday!!!). There are 15 pieces on display in The New Studio, including 4 from "Private Collections". Very tastefully displayed:



Quite a contrast to the Albany State Plaza mall/concourse.

Highlights include:

Thomas Cole - "Autumn Landscape (View of Mount Chocorua)", 1827-28 oil [The Jack Warner Foundation, Tuscaloosa, Alabama]:


Thomas Cole - "View of Catskill Creek (formerly Distant View of Roundtop)", c. 1833 oil [Albany Institute of History and Art]:


Thomas Cole - "Mill Dam on the Catskill Creek", 1841 oil [Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, N.H.]:


Frederic Edwin Church - "The Catskill Creek", 1845 oil [Olana State Historic Site, Hudson, N.Y.]:


From Catskill, New York, I made it down to the Princeton University Art Museum by 5 PM:

Wendy and I had visited here in April 2014 - glad to see not much (outside) has changed:


Although many areas were closed for Exhibit Preparation, beautiful highlights include:

Claude Monet - "The Houses of Parliament, Seagulls", 1903 oil:


Claude Monet - "Meadow at Giverny", 1894 oil


J.M.W. Turner - "London, from Greenwich", 1811 etching and mezzotint


Giovanni Battista Piranesi - "The Man on the Rack", 1761 etching and engraving


And finally a "picture from across the room" - Childe Hassam - "Rainy Day, Fifth Avenue", 1916 oil:



Easy drive from Princeton down to the Econo Lodge in Mount Laurel, New Jersey (right across from Philadelphia). Pizza and Thursday Night Football - Thank you God for these wonderful adventures!

Today, for my listening pleasure, I am listening to a book-on-cd. My last day-trip to NYC worked out so well, listening to one, that I thought I would try Issac Asimov. "The Stars, Like Dust" is the first of his "Galactic Empire" series, and I got the 6 cds from Topsfield Library on Wednesday:



Well - it was lousy. I don't know if it was because it was written SO LONG AGO (1951) [although that was a part of it], or because it is actually a LOVE STORY [although that was a Big Part of it] - it was just a very dissatisfying audio experience for the day. Rock and Roll for the rest of this trip!

North Carolina visit to see Deede

Thurs., Oct. 24 - Sat., Oct. 26, 2019 - Although I saw Deede on the highway in Wyoming in August, it has been a while since Wendy had a "Deede fix", so we're going down to Durham to see her (she just started the Masters program in Environmental Science):


Although we were an hour late Thursday evening, the Raleigh-Durham Airport is pretty cool:


Deede picked us up, and we had a nice dinner out and then headed back to her place. She shares a house with 4 other girls, and they were all out-of-town for the weekend - plus one of them let Wendy and me stay in her room!

A nice Friday morning breakfast out:

and then we went over to Duke for a mini-tour:

Duke Chapel is Very Impressive:



Deede had classes/meetings that day, so Wendy and I headed southeast to the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh. They have 2 buildings, only the second of which had "nice" art. I had previously been here in March 2015, and it was great seeing pieces I remembered, along with some new beauties - highlights include:

Francesco Guardi - Roman Ruins near the Lagoon, circa 1765-1775 oil:


a pair of monumental paintings by Bernardo Bellotto:


Claude Monet - Waves at the Manneporte, 1883 or 1885 oil:


Yes, it is pretty cool hanging out with Monet:


The Museum's "American" area included:

Andrew Wyeth - Winter, 1946, 1946 tempera:

the detail is exquisite:


Thomas Moran - "Fiercely the red sun descending / Burned his way along the heavens", 1875-1876 oil:


Sanford Robinson Gifford - A Sketch at Mount Desert, Maine, 1864 oil:


William Keith - Mono Pass, Sierra Nevada Mountains, California, 1877 oil:


After I finished the "American" area (blue circle), I did a quick walk through their "Modern and Contemporary" areas (red circle):

Imagine my surprise when I discovered a Wonderful Bierstadt!!!!

Albert Bierstadt - Bridal Veil Falls, Yosemite, circa 1871-1873 oil:


This area is where they also put Andrew Wyeth's "Weather Side". From 1965, I guess that is more understandable ["Modern and Contemporary"]. But that is why I try to see ALL the Areas in a Museum - you just never know what you might encounter.

Friday afternoon Wendy and I did the "Parents Come To Town" stuff - filled the gas tank, got a car wash, fixed/replaced a damaged tire - car stuff. Low-key afternoon. Picked up Deede and had a nice walk through Durham:

and a fun dinner out.

Saturday morning we had a late-breakfast, then drove east for a 5.5 mile hike along Falls Lake:


It was a lovely day for a hike-in-the-woods:





Lunch, headed back to pack up, and Deede drove us to the airport. Super time in the Admirals Club, perfect flight home, and the end to a great 3-day adventure - Thank You God!!

Two Conn. Museums: Mystic Seaport & Florence Griswold

Wednesday, October 16, 2019 - Wendy's schedule was clear for today, so we did a nice little day-trip down to Connecticut:


The Mystic Seaport Museum is hosting, for only 5 months, a wonderful J.M.W. Turner exhibit:


I have never been to see the Mystic Seaport Museum. We left after my step-class/workout, so it was nice not having to deal with any rush-hour traffic. Got down there at 1:30 (peanut-butter-and-honey sandwiches in the car, a la New Zealand):


Very nice interior space, and a TON of art (or should I say "TONNE"?)



Just under 100 pieces by Turner, including a few oils! Highlights include:

Whalers (Boiling Blubber) Entangled in Flaw Ice, Endeavouring to Extricate Themselves, 1846 oil:


Stormy Sea with Dolphins, c. 1835-40 oil:


Storm over the Mountains, c. 1842-43 graphite, watercolor:


Venice: An Imaginary View of the Arsenale, c. 1840 watercolor:


Venice: Looking Across the Lagoon at Sunset, 1840 watercolor:


Banditti, for Samuel Roger's Italy, c. 1826-27 pen and ink, graphite and watercolor:


Holy Island Cathedral, c. 1806-07 watercolor:


The Fifth Plague of Egypt, c. 1806-07 watercolor:


Durham Cathedral: The Interior, Looking East Along the South Aisle, 1797-98 graphite, watercolor and gouache:


My only complaint is all the works are behind glass, which makes appreciating them more difficult with the reflection. A major plus is that given the sheer volume of works, there really is "something for everyone" - from detailed works up to "concept watercolors" (how blues work with reds).

We looked around their other Art Galley (current artists), got a cup of coffee, and headed 23 miles west to the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme:


In the main museum/structure was an exhibit:

I was excited to see the flag-painting by Childe Hassam:

Italian Day, May 1918, 1918 oil:

this piece is on loan from Art Bridges, which is associated with Alice Walton's Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (Bentonville, Arkansas). "The Art Bridges collection endeavors to demonstrate the wide range of art and stories of the American experience across time, media, and artists. Art Bridges encourages institutions to consider their own collections, galleries, and exhibitions in tandem with the Art Bridges collection in order to activate their visitors' experiences."

Two other pieces in the 'Nothing More American' exhibition are:

Childe Hassam - Avenue of the Allies, 1924 etching:


Childe Hassam - Church at Old Lyme, 1918 lithograph:


On the way up to "The Old House", we went down to the river. This property was an artists' colony in the early 1900s, and you can see why:




Up in "The Old House", the kitchen/pantry/dining is fun - all the artists painted one (or more) of the panels - very artsy! A bug exhibit was downstairs, but the rooms upstairs were totally devoted to display of the art:

Childe Hassam - The Ledges, October in Old Lyme, Connecticut, 1907 oil:


Childe Hassam - The Dry Northeaster, Isles of Shoals, 1906 oil:


Everett Warner - Winter on the Lieutenant River, n.d. oil:

The Lieutenant River is the river that runs behind this property.

Headed out of there a little after 4, dinner at Five Guys in Peabody, and then home. WOW - Thank You God for a great Art-Adventure Day!

Music for today was albums from an mp3 cd I burned back in August 2000:

Van Morrison - Back on Top, 1999

Hey - with songs like "When the Leaves Come Falling Down" and "Golden Autumn Day", you can't go wrong!

Van Morrison - Days Like This, 1995


Entrain - No Matter What, 1999


Steve Forbert - Jackrabbit Slim, 1979 second album


James Taylor - Live, 1993 live double album