Artistic interlude

The holiday in Scotland afforded the time and opportunity to go and view the Impressionist Gardens exhibition at the National Galleries of Scotland at The Mound in Edinburgh.

Amongst the many on display was this effete picture by James Tissot, entitled Holyday, or The Picnic. The other great names of the Impressionist movement were also well represented - Monet, Pisarro, Renoir, Manet and post-Impressionists Cézanne, Bonnard, Van Gogh, Gaugin and Klimt. It seems churlish to complain about the embarrassment of riches on display, but there were really too many pictures to digest the exhibition in a short afternoon's viewing.

National Galleries of Scotland, The Mound, Edinburgh

We coupled this visit with another exhibition in the same gallery - the work of the Danish artist Christen Købke, of which a two teasers are shown here:

Frederiksborg Castle in the Evening Light, 1835

One of the Small Towers on Frederiksborg Castle, about 1834

The detail of both architectural renderings above, and portraiture was extremely compelling. More of the latter anon.

Mary quite contrary

As part of my passion and interest in fine art, I am following an excellent programme on the great artists, including the work of the American Mary Cassatt, the daughter of a wealthy banker in Pennsylvania. Her family's wealth enabled her to travel to Europe to study art, where her work was strongly influenced by the greats of Impressionism, including Degas and Pissarro, who became both colleagues and mentors.

Her perseverance in a largely male-dominated vocation, and in a foreign land, was ultimately rewarded with due recognition, and I think these two examples show why. The first is a self portrait c1878, and the second, The Boating Party dates from 1893-94.

One that got away

I thought this was a rather touching story: this picture left at a charity shop in Maryland turned out to be by a French Impressionist, (Edouard-Leon Cortes) and was subsequently sold at Sotheby's for just over USD40,000 which was used for the benefit of the charity.

The potential importance of the picture was assessed by an on-the-ball employee at the charity, who thought it was worth more than a possible sale tag of USD2. Perhaps that employee should consider another, more lucrative line of work.

But improving fundraising is also very gratifying too.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080625/ap_on_fe_st/odd_goodwill_painting_1