Day 24/60: NYC, back to the Met

Since we have visited all the big museums in New York City multiple times in previous years, I thought that this year we should try some new things, such as the famous Gagosian Art Gallery or The Museum of the City of New York. But when today came, we decided we'd rather go back to the Metropolitan; the few hours we had spent there last Sunday only whetted our appetite for more.

In a perfect world, the Met would put all of its European and American ART together in one section of the museum, and put all of the armor, the British silver, the medieval buildings and sculptures, the Asian stuff, the Islamic Art, the musical instruments, and all the other irrelevant stuff in some other section so that you wouldn't have to pass through acres of mind-numbing artifacts to get to the ART. I must have walked ten miles in six hours.

It is astounding that on a Tuesday in October the Met was just seething with visitors. What was it like on a summer week-end? Even though the European economy is supposed to be in such bad shape, a high proportion of visitors were speaking European languages.

Dan and I worked separately most of the day. In the morning Dan concentrated on photographing the masterpieces of nineteenth and early twentieth century French art, that is the run-up to Impressionism, Impressionism itself, and post-Impressionism, and some early modern works.

Manet and Degas introduced a new interest in spontaneity and everyday life that prepared the way for Impressionism.

The Spanish Singer, 1860
Édouard Manet (French, 1832-1883)
Dan's photo

A Woman Seated beside a Vase of Flowers, 1865

Edgar Degas (French, 1834-1917)

Dan's photo

Monet and Renoir were the core of the Impressionist group. Impressionism was an art theory that analyzed colors into their component parts and emphasized the individual brushstroke, instead of presenting smooth, "untouched" forms.

Garden at Sainte-Adresse, 1867
Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926)
Dan's photo

Bridge Over a Pond of Water Lilies, 1899

Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926)

Dan's photo

Two Young Girls at the Piano, 1892
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841-1919)
Dan's photo

Three women were central to the innovative group of painters centered in Paris: Mary Cassatt, Marie Bracquemond, and Berthe Morisot.

Young Woman Seated on a Sofa, 1879
Berthe Morisot (French, 1841-1895)
Jan's photo

Though he is sometimes thought of as an Impressionist, van Gogh developed certain aspects of that style into something new, which is rather lazily called Post-Impressionism because it is hard to define. This group also includes Gauguin, Cézanne and Suzanne Valadon.

La Berceuse (Woman Rocking a Cradle), 1889
Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-1890)
Dan's photo

Roses, 1890
Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-1890)
Dan's photo

La Orana Maria (Hail Mary), 1891
Paul Gauguin (French, 1848-1903)
Dan's photo

Still Life with Teapot and Fruit, 1896
Paul Gauguin (French, 1848-1903)
Dan's photo

Still Life with Apples and a Pot of Primroses, c. 1890
Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906)
Dan's photo

Mont Sainte-Victoire and the Viaduct of the Arc River Valley, 1882-85
Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906)
Dan's photo

Reclining Nude, 1928
Suzanne Valadon (French, 1867-1938)
Dan's photo

Another development of Impressionism is Pointillism, an art theory that drove the analysis of color to an obsessive, and very beautiful, extreme.

Circus Sideshow, 1887-88
Georges Seurat (French, 1859-91)
Dan's photo

Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde (La Bonne-Mere), Marseilles, 1905-06
Paul Signac (French, 1863-1935)
Dan's photo

Picasso and Matisse took art into the twentieth century, each of them restlessly moving from one style to another, always keeping an eye on the other's progress, and frequently reacting to it.

The Blind Man's Meal, 1903
Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881-1973)
Dan's photo

At the Lapin Agile, 1905
Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881-1973)
Dan's photo

Seated Odalisque, 1926
Henri Matisse (French, 1869-1954)
Dan's photo

Another group of painters used the broken color and visible brushstroke of the Impressionists to create intimate scenes charged with unexpressed feeling.

Garden at Vaucresson, 1920; reworked 1926, 1935, 1936
Édouard Vuillard (French, 1868-1940)
Dan's photo 

Before Dinner, n.d.
Pierre Bonnard (French, 1867-1947)
Dan's photo

During the morning I photographed the sculpture both in the American and European sculpture gardens, then I toured the Robert Lehman Collection, which includes masterpieces from throughout European art history.

Dan and I met for lunch at the Met's excellent cafeteria. Dan loves that cafeteria for its fresh food, great selection, and reasonable prices. We separated again for the afternoon.

Dan set out to capture as many Old Masters as he could. I grouped his photos by subject for the sake of comparison.

Here are two madonnas.

Madonna and Child Enthroned with Two Angels, c. 1440
Fra Filippo Lippi (Florence 1406-1469 Spoleto)
Dan's photo

Rest on the Flight into Egypt, n.d.
Gerard David (Netherlandish, c. 1455-1523 Bruges)
Dan's photo

Here are a few scenic views.

The Harvesters, 1565
Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525-1569 Brussels)
Dan's photo

View of Toledo, n.d.
El Greco (Greek, 1541-1614)
Dan's photo

Wheat Fields, c. 1670
Jacob van Ruisdael (Dutch, Haarlem 1628-1682 Amsterdam)
Dan's photo

Hagar in the Wilderness, 1835
Camille Corot (French, 1796-1875)
Dan's photo

Here is a selection of single portraits.

Self Portrait, 1660
Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606-1669)
Dan's photo

Portrait of a Man, possibly Nicolaes Pietersz Duyst van Voorhout, c. 1636-38
Frans Hals (Dutch, Antwerp 1582/83-1666 Haarlem)
Dan's photo

Juan de Pareja (c. 1610-1670), c. 1649-50
Velázques (Spanish, 1599-1660)
Dan's photo

Portrait of a Young Man, 1530s
Bronzino (Monticelli 1503-1572 Florence)
Dan's photo

Madame Henri Fraçois Riesener (née Félicité Longrois, 1786-1847), 1835
Eugene Delacroix (French, 1798-1863)
Dan's photo

Princesse de Broglie, 1851-1853
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (French, 1780-1867)
Dan's photo

I was struck by the similarity of the poses in these iconic paintings by Rembrandt and Vermeer. Instead of portraying individuals, these paintings use figures as characters in implied narratives.

Aristotle with a Bust of Homer, 1653
Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606-1669)
Dan's photo

Young Woman with a Water Pitcher, c. 1660-1665
Johannes Vermeer (Dutch, Delft 1632-1675 Delft)
Dan's photo

The Lute Player, c. 1597
Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi) (Italian, Lombard, 1571-1610)
Dan's photo

These scenes feature figures interacting.

Merry Company on a Terrace, c. 1673-75 (detail)
Jan Steen (Dutch, 1626-1679)
Dan's photo

The Feast of Achelous, c. 1615
Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577-1640) and Jan Brueghel the Elder (Flemish, 1568-1625)
Dan's photo

Mars and Venus United by Love, n.d.
Paolo Veronese (Verona 1528-1588 Venice)
Dan's photo

Rubens, His Wife Helena Fourment and One of Their Children, mid-late 1630s
Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577-1640)
Dan's photo

Self-portrait with Two Pupils, 1785
Adélaide Labille-Guiard (French, 1749-1803)
Dan's photo

Majas on a Balcony, n. d. (after 1810)
Attributed to Goya (Spanish, 1746-1828)
Dan's photo

The Musicians, c. 1595
Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi) (Italian, Lombard, 1571-1610)
Dan's photo

Notice all the pointing in these paintings.

Broken Eggs, 1756
Jean Baptiste Greuze (French, Tournus 1725-1805 Paris)
Dan's photo

The Death of Socrates, 1787
Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825)
Dan's photo

de Hooch

Here is a single example of a still life.

Still Life with Two Lemons, a Façon de Venise Glass, Knife and Olives, 1629
Pieter Claesz (Dutch, 1596/97-1660 Haarlem)
Dan's photo

Here's an interior view, with an emphasis on architecture and light patterns.

Prayer in the Mosque, 1871
Jean-Léon Gérome (French, 1824-1904)
Dan's photo

Few works in the history of art can be compared with this dramatic scene.

The Horse Fair, 1852-55
Rosa Bonheur (French, 1822-1899)
Dan's photo

I spent most of the afternoon doing 20th Century art.

Large Interior, Los Angeles, 1988
David Hockney (English, b. 1937)
Jan's photo

Sixteen Waterfalls of Dreams, Memories, and Sentiment, 1990
Pat Steir (American, b. 1940)
Jan's photo

Galisteo Creek, 1992
Susan Rothenberg (American, b. 1945)
Jan's photo

The Innocent Eye Test, 1981
Mark Tansey (American b. 1949)
Jan's photo

Late in the afternoon, I forced myself to look at a special exhibit of Chinese screen paintings of gardens and retreats, but the paintings were faded and the light was dim, and I was soon out of breath. Still determined to widen my range, I made a run around the permanent Asian section, but I didn't enjoy it. Partly it was because I just don't feel an affinity for Asian art, and partly because the exhibits lacked atmosphere.

The closing of the museum was made especially chaotic by the hard rain falling. People hung around the grand entrance hall getting their rain gear on and hoping it might subside. It finally got so crowded and airless that I was forced out onto the porch before I had found Dan. Fortunately, the rain became a mist, and I had an umbrella. Dan was nearly the last person to burst through the door, looking around for me near panic.

After we connected, we walked directly to Nectar restaurant, where we had eaten after our previous visit two days before. This time we were seated in a cold section of the restaurant and our waiter had a snotty and uncooperative attitude. We managed to get some soup and Dan drank a glass or two of wine. We were just leaving when Mark Stephens showed up. Mark is the son of Steve, Dan's friend since junior high, recently deceased. We had been trying to firm up a meeting with him for the past couple of days, but complications had caused us to give up. When he appeared, we moved to a warmer table, then we got dinner for him, pie for me, and wine for Dan. We had a nice visit.

Mark Stephens at Nectar Restaurant
Photo by Dan L. Smith

Afterward we took the cab back to the hotel, arriving about 8:30. We called it a night right away.