D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts

The museum was which opened in 1933 was previously called Springfield's Museum of Fine Arts. It is now named after Donald D'Amour who besides being a member of the Board of Trustees of the Springfield Museum is also CEO of Big Y http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/exhibitionist/2008/06/the_damour_muse.htm

The Currier & Ives collection is one of the largest collection in the World besides the collections in the Library of Congress and the Museum of the City of New York. The collection is so large so it cannot be dispayed in its entirety, but is displayed in parts so that visitors will naturally come back to see more. The prints represent American culture in the 19th century. It includes the Revolutionary and Civil wars, Barnum's Circus, firefighting, hunting, city life, western expansion and political portraits. Many of the scenes relate to New England and are very realistic. Currier & Ives, produced two to three new images every week for 64 years (1834-1895, and it is estimated that they have produced a total of 7,450 different images. They employed or used the work of many well-known artists like J.F. Butterworth, A.F. Tait, Thomas Nast, C.H. Moore, Eastman Johnson, and Frances (Fanny) Flora Bond Palmer. Lithographs were produced on special stones on which the drawing was done by hand. The stone took over a week to prepare for printing. Each print was pulled by hand and hand-painted by mostly immigrants from Germany with an art background. They were paid $6 per 100 prints colored. The small prints sold for twenty cents and the large prints sold at between $1 and $3. The firm closed in 1907 and the prints are considered valuable works of art.http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/4aa/4aa436.htm

On display now through January 18, 20o9 is "Behind the Scenes, the Artists that worked for Currier & Ives". Here is a print designed by Fanny Palmer, called "The Old Homestead".http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/8aa/8aa119.htm . I really like her tones of greens, blues, and pinks and the shadowing used. Fanny Palmer worked for Currier & Ives for 30 years. She did not sign her work, but it is believed that she created thousands of prints and pained directly on the stones for some of her paintings.
The lettering on the prints were created by artist, J. Schultz. They employed hundreds of craftsman who grinded stone, printed, hand-colered, sold and obtained images.

I want to also include Currier & Ives web page which is very imformative. It includes a section on Printmaking, There is supposed to be a Virtual Exhibit Tour, but the link wasn't working when I tried it. The picture at the top of the page is called, "Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, and the Chattanooga Railroad".
Many battles curing the Revolutionary and Civil Wars took place at Lookout Mountain. The mountain draws many tourists as you can see it would by its beauty. Many tourists in the past traveled south on the railroad to Chattanooga and then rented a buggy for the four-hour ride up to the top of the lookout. Later some railroads were built near Chattanooga including an incline an incline railway to get the tourists up the mountain faster. The focus of Currier & Ives was on the beautiful landscape. You can see the train in the valley. The colors blend so well well in this print and seem so evenly distributed. Here are some other prints that I enjoyed from the permanent collection. It was definitely worth the trip. I was surprised that Salvador Dali also created lithographs. This is called, "Landscape Fruit and Flowers". These prints that I have displayed feel so warm.






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KJ's Trip to Yale Center for British Art

I found myself drawn to several paintings, one of which was the work of John Linnell, a well-known English landscape painter. He was born into an artist family. Linnell's father was a carver and gilder. He met John Varley (the distinguished landscape painter who became his teacher. After a year he became a student of the Royal Academy School at the age of 13. He was a very diverse artist and engraver painting with oils and watercolors. While at the Academy, he received a medal for drawing from life and for life modeling.
Although he made a good living as a portrait painter, he still had a passion for landscape painting which he decided to dedicate his time to in the late 1840s. Linnell was a deeply religious man who also painted Biglical landscapes in addition to his home in Surrey. He was a very successful painter and recognized and encouraged talent such as William Blake's work and 17 year old Samuel Palmer. He also supported the Pre-Raphaelites (Rossetti, Holman Hunt and Millais). The Pre-Raphaelites what they called the mechanistic approach to painting. They favored detail and intense color. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Raphaelite_Brotherhood Linnell married Mary Ann Palmer (not related to Samuel Palmer) and they had nine children of which three of his sons also became artists. His oldest daughter, Hannah, married Samuel Palmer. The painting above is called "The Shephard Boy" http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/gallery/linnell/biography.htm
Here is one of Samuel Palmer's works:
The Shephard Boy painting depicts Linnell's attention to detail with a figure of a boy piping surrounded by a flock of sheep. When I first noticed this picture, it looked like an old man instead of a boy, but when you look at the facial features, you see it is a boy. The coloring is subtle and smoothly painted. It has a rustic look to it which is probably what drew me to it as well as my love for animals. When you look at the painting the brush strokes are not really that smooth, but when looking at it more from a distance it appears to be smooth. It is a very peaceful scene.

The Met

I finally made it to the Met. I went with my friend Debbie and we had a great time. It was truly an experience to remember. The museum opened February 20, 1872 and is almost a quarter mile long and more than two million square feet. It is one of the largest art galleries in the world and houses more than two million works of art in its permanent collection. People from all over the world visit the Met. The permanent collection includes the Classical period, Egypt, Europe, America, African, Asian, Oceanic, Byzantine, and Islamic art. There are also musical instruments, costumes and accessories, weapons, and armor. You can't possibly see everything in one day as I found out. It was very difficult to choose a piece of art to write about this time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Museum_of_Art

I took a lot of pictures and finally I decided on the late Baroque period. The painting I chose is called The Holy Family with Angels by Sebastiano Ricci painted. The medium used was oil on canvas.

Sebastiano Ricci was an Italian painter during the Baroque period. He studied in Venice and later traveled and worked in Vienna, London, and Paris. It is said that his style of painting was influenced by Paolo Verenese, an Italian Renaissance painter. Ricci was known for his religious and historic paintings. Ricci was later influenced by Rococo, a style characterized by free graceful movement with delicate colors. Love and romance scenes were painted instead of historic or religious scenes. http://wwar.com/masters/r/ricci-sebastiano.html

As Ricci’s reputation for his artistic ability grew, the knowledge of his imprisonments, and love affairs grew too. He attempted to poison Maddalena van der Meer when he learned that she was pregnant. He was freed from jail by a nobleman and forced to marry Maddalena. http://wwar.com/masters/r/ricci-sebastiano.html As you probably guessed it didn't work out.
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I was drawn to this painting by the intense emotion it created in me. I have seen other paintings with the same subjects, but I was fascinated by the display of colors. The light shines through and is reflected on the angel shoulder. The royal blue robe that the Virgin Mary is wearing is so vivid in contrast to the translucent appearance of their skin. The chubby baby Jesus is sleeping contently while the angels watch him so intently. Mary's and Jesus's rosey cheeks look so natural. When I looked at this painting, I didn't notice Joseph in the back. Joseph appears to be writing in a book behind Mary and Jesus. There is a definite emphasis on Mary holding Jesus. The brush strokes are so smooth and deliberate in this painting.