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Friday, May 21, 2010

Turners, Constables, and Winslow at National Gallery

We're in Omaha for the conference now, but I want to catch up on some of the DC sights. We did a number of things very superficially, but just walking through some of these rooms was like an aesthetic massage.
We finally got to the National Gallery.

The museum has a 'quick visit highlights' sort of guide so you can see their = - what should I say? most famous, most significant, best works. This one of Napoleon by David was on the list. But we got there accidentally.

Doug had suggested we go see the Turners in our quick visit at the National Gallery in London and somehow we missed them altogether. He also had planned to take us out to Constable country - where Constable painted in Essex. So these pictures are for Doug. The one above is a Turner. This British site says Turner is the Romantic painter of light.


Here's a Constable.  We did have a day with sunshine, but from what I can tell this isn't typical. 

More Turner.
Turner close up.

Even closer.


This is a closeup from Edward Hicks' Peaceable Kingdom.


I liked this one, but didn't get the name of the artist.  But I'll put it up anyway. 

And this is one of my favorite Winslow Homer paintings.  It's called Right and Left. 


I like to see artists working in the galleries like this. When I took a computer art class long ago, we all had to copy a masterpiece. I found I really discovered so much more in the picture than I ever would have. I'd recommend to anyone to even just try to sketch a picture. You suddenly see details and nuances you don't catch on the first 50 looks.

OK, next will either be a post on the conference or the East Wing of the National Gallery. I have shots of some delicious paintings.

1 comment:

  1. The National's collection of Camille Pisarro is ranked right behind that of the Musee d'Orsay. Hope you got to see them too.

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