The “New”, as critic Robert Hughes calls it, comes in stages and each painter comes in his or her own way. Manet and Caillebotte are the true Januses, who look forward and back. “The Floor Scrapers” of Gustave Caillebotte and the “The Fife Player” by Édouard Manet are perfect examples of what happens when formalists look at real life.
But back to the question of small children looking at paintings. All of the images that we’ve reviewed are comprehensible to even the youngest viewers, if they aren’t asleep. They can appreciate the straight backed lady in the rocking chair and the boy in the baggy uniform playing a little flute. I’m not so foolish as to suggest that the Horrors of War by Goya is suitable for anyone under the age of 10. (It will give 10-year-olds nightmares, just like the rest of us.) But the minds of young children are fed by wonderful paintings. They will tell themselves stories for the pictures and so remember.
There were also middle and high school folks in this treasure trove. They were listening, almost to a person, to the gallery walk. Try as they might, they couldn’t keep up the bored, adolescent facade. They looked and could not stop looking—I do wish I could talk to them. Just as there is nothing like live theatre to open and fire the imagination, there is nothing like real paintings to do the same.
Now we enter into the first real flower of Impressionism and all bets are off. Alfred Sisley has three paintings, in three different styles, painted within 2 years of each other and that, my dears, is why a show of this size is so exciting. To watch a painter experiment and change is such a thrill. In the middle rooms we come to the man who brought me to Impressionism long before I knew the word, August Renoir. Yes, he could paint junk, but when he was good, he was so good. The little girl got tired in the room with a very large portrait of a very grand lady by our own August. I think it frightened our small art lover because it was so big. Very large (6’6” X 3’?) it represents a handsome, full figured lady whose hair is up in lustrous braids and she stands in a ruffled satin afternoon gown. Any fairy lover will love this picture.
But look, over on the right hand wall, there is a small perfection by the same guy. Sketched with a very fast hand is the image of a little gully in springtime in Algeria. It might not interest the child but will feed the soul of the parent. For here is light and shadow and grass and heat and all in little space. Breathe deep, and look, it will give you strength for the journey.
Manet and Caillebotte have another thing in common: they both supported other painters. Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894) had a lot of private money from textiles, and he spent a little of it on his friend’s paintings. When he died, far too young, he left his collection of over 500 pieces to the nation of France. They didn’t want them all. Don’t get me started! Édouard Manet is the patron saint of this entire show. In fact there is an apotheosis painting by Fantin-Latour of Manet and his circle. There is the saintly Manet (he really was a good guy, who supported his friends) with Zola and Renoir (very young) and a whole bunch of other luminaries. I could go on and on about Pissaro and Monet and Morisot and I can’t truly describe what I saw.
This particular show is short lived, as all the great ones are. Because the D’Orsay is doing a full refit, we luxuriate in their treasures. But, cousins, our own collections are like Ali Baba’s cave, filled with unknown jewels. The De Young, the Legion of Honor, the SF MOMA, the Asian Art and our own Oakland Museum of Art, all polished up and pretty. Take those babies and children and sullen teenagers to museums and show them the pictures. You will have a good afternoon and they will remember.
No comments:
Post a Comment