Bike the sites on the Mall

Detail from the Vietnam Women's Memorial on the National Mall, dedicated on Armistice Day, 1993 and designed by Glenna Goodacre (1939-2020)/Photo by Patricia Leslie

I am a lucky gal! Not too far from the National Mall where I can hop on a bike and go riding the sites to see beautiful statues, art and scenery.  The Mall is so big, there's plenty to see.  Come on aboard, mates, for a wonderful time, corona-free, on a Sunday afternoon. Or, anytime.

Happy Memorial Day to veterans everywhere!  We thank you.

Photo by Patricia Leslie    

Our first stop was in Bolivar Gardens a block north of the National Mall where Virginia, C and 18th streets meet in Washington, D.C. This park was named after "the Liberator" Simon Bolivar (1783-1830).

The Republic of Venezuela gave the statue to the U.S. in 1958 which is across the street from the Pan American Union Building of the Organization of American States. Felix de Weldon designed it and the Iwo Jima Memorial.

Here, General Bolivar, proud centerpiece of the park, leads troops to freedom from Spain which formerly occupied what is now Venezuela, Bolivia, Columbia, Equator, Peru, and Panama. 
Near General Bolivar and the Lincoln Memorial is the Vietnam Veterans Memorial with the names of 58,318 veterans who died as a result of the war. Some 3,000,000 persons visit the memorial every year, designed in blind competition by Yale University student, Maya Lin (b. 1959)/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Across the grass from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is the Vietnam Women's Memorial dedicated on Armistice Day, 1993, designed by Glenna Goodacre (1939-2020)/Photo by Patricia Leslie

 The Vietnam Women's Memorial/Photo by Patricia Leslie

 Detail from the Vietnam Women's Memorial/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The sculptor's signature stone at the Vietnam Women's Memorial/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Photo by Patricia Leslie 

Between the WWII and the Lincoln memorials and not far from the Korean War Veterans Memorial, is the District of Columbia War Memorial which lists in alphabetical order the names of all 499 District men and women who died in World War I service. Not rank, not race, nor gender is important at this memorial.

The website at the National Park Service says the structure is big enough to accommodate the U.S. Marine Corps band and was built as a bandstand for concerts to honor the war dead. 

General John J. Pershing and John Philip Sousa, the former conductor of the Marine Corps Band, were among the thousands who attended or listened to live radio coverage of the ceremony when President Herbert Hoover dedicated the War Memorial on Armistice Day, November 11,1931.

For years the memorial stood unattended, in poor condition, hidden in trees, unseen by many, neglected and languishing until 2010 when a $3.6 million grant paid for its restoration. Since then, the roof (below) has deteriorated and needs work.

The D.C. War Memorial on the National Mall with a rusty canopy, in need of refurbishment/Photo by Patricia Leslie

From a cluster of cherry blossom trees, the Washington Monument rises/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The centerfold of the World War II Memorial is the Lincoln Memorial, seen in the distance. The DC Memorial stands in the trees on the left, and the Vietnam memorials, in the trees on the right/Photo by Patricia Leslie

A host of golden daffodils border the entrance to the 9th Street Expressway adjacent to the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Beautiful, fragrant hyacinths dot the landscape somewhere on the Mall/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Snow in springtime? It happens, but these pretties were also along the walkway beside the Natural History museum/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Photo by Patricia Leslie 

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt summoned his friend, Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, and told him that if a memorial were erected to the president, FDR would like it to be about the size of his desk, please, nothing fancy, but a location at the corner of the U.S. National Archives would be nice.  And so it was, dedicated on the 20th anniversary of President Roosevelt's death, April 12, 1965 on Pennsylvania Avenue.

The FDR Memorial at National Archives/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The Vietnam Women's Memorial/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The museums are still closed but that doesn't keep hundreds from enjoying the statuary and beautiful scenery at the Mall where spaciousness permits easy social distancing. Mask wearers vary from about a third a few weeks ago to more than half now.

Yes! Get on that bike and ride, have fun, and learn a thing or two. (Read other recent posts "on the Mall": the delay of the dedication of the Eisenhower Memorial and a sad Earth Day Park.)

patricialesli@gmail.com

Last Washington weekend for Vermeer and Golden Age artists

Johannes Vermeer, Dutch, 1632-1675, Woman Writing a Letter, With Her Maid, c. 1670-1671, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin

 Contingent upon the powers that agree or not agree on a government shutdown, it was reported last night that museums will remain open until Monday enabling the National Gallery of Art to present a major show for one more weekend.

At the Gallery guests will find others standing in a long (but fast moving) line to see a probable once-in-a-lifetime exhibition which is well worth the short (it may not look it) wait.  Private collectors and 33 museums from around the world loaned works for the show.

  

 Frans van Mieris, Dutch, 1635-1681, Woman Playing a Theorbo-Lute, 1663, Scottish National Gallery, Edinburg.  Mieris' teacher was Gerrit Dou (below)

Once inside the galleries, visitors will view domestic scenes of the 17th century by Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) and his Golden Age colleagues whose competitive streaks drove them to achieve mastery in this genre of domesticity.

 Edgar van der Neer, Dutch, c. 1634-1703, Woman Tuning a Lute, 1678, Bayerische Staatsgemaldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek, Munich



Segregated in galleries by theme, motif, and composition, paintings were generally completed over 30 years (mid 1650s to about 1680). They depict everyday life in almost 70 different scenes, including ten by Vermeer, some of which have not been seen in the U.S. since their last presentation 22 years ago at the National Gallery. (Then, during the Vermeer exhibition of 1995-1996, the Gallery suffered two government shutdowns  but private donors came to the rescue, permitting the Vermeer exhibit to be open while the rest of the National Gallery remained closed.)

 Gabriel Metsu, Dutch, 1629-1667, Woman Writing a Letter, c. 1662-1664, The Leiden Collection, New York

Vermeer painted painstakingly but his work was generally unknown during his lifetime outside of Delft where he lived with his wife and ten (or eleven; depending upon what you read) children. (Four other children died as infants.) 

Perhaps because of his large family and obligations as an innkeeper, art dealer, and his meticulous attention to his art,  Vermeer's output was small (only 34 or 35, depending upon your sources) limiting dissemination to the public to purchase and support the artist. His wife, Catharina Boines, attributed her husband's death to financial pressures. One day he was well, and the next day, not so well, she wrote.  Whatever he was, his family was left in heavy debt.

Frans van Mieris, Dutch, 1635-1681, Woman Sealing a Letter by Candlelight, 1667, Private collection.  Mieris' teacher was Gerrit Dou (below)

About two centuries after his death, Vermeer was "discovered" by a German museum director. 

This information and much more is found in the 320 paged catalog with 180 color illustrations, available in the National Gallery's shops.

Gerrit Dou, Dutch, 1613-1675, The Dropsical Woman, 1663, Musée du Louvre, Paris.  Do you like the adjective? The label copy notes the physician examines a vial of urine to try to determine what ails m'lady while the catalog says doctors visiting female patients in the second half of the 17th century "enjoyed considerable popularity." A chapter in the catalog, "Heartache," includes other works of doctors' visits to women:  The Doctor's Visit (Steen and one by the same title by van Mieris), The Swoon (van Mieris), and The Doctor (Dou).  You must see to believe! 

Besides Vermeer, the other artists represented are Gerard ter Borch, Gerrit Dou, Pieter de Hooch, Gabriel Metsu, Frans van Mieris, Caspar Netscher, Jan Steen, Cornelis Bisshis, Samuel van Hoogstraten, Nicolaes Maes, Cornelis de Man, Eglon van der Neer, and Jacob Ochtervelt, all from the Netherlands, all from the Golden Age of Art.

Gabriel Metsu, Dutch, 1629-1667, Woman Reading a Letter, c. 1664-1666, The National Gallery or Ireland, Dublin. How many dissertations have been written about this painting? I think it is my favorite in the show because of its complexity and once you think you may have discerned a possible meaning for a portion of it, another door opens to another possibility and endless interpretations.  It is a huge puzzle which I could gaze upon for hours, I believe. Note the maid, with her back to the viewer, holds a letter and looks out the window upon an angry sea. What is going on? Is someone longing for...whom? Upon the floor lies a discarded shoe while the lady reads a love letter?  She threw the shoe at her lover who escaped through the window to another shore?  What say ye the meaning of this? This is fun.  You see, art doesn't always have to be serious.  Find your meanings and observe the similarity with Vermeer's Woman Writing a Letter, With Her Maid, above, and write soon.

For some reason the show's paintings which were of most interest to me and pictured here, show the subjects looking to their rights which is the source of much of the light (the viewer's left). Sometimes the subjects greet guests face on. Why does the light never come from the right?  Many of those hanging on the walls feature women in similar constructions. Please see what you think and write soon.

At the opening of the exhibition, His Excellency Henne Schuwer, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the United States, praises the warm relationship between his nation and the U.S.  To his right is Earl A. Powell, III,  the director of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and on Ambassador Schuwer's left are Mary Streett of BP, the major sponsor of the Vermeer show, and Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr., curator of Northern Baroque paintings for the National Gallery of Art/Photo by Patricia Leslie



The exhibition was curated by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., curator of Northern Baroque paintings, National Gallery of Art, Washington; Dr. Adriaan Waiboer, head of collections and research, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin; and Blaise Ducos, curator of Dutch and Flemish paintings, Musée du Louvre, Paris.  

Before the presentation came to the National Gallery of Art, it opened last year at the Louvre, followed by exhibition at the National Gallery of Ireland. 

On the first page of the catalog, BP, the major sponsor, commends the National Gallery:  "What makes the National Gallery such a special place is not only its extraordinary collection but the fact that its offerings may be viewed free of charge."
 
What: Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting: Inspiration and Rivalry

When: The National Gallery of Art is open 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and 11 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sunday. The exhibition closes Sunday, January 21, 2018.

Where: West Building, the National Gallery of Art, between Third and Ninth streets at Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. On the Mall.

Admission charge: Never an admission charge at the National Gallery of Art.

Metro stations for the National Gallery of Art:
Smithsonian, Federal Triangle, Navy Memorial-Archives, or L'Enfant Plaza

For more information: 202-737-4215

patricialesli@gmail.com

 

The last 'Rainy Day' in Washington at the National Gallery of Art

Gustave Caillebotte, Paris Street, Rainy Day, 1877, The Art Institute of Chicago.  This work anchored the exhibition at the National Gallery of Art.

Dear Readers, I regret to inform you that I am late posting about this magnificent show ending today at the National Gallery of Art, and I can only hope this brief description will provide a glimpse of the French artist, Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894)  the man who would be lawyer,  engineer, collector,  feminist, and an Impressionist realist artist himself whose works increase in stature, interest,  and reputation with every passing year. 

Fifty of Caillebotte's paintings prove it in The Painter's Eye.

Family money allowed Caillebotte to collect art, and that he did, at a time when Impressionism was in its infancy and still quite controversial.  He bought art by Pissarro, Monet, Renoir, Sisley, Degas, Manet, and Cezanne, among others, and gave many to museums and to the French government which vetoed some of his gifts.  (Years later, when the government came calling, Caillebotte's sister-in-law refused to give the government the art pieces it had initially rejected.)

Caillebotte did not need to sell his own works to eat, and he seldom marketed his paintings.

Gustave Caillebotte, Luncheon, 1876, Private Collection.  

Caillebotte drew Luncheon not long after his father died.  The viewer becomes a guest at the table where Caillebotte's younger brother, Rene, dives into his food, not waiting on the butler to finish serving his mother.  A year later, Rene was dead at age 25 which led Gustave to write his will early, including disposition of his art collection.

Gustave Caillebotte, Self Portrait, 1888-1889, Private Collection

Gustave Caillebotte, The Floor Scrapers, 1875,

Musée d'Orsay, Paris, Gift of Caillebotte's heirs through the intermediary of Auguste Renoir, 1894

The Floor Scrapers, a scene the painter may have drawn from his own studio and considered Caillebotte's first masterpiece, was rejected by the Paris art establishment in 1875 because the workers were considered "vulgar," and not acceptable as representatives in art of the working class.  Only peasants and farmers were sanctioned.

Gustave Caillebotte, Man on a Balcony, Boulevard Haussmann, 1880, Private Collection.  In 2000 this sold for more than $14.3 million.

Gustave Caillebotte, Interior, Woman at the Window, 1880,  Private Collection 

I like to think of Mr. Caillebotte as a feminist.  Compare Man on a Balcony with Interior, Woman at the Window.  Note the man's cavalier stance, his debonair position of strength and confidence as he gazes out upon the Paris scene below.  "Harrumph," he seems to complain:  "What manner goes here?  I do not know if I approve." Perhaps there are too many floor scrapers idling at lunch, 

Meanwhile, in contrast is the woman, above, in funereal garb, standing in her "cage," the railing which is much higher than the man's, mind adrift, thinking, perhaps, "what if?" while looking out beyond to the figure in the window across the way.  Adjacent there in the chair is her keeper and bored husband:  "Shhhh!  Can't you see I am reading?" his position suggests.

The Gallery wall label says these two paintings may have been a pair. 

Gustave Caillebotte, Interior, a Woman Reading, 1880, Private Collection 

And what in the world do you make of this little shrimp of a man lying on the sofa, about half the size of the woman in the chair?  He reminds me of The Incredible Shrinking Man, and maybe that's what he is to his mate.  The same couple pictured in Interior, Woman at the Window (above)? As the length of their relationship grows, his importance diminishes.

Gustave Caillebotte, The Bridge at Argenteuil, 1883, Private Collection

Gustave Caillebotte, The Fields, a Plain in Gennevilliers, Study in Yellow and Green, 1884, Collection of Frederic C. Hamilton, Bequest to the Denver Art Museum

You see what you missed!  

Alas, not all is lost, however, since a fine catalog, Gustave Caillebotte:  A Painter's Eye of almost 300 pages is available, and you may wish to see the show at

the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth where it opens November 8 through February 14, 2016.  The Kimbell and the National Gallery co-organized the exhibition.

patricialesli@gmail.com

Old Paris for Christmas at the National Gallery of Art

 

Charles Marville, Salle des Cariatides, au Musée du Louvre (Gallery of the Caryatids, Musée du Louvre), 1851, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Patrons' Permanent Fund

Is anyone not in love with Paris?  Yesterday?  Today or tomorrow?

You don't want to miss the city of love and light when it was turning over in the middle of the 19th century in a period of urban revolution, a city in transformation, captured in 99 photographs and three albums now on view at the National Gallery of Art.

It's all the work of Charles Marville (1813-1879) in the first Marville show in the U.S., accompanied by "the first scholarly catalogue" about the official photographer of Paris who also acted as photographer to the Louvre.  A man who died in relative obscurity, "one of the most accomplished and prolific photographers in the history of the medium," with nary an obituary but whose work is suddenly coming to light, thanks to the work of Sarah Kennel, the National Gallery's associate curator of photographs who curated the show, independent researcher Daniel Catan, and others.

Charles Marville, Percement de l'avenue de l'Opera (Construction of the avenue de l'Opera), Dec. 1876, Musee Carnavalet, Paris, copyright, Musee Carnavale/Roger-Viollet

 

Marville photographed not only cityscapes but scenes in France, Italy, and Germany, the lakes surrounding Paris, countrysides, buildings, bridges, and sculptures which convey in their golden sepia tones, an aura of peace.

Charles Marville, Man Reclining Beneath a Chestnut Tree, c. 1853, lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1946. Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art.  The man in this photo is believed to be Marville.

Before they were razed to make way for the "new" Paris under the direction of Baron Haussmann, Napoleon III's chief urban planner, crumbling structures and narrow, long streets filled the city.* On commission by the government, Marville took 425 pictures "before" and "after."  

For the most part, people are noticeably absent from the photographs whose long exposures demanded the subjects stand still three to fifteen seconds. The scenes are often bleak and lifeless, eerily quiescent, with no evidence of animal, person, or litter. It's as if a movie studio contracted with the city to use the streets for filming to ensure no movements of any living thing occurred.

The catalogue suggests a comparison to a catastrophe hitting the city, and in some ways it did with the demolition of so many structures now deemed more valuable in their absence than their presence, much like some structures and other entities we see today. (Permits for the teardown of the Third Church of Christ, Scientist, at the corner of 16th and I, N.W., Washington, D.C. were issued Oct. 13, 2013.)

Marville's pictures stand as monuments to the cemetery of buildings, and it is agonizing to see the remains of Hotel de Ville, the city hall, a building started in 1532 and destroyed by the 1871 fire of the Paris Commune (which followed the Second Empire and preceded the Third Republic).

Stored in the building were Marville's historic photographs, documents, paintings, sculpture, and all the city's archives which perished.

Fascinating comparisons of the Fontaine des Innocents from the year after the memorial was completed in 1850, to 1858, 1868, and 1871 show the changes to the square made into a park with splendor replaced by a confined, "tamed fountain."

Charles Marville, Fontaine des Innocents, 1858, the AIA/AAF Collection, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

 
Marville was not his real surname. That was Bossu which, in French, means hunchback. Bullying is not a contemporary worldwide phenomenon, sadly, but Marville, a diminutive man, 5 feet, 2 inches, was bullied, too, and desired to change his image. When he was 18, he informally adopted "Marville," which the catalogue notes, is close to the French "ma ville" (my city).Was it coincidence that his name change occurred around the same time as the publication of Victor Hugo's Le Bossu de Notre-Dame, the catalogue asks.

Marville was born in Paris where he grew up in modest, but not impoverished, surroundings.His father was a tailor, and his mother, a laundress.

Charles Marville, Haut de la rue Champlain (vue prise a droit) (Top of the rue Champlain) (View to the Right) (20th arrondissement), 1877-1878, Musee Carnavalet, Paris, copyright, Charles Marville/Musee Carnavale/Roger-Viollet

 

The Musee Carnavalet, Paris, loaned the National Gallery almost half the works in the show which cover Marville's career.

Charles Marville, South Portal, Chartres Cathedral, 1854, lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Jennifer and Joseph Duke Gift and the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Fund, through Joyce and Robert Menschell, 2000. Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

 

For romantics and those Parisian lovers on your gift list, a handsome 266-paged color catalogue is available in the National Gallery shops.

The show's next stops are the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, which helped the National Gallery of Art organize the show, from January 27 -May 4, 2014, and the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, June 13-September 14, 2014.

The people of the United States are grateful to Leonard and Elaine Silverstein for helping make the exhibition possible.

In honor of the exhibition which celebrates the bicentennial of the artist's birth, Chef Michel Richard of Washington, D.C. and the National Gallery's Executive Chef Pierre Cummings have designed a special menu with French dishes, wines, and beer for the Gallery's Garden Café Francais in the West Building.

 

George Marville, Urinoir (systeme Jennings) plateau de l'Ambigu (Urinal, Jennings System, plateau de l'Ambigu, 1876. Musee Carnavalet, Paris, copyright, Musee Carnavale/Roger-Viollet

 

 Marville talks:

December 14, 15, 17, 18,and 20 beginning at 12 p.m., the West Building Rotunda with Eric Denker. Duration: 50 minutes.

What: Charles Marville: Photographer of Paris

When: Now through January 5, 2014, 10 a.m.- 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and 11 a.m.- 6 p.m., Sunday.

Where: Ground Floor, the West Building, National Gallery of Art, between Third and Ninth streets at Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. On the Mall. The closest Gallery entrance to the Marville show is on Seventh Street, N.W.

Admission: No charge

Metro stations: Smithsonian, Federal Triangle, Navy Memorial-Archives, or L'Enfant Plaza

For more information: 202-737-4215

Palace Resorts Package Deals: Save $200 on select flight + hotel vacation packages with promo code MEXICO200.

*In the December 8, 2013 issue of the Washington Post, book editor Jonathan Yardley named Paris Reborn:Napoleon III, Baron Haussmann, and the Quest to Build a Modern City by Stephane Kirkland, one of the best books of 2013.

patricialesli@gmail.com