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Emil Nolde (1867-1956) Gentleman and a Lady (Lady with a Fur), 1918, Im Obersteg Foundation, permanent loan to the Kunstmuseum Basel
Sunday will be the last day at the Phillips Collection to see 61 works hanging together for the first time in the U.S.
The art comes from the Kunstmuseum Basel in Switzerland and the private collections of Karl Im Obersteg (1883-1969) and Rudolf Staechelin (1881-1946) who acquired stunning impressionist, post-impressionist, and modern paintings (1870-1939) early on by artists of Russian, Swiss, French, German, and Dutch heritages.
Dorothy Kosinski, the director of the Phillips, is a Swiss citizen whose friendship with those in Switzerland was key to bringing the masterpieces to Washington.
Im Obersteg and Staechelin were contemporary collectors of Duncan Phillips (1886-1966), the founder of the Phillips, all of whom saw talent and treasure in the pieces of post-war and modern translations.
Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) NAFEA faaipoipo (When Will You Marry Me?), 1892, The Rudolph Staechelin Collection
Who but Picasso painted this nude below? An abstraction of a model fondles a pillow. It's one of four Picassos in the exhibition.
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) Sleeping Nude, 1934, Im Obersteg Foundation, permanent loan to the Kunstmuseum Basel
Below is a self portrait done by the Russian expressionist, Alexej von Jawlensky who was influenced by the mysticism of the Eastern Orthodox Church and his belief that "art is a longing for God." During World War I he joined other avant-garde artists in Switzerland where he met Im Obersteg, and the two became lifelong friends.
Alexej von Jawlensky (1864-1941) Self-Portrait, 1911, Im Obersteg Foundation, permanent loan to the Kunstmuseum Basel
Alexej von Jawlensky (1864-1941) Still Life, 1915, Im Obersteg Foundation, permanent loan to the Kunstmuseum Basel
Ferdinand Hodler rendered more than 100 works devoted to his companion, Valentine Godel-Darel, as she coped with illness. He called her "a Byzantine Empress in the mosaics at Ravenna," and destroyed many he made of her because they did not "represent what I have seen."
Ferdinand Hodler (1853-1918) The Patient, November, 1914, The Rudolph Staechelin Collection
Marc Chagall's three 1914 "monumental" rabbi paintings are in the show, including the one below. The label copy notes his works show the influences of his Jewish Russian heritage and his training in Paris. (Who can deny their past?) The outbreak of World War I prolonged a trip Chagall made to his homeland (of what is now Belarus), giving him opportunities to meet rabbis and beggars invited into his family's home. Here Chagall combined them into one personality. A self-portrait he made, also in 1914, is pictured further below.
Marc Chagall (1887-1985) Jew in Black and White, 1914, Im Obersteg Foundation, permanent loan to the Kunstmuseum Basel
Vincent van Gogh (1853-90) The Garden of Daubigny July, 1890, The Rudolph Staechelin Collection
Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) Red Roof by the Water, 1885, The Rudolph Staechelin Collection
Ferdinand Hodler (1853-1918) Portrait of Regina Morgeron, 1911, Im Obersteg Foundation, permanent loan to the Kunstmuseum Basel
In the self-portrait below, the label copy says Marc Chagall combined Cubism and Orphism to paint himself (in 1914 at the outbreak of World War) as though looking in a mirror. Years later after the Nazis called his work "degenerate," the artist fled to New York in 1941 where he met a dealer who sold one of Chagall's works to Duncan Phillips, the host of one of the first Chagall shows in the U.S.
Marc Chagall (1887-1985) Self-Portrait, 1914, Im Obersteg Foundation, permanent loan to the Kunstmuseum Basel
Also on the walls at the Phillips are works by Camille Pissarro, Cuno Amiet, Paul Cezanne, Andre Derain, Wassily Kandinsky, Edouard Manet, and Amedeo Modigliani.
And Claude Monet, Odilon Redon, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Georges Rouault, Chaim Soutine, Maurice Utrillo, Suzanne Valadon (Utrillo's mother), and Maurice de Vlaminck.
For more enjoyment of the show, a catalogue and audio cellphone tour are available.
The paintings pictured above are the ones which had the most impact on me, whether it was subject, colors, perspectives, mood, emotions, or eye contact (!), but the names of the artists had no bearing on my choices. How do they strike you? Go and see, and please write soon.
What: Gauguin to Picasso: Masterworks from Switzerland - The Staechelin and Im Obersteg Collections
When:
Now through January 10, 2016, 10 a.m. - 5
p.m., and Sunday, 12 - 7 p.m.
Where: The Phillips Collection, 1600 21st St., N.W. at Q St., Washington, D.C. 20009
Tickets: $12, $10 for students and those over 62, free for members and for children 18 and under.
Metro Station: Dupont Circle (Q Street exit. Turn left and walk one block.)
For more information: 202-387-2151
Patricialesli@gmail.com
Aristide Maillol, The Three Nymphs, 1930-38, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C./Patricia Leslie
An exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art is the only place in the U.S. to see “Arcadia” or “earthly paradise” where, depending upon your mood and acceptance of the surroundings, you may enjoy a stroll through galleries and likely benefit from the emotionally medicinal effects of the exhibition, Gauguin, Cezanne, Matisse: Visions of Arcadia.
(A suggested sub-title for the display is “Naked People in the Woods” which, indeed, mirrors titles of two of the paintings, Three Nudes in the Forest by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Nude in a Wood by Henri Matisse.)
On a press tour, the museum’s senior curator of European painting before 1900, Joseph J. Rishel, teasingly said, for reasons of modesty, he could not tell his audience about certain drawings by Henri Matisse, and he pointed to a wall several feet away where Matisse hung. (By Jove, let’s go take a look! Unfortunately, I was unable to locate any suggestive renderings.)
Senior Curator of European Painting before 1900, Joseph J. Rishel, talks about Nicholas Konstantinovich Roerich's Our Forefathers, c. 1911, Philadelphia Museum of Art/
Patricia Leslie
Whatever viewers may find, Philadelphia hosts another blockbuster show which runs through September 3, 2012.
Henri Rousseau, Pablo Picasso, Robert Delaunay, Paul Signac, Nicholas Poussin, Georges Seurat and Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova of Russia, who may be the only female representative, are some of the 27 artists featured in the display of 60 works organized by PMOA from collections around the world.
Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova, Boys Bathing, c. 1910, Museum Wiesbaden, Germany
The exhibition focuses on three large paintings hung together in one gallery which form “the very foundations of modern art,” according to the museum: Paul Cezanne’s The Large Bathers (1906), Paul Gauguin’s Where Do We Come From? What are We? Where Are We Going? (1897-98) (Question: Do you ask yourself this every day?), and Matisse’s Bathers by a River (1909-17).
According to Curator Rishel, before World War I artists were “fueled by high optimism and sometimes profound unease,” and they “looked inward and toward each other to give creative shape to the common fate of the human condition.”
It is probable that both Cezanne and Matisse saw and/or heard about Gauguin’s Where? What? Where? which may have influenced their own choices for an “earthly paradise.”
It was a time of vast social and technological changes (sound familiar?) and the artists desired a return to a saintly, more simplistic state, a land of make-believe where humans harmonized with nature in Eden-like settings. No rush, no horns, no mean people snapping at you, but tranquility and serenity. Who doesn’t need such an escape?
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Goatherd of Terni, c. 1871, Philadelphia Museum of Art
This magical, mystery tour of beautiful bodies in peaceful landscapes is a certain prescription for malady.
Henri Edmond Cross, Study for "Faun," 1905-06, Musee de Grenoble, France
Robert Delaunay, The City of Paris, 1910-12, Centre Georges Pompidou, Musee National d'Art Moderne, Paris
Combine a trip to the exhibit with visits to Philadelphia’s newly re-opened Rodin Museum, the new Barnes, and the historic Eastern State Penitentiary, all within walking distance of the PMOA.
And a good place to eat right in the neighborhood is the London Grill at 2301 Fairmount Avenue. It was every bit as good as Fodor's described, with delicious hamburgers and an arugula salad with tomatoes (sub for fries) to die for. Plus homemade beer! What a ride. Right on the way to the prison.
A trip by Amtrak from Washington to Philly is usually always stress-free and economical. And you can take your food, your luggage, your beverages, and bypass the TSA wardens.
Let us go then, you and I, and return to the forest unashamed and welcoming of nature and its bounty, and forget the turmoil which surrounds us daily in the sea of madness.
What: Gauguin, Cezanne, Matisse: Visions of Arcadia
When: Now through September 3, 2012 (open on Labor Day), Tuesday – Sunday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. and open late on some Friday nights
Where: Philadelphia Museum of Art, the landmark on the hill at 26th Street and Benjamin Franklin Parkway
Admission (includes audio tour): $25 (adults), $23 (seniors), $20 (students, 13 - 18), $14 (children, 5 – 12), free for children under age 5. Discounts and private tours are available. Check here.
For more information: 215-763-8100 and www.philamuseum.org
Aristide Maillol, The Three Nymphs, 1930-38, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C./Patricia Leslie
Emil Nolde (1867-1956) Gentleman and a Lady (Lady with a Fur), 1918, Im Obersteg Foundation, permanent loan to the Kunstmuseum Basel
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