The Wall Street Journal and "anthropomorphism"

Albrecht Altdorfer, Landscape with a Spruce  which may be confused with Landscape with Woodcutter, c. 1522/Kupferstichkabinett Berlin/Wikipedia Commons

Anthropomorphism is unusual enough to find the word in a newspaper, let alone two different articles covering the entirety of a single page. Both articles in the Journal's weekend edition, Sept. 19-20, 2020, about works by German artists, their lives separated by centuries.  

The word leaped from the Journal's page to me who did not know the meaning, but, ask me now! 

To those unlearneds, "anthropomorphism" is "having human characteristics" (like Trump).  

One article, "Rediscovering a Renaissance Man" by J.S. Marcus, is about the Louvre's new exhibition on works by Albrecht Altdorfer (c.1480-1538), who was forgotten for several hundred years until "rediscovered by 19th-century German art historians," and used in the next century by a different group of finders, the Nazis. They thought Mr. Altdorfer was a "folk artist" and used his art to convey their message. Current experts say they got it all wrong.

Mr. Altdorfer is generally considered one of the founders of the movement which came to be known as the Danube School. 

The Louvre's Altdorfer exhibition was delayed from April and set to begin October 1, according to WSJ (whoops!  This just in:  Delayed until Jan. 4 , 2021 !), with  191 works or "more than a third of his surviving oeuvre."  

(If only the French would let us back in! With the show's delay, maybe you can gain entry before it closes whenever that might be.. The National Gallery of Art in Washington has 167 Altdorfers in its collection, 

Who is WSJ writing for, anyway? Is Trump going to arm wrestle his good friends, President Macron and his wife, into opening the gates to France so Trump can toot the French horn? I imagine that in the time it's taken me to learn how to spell "anthropomorphism." Trump has probably written a symphony which will likely not impress his pals, the Proud Boys. What are they proud of anyway? Tatoos? Motorcycles? Looking like every other Harley-Davidson rider? You see what art can do!)

It's easy to see anthropomorphism in Mr. Altdorfer's Landscape With Spruce Tree, pictured in the Journal. The long, tall tree becomes long, tall Sally with stringy hair, sinewy arms, maybe wearing an apron and carrying a birdhouse purse. (The next time you're at the National Gallery of Art's Sculpture Garden, check out Roxy Paine's Graft for anthropomorphic examples.)

Eva Hesse, Repetition Nineteen III (1968)/The Estate of Eva Hesse. Hauser & Wirth/The Museum of Modern Art/Art Resource

Next up, the second WSJ article, "Making the Most of Minimalism" by Helen A. Cooper, about a "masterpiece," Repetition Nineteen III (1968) by German-American Eva Hesse (1936-1970).  It's a sculpture which looks like an enlargement (ahim, sick, sic) on orange hardwood of half cigarettes, some leaning left or bent; maybe dented in their centers, reminiscent of those candles you see (or saw) lighted on sidewalks at Christmas parties. 

The Museum of Modern Art just moved Repetition Nineteen from public view. Thanks, MOMA!  (Prithee, why run an article about this now which it leaves the stage? None of the National Gallery's six Hesses are on view either.) 

An article subtitle calls Nineteen a celebration of "humor, eroticism and discovery," The only anthropomorphism  I see are 19 male examples.  What do you think?

Ms. Hesse's family also had a connection to the Nazis., forced to flee Germany to save their lives. They made it to the Netherlands, and then to England before settling in  the U.S. in the late 1930s.  

At age 34, Ms. Hesse died of a brain tumor.

If you are still reading, I hope you have added a new word to your vocabulary, or maybe you knew it already. Can you spell it?  No peeking!

patricialesli@gmail.com

 

The 'Louvre' exits Washington on Sunday

Samuel F. B. Morse, Gallery of the Louvre, 1831–1833, oil on canvas, Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

What?

The Gallery of the Louvre is going to leave the National Gallery of Art on July 8 after a year's sojourn in Washington, alas.

Say it isn't so.  Can't it stay here forever?  The people love it and want it to remain in the West Building in that perfect gallery.

It is going to leave.  The Terra Foundation for American Art has been gracious to loan it to the National Gallery of Art where it has occupied prominent position, and there is only one day more to see it.

Samuel F. B. Morse (1791-1872), yes, the inventor (Morse code), painted Gallery of the Louvre between 1831-1833, and it is big.  He copied 38 masterpieces from the Louvre, and hung them in his Gallery of the Louvre's Salon Carre in desired arrangements that he favored. You may read more about it here. 

When I went over to the National Gallery at lunch to check out George Bellows again, I remembered the exit date for Louvre and swung around the corner for one last look. Sigh.

Have you ever heard of Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs?  You must not be from the South.  A modification of their hit "Stay" (1961) may be applied to the people's desire to re-arrange the location of Morse's Gallery.

Stay, ahhh
Just a little bit longer
Please, please, please, please, please
Tell me that you're going to

Now your owner won't mind
And the Gallery won't mind
If we have another look, ya
Just one more time

Oh, won't you stay
Just a little bit longer
Please let me hear you say
That you will

Say you will!

Oh ya, just a little bit longer
Please, please, please, please, please
Tell me your going to
Come on, come on, come on, stay
Come on, come on, come on, stay, oh la de da
Come on, come on, come on, stay, my, my, my, my
Come on, come on, come on , stay

What: Samuel Morse's Gallery of the Louvre

When: Now through July 8, 2012, from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m., Saturday, and from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m., Sunday

Where: West Building, National Gallery of Art, Fourth through Ninth streets, NW, on the Mall

Admission: No charge

Metro stations: Smithsonian, Federal Triangle, Navy Memorial-Archives, L'Enfant Plaza, and/or ride the Circulator

For more information: 202-737-4215

(Update) A "must have" for Morse fans:  Samuel F. B. Morse's Gallery of the Louvre and the Art of Invention, edited by Peter John Brownlee, Terra Foundation for American Art, distributed by Yale University Press, 2014

patricialesli@gmail.com

'The Louvre' at the National Gallery of Art

Samuel F. B. Morse, Gallery of the Louvre, 1831–1833
oil on canvas, Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

A small portion of the collection from the Louvre may be found in one large painting at the National Gallery's West Building closest to the Fourth Avenue entrance, steps from the tranquil East Garden Court, in a hall gallery all by itself.  It is entitled Gallery of the Louvre.

The painter was Samuel Morse (1791-1872), yes, that Samuel Morse, the same person who developed the Morse Code for telegraphs and a co-inventor of the telegraph itself, who began his adult life as a painter. 

Have your seen this marker on the side of a building in downtown Washington?  Where is it? /Patricia Leslie

Like so many artists of varying genres, Morse had to fund his passion of composing historical painting by doing what comes financially rewarding, in his case, making portraits.  While working on one of the Marquis de Lafayette in Washington in 1825, Morse received the chilling news that his wife was ill in New Haven.  By the time he reached home, Lucretia Pickering Walker was dead. 

A central figure in the Gallery of the Louvre which Morse painted a few years after Lucretia's death may indeed be she.

The large painting is filled with Morse's recreation of 38 masterpieces found at the Louvre which he "re-hung" in one of the Louvre's grandest galleries, the Salon Carre.  Morse made his Louvre piece into a workshop where students studied and copied paintings, much like they do today at the National Gallery of Art
 
His painting of the paintings is not drawn to scale, said tour leader Peter John Brownlee, the associate curator for the Terra Foundation for American Art, chief sponsor of the exhibition and the owner of the work. 

A viewer will immediately wonder about the yellow veil which covers the painting, caused, said Mr. Brownlee, by resinous materials Morse used to produce richer colors, and by the layers of varnish the artist applied for quicker drying.

Morse did not identify any of the people in the painting, however, the experts have.  The couple in the center is likely the artist resting his arm on his daughter's shoulder, and to the right of them, a solitary woman, perhaps the deceased Mrs. Morse or a student. In the left corner are, most likely, Morse's friend, James Fenimore Cooper and Cooper's wife and daughter, and in the left foreground, another artist friend, Richard Habersham.

Standing in the center background at the entrance to the Grand Hall with a little girl and talking to another artist friend, Horatio Greenough, is an unidentified woman who bears resemblance to Marge Simpson with upswept hair, fashioned pyramid-style. (Homer would be proud Marge made it to the walls of the National Gallery of Art.)

Some of the works Morse copied were drawn by Claude Lorrain, Raphael, Titian, Antoine Watteau, Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt, Van Dyck and Simone Cantarini.  It is a totally stunning work which I have been to personally visit only three times, and I always make sure to chart Gallery on my daily (well, almost) walks through the National Gallery to see what new details I can uncover.  There are many!  And it is fun.

Mr. Brownlee describes Gallery of the Louvre in a handsome eight-paged color brochure provided by Terra Foundation and available at no charge in the gallery.

Samuel Morse's Gallery of the Louvre at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C./Patricia Leslie

What:  Samuel Morse's Gallery of the Louvre

When:  Now through July 8, 2012, every day from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m., Sunday

Where:  West Building, National Gallery of Art, Fourth through Ninth streets, NW, on the Mall

Admission:  No charge

Metro stations:  Smithsonian, Federal Triangle, Navy Memorial-Archives, L'Enfant Plaza, and/or ride the Circulator

For more information: 202-737-4215

(Update) A "must have" for Morse fans:  Samuel F. B. Morse's Gallery of the Louvre and the Art of Invention, edited by Peter John Brownlee, Terra Foundation for American Art, distributed by Yale University Press, 2014

patricialesli@gmail.com