Decided to stay close to home this year, but still "get away." Checked in to the
Courtyard Seattle Downtown / Lake Union hotel to enjoy the hotel bed, pool and hot tub.
The hotel lobby
Awesome lamps.
Pretty carpet.
Comfy bed.
View from the elevator.
Some leftover Christmas color, though it's REAL.
Seattle Art Museum from the corner of 2nd Avenue and University Street.
At the entrance to the Seattle Art Museum.
Hammering Man is a series of monumental kinetic sculptures designed by Jonathan Borofsky which have been installed in various cities around the world. I liked it until I realized that it's not original nor the first installation.
The most prominent Hammering Man is 68.8 feet tall and is in Frankfurt, Germany.
Hammering Man in Seattle is 48 feet tall. The largest Hammering Man is in Seoul, South Korea and weighs 50 tons and is 72 feet tall.
Other cities with Hammering Man installations include: New York City; Minneapolis; Los Angeles; Dallas; Basel, Switzerland; La Jolla, California; Gainesville, Florida and
Lillestrøm, Norway.
INTIMATE IMPRESSIONISM FROM THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART
OCT 1 2015 – JAN 10 2016
SEATTLE ART MUSEUM
SIMONYI SPECIAL EXHIBITION GALLERIES
The Seattle Art Museum is proud to present Intimate Impressionism from the National Gallery of Art (in Washington, DC). The collection is comprised of extraordinary paintings, considered to be the jewels of one of the finest collections of French Impressionism in the world.
This exhibition features 68 intimately scaled paintings by Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masters, including Edouard Manet, Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet, Eugène Boudin, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro, Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Vuillard, Paul Gauguin, and Vincent van Gogh, among others. These works, which are prominently presented in the East Building of the National Gallery, have long been treasured by the museum’s visitors and prized by art historians.
Fishing Boats at Étretat, 1885
Oil on canvas
Claude Monet
French. 1840-1926
Étretat, a resort on the Normandy coast, was famous for steep cliffs and dramatic rock formations that attracted painters as well as vacationers. Like Gustave Courbet before him. Monet was drawn to the visual drama of the site and created over seventy views from near and distant vantage points. This view omits any sign of people or tourist amenities and instead imparts a sense of the town's origins as a fishing village.
Detail.
Winter Landscape on the Banks of the Seine, ca. 1904-05
Oil on canvas
Henri Matisse
French, 1869-1954
Sketchy daubs of paint suggest the gray light of a snowy day. This quiet landscape gives little hint of the titanic effect that Matisse was about to have on modern painting. Within months of completing this Neo-Impressionist painting, he would reject the style and create bold compositions painted in strong, often jarring, colors.
Eugene Boudin (French, 1824-1898) Beach Scene at Trouville, 1863
Oil on wood
PAINTING EN PLEIN AIR
Eugène Boudin was older than the generation of artist who became known as the Impressionists. He was, however, an important precursor to their unconventional painting methods and subjects in making landscapes and scenes from modern life, out of doors (en plein air). Boudin is often credited as the first person to encourage the young Claude Monet to paint directly from nature, and Moet recognized that “if I have become a painter, it is entirely due to Eugène Boudin.
The Normandy towns of Trouville, Deauville, and Honfleur were particularly attractive to Boudin and the other plein-air artists who often painted on the picturesque beaches nearby. Wealthy and elegant crowds flocked to these places to enjoy leisure pursuits, including the local racetracks and casinos, providing readily accessible subject matter and a clientele of potential art collectors.
Eugene Boudin (French, 1824-1898) Women on the Beach at Berck, 1881
Oil on wood
IMPRESSIONISM
In 1874, Claude Monet and other artist friends – including Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Alfred Sisley – organized an exhibition in the former Paris studio of the photographer Nadar (Gaspard-Felix Tournachon). This landmark show is now known as the first Impressionist exhibition. Between this event and 1886, there were eight exhibitions in all, at which a total of fifty-seven artists showed their work. Mounted separately from the annual, state-sponsored Salon at the Palais de l’Industrie, these independent shows took place in smaller, private spaces that approximated domestic French interiors.
Moderately scaled landscapes, portraits, and scenes from modern life figured prominently in each Impressionist exhibition. Monet set the standard with his resplendent views of the French country and seaside, painted outdoors. Often he would paint side-by-side with his fellow artists as they developed a new language of painting. Other Impressionists focused their attention on Paris: Degas, for example, produced experimental compositions based on his observations of the city’s nightlife, including dancers, singers and prostitutes.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841-1919) Claude Monet, 1872
Oil on canvas
Antoine Vollon (French, 1833-1900) Mound of Butter, 1875-85
Oil on canvas
Alfred Sisley (French, 1839-1899) Meadow, 1875
Oil on canvas
Detail.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841-1919) Young Woman Braiding Her Hair, 1876
Oil on canvas
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841-1919) Picking Flowers, 1875
Oil on canvas
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841-1919) Madame Monet and Her Son, 1874
Oil on canvas
While visiting Argenteuil on July 23, 1874, Renoir and Manet simultane1ously painted outdoor portraits of Monet's wife, Camille, and their son Jean in their garden. Renoir's audacious sketch abandons the decorum traditionally associated with portraiture through his subjects' awkward poses – Camille and Jean sit on a ground that tilts alarmingly upward-and through the incongruous strutting rooster, which adds an irreverent note to this scene of fashionable country life.
Paul Gauguin (French, 1848-1903) Self-Portrait Dedicated to Carrière, 1888 or 1889
Oil on canvas
In this self-portrait, Gauguin pays homage to the peasant culture of Brittany, a region southwest of Paris where he worked extensively. Beneath his jacket, he wears a typical Breton sweater with decorated yoke. "I love Brittany," he wrote in 1888. "There I find the wild, the primitive." These sentiments are boldly expressed in the paining's vivid colors and the thick, rough weave of the canvas.
Paul Cezanne (French, 1839-1906) The Battle of Love, ca. 1880
Oil on canvas
The second of two paintings by Cezanne that depict nude couples in a landscape, this work was once owned by Renoir. Its enigmatic depiction of lovers has been alternately described as playful or violent. The composition may have been inspired by Titian's well-known painting Bacchus and Ariadne (1520-1523, National Gallery, London), which Cezanne could have known through engravings.
Paul Cezanne (French, 1839-1906) Still Life with Milk Jug and Fruit, ca. 1900
Oil on canvas
Édouard Vuillard (French, 1868-1940) Landscape of the Île-de-France, ca. 1894
Oil on cardboard
Pierre Bonnard (French, 1867-1947) Red Plums, 1892
Oil on canvas
Pierre Bonnard (French, 1867-1947) Paris, Rue de Parme on Bastille Day, 1890
Oil on canvas
Created while he was still a student, this work is one of Bonnard's first depictions of Parisian streetlife. Painted from his grandmother's apartment above the rue de Parme, it utilizes the flat fields of color and strong outlines characteristic of Japanese prints. Unlike the vast and alienating metropolis depicted by many of his contemporaries, Bonnard's Paris is a place of community, celebration, and poignant scenes, such as a mother and daughter walking hand in hand.
