Blogging from Paris

Tomorrow I fly to Paris with my daughter Lily.  We plan on sketching and visiting museums we have heard about, but never had the opportunity to see.  I hope to blog about these collections from my iPad.

As a preview here are a few of the museums we hope to visit. At the top of the list is the Musee Jacquemart Andre, recommended by friends Laura Primrose and Avery Fullerton.  This late 19^th century mansion houses what looks to be an exceptional collection of paintings, sculptures and decorative arts.  The museum is currently the venue for a Eugene Boudin landscape painting exhibition.

                                     Inside the Musee Jacquemart Andre

Also on the list is Musee Carnavalet, set in two Renaissance style mansions in the Marais section of Paris, this museum highlights the history of Paris.

                                       Central garden at Musee Carnavalet

The Musee des Arts Decoratifs is know for their elegant exhibitions of fashion history. The collection offers furniture and fashion designs from the Middle Ages through the present day.  While there Lily and I hope to see the current exhibition “Fashioning Fashion: Two Centuries of European Fashion 1700–1915”.

                                      Inside Musee des Arts Decoratifs.

Finally we hope to visit Musee Gustave Moreau, the former home and studio of 19^th century symbolist Guatve Moreau with thousands of his works on view.

                                         Inside Musee Gustave Moreau.

If time permits we hope we return to the Musee D’Orsay, and visit the Petite Palais and Musee Eugene Delacroix.

Topics for 2013

Happy New Year!  As we begin the new year I have been brainstorming about blogging topics for 2013.  I was in New York for a few days and I plan on blogging about some amazing exhibitions I saw and plan on visiting.  Among them are the “Bernini, Sculpting in Clay” and “Matisse: True Painting” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

Bernini's terracotta sculpture model for the "Lion on Four Rivers Fountain" 1649-50. From the  exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The “Beatrix Potter, The Picture Letters” and “Durer to de Kooning” exhibitions at the Morgan Library are worth discussion and exploration.  The Frick’s “Mantegna to Matisse, Master Drawings from the Courtauld Gallery” and MoMA’s “Inventing Abstraction” look fascinating.  The National Gallery of Art’s upcoming French drawing exhibition “Color, Line, Light: French Drawings, Watercolors, and Pastels from Delacroix to Signac” is much anticipated for it’s varied collection.

Pastel drawing by Auguste Louis Lepere, 1900.  From exhibition "Color, Line, Light: French Drawings from Delacroix to Signac" at the National Gallery of Art.

 I plan on continuing to blog about master drawing techniques , such as pen and ink and wash and red chalk.  As I prepare my 2014 Vesalius Trust“Art and Anatomy” tour to Greece and Italy I will continue to blog about Andreas Vesalius whose 500^th anniversary is next year! To reflect the focus of my blog I have added "Art and Anatomy" to my title.

Pen and ink drawing by Jacques Bellange, 1610. From the "Durer to de Kooning" exhibition at the Morgan Library.

Thanks for reading, commenting and joining me on my art and anatomy travels! 

Durer and Beyond, Central European Drawings, 1400-1700

In August while at the Metropolitan Museum of Art I saw two amazing drawings exhibitions.  One, which I blogged about last week, featured the plant drawings of minimalist Ellsworth Kelly.  These drawings were so beautiful and elegant for their simple use of line and negative and positive shape.

The “Durer and Beyond” exhibition featured many drawings also created with line.  Albrecht Durer’s energetic ink lines with layers of hatching and crosshatching were a great contrast to the Kelly drawings!

Albrecht Durer, (1471-1528) of Nuremberg, Germany, is regarded as the greatest artist of the Northern Renaissance.  While still in his twenties Durer became famous for his woodcuts, such as “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse”.  He went on to create many masterful paintings, but his drawings are among his most famous works.  Amid his most revered pieces are “The Great Piece of Tuft”, “The Praying Hands” and “Wing of a Roller”  Many of these drawings are in the Albertina in Vienna.

          Albrecht Durer, pen and ink on prepared paper, "The Praying Hands", 1508

                      Albrecht Durer, watercolor and gouache, "Wing of a Roller", 1518

Throughout his life Durer was known for his detailed and complex self-portraits.  The exhibition drawing below “Self Portrait and Studies of the Artist’s Left Hand and a Pillow” features such a self-portrait with it’s penetrating gaze.  On the verso of this drawing is a series of whimsical drawings of a pillow.  The series almost reads like an animation!

Albrecht Durer, pen and ink, "Self Portrait and Studies of the Artist's Left Hand and a Pillow", 1493

                              Albrecht Durer, pen and ink, "Six Studies of a Pillow", 1493

The exhibition featured 100 drawings created between 1400-1700 by artists from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic among others.  A charming study of a hedgehog by Hans Hoffman (1530-1592) created with watercolor and gouache, highlights this artist’s love of observing nature down to the smallest detail!

                          Hans Hoffman, watercolor and gouache drawing of a hedgehog, 1584

If you enjoy looking at master drawings there are two current exhibitions that you might want to visit.  "The Mantegna to Matisse” exhibition at the Frick Collection, will be up through January 27, 2013 and the “Durer to de Kooning: 100 Master Drawings from Munich” is on view through January 6, 2013 at the Morgan Library.  I plan on blogging about both these exhibitions.

Ellsworth Kelly's "Plant Drawings" exhibition

This past summer, while in New York, I saw two amazing and very diverse drawing exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The shows were “Ellsworth Kelly Plant Drawings, 1948-2010” and  “Durer and Beyond, Central European Drawings, 1400-1700”.  Both exhibitions highlighted an abundance of drawings created using line.

                                                Sunflower, 1957 watercolor

Ellsworth Kelly is an American artist born in 1923 and best known for his minimalist works.  Kelly embraced the Color Field School in the 1960s and became known for his vibrant, clean minimalist paintings and sculptures. Regarding his interest in simple, minimal shapes and contours Kelly stated " I'm not interested in the texture of a rock, but it's shadow."

                                                       Hyacinth, 1949, ink

The exhibition at the Met focused on Kelly’s plant drawings, created over a sixty year period. These simple elegant drawings, made with graphite or ink on paper or with watercolor, are stunning for their simple use of line and shape.  Kelly is a master of composition, integrating negative and positive shape and keen observation skills.  Indeed, his drawings read as portraits of an individual plant.

                                        Study for "Plant I", 1949, ink and pencil

While most of the pieces are 18 x 20 inches, there are some monumental drawings that utilize a strong vertical composition.  The overlapping of shapes and form create a sense of motion.

                                           Four Sunflowers, 1957, pencil

I highly recommend the exhibition catalog  “Ellsworth Kelly Plant Drawings” by Michael Semff and Marla Prather.  It is a beautiful publication and includes a comprehensive interview with Kelly conducted by Marla Prather in 2011.

I will be posting about the “Durer and Beyond” exhibition in the near future.

Master Drawing Exhibition at the Morgan Library

I recently had the pleasure of seeing an amazing master drawing exhibition at the Morgan Library in New York. For many years the Morgan has been one of my favorite NYC haunts. Over the years it has been renovated and expanded, but it still has a feeling of intimacy. The exhibition is "David, Delacroix, and Revolutionary France, Drawings from the Louvre" and can be viewed at the Morgan through December 31, 2011.

This exhibition features the works of many talented french artists, but for me the main attraction was the drawings by romanticist Theordore Gericault. Gericault is perhaps best know for his masterpiece the "Raft of the Medusa" and the beautiful but, macabre studies he did for this painting, many of them featuring lifeless limbs and heads arranged as still life.

There are six drawings by Gericault in this exhibition. A very beautiful and especially moving one is called "The Artist's Left Hand". Gericault painted it while on his death bed.



"The Artist's Left Hand" watercolor with black and red chalk, Theordore Gericault, 1824.

The following drawing by Gericault, "Scene of Combat" shows off his brilliant use of chiaroscuro and romanticist sensibility.



"Scene of Combat", black chalk and gray wash, heightened with gouache on brown paper, Theordore Gericault, 1818.

Gericault was interested in depicting all animals - their motion and expression. While he is known for his masterful drawings and paintings of horses, this sketchbook sheet depicting a cat is beautifully observed!



"Studies of Cats", black chalk, Theordore Gericault, 1818.

There are of course many amazing drawings in this exhibition. Some of those by Eugene Delacroix with their frentic line have an especially modern feeling.



"War on a Chariot Pulled by Two Horses", pen and brown ink, Eugene Delacroix, 1833.

There are several luminous classical figure studies by Pierre-Paul Prud'hon who was known for his black and white chalk drawings on toned paper.



"Standing Female Nude Resting Her Arms on a Branch", black and white chalk on blue paper,Pierre-Paul Prud'hon.

The extraordinary draftsman Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres is presented in the exhibition by this animated study for the painting "The Turkish Bath". The exhibition is worth seeing if only to enjoy the facile and sensitive way Ingres draws the hands.



"Studies for the Turkish Bath", graphite on cream paper,Ingres.

I highly recommend this exhibition, I promise you won't be disappointed in this spectacular display of french drawings. I also recommend the exhibition catalog, "David, Dealcroix and Revolutionary France" by Louis-Antoine Prat and Jennifer Tonkovich.

Sketching at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

A few months ago I spent a day sketching at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I spent most of the day in the Greek and Roman Galleries and it was wonderful. I plan on going back to draw again next week and will post about my experiences. For now see photos of three sketches and a photo of the gallery.



Greek and Roman Rooms. Photo by Marie Dauenheimer



Pencil sketch by Marie Dauenheimer



Pencil sketch by Marie Dauenheimer



Pencil sketch by Marie Dauenheimer