Had to fight through a lot of not so great stuff to find this order that has supported my Art life. I like change-- but inferior Art won't do it. The inferior quality seems to come from reading the contents.
One of the Great Paintings in the World. The curve of the Wheat field as it leads to the background, from the great figures in the fore ground. It is very detailed but flat in a Modern way as the shapes of the wheat point out.
When I was young I loved these Hals paintings. Goya and Hals seem to point to Manet in their loose bravura brush and simplicity. Manet, who I was wondering on this trip, looking at them, whether they are the first Modern paintings or the last Traditional?
Have always loved these lemon peels in Dutch Still Life painting.
I like this Rembrandt the best and reminds me of the Night Watch in Holland. Rembrandt looks old and the surface is hard to photograph. Strange how loved he was by Pollock and the Art World of the 50's. But with Art there is no liking or disliking it is all some very much more wrapped up into the whole. Rembrandt made a depth of character that Alex Katz and our world for the moment seem to render obsolete. It is an interesting question.
This is one good Ruisdael out of 10 more mediocre ones.
I copied this as a Student in 1972. The close up still does it to me. Strange for all it's realism it is very flat. Map, window, figure, foreground, and also very simple in those forms.
These seem to be in the category of Rembrandt, maybe I just have seen them to often through my life. Though the machine like quality puts me off.
Isolated this painting is one of the Great works even if it didn't actually grab me yesterday. I've looked at it for 40 years.
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