365 Days at the Met

 December 22, 2022 Gallery 822 also houses works from the Annenberg bequest - in this case, paintings by van Gogh and Gauguin and from Monet's late period. It's yet another treasure trove: Many of the works, including van Gogh's "La Berceuse" and "Wheat Field with Cypresses," have attained iconic status.  (I am using the word "iconic" far too often, I realize, but am at a loss for another term.)  I was planning to write about "Wheat Field with Cypresses," but the artist's "Bouquet of Flowers in a Vase," although relatively small in format (perhaps 26 inches high and 24 inches wide), made my eyes open wide. Although I'm certainly aware of the insects that Dutch artists inserted into their flower paintings to remind us of corruption and mortality, we, or at least I, tend to think of the still life as a relatively tranquil genre. But this painting strikes me as almost hallucinatory.  The flowers spill over the vase in w...

December 8, 2022 Gallery 821 is one of a number of rooms devoted to the Walter H. and Lenore Annenberg Collection. I remember that when this gift to the Met was announced, it was regarded as quite a coup for the museum, since the Annenbergs lived in Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Museum of Art had also hoped to acquire the collection. A condition of the gift was that the works be shown together; I wonder if that had to do with the extensive remodeling of the 19th- century painting galleries some years ago. The room includes works by Renoir, Monet, Degas, Fantin-Latour, and others.  Of these, Renoir's "Reclining Nude," measuring about 30 inches wide and 24 inches high and executed in 1883, immediately attracts me. The caption notes that the painting pays homage to Ingres' "Grande Odalisque"; to me, the model's auburn hair also calls to mind Titian (to whose Venuses I assume Ingres was himself paying homage).  But the differences are also striking.  Ven...

 December 5, 2022 I was initially a little surprised to find that Gallery 820 is devoted entirely to the works of Camille Pissarro. I  wondered whether the fact that Pissarro was Jewish led him to be particularly collected by Jewish patrons who then donated their paintings to the Met, and a quick circuit of the room indicates that six of the 17 works on display were given by donors with distinctly Jewish names (and who knows about Bernhard?). That said, I find much to admire about the man himself.  It’s interesting to read  that he was a leftist - hence his portrayals of working people as having strength and dignity - and also a benevolent mentor to younger members of the Impressionist movement.   It's notable, too, that he experimented with different styles throughout his life - from early realism to Impressionism to pointillism and back to Impressionism. But all this would scarcely matter if Pissarro weren't also an excellent painter, and the gallery's co...