Courbet's landscapes

Currently on view at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, MD is an exhibit of Courbet's landscapes. The exhibit, arranged by season, begins with Spring. The paintings are strong. Immediately I was reminded of Cezanne's landscapes. It is evident by looking at Courbet's work that Cezanne was an admirer. Cezanne's views of Aix-en-Provence are reminiscent of Courbet's landscapes, particularly the Spring group, shown in this exhibit. Walking into the next room of the exhibit, you are greeted by Fall. Particularly of note in this section are the paintings he composed of caves. His exploration of depth is very interesting and his use of line to create divisions is exquisite. After Fall comes Winter. The Winter canvases are lit uniquely with light falling only on the snow covered canvases themselves and not anywhere else in the room. It truly feels that you are walking into some sort of Winter Wonderland but this light trick may do a disservice to the paintings. The whiteness of the snow glows in the light but I feel this set-up does not allow the viewer to see the paintings as a whole. Instead, only the white of the paintings is emphasized. The last room and season is Summer. Summer is represented by a group of paintings of the shore. The color is amazing but in my opinion these paintings are lacking composition wise. I highly recommend this exhibit to anyone who has never been very interested in landscape. The first two rooms truly blew me away and definitely made me think twice about this subject matter of painting. Courbet could be called modern. Courbet could even be called a cubist. It is obvious from some of these paintings, that he was thinking those thoughts years before anyone else.

a birthday wish

On this day in 1775, Marie Antoinette was born. I just recently picked up the biography, written by Antonia Fraser, on which the now playing movie is based on. I am enjoying the book so far and already Ms Fraser has alerted her readers to the inaccuracy of the "Let them eat cake" statement. A statement, she claims, that was said to come off the lips of various other princesses and queens throughout history - all accounts inaccurate and used as a way to tarnish their reputations. It is a biography in which queens, kings, counts and so on are mentioned as casually as dick and jane and it is sometimes a bit difficult to keep everyone in order, but so far it has proved to be a very interesting read.