Category: Art Museums

Lawrence’s Annoying Paintings at the Cleveland Museum of Art

I have nothing against Thomas Lawrence, indeed, I like his work, but—good grief!—he could make some annoying paintings. The Cleveland Museum of Art has two of the offending paintings hanging side-by-side. Lawrence (died 1830) had well-earned success throughout his life. A prodigy, he found success early and later became President of the Royal Academy. He…

Gaertner at the Cleveland Museum of Art

I’m an idiot, but you already knew that. After writing about discovering Frederick Gaertner in this post, I belatedly realized I had seen–on numerous occasions, no less–one of his paintings at the Cleveland Museum of Art.  For some reason, I never connected that Gaertner with my Gaertner discovered at the Bonfoey Gallery. The Museum’s “The Furnace”…

Aside

I missed the Toledo Art Museum’s Manet exhibition.  As consultation I am reading Foucault’s “Manet and the Object of Painting.”

Mary Cassatt and the Feminine Ideal in 19th-Century Paris

Claude Monet maintained (I’m paraphrasing) that caricature was the soul of art.  Not a surprising statement coming from a master caricaturist.  I agree with Monet wholeheartedly. The exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art—Mary Cassatt and the Feminine Ideal in 19th-Century Paris—provides a great opportunity to examine some drawing and prints by Cassatt and her…

Dayton Art Institute—Fail

The Dayton Art Institute is handsomely situated on a hill above the Great Miami River.  The museum’s beautiful Italianate main wing provides a remarkable view of the Dayton skyline.  Travelers along I-75 passing beneath the museum’s imposing facade can’t help but be intrigued by the marvelous piece of architecture. The museum’s collection, while not as large…

Robert Smith

Robert Smith was an American artist who died in 1985.  When I knew him, he already was an elderly man.  He lived with his teenage son in Kettering, Ohio in a French chateau-type building that seemed the height of romance to a high school kid, which was what I was when we met. Smith was…