art and the state

"The object isn't to make art, it's to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable."

Robert Henri, 1865-1929

(This Henri painting entitled Landscape, Ireland done circa 1914 is available at NYC's Owen Gallery, if you've got any loose change lying around.)

the other impressionist

Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894) isn't one of the best-known French Impressionists, but his work is exhibited all over the U.S., most notably at The Art Institute of Chicago (Rainy Day: Paris Street, 1877). He also was the highly admirable and generous type of guy who had money yet shared it with his other artist friends, purchasing their works when they were down and out.

Caillebotte's will left all of his collected "charity" purchases such as paintings by Manet, Monet, Degas, Renoir, et al., to the French government. He wanted them to be displayed at the Luxembourg and Louvre Museums; the French government wasn't too convinced that the Impressionists were worthy of this honor at the time and only accepted a portion of the paintings. The rest ended up at The Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, even though the French reconsidered and tried to get those back in the 1920s but Dr. Barnes said sorry, no dice. The ones the French government did accept are now at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.

Because Caillebotte was well-off financially, he had time to develop his various talents and interests at his own pace. Besides painting, he also designed textiles and liked to yacht and sail, and he especially enjoyed gardening. The Human Flower Project has a nice feature on Caillebotte, who apparently died while working in his garden. They note that only a savvy gardener could paint these pictured chrysanthemums in such a way, knowing exactly how the leaves and petals and roots would naturally arrange themselves.

Caillebotte was a great combination of wealth and talent, and a fine example of how money can be used admirably -- instead of on just a self-indulgent, late 19th century champagne, foie gras and women lifestyle. With some absinthe on the side.

jacob's world

Artist Jacob Lawrence grew up in Harlem during the 1920s and 30s and from an early age was fascinated by the sights and scenes around him. His mother was strict about going to church and she was also the primary reason that Jacob attended the free art classes available to children in the area after school.

This combination of an inspiring environment, the fiery Sunday sermons of the preachers, talk heard on street corners and working with color and form led Jacob to create his own style of narrative painting. Not just one picture but as many as sixty in a series, all on panels with accompanying text -- art that told a story, and in particular the stories of his neighbors and family and friends.

Lawrence's The Migration of The Negro series made him famous in 1941, and was immediately purchased by The Museum of Modern Art and The Phillips Collection. The Phillips Collection bought the odd numbered panels (there are 60 total) and they have a great website on Jacob Lawrence's life and career. This later painting (Eight Studies for the Book of Genesis No. 5 - And God created all the fowl of the air and the fishes of the seas) was done in 1989 and you can see how Lawrence still had the brightness of vision and vivid sense of color that he'd had 50 years earlier.

"I didn't think in terms of history...It was like I was doing a portrait of something. If it was a portrait, it was a portrait of myself, a portrait of my family, a portrait of my peers." (Jacob Lawrence, 1917 - 2000)