Taking Photos in Museums

I'm bad about taking pictures in museums. I keep my phone camera on and ready in my coat pocket, tell-tale "click sound" off, watching for guards. Until publicly scolded I'll snap stealth closeups of brushstrokes,

From a Monet at the Museum of Fine Arts

Monet's brushstrokes!

how things look in frames, 

Corot in a period Barbizon frame at the Currier Museum, Manchester NH

Miniature William Trost Richardses at the Boston International Fine Art Show

how paintings relate to viewers, for scale,

Bierstadt in the National Gallery

Jasper Cropsey in the National Gallery

and various closeups and images that mean something to me. 

iPhone capture of part of a Corot of which I painted a copy

Nicholas de Stael at the MFA - my first introduction to this painter

Emil Carlsen of the Isles of Shoals, where I too love to paint

Detail of Wm. Trost Richards's deftly painted sea rocks

We're privileged among the painters of history to be able to take such images with us for careful study. 

Yet, rarely does the emphasis on "taking" photos feel so much like stealing.

Burned by art thieves, Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner museum is neurotic about security. There are "don't touch" and "don't sit" signs on practically every stone bench and volute and security guards in every room and corridor (they're not all bored art school grads either). Mostly they're looking for phones The signs don't say "no photographs" they say "no cellphone use," period. For once, I didn't try any "funny stuff."

At this point, museums need to get over it. Are you with me?

No flash photos - fine, got it. But mobile pics of paintings on Facebook or blogs? The best free advertising a museum could ask for. It increases the art's fame, further inspiring more people to visit and snap selfies and pix of the real thing.

Some museums get it. The National Gallery in D.C. maintains an open-access online archive via which you can freely view and download some 32,000 high-resolution images of the most spectacular paintings in the museum's collections. Same is true for the National Gallery in London which offers a vast database of downloadable images and a complete A-Z list of the artists in the collection.

Where museums do allow photography, some find it gauche or downright harmful. The Washington Post took the opposite view, shooting down criticism about people with mobile phones stalking through galleries like bird watchers or hunters on the prowl, "plugged into their phones rather than interacting" with each other or, indeed, with the art itself. It's worth a read. For the negative viewpoint, here's the New Criterion's (IMHO stuffy) article, "The Overexposed Museum" on how smartphone use is "cheapening the art experience" and should be banned. And here's another one celebrating "the undeniably positive effect" of selfies and other mobile phone uses in museums,  "How Instagram is Keeping Art Alive."

I would never have known about Yayoi Kusama's cool NYC installation "Infinity Mirrored Room" if not for social media.

As the latter points out, social media is certainly intersecting with art's public presence in interesting ways:

"Banksy's October residency in NYC was largely driven by his use of Instagram, and (as the NY Times pointed out in a snarkily titled article "Art for the Selfie Set,") for better or worse, the chance to capture a cosmic selfie played a big role in drawing crowds to Yayoi Kusama's show at the David Zwirner Gallery. Larger audiences and increased awareness of their work is great for these artists, and they have the omnipresence of smartphones to thank."

I think that's true. I also agree with the Washington Post writer that there's something endearing about museum-goers so enamored of paintings that they long to come away with a small physical token (if digital images count as physical) of their personal experience. And even though you can buy (or indeed freely download) from the museum a superior image of the art, she writes, taking your own snapshot helps jog your memory about why you fell in love with it. 

Here's an excerpt from that one:

"the colors in the (photos) I took are more saturated, and when I look at them I see more easily some of the details I was focusing on in the museum, while the official reproductions force me to start a new dialogue from scratch. Also: My pictures are on my cellphone, in my pocket, in between two snapshots of my son.... When I flip through my photos I sometimes zoom in to see the butterfly-dance of light on the back of Madame Monet’s dress, or the elusive shadow at the lower right of the picture, which hardly shows up in the official reproduction. I’m still looking at them. And they’re mine."

Scandalous "photo bomb" from Tumblr.

What do you think?

10 Great Snow Painters (Mass. humanities article up!)

Thank you everyone for sharing your favorites from among the greatest snow painters of history!

I heard from a good many of you and loved seeing all the gorgeous snow-scapes you pointed me to. Below are a few late additions that really deserve to be seen. 

The Ice Pool - Andrew Wyeth

The article I wrote for the Massachusetts Humanities Council blog is online too - some of you will recognize your contributions there! I restricted The List to just 10 painters, with an admitted bias toward artists who painted in oils in and around New England (watercolors by Wyeth excepted.)

Enjoy.

Walter Launt Palmer

Peter Doig

Ivan Shishkin

Shishkin, I think

Shishkin again, I think

Ice Ice Baby!

Alpine and polar landscapes make up the core of a traveling exhibit called Vanishing Ice that you can check out online here.

Through the centuries, artists have demonstrated the limitless potential of alpine and polar landscapes to convey complex feelings, ideas, and messages… Despite diverse themes and interpretations, almost all of the artists respond, in some way, to the beauty of ice.

—Dr. Barbara Matilsky, Curator of Art, Whatcom Museum

Here are a few selections.

Ice Lens, Ackroyd & Harvey, 2005

Frederich Church, The Icebergs, 1861

And lest you think Church was making up those aqua shadows....

Camille Seaman photo from The Last Iceberg series, 2005

English tourists collide with a herd of goats in Landscape of Susten, Switzerland, 1824, Xavier Leprince 

And this cool image is by Gustave Dore, from his illustrations for Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

The Ice Was All Around, illustration for Samuel Taylor Coleridge's
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, 1877

And now there came both mist and snow,

And it grew wondrous cold

And ice, mast-high, came floating by,

As green as emerald.

And through the drifts the snowy cliffs

Did send a dismal sheen:

Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken-

The ice was all between,

The ice was here, the ice was there,

The ice was all around.

It cracked and growled, and roared and howled,

Like noises in a swound!

—Samuel Coleridge, Rime of the Ancient Mariner, 1798

{ To the silent legions of bookmakers out there reading this: somebody needs to republish beautiful yet affordable hardcover editions of Dore's illustrated books of poetry, esp. Poe & Coleridge.... Get on that please! }

Great Snow Paintings Again

Thanks again to everyone who sent in suggestions and images from artists who've excelled at the fluffy stuff. Here are a few more later entries that I wanted to share. (Scroll down for the first two posts and more gorgeous snow paintings.)

Suzor-Cote, Settlement on the Hillside

Suzor-Cote

Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté (1869-1937) was a Canadian who rose to such heights as to walk away with the Grand Prize at the Paris Salon of 1894. I think it's color harmonies that makes these simple, elegantly drawn and composed snow-scapes sing.

Next up, Danish realist Peder Mork Monsted (1859-1941) brought a bit more sentimentality to it, but the boy sure could capture the wet, spongy quality of the white stuff.

Peder Mork Monstead- love the tracks - you can feel the snow's wetness

Peder Mork Monstead - love the "stuff" on top of the snow

Peder Mork Monstead

Peder Mork Monstead

A.J. Casson (1898-1992) was another Canadian who'd seen plenty of snowy woods and hillsides which made their way onto his canvases. I don't know for sure, but I'd be willing to bet he was the oldest living member of the Group of Seven when he died at the age of 93.

A.J. Casson

Fritz Thaulow (1847-1906) was a Norwegian Impressionist who turned out these two moody winters-scapes:

Fritz Thaulow

Fritz Thaulow

Moving on, American century Impressionist John F. Carlson (1875-1947) literally wrote the book on landscape painting. Shame on you if you're painting landscapes without having read it (you can get it at the previous link, used, for 10 bucks)!

John F. Carlson

John F. Carlson

And finally, a reprise - one more by George Sotter and one by Frederick John Mulhaupt, both American late-Impressionists who appeared in the previous snow paintings post and who seriously brought the snow to the easel.

George Sotter

John Mulhaupt

Thanks again one and all! Now I've got to shovel out of this blizzard of beauty and select ten standouts for my article for the Public Humanist. 

Thanks to Donald Jurney for the Suze-Cote and Beaman Cole for the entries in this post.

Bonus painting by Lawren Harris

Great Snow Paintings - The Results Are In!

Many of you wrote to me on and off this blog with your nominations for great painters of snow and the greatest snow paintings ever. Despite the voluminous candidates, I wouldn't presume to crown (with laurel of course) any one artist the best snow painter -  there are just too many choices and too many possible definitions of what goes into a "great" snow painting.

That said, there does seem to be some consensus over who some of the front runners are.

Based largely on your responses to the selection proffered in my previous post, ladies and gentlemen of the academy, I give you The A-LIST (in roughly chronological order).

Casper David Friedrich
Claude Monet

Lowell Birge Harrison
Charles Warren Eaton
Walter Launt Palmer
Sydney Laurence
Emile Gruppe
Aldro Hibbard
Willard Metcalf
George Sotter
Edward Redfield
Andrew Wyeth
William Thon
Stapleton Kearns
T. Allen Lawson

Casper David Friedrich
While not technically a snow painting (or even a "winter" painting), Casper David Friedrich's "Sea of Ice" rocks the Romantic doom-and-gloom side of things.

Casper David Friedrich, The Sea of Ice, also called The Wreck of Hope, 1823-24

This painting used to be called "The Wreck of Hope," which does a slightly better job of clueing us in to what it's actually a painting of. If you click it for a larger image or just look very closely, to the right of the giant ice shards thrusting into the sky in the center you'll spot the tiny smashed stern and masts of an expedition ship being mercilessly crushed to splinters by the indifferent ice of the Pole. Now that's cold!

Monet and the Impressionists
Snow painting came into its own through Impressionism, not surprising given the style's emphasis on light and color. Many a Monet painting might have made the cut, such as the frosty Snow Near Honfleur (1867), or this one or any of the beauties here. I wonder if Monet was among the first to paint snow shadows an emphatic blue (which, of course, they often are).

The one that got the most votes was Monet's 1868 painting, The Magpie.

Monet, The Magpie, 1867

Impressionist Pissarro, too, warmed up rather well to the theme. 

Camille Pissarro, Cottage at Pontoise in the Snow 1879

On the topic of French snow, there's this entry by Cezanne, notable for the way his directional, flattened-picture-plane composition comes to the fore in the starker palette:

Paul Cezanne, Melting Snow at Fontainebleau (thanks is due to Grant Taylor)

New England painter Walter Launt Palmer (1854-1932) tops many an artist's list of masterful snow painters, and it's easy to see why. I had a Palmer in the previous post, one of many I found here. Here's another couple of them for good measure.

Walter Launt Palmer, The Early Snow

Walter Launt Palmer, Snow Covered Landscape

Walter "The Snowman" Palmer

Palmer's contemporary, Tonalist Charles Warren Eaton, produced many (though not as many) beautiful snow scenes as well.

Charles Warren Eaton, Winter Night, 1883

Canadian Tom Thomson could kick out a variety of killer snow scenes.

Tom Thomson 

Tom Thomson, Melting Snow

As could his countryman, Clarence Gagnon, as this moody beauty shows (thanks to Donald Jurney).

Clarence Gagnon, Furrows in the Snow

The winter landscapes of American Impressionist Willard Metcalf (1858-1925) show how deftly this painter could design his compositions, many of which balance sloping horizontals with counter-curving diagonals and crescents that "bring you into and move you around the painting" with clarity and force.

Willard Metcalf, Cornish Hills (that's Cornish, New Hampshire)

Willie Metcalf, Winter's Promise (I think)

Willie Metcalf (aka "Metty"), Winter in New Hampshire

Williard Leroy Metcalf - another Cornish snowscape

Aldro Hibbard (1886-1972) made a ridiculous number of gorgeous and rather brawny New England winter landscapes. Here are just three.

Hibbard Gorgeousness I

Hibbard Gorgeousness II

Hibbard Gorgeousness III

Aldro "Paint Like a Man!" Hibbard

American painter Sydney Laurence (1865–1940) moved to Alaska, presumably to be able to paint snow year-round. He's known for Romantic images such as this:

Sydney Laurence, Mt. McKinley

But personally I like better some of his paintings with a more subdued palette, like this one:

Sydney Laurence, Northern Lights

Pennsylvania Impressionist George Sotter (1879-1953) painted some fine winter nocturnes. Here's a rather lovely and quiet one.

George Sotter, Moonlight, Bucks County - Thanks to Beaman Cole for Sotter and Laurence 

Edward Willis Redfield (1869-1965) is another Pennsylvania Impressionist devoted to snow. Here are two beauties very much in line with his life's work.

Edward Willis Redfield, Woodland Brook, c. 1914

E.W. Redfield - thanks due to D. Jurney and B. Cole

Emile Gruppe made snow paintings in Vermont when he wasn't painting the fishing scene in Rockport.

A Gruppe Snowscape (thanks Ann Seago)

Andrew Wyeth can't be beaten for the sheer scrappiness of the ragged New England snowscape.

Andrew Wyeth - Shredded Wheat (honestly!)

Lest we begin to think the New England countryside is the only place anyone goes to paint snow, here's one of numerous Childe Hassam wintry city paintings.

Childe Hassam, Winter Afternoon, New York, 1900

Among our contemporaries, T. Allen Lawson, Stapleton Kearns, and the usual suspects (Aspevig, Christensen, Whitcomb, Schmid) all create very fine plein air and Impressionist style snow paintings.

Carol O'Malia, a painter I wasn't aware of has a page full of large yet understated works that foreground snow shadows here (thanks to Jamie Kirkland).

Carol O'Malia, Unbraid, 60" x 72"

Maine painter William Thon (1906-2000) is an interesting one whom I don't know enough about. (Thanks to Leslie Lewis)

William Thon, February Snow, 1977

Stapleton Kearns earns a special mention. In addition to regularly chasing the Hibbardian snow scene himself, he hosts Snowcamp, an intrepid winter plein air painting workshop in New Hampshire every winter.

Snowy barnyard paintings by Stapleton Kearns

T. Allen Lawson came up a lot, possibly because he lives not far from here. You can see a good many of his winter landscapes here. I happened upon the following two to share with you.

T. Allen Lawson, At the Dance

T. Allen Lawson, February's Burden (thanks to Mary Eikson for this one)

Thanks to all for your suggestions. I think I missed a few, and I know there are still a lot more out there than I'm aware of. Please feel free to enlighten me.

And to all a good night. (Max, 6, with Hibbard)