Bass Trombone Wauchope: The great Clark Institute Art Museum, Williamstown, MA

Friday, August 11, 2023

The great Clark Institute Art Museum, Williamstown, MA

A not-to-be-missed collection of great artworks by so many important artists. The Homer collection is worth a visit alone.

I've visited the Clark a number of times, and seeing so much of it is like visiting old friends. And the collection of silver, dinnerware, etc. is spectacular.

I will have presented a lot of this before, but, well, here goes.

Winslow Homer American, 1836-1910
West Point, Prout's Neck 1900
Sterling Clarke thought Homer was America's greatest artist.

Winslow Homer
Eastern Point 1900

detail

Winslow Homer
Sleigh Ride c.1890-95
A very strange painting indeed. And I would not be at all surprised if
Andrew Wyeth was familiar with it.

Raimundo de Madrazo y Garreta
Spanish 1841-1920
My apologies, I lost the title to this really charming painting.

detail of above

Madrazo was part of a large and very influential family of artists; one uncle was head of
the Prado Museum.

Raimundo de Madrazo y Garreta
Woman with a Parrot c.1872

detail of above

Remarkable. The artist (unknown) painted each insect with a shadow, increasing the realism, and
allowing some to seem to crawl over the edge of the center depression.

Johan Barthold Jongkind
Dutch 1819-1891
Frigates c. 1850-55
Oh, to be able to create such a work!

Eugene Boudin
French 1824-1898
Plougastel, the Ferry Crossing 1873
This somehow reminds me a great deal of the painting of a scene in Florida
which our parents owned and which now resides in our bedroom.

Part of the vast silver collection

Vincenzo Gemito
Italian 1852-1929
Giuseppe Verdi 1873

Raimundo de Madrazo y Garreta
Confidences c. 1870

detail of above

Francois-Joseph Navez
Belgian 1887-1869
Musical Group 1921

detail
The face reminds me of that fierce woman in
Delacroix's "Liberty Leading the People"

below.

Master of the Foliated Tappestry
C. 15th. Cent.
This is a small painting, roughly the size of a letter, but it is filled with such detail: most of the
areas shown below are perhaps a square inch.
Master, indeed!