Paris,
Impressionism & the Arts May 29
- June 9, 2011 Paris Museums (Carnavalet, Louvre, Orsay, Delacroix, Jacquemart-Andre, Moreau) Paris Sites (Passy Cemetery, Pere Lachaise Cemetery, Parc Monceau, St. Sulpice, Pantheon, Sacre Coeur, Pont d l'Europe) Coastal Impressionism (Etretat, Ste.-Adresse, La Havre, Honfleur, Trouville, Deauville) Barbizon (Auberge Ganne, Studios of Rousseau and Millet) and Vaux-le-Vicomte Late Impressionism (Musee Monet and Impressionisms Museum, Giverny; Museum of Maurice Denis and the Nabis; Museum of Montmartre) Major Exhibitions: Manet: Inventor of the Modern; Caillebotte Brothers: Painter & Photographer; Bonnard in Normandy; Paris in the Times of Impressionism; Severini: Futurist and Neo-Classicist
and back home: Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris"
Spring
Getaway: JAPAN to JACKSON APRIL
8-11, 2011
A weekend in Mississippi to take in the
legendary Natchez
Pilgrimage (Stanton, The Burn, Longwood, and Richmond) and a major exhibition at the Mississippi Museum
of Art called "The Orient Expressed"
that explores the phenomenon of Japonisme
in western art after 1860
in painting and prints, architecture, costume, and furnishings.
"Japonisme is the term used to refer to the
influence of Japan on European and American art from 1854 to 1910.
Artists embraced a serious examination of all aspects of Japanese art
and culture and painters, printmakers, and decorative designers created
works that borrowed directly from Japanese models or embodied an
assimilation of Japanese concepts."
(Gabriel Weisberg, curator of the exhibition; "Aspects of Japonisme," Bulletin
of the Cleveland Museum of Art, 62, 4 (April 1975), p. 120)
Other visits included Eudora Welty's House, the Old and New Capitols, The Oaks, Fairview Inn, and Mynelle Gardens. Our hotel: the historic King Edward (1923)
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"Spirit of
California: Life and Art in the Bay Area," July 2010
Stanford
University, Cantor Center, Rodin Sculpture Garden
San
Francisco museums: Palace of the Legion of Honor, deYoung Museum, San
Francisco MoMA Special
exhibitions: "Birth of Impressionism: 100
Paintings from the Musée d'Orsay" "Impressionist
Paris: City of Light"
Oakland
Museum of California
Mountain View Cemetery (Frederick Law Olmsted)
Napa Valley
interlude to savor pleasures of the wine country
special
welcome at the Hearst Gallery (St. Mary's
College, Moraga), exhibition featuring works from an Austin collection "Superbly Independent: Early Western Women Artists Annie Harmon, Mary Deneale Morgan, Marion K. Wachtel"
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April 21-26, 2010 FRIENDS OF THE NEILL-COCHRAN HOUSE MUSEUM STUDY TOUR
"Hidden Treasures: Women and the Arts in D.C."
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2010* EUROPE STUDY TOUR: LISBON / June 3-13 was the wonderful "Iberian Surprise" we'd hoped!
including celebrations of Henry the Navigator 550th Madre de Deus Convent 500th Ano Santo of St. James 100th anniversary of the Portuguese Republic
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Tour members anticipating an outstanding visit at Homewood, Federal mansion on the Johns Hopkins University campus
BALTIMORE & ANNAPOLIS: Art and History around the Chesapeake A study tour devoted to historic architecture and great art museums plus the Edgar Allan Poe Bicentennial April 14-19, 2009 5 nights Admiral Fell Inn (1770s, HHA) in the oldest waterfront
community in Baltimore (1726)
FRIENDS DO BALTIMORE! a review by Cecille Marcato, Director of the Neill-Cochran House Museum (Abner Cook, 1855)
The
study
tours sponsored by the Friends of the Neill-Cochran House Museum
just get better and better—and last year’s trip to New York and the
Hudson River Valley was hard to top! Study Tour V: "Baltimore &
Annapolis, Art & History around the Chesapeake" was a perfectly
paced, comprehensive view of Maryland’s rich history, beautiful
architecture, and lovely land- and seascapes. The historic Admiral
Fell Inn provided gracious accommodations for six exciting days during
which thirteen Friends explored historic house museums and monuments,
art museums, and the Naval Academy, with time for a bracing cruise
around sunny Annapolis Harbor. Members of the National Society of the
Colonial Dames of America in the State of Maryland welcomed Friends and
Texas Dames to Mount Clare, their Georgian mansion atop Carroll Park
that boasts many portraits by Charles Willson Peale, enterprising
colonial artist and creator of America's first museum (Philadelphia,
1796).
The group
learned some of the unique features of Maryland furniture and got
acquainted with Annapolis artisan John Shaw. Shaw made the furniture
for the Maryland Statehouse (the oldest state capitol in continuous
legislative use) where one can stand on the very spot where George
Washington resigned his commission in 1793! The Maryland Historical
Society rounded out a growing acquaintance with Charles Willson Peale
and his amazing, artistic children and with Baltimore silversmith
Samuel Kirk. A highlight there was the actual sheet (revealed
dramatically) on which Francis Scott Key penned the poem that became
the national anthem. Seeing his poem in Key’s own hand was the perfect
complement to touring the Star Spangled Banner Flag House of Mary
Pickersgill -- where the inspirational flag was planned and stitched --
and singing the national anthem as Boy Scouts raised a flag over Fort
McHenry. Additional highlights included the Kirken of the Tartans in
Baltimore Cathedral (Benjamin Latrobe, circa 1800); Mount Vernon Place,
including Baltimore’s two premiere art museums and the first monument
to George Washington; and Evergreen, the Gilded Age mansion complete
with its own theatre. Edgar Allan Poe affectionately called Baltimore
“home,” and in honor of the 200th anniversary of his birth, Friends
visited his grave at Westminster Burying Ground, Baltimore’s oldest.
Free-time offerings included the Baltimore Symphony, an opera cabaret,
an 18th-century gaming evening, the Baltimore Aquarium, and crab cakes
galore.
Baltimore is a city of hidden surprises, and its great
variety and charming citizens combined with the good company of Friends
made the trip a pleasure for all. Watch for the Lady
Baltimore Cake Reunion Party and Study Tour VI Meeting in August to hear more and
be among the first on board for the spring 2010 trip.
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Munch, Woman at the Window, 1893
US tour / Spring 2009: "Art and Architecture in Chicago's Golden Age" April 2-5, 2009
A
long
weekend in Chicago explored the major Edvard Munch exhibition at
the Art Institute
of Chicago, "Becoming Edvard Munch: Influence, Anxiety, and Myth," complemented by a series of achievements contemporary with
Munch: great European art in the Art Institute's permanent collection
and key monuments of Chicago architecture, including Glessner House
(H.H. Richardson, 1886), Robie House (Frank Lloyd Wright, 1909), and
the Loop's first-generation
skyscrapers; the Smart Gallery at the
University of Chicago (its collection includes Robie House dining room table and chairs, Childe Hassam's painting of Columbian Exposition strollers, and numerous other works from our focus period, 1880-1925); and a day in Oak Park including the Frank Lloyd
Wright Home & Studio, Wright-designed houses nearby, and Wright's Unity Temple.
Images below: Tribune Tower facade detail; 2016 Olympics campaign; Buckingham Fountain; Hotel Burnham chandelier; Carson Pirie Scott cornice; Chicago Symphony Orchestra stage/Bach concert; Art Deco detail near the River; Driehaus Mansion (1883); FL Wright, Heller House (1896, Woodlawn Avenue); silly acanthus ornament in Oak Park; FLW Unity Temple details (2009--Centenary!); Psalm for Unity Temple; Chicago skyline from Grant Park
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US tour / Fall 2008: "Modern Art & Architecture in the City of Angels" September 5-8, 2008
A
great trip! Twenty travelers saw everything we planned and enjoyed a
few extra surprises--as we stopped at twilight to look at a
Frank Gehry-designed house, the occupant appeared and invited us in;
we saw all six floors and the sunset over Venice Beach from her roof! More pictures are at KodakGallery.com. Contact Karen Pope by email for access.
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Alexander Jackson Davis, Lyndhurst, 1838
"Great Houses of the Hudson River" was a superb experience! A few pictures below.... Wednesday through Monday, 16-21 April, 2008
Highlights: “Hudson River School” painters and motifs, and ....
Splendid historic houses and collections:
Colonial Dames Museum House (1930)
Metropolitan Museum of Art (1870): Hudson River School and American Decorative Arts
National Academy of Design (1826), America’s first art school, collections in a distinguished house
Albany Institute of History & Art (1791), focus on paintings of the Hudson River School
Van Cortlandt House Museum (1748), fine Georgian stone country house and furnishings
Morris-Jumel Mansion (1765), Manhattan’s oldest house, George Washington’s headquarters in 1776
Gracie Mansion (1799), official residence of the mayor since Fiorello La Guardia, 1942
Boscobel (1804), superb Adamesque house and furnishings
Springwood (1826), birthplace, home, and retreat of Franklin D. Roosevelt + Presidential Library
Lyndhurst (1852; doubled in 1864), key Gothic Revival work of Alexander Jackson Davis
Cedar Grove (1815), home of Thomas Cole, founder of the Hudson River School
Sunnyside (1835), fanciful Gothic Revival home of Washington Irving, largely furnished with Irving’s belongings
Olana (1870), Persian villa of HRS painter Frederic Edwin Church, now a National Historic Landmark
Edgewater (1825)
Surprise glimpses:
Vassar College Campus
Bard College's Fisher Performing Arts Center (Frank Gehry sculpturesque titanium building, 2002)
Mills Mansion
Vanderbilt Mansion
Fine dining:
Dinner at the Culinary Institute of America’s Restaurant Escoffier
Lavish brunch in the Gothic-style Thayer Hotel (1926) at West Point (1802)
Arrangements by Karen Bluethman, Heart of Texas Tours, Austin <hottours@sbcglobal.net>
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Frank Lloyd Wright, Wisconsin Architect "Wright in the Heartland: Historic Art & Architecture in Wisconsin" October 5-8, 2007
19 central Texans enjoyed four days of Indian summer in Wisconsin, traveling through the landscape in which Frank Lloyd Wright grew up and to which he returned in 1911 after his early years in Chicago. We saw 10 Wright buildings: Johnson Wax, Wingspread (Johnson residence), Unitarian Meeting House, his first Usonian house (Jacobs residence), Gilmore House, Monona Terrace (convention center, built in 1995), and explored Spring Green: Taliesin, Hillside School, the Taliesin restaurant (now the visitors' center) and Unity Chapel near Wright's gravesite. To appreciate the richness and variety of modern architecture, we toured the Wisconsin state capitol, the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, St. Josaphat Basilica and the Quadracci Pavilion (Calatrava, 2002). Along the way, we saw a Louis Sullivan house (Bradley House) and a campus building by H. H. Richardson. Art and music completed the experience: the Chazen Museum at the U. of Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Art Museum, and a concert featuring Joshua Bell. Karen Bluethman (Heart of Texas Tours) did a superlative job with arrangements, scheduling, and directing our attentive, congenial group.
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Looking Back on a Wonderful Tour of Vienna "Baroque to Secession: Vienna & the Arts" 24 May through 4 June, 2007
Oustanding hotel: Hotel Rathaus Wein & Design / Lange Gasse 13 / 1080 Vienna Outstanding hotelier: Mr. Conrad Schropel [o with an umlaut; this webdesign program handles diacritics poorly, as you have noticed...] We had a fabulous experience in Vienna! Art inSight travelers who want to remember their visit may view or load these photos in two ways:
(1) The thumbnail shots below are Karen's favorite photos from the trip, including the best group shots. Save any of these to your computer by right-clicking on them.
(2) If you'd like to see all of Karen's Vienna tour photos (and order prints online from Kodak), go to http://www.kodakgallery.com and use album name artinsight-vienna2007. Tour members received invitations to this site by email.
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Art inSight Inc. f. 1995; website 2007 designed by Kathy Kelly; Last update: February 6, 2012
