Sunday, May 6, 2018

Bonnard Boudin Courbet Degas Manet Pissarro

Pierre Bonnard
The Oil Lamp
ca. 1898-1900
oil on panel
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Pierre Bonnard
View of the Seine at Vernon
1923
oil on canvas
National Galleries of Scotland

Eugène Boudin
The Beach at Trouville
1873
oil on canvas
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Eugène Boudin
The Beach at Trouville
1884
oil on panel
National Galleries of Scotland

Gustave Courbet
The Wave
ca. 1869
oil on canvas
National Galleries of Scotland

An Afternoon at the Beach

I'll go among the dead to see my friend
The place I leave is beautiful: the sea
Repeats the winds' far swell in its long sound,
And, there beside it, houses solemnly
Shine with the modest courage of the land,
While swimmers try the verge of what they see.

I cannot go, although I should pretend
Some final self whose phantom eye could see
Him who because he is not cannot change.
And yet the thought of going makes the sea,
The land, the swimmers, and myself seem strange,
Almost as strange as they will someday be.

– Edgar Bowers (1961)

Gustave Courbet
Trees in the Snow
ca. 1865
oil on canvas
National Galleries of Scotland

Edgar Degas
Woman drying herself
ca. 1890-95
pastel
National Galleries of Scotland

Edgar Degas
David and Goliath
ca. 1864
oil on canvas
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Edgar Degas
Au Café
ca. 1875-77
oil on canvas
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Edgar Degas
Copy after The Finding of Moses by Paolo Veronese
ca. 1865-70
oil on canvas
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Édouard Manet
Copy after The Barque of Dante by Eugène Delacroix
ca. 1854-58
oil on canvas
Musée des beaux-arts de Lyon

Édouard Manet
Luncheon in the Studio
1868
oil on canvas
Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich

Camille Pissarro
Route de Port Marly
ca. 1860-67
oil on panel
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Camille Pissarro
The Marne at Chennevières
ca. 1864-65
oil on canvas
National Galleries of Scotland

from The River

Yes, we'll gather by the river,
the beautiful, the beautiful river.
They say it runs by the throne of God.
This is where God invented fish.
Wherever, but then God's throne is as wide
as the universe. If you're attentive you'll
see the throne's borders in the stars. We're on this side
and when you get to the other side we don't know
what will happen if anything.

– Jim Harrison (2016)