Monday Morning Museum: Caspar David Friedrich

Portrait of Caspar David Friedrich, circa 1810-1820 by Gerhard von Kugelgen

Caspar David Friedrich – Monday 5 September 1774 Greifswald to Thursday 7 May 1840 Dresden

German Romantic Painter

Two Men Contemplating the Moon, circa 1825-1830

"The two men contemplating the sinking moon have been identified as Friedrich himself, on the right, and his talented young colleague August Heinrich (1794-1822). The mood of pious contemplation relates to fascination with the moon as expressed in contemporary poetry, literature, philosophy, and music. Both figures are seen from the back so that the viewer can participate in their communion with nature, which the Romantics saw as a manifestation of the Sublime.

Although the landscape is imaginary, it is based on studies after nature that Friedrich had made in various regions at different times. Both men wear Old German dress, which had been adopted in 1815 by radical students as an expression of opposition to the ultraconservative policies then being enforced in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars. The staunchly patriotic Friedrich deliberately ignored the 1819 royal decree forbidding this practice and depicted figures in traditional costume until his death." – Metropolitan Museum of Art

Last Monday’s Artist – Egon Schiele
Next Monday’s Artist – George Brassaï

“Monday Morning Museum” logo created by Adrean Darce Brent

Monday Morning Museum: Egon Schiele

Self Portrait, 1910 by Egon Schiele

Egon Schiele – Thursday 12 June 1890 Tulln an der Donau, Austria to Thursday 31 October 1918 Vienna, Austria

Austrian Expressionist Painter

Seated Woman, Back View, 1917

"This portrait of a seated woman viewed from behind is expressive even though her face is hidden. The model was likely Schiele's wife, Edith Harms, then twenty-four, whom he married in 1915 and who died of influenza only three days before he did. Only partially dressed but with her strawberry-blond hair carefully coiffed, the figure wears a bright blue striped jacket over a white striped shirt — the attire of a respectable lady. Her lower body, however, is clad in the garments in which Schiele usually depicted prostitutes — a white lace slip and dark stockings. The marked difference between the two parts of her costume seems to reflect the artist's own ambivalent feelings about his wife, who is variously shown in his art as a cold virgin or a passionate lover." – Metropolitan Museum of Art

Last Monday’s Artist – Carleton Emmons Watkins
Next Monday’s Artist – Caspar David Friedrich

“Monday Morning Museum” logo created by Adrean Darce Brent

Monday Morning Museum: Carleton Emmons Watkins

Self-Portrait, 1883 by Carleton Emmons Watkins

Carleton Emmons Watkins – Wednesday 11 November 1829 Oneonta, New York to Friday 23 June 1916 Napa, California

American Photographer

Cape Horn, Columbia River, Oregon, 1867

"Watkins, the consummate photographer of the American West, combined a virtuoso mastery of the difficult wet plate negative process with a rigorous sense of pictorial structure. For large-format landscape work such as Watkins produced along the Columbia River in Oregon, the physical demands were great. Since there was as yet no practical means of enlarging, Watkins's glass negatives had to be as large as he wished the prints to be, and his camera large enough to accommodate them. Furthermore, the glass negatives had to be coated, exposed, and developed while the collodion remained tacky, requiring the photographer to transport a traveling darkroom as he explored the rugged virgin terrain of the American West. The crystalline clarity of Watkins's remarkable "mammoth" prints is unmatched in the work of any of his contemporaries and is approached by few artists working today." – Metropolitan Museum of Art

Last Monday’s Artist – Maurice Brazil Prendergast
Next Monday’s Artist – Egon Schiele

“Monday Morning Museum” logo created by Adrean Darce Brent

Monday Morning Museum: Maurice Brazil Prendergast

Maurice Brazil Prendergast, 1913 by Gertrude Käsebier

Maurice Brazil Prendergast – Sunday 10 October 1858 St. John’s, Newfoundland to Friday 1 February 1924 New York, New York

Canadian-born American Impressionist Painter

Low Tide, Beachmont, circa 1900-1905

Medium: Watercolor over pencil
Dimensions: 15 3/8 x 22 in. (39 x 55.9 cm)
Classification: Drawings
- Metropolitan Museum of Art

"A prolific painter who favored the watercolor medium during most of his career, Prendergast worked in Boston as a commercial artist before training at the Académie Julian and the Atelier Colarossi in Paris from 1891 to 1894. Upon his return to Boston, he exhibited watercolors of coastal scenes, which he had made both in Brittany and in Massachusetts. The seaside was to be a fertile source for Prendergast's art for the rest of his life. Drawn to the populated urban beaches north of Boston, such as Revere Beach and Beachmont, he found that their working-class promenaders dressed in finery allowed him to engage issues of class and fashion. In this he was an heir to French avant-garde painting of the spectacle of modern life." – Worcester Art Museum

Last Monday’s Artist – Washington Allston
Next Monday’s Artist – Carleton Emmons Watkins

“Monday Morning Museum” logo created by Adrean Darce Brent

Monday Morning Museum: Washington Allston

Self-Portrait, 1805 by Washington Allston

Washington Allston – Friday 5 November 1779 Georgetown, South Carolina to Sunday 9 July 1843 Cambridge, Massachusetts

American Romantic Painter

The Spanish Girl in Reverie, 1831

Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 30 x 25 in. (76.2 x 63.5 cm)
Classification: Paintings
- Metropolitan Museum of Art

Not sure if the following is in reference to Allston’s painting, but Holmes was alive at the time it was created, so the poem is presented here as a possible story for the Spanish Girl.

Illustration Of A Picture: “A Spanish Girl in Reverie”
by Oliver Wendell Holmes

She twirled the string of golden beads,
That round her neck was hung, - -
My grandsire's gift; the good old man
Loved girls when he was young;
And, bending lightly o'er the cord,
And turning half away,
With something like a youthful sigh,
Thus spoke the maiden gray: -

"Well, one may trail her silken robe,
And bind her locks with pearls,
And one may wreathe the woodland rose
Among her floating curls;
And one may tread the dewy grass,
And one the marble floor,
Nor half-hid bosom heave the less,
Nor broidered corset more!

"Some years ago, a dark-eyed girl
Was sitting in the shade, -
There's something brings her to my mind
In that young dreaming maid, -
And in her hand she held a flower,
A flower, whose speaking hue
Said, in the language of the heart,
'Believe the giver true.'

"And, as she looked upon its leaves,
The maiden made a vow
To wear it when the bridal wreath
Was woven for her brow;
She watched the flower, as, day by day,
The leaflets curled and died;
But he who gave it never came
To claim her for his bride.

"Oh, many a summer's morning glow
Has lent the rose its ray,
And many a winter's drifting snow
Has swept its bloom away;
But she has kept that faithless pledge
To this, her winter hour,
And keeps it still, herself alone,
And wasted like the flower."

Her pale lip quivered, and the light
Gleamed in her moistening eyes; -
I asked her how she liked the tints
In those Castilian skies?
"She thought them misty, - 't was perhaps
Because she stood too near;"
She turned away, and as she turned
I saw her wipe a tear.

Last Monday’s Artist – Francis Frith
Next Monday’s Artist – Maurice Brazil Prendergast

“Monday Morning Museum” logo created by Adrean Darce Brent