Hume on Humans

Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun “Julie Le Brun Looking in a Mirror” (1787)

How many people came and stayed a certain time,
Uttered light or dark speech that became part of you
. . . until no part
Remains that is surely you.

—John Ashbery, Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror

I sometimes think, on rereading Ritchie Robertson’s book on the Enlightenment, that interpretation of this period badly needs rescuing from many of its most ardent supporters. I suppose it’s inevitable, here as elsewhere, that most complexities get lost in translation, over-simplified in service of making a desired point.

Finishing the Hat

In idle perusing of artworks online, I found myself captivated by those featuring women in Breton hats. One day, I searched through the hundreds, probably thousands, of images I’ve amassed over time. I found plenty I was glad to be reminded of again, including Émile Bernard’s Breton Women with Umbrellas (1892), Paul Sérusier’s Pilgrimage (1894), Procession of the Standards to La Clarte (1897) by Maurice Denis, and, though perhaps not Breton hats, Marianne von Werefkin’s The Way of the Cross II (1921).

Three Ancestral Jugs and a Tlingit Comb

My friend Lucy had the very clever idea of making up a Bingo card consisting of works to be found at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. What a treasure hunt it was, taking me to corners of the Met where I’d never ventured.

Buildings, Inside and Out

“Beyond the Light: Identity and Place in Nineteenth-Century Danish Art” at the Met Museum is entrancing in ways I did not expect. The Met writes of the exhibit:

Early Mondrian, with Sheep

As I suppose is true of many, I knew Mondrian’s oeuvre only through later works like Broadway Boogie Woogie (1942-43). I knew I was supposed to grasp their brilliance, but I couldn’t pretend. They sorta left me cold.