Skull and Cushions

A store window on the fly in Manhattan (the location is a guess) on the way to the Neue Galerie, a relatively new museum specializing in Austrian and German art. We visited a wonderful exhibition on Ferdinand Hodler (1853-1918), the best-known Swiss artist of his time.

The exhibition is "exceptionally touching", to quote the review in the link. In addition to a representative selection of paintings, it includes a series of drawings of his lover as she succumbed to cancer, as well as many intimate photographs of him by a close lady friend, with a number taken on an outing the day before he died. I spent three years at a small college in the Swiss mountains in the 1960s and came to know Hodler's work well--this is much the best presentation of it that I have seen.

We went on to the Metropolitan Museum, mainly for a show of Bernini's clay sculptures--small works which he did in preparation for his full-scale projects, mainly in marble. He was the greatest sculptor in 17th century Europe--so the show is definitely of interest, but somewhat esoteric for my taste.

We then directly drove the three hours back to Northampton (rain all the way); no chance for a blip beyond the one I'm posting.