Classical Art at The Clark

At the end of the day, I am still more of a classical art person. While at The Clark museum I saw a gorgeous piano that was ornately decorated. No single picture could really do it justice since every single panel of it was beautifully crafted and detailed.

The panel right above the keys is a full panorama painting of its own.  Each leg of the piano has detailing like I've never seen. I could have spent a good hour just taking detailed pics of this piano but figured there were some other more famous pieces I should probably see as well.

One such piece is Monet's Cathedral Rouen.  I actually have a print of one of the versions he did since middle school.

This is the first time I saw an original of Monet's Cathedral Rouen, and I learned that Monet had stayed in an apartment across the way from the cathedral, which is where he had this perspective.

He actually painted around 20 versions of the Cathedral Rouen, at different times of the day to get different lighting effects, at different crops to see which composition worked the best.

Knowing so much work went into creating his vision is what makes Monet one of the great impressionist masters, and it makes me appreciate his art even more.

And Monet is not alone in this. I've seen exhibits before on Degas where he sketched the same subject over and over in charcoal first to get just the right composition and just the right perspective. When the final painting is finished, dozens of versions have already been tried out with different color combinations and perspectives. The patience!

Last but not least in the famous department, is the Little Dancer by Degas.

I've actually seen this sculpture multiple times and was always wondering if there were more than one floating around. It turns out there's several indeed, and none of them are of the true original.

It turns out, Degas had created the original out of wax, and used real hair.  It had gone on exhibit just once toward the end of Degas' career and life.

The audience had reacted very negatively to the sculpture due to its life-likeness, and Degas never exhibited it again.

At some point a cast was made of the original wax sculpture, and these bronze ones were made from it. And since there were no photos of the original floating around, I guess no one alive today will be able to say they've seen what Degas originally created. This actually explains why I've seen color differences of the bow on the little dancer's hair each time I've seen it. They were all different copies! The things you learn!