Museum Color and Light ~ LACMA

Never lose the first impression which has moved you.

~Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot

(painter, France 1796-1875)

After my visit to the Frank Gehry exhibition, I headed into the Ahmanson Building to get inspired by some masters in the permanent collection.

The Magdalen with the Smoking Flame, c. 1638-40

Oil on canvas

Georges de La Tour (France)

This Magdalen above, you may recognize, as it is a pretty famous piece. In fact, it was in my art history book! You can see the influence Caravaggio had on other painters. (They are called the Caravaggisti) This painting was a gift to LACMA from the Ahmanson Foundation. It's one of the highlights of the collection and one of my favorites!

Seine and Old Bridge at Limay, 1872
oil on canvas
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot

Corot is my friend Rachel's favorite artist. In fact, I texted this to her after my visit! There is something kind of magical about so much of his work. Even when the palette is dark and subdued, there are these little bits of light or sparkle that give it a mystical or dreamy feel. (At least to me!) 

Here's a piece at the Getty, with commentary.

Here's a lovely slideshow of his work with beautiful music!

Beauty in art is truth bathed in an impression received from nature.

I am struck upon seeing a certain place.

While I strive for conscientious imitation,

I yet never lose the emotion that has taken hold of me.

~Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot

This Angel Raphael, below, is another of my favorite pieces, in the museum!

Archangel Raphael

Italy (Naples), c. 1600

Polychromed and gilded wood

Saint Catherine of Alexandria, c. 1615
oil on canvas
Bernardo Strozzi (active Genoa and Venice, Italy)

The piece above of St. Catherine, was a recovered Nazi-looted painting, valued at 3 million. It's a promised gift of the owner's direct descendant, Philippa Calnan, to whom it was willed and returned. 

It turns out she is a retired public affairs director who worked at LACMA! Many times, a piece is willed to many family members who have to sell, often to pay for all the legal trouble in getting the stolen pieces returned to the family. 

I work on all parts of my painting at once,

improving it very gently

until I find that the effect is complete.

~Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot

Basket of Peaches, with Plums and Quinces, after 1641 (detail)

oil on canvas

Louise Moillon (France)

Art is nature as seen through temperament.

~Camille Corot

Broad building at LACMA

Jesús Soto's Penetrable 
This piece (the yellow "strings") is very interactive and you can usually see kids playing in it. Right now the platform is being repaired, to the frustration of the under 10 patrons.

Window from the gift shop!

Colorful giftsop rings and things!

Sleeping woman with Boy, 1926

Painted wood

Hermann A. Scherer 

The Locks at Dolo, c. 1735
Etching
Antonio Canal (called Canaletto)

Portrait of Marten Looten, 1632
Oil on wood
Rembrandt van Rijn (Northern Netherlands)
(even when there are other Dutch Masters in the room ... you can always tell a Rembrandt!)

The most important things in a painting are 

Form and Value.

Color comes last - 

like a friend you welcome. 

~Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot

Abraham and the Three Angels, c. 1750 (detail)

Pen and brown ink and wash over black chalk

with white heightening

Francesco Fontebasso

A Fallen Angel, c. 1952
Red and white chalk over black chalk
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (Venice, Italy)

The Triumph of Alexander the Great, c. 1485 (detail)
Tempera and gilding on panel
Bernardo Rosselli, (Florence, Italy)

Reality is one part of art;

feeling completes it ... 

Before any site and any object,

abandon yourself to you first impression.

If you have really been touched, 

you will convey to others

the sincerity of your emotion.

~Jena-Baptiste Camille Corot

Hesiod Listening to the Inspirations of the Muse, c. 1890
oil on canvas
Edmond-François Aman-Jean (France)

The Hope Hygieia

Roman, 2nd-century copy, c. 130-161, 

after a Greek original of c. 360 BC

Marble

"Hygieia, goddess of health, is identified by her snake. She was the daughter of Asclepius, god of medicine (and mythical ancestor of Hippocrates), whose shrines apparently housed sacred serpents. Here Hygieia feeds one some milk."

outside the museum ...

For the LA Times article on the Bernardo Strozzi, Nazi looted painting, click here.

Hope you enjoyed the little art visit and that you are off to a lovely fall.

Blessings and light!