Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden (Five Favorites Series)

The Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (Old Masters Picture Gallery) is part of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (Dresden State Art Collections). It was founded in the early 18th century by Augustus the…

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Exuberant Flowers (and Weeds?)

Years ago I bought this poster of an exuberant bouquet by Jan van Huysum (1682-1749), which was at the time on loan to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. It's…

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Thomas Moran, The Teton Range (Metropolitan Museum Favorites, 19)

Frederick Church and Albert Bierstadt painted huge, magnificent canvases of the American West and other exotic locales: people paid just to look at them. The Metropolitan Museum's site describes the viewing…

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“Lady Clare,” by Tennyson and Waterhouse

"The Lady Clare," by Alfred Lord Tennyson It was the time when lilies blow, And clouds are highest up in air, Lord Ronald brought a lily-white doe To give his…

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La, but someone has to strike a pose (Metropolitan Museum Favorites, 16)

Reynolds's Captain Coussmaker always makes me think of the Scarlet Pimpernel, even though the Pimpernel did his heroic deeds in disguise, not in uniform. The  real Capt. George K.H. Coussemaker (1759-1801) served in…

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Gossaert’s Portrait of a Merchant (Take a Closer Look at Art, 1)

Years ago I heard a great lecturer talk about several wonderful pieces of art. Unlike other lecturers and writers I'd heard, she didn't discuss the significance of the works for the history of art…

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