Summer Vacation Redux #6: Kansas City: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, part 9 of 9

At this point, it's was time to make some strategic choices and so 17th century European art (not one of my favorite centuries for it) got nixed at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City and I headed for the elevator.   On the second floor I toured the Native American Collection, and this was my only disappointment.  Many of the exhibition cases had no or inadequate lighting.  Additionally, several of the general lights in the gallery were also burnt out.  I said something to the one and only guard and he said it was the job of the museum's engineer.  How's that for a career--get a job in engineering and become the chief light bulb changer at an art museum?!  It being Sunday, there wasn't any reason to pursue my concern any further, but it was a major disappointment.

And then on to the American art.  Lots to see here and I'm sharing several of my favorites.  When I left this gallery, I decided to skip the Asian/Chinese art and move on.  It's a reason to return to Kansas City and Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art on another day

"Still Life with Liqueur and Fruit" 1814, Raphaelle Peale (American) 1774 - 1825 

The Peale's are the United State's first Artist dynasty.  Charles Peale opened the first museum in the U.S. before it was the U.S. and today it's the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia.

"After the Rain in the Salt Marshes" circa 1874, Martin Johnson Heade (American) 1819 - 1904

If it wasn't Haystacks in Salt Marshes, then it was Hummingbirds, OR Magnolia blossoms.  You can sum up the lion share of Heade's oeuvre in these three topics.  Yet I do find his work sublimely interesting.

"Two-tiered Still Life with Fruit and Sunset Landscape" circa 1867, Severin Roesen (German/American) 1815 - 1872

"Gloucester Harbor" 1873, Winslow Homer (American) 1836 - 1910

"Stonehenge" 1876, Jasper Francis Cropsey (American) 1823 - 1900 

Cropsey was an American artist who sold a lot of his paintings in England.  When he first sent works depicting the autumn foliage, they were mocked by some critics as outlandish and garishly colored, because they had never seen North America's far more colorful fall displays.

"Looking Over the Hudson at Milton" circa 1887, George Inness (American) 1825 - 1894

I am big fan of Inness, but this one is really rather atypical of the style he is best known for.  This work is more intimate and more detailed.  I like seeing other aspects of any artist's work.

"Grand Canyon" 1912, Thomas Moran (English/American) 1837 - 1926

"The Sun Porch" 1922, Richard Edward Miller (American) 1875 - 1943

No matter where I go to an Art Museum, I inevitably find a painting that reminds me of my friend, Donnamarie.  It's a gift.

"Francisco Bernareggi" circa 1908, John Singer Sargent (American) 1856 - 1925

"Himmel" circa 1914, Marsden Hartley (American) 1877 - 1943

"Persephone" 1938-1939, Thomas Hart Benton (American) 1889 - 1975

"Apple Blossoms" 1930, Georgia O'Keeffe (American) 1887 - 1986

"January Full Moon" 1941, George Ault (American) 1891 - 1948

"Light Battery at Gettysburg" 1940, Edward Hopper (American) 1882 - 1967

Honest to Pete--it's a Hopper!  I can't help but think that being painted in 1940 on the cusp of World War II that the timing didn't have something to do with the subject matter.

"The Bathers" 1928, John Steuart Curry (American) 1897 - 1946

I happened to be in this room when a curator came through with a group of his friends and told the story of how the museum acquired this work.  Back in 1998 they were working on a retrospective of the artist's work when the director realized that the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art didn't actually own any of Curry's paintings.  The chief curator of the exhibition knew that this painting was in private ownership and that the patron might be willing to sell.  The owner was dying of cancer at the time, and agreed to sell in order to raise money for his treatment (something that he'd been doing with other works in his collection). 

"Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives" 1870, Frederic Edwin Church (American) 1826 - 1900

I've gone a little bit back in the chronology to feature this painting.  It's always good to find at least one painting that you want to contemplate a little deeper when visiting art museums.  This one grabs your attention for its shear size--it's over 6 feet tall.  The magnitude of the work allows the artist to include a wonderful amount of detail, as the following close-ups will attest.  When asked toward the end of his life which painting was his masterwork, Church sited this one.  Context in time is everything, too.  This work was conceived just 5 years after the United States Civil War had ended and artist were rife with metaphorical statements about the zeitgeist of the wounded nation.  Here I am compelled to think that Church was guarded optimistic. He portrays a holy place, a shining city on a hill--to borrow from

Jonathan Witherspoon's famous sermon--bathed in new light it emerges from the darkness of the storm.  You can bet this was on Church's mind as he created his masterwork. 

Remember, children, stay in school is get your learnin'.