a list made at the MFA

[fiefoe]

Going by the new "American In Paris" show, we will say that the 1850s saw a bumper crop of future artists.

<Stand-outs: >
1. Ellen Day Hale (1855–1940), "Self Portrait"
2. John White Alexander, (1856–1915) "Isabella and the Pot of Basil"
    A cross between Klimt and Whistler. Lit by footlights. Keats poem behind it.
3. Sargent, "In the Luxembourg Gardens"
    Blushing pink dress, bright lemony moon, dusky greenery.
4. Cecilia Beaux, "Ernesta with Nurse" (all grown-up)
    We also covet the Wedgewood sofa in "Sita and Sarita".
(5.) John Twachtman, "Arques-la-Bataille"
(6.) James Abbott McNeill Whistler, "Blue and Silver: Trouville"
    More: a, b, c.

<Interesting lives:>
1. Elizabeth Gardener (Bouguereau), "The Shepherd David"
    Married in 1896.
2. Henry Ossawa Tanner
    He looks like a bespectacled Spike Lee.

<Photogenic props:>
1. William Merritt Chase, "Portrait of Miss Dora Wheeler"
    Dull, diffused light reflected by a blue-green rotund clay pot.
2. Sargent, "Mrs. Henry White"
    Splendid white (of course) dress with pearl pendant.
3. Sargent, "The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit"
    Giant Japanese porcelain vases with blue underglaze.
4. Mary Cassatt, "Tea"
    Silver tea service, the real version of.

<Nice details:>
1. Whistler, "Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Painter's Mother"
    The gray wavy patterns on the black curtain.
2. Mary Cassatt, "In de Loge"
    Bright daubs in the left corner as rough sketches of theater-goers.

<Would not have known:>
1. Anne Whitney: a bronze cast head of an aged peasant woman in kerchief.
2. Charles Sprague Pearce: a young man as a samurai in drag (bright kimono, bangs).
3. John Leslie Breck: a charmingly weedy "Grey Day on the Charles"
4. Maurice Prendergast: small sketches of young petticoated girls in parks.
5. Dennis Miller Bunker: a small town in early, pearly light.
6. Elizabeth Nourse (1859–1938), "La Mère (The Mother)"
7. Childe Hassam (1859–1935)

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