Docent in Training - Second Evening With a Curator

Happy Rainy Friday the 19th of October,

Last nights class was as excellent as I expected. Curator Maggie Adler contains a wealth of information, but alas, she is also a very busy woman so I did not get to ask her a couple of questions about how a curator goes about their business. Maybe as the months roll by I will get a chance to speak with her one-on-one. Texas Christian University was also having guided tour classes last night and our docent instructor Nancy Strickland was able to attend them. Hope to find out more when we next meet in a couple of weeks.

In the meantime on to what you are reading this blog for. Sharing a few of the art and artists in the ACMAA (Amon Carter Museum of American Art) http://www.cartermuseum.org/collection that was discussed last night.

 William Merritt Chase 1849-1916) was a virtuoso artist and teacher experimenting in various mediums. The oil painting Idle Hours depicts Long Island's rural eastern tip. It shows Chase's wife, with two of his daughters and possibly his sister-in-law. Many Americans were craving a getting back to nature, not unlike today, and artists such as Chase painted just that.

Idle Hours - 1894

Most of you are very familiar with the artist John Singer Sargent ( 1856-1925) the preeminent society portraitist of the Gilded Age. You can see his extraordinary talent in the oil portrait of Alice Vanderbilt Shepard when she was thirteen. But he was also gifted with water colors doing several murals and water colors. He was born of expatriate parents in Florence and claimed his American citizenship in 1876 on a trip to the United States. The most interesting Alice Vanderbilt Shepard lived from 1874 to 1950 and was born of privilege. Sargent requested to paint her after doing a portrait of her mother. It is easy  to see why as she is a beautiful young lady.

Alyce Vanderbilt Shepard - 1888

Thomas Eakins (1844-1916) was an avid student of science and anatomy using photography to help him achieve his realism in human anatomy. The picture The Swimming Hole created a stir, as could be imagined in 1885, resulting in Eakins resigning as head of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Humankind has always been ambivalent towards nudity in art. Perhaps if Eakins had not actually used students and himself, not to mention his dog, in the painting it would not have been so scandalous. The Swimming Hole is considered a masterpiece of American painting.

The Swimming Hole - 1885

leaving you with the best of the best. There will be no class this next week but we will have a chance to attend an active docent meeting with a guest speaker on the 29th of Oct. Really looking forward to it and will let you know how it goes.

Have a great week,

Caroline