On what I did today.

Here’s a post for those who think that I talk too much about what I’m thinking/reading instead of what I’m doing 🙂

I’m excited! Today, I went to two bookstores, one at the end of the street where I live, the other near school, and found four books.

Why so exciting? First of all, American bookstores don’t tend to carry many art/art history books. Second, I want to read these writings in the language in which they were written. Third, the lettres of Cézanne! I’m especially interested in his letters to Zola. During the school year, I skipped my Politics in China class to read Camille Pissarro’s letters to his son, Lucien. In them, he sometimes referred in passing to ‘a recent exhibit by Ms. Cassatt’ (that wasn’t terribly successful among critics), some purchase by Degas of Gauguin’s works, Gauguin’s mad dash to Tahiti, his own days painting, and always, he encouraged Lucien (who was in London) in his printmaking. I think that letters rank very highly among the things I enjoy reading.

1. Paul Klee- Théorie de l’art moderne

Paul Klee, I’ve never been a huge fan of his works, but he taught at the Bauhaus (with Wassily Kandinsky!) and was, therefore, rather articulate about modern art. I was sorely tempted to buy his Notebooks, which contain his lectures at the Bauhaus, but it was 30 euros. Here’s a painting by Klee, at MoMA:

Paul Klee, Twittering Machine (Die Zwitscher-Maschine), MoMA, 1922.

2. Gustave Flaubert- La Tentation de saint Antoine

Julian Barnes wrote a book called Flaubert’s Parrot, in which Barnes quotes Flaubert extensively, thus I’ve wanted to read something by Flaubert for some time now. I was tempted to buy a book of Barnes’s letters, but I’d rather find an English version. They had a larger collection of Julian Barnes than has had any US bookstore that I’ve frequented. Anyway, back to Flaubert. The other reason that I bought this book was because his subject is one that was popular among painters, including Hieronymous Bosch and (followers of?) Pieter Brueghel the Elder, the latter of which I saw at the National Gallery in DC. Here’s are two, first by Bosch, second by followers of Brueghel:

Hieronymous Bosch, la Tentation de saint Antoine.

Follower of Pieter Brueghel, The Temptation of Saint Anthony, c. 1550/1575

3. Paul Cézanne- Correspondance

Correspondances of Cézanne. Enough.

4. Ambroise Vollard- En Écoutant Cézanne, Degas, Renoir

Vollard was an art dealer who supported the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists while most critics were still shredding apart their works, figuratively. His book is a biography based on his encounters with the three painters. Here’s a portrait of Vollard by Cézanne that’s in Paris:

Paul Cézanne, Portrait of Ambroise Vollard, 1899.

I’m not the biggest fan of Renoir, but Degas and Cézanne are probably my two favorites in that group. Very different. I haven’t visited the Musée d’Orsay because I want to begin to understand Cézanne before I go. I think I’m beginning to, I spent most of yesterday on him. I have d’Orsay scheduled for Wednesday.

And just because this makes me laugh:

Edgar Degas, Dancers Practicing at the Barre, 1877, Met Museum

I’m discovering that Cézanne less-explicitly does this more often, with a plateful of apples, that’s mimicked by the arrangement of the tablecloth, or wallpaper design that mimics the lapels of a man’s suit. What’s this? According to the label for this painting at the Met, Degas put the water pitcher to explicitly show the similarity between it and the pose of the girl on the far right. He later wanted to erase the water pitcher from the painting, but the owner wouldn’t allow it.

Courtauld.

Just got off the phone from the professor with whom I’d work if accepted. I think she maybe liked me!

Now it’s simply waiting. In the meantime, for introspective contemplation:

Paul Cézanne- The Bather, 1885-7