Wednesday, August 24, 2016

European Landscapes at the Getty

Herman Nauwincx (landscape) & Willem Schelinks (figures)
Mountain landscape
ca. 1650-75
oil on panel
Getty

Collections of European paintings and drawings at most large museums came into existence over centuries from multitudes of sources. The collection at the Getty was assembled more recently and quickly, yet at the highest level of quality. The jeweler's glow seems to hover above this collection. Yet so much rigor in one place can also sometimes seem airless.

Jan van de Cappelle
Shipping in a calm at Flushing with a States General yacht firing a salute
1649
oil on panel
Getty

Denys van Alsloot
Forest landscape with a distant castle
1608
drawing
Getty

Anthony van Dyck
Landscape
ca. 1640
drawing
Getty

Pierre Henri de Valenciennes
Classical landscape
1788
oil on panel
Getty

Claude Joseph Vernet
Storm on a Mediterranean coast
1767
oil on canvas
Getty

Marco Ricci
Landscape with classical ruins
ca. 1725-30
oil on canvas
Getty

Johannes Janson
Formal garden
1766
oil on canvas
Getty

Jean-Baptiste Oudry
Gardens at Arcueil
1744
drawing
Getty

Jean Jacob de Boissieu
Château Gaillard, Lyon
1796
drawing
Getty

Franz Innocenz Kobell
Study of Coltsfoot leaves
ca. 1797
drawing
Getty

Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot
Rocks at Fontainebleau
ca. 1830-35
drawing
Getty

Gustave Courbet
Grotto of Sarrazine
ca. 1864
oil on canvas
Getty

Edvard Munch
Starry night
1893
oil on canvas
Getty

Of Stars / by Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle (1623-1673)

We find in the East Indies stars there be
Which we in our horizon did ne're see;
Yet we do take great pains in glasses clear,
To see what stars do in the sky appear;
But yet the more we search, the less we know,
Because we find our work doth endless grow.
For who doth know, but stars we see by night
Are suns which to some other worlds give light?
But could our outward senses pace the sky
As well as can imaginations high,
If we were there, as little may we know
As those which stay, and never up do go.
Then let not man in fruitless pains life spend:
The most we know is, nature death will send.