But how can you keep a secret under the brilliant Californian sun?
Family secrets @ The Getty Center
July 18th, 2017
Tag: the getty center
”Elementary, my dear Watson”
Under the magnifying glass: A view of the Bay of Naples, Looking Southwest from the Pizzofalcone towards Capo di Posilippo, 1791 by Giovanni Battista Lusieri (1755-1821)
The precision of the figures and architecture – first painstakingly depicted with pencil underdrawing – has led many to speculate that Lusieri used an optical device such as a camera obscura. However, eyewitness accounts of the artist at work do not support this theory. Lusieri painted the view over a period of two years from rooms in the Neapolitan residence of Sir William Hamilton, British envoy to the court of Naples. Hamilton commissioned it to hang in his London home, perhaps to serve as a reminder of this sunny scene when he returned to his often-gloomy homeland.
Lusieri is getting Sherlocked @ The Getty Center
July 18th, 2017
Taking sides
Do we really have to? I can’t decide.
Bust of Juliette Récamier, ca. 1801-2
Joseph Chinard (1756-1813)
Juliette Récamier (French, 1777-1849) was a socialite renowned for her literary circle, but perhaps even more for her beauty. At age fifteen, she married Jacques-Rose Récamier, a banker, thirty years her senior – and her mother’s longstanding lover. Rumor had it that Récamier was, in fact, her natural father and they got married so that she would become his heir(!) Apparently, the marriage was never consummated.
Prince Lucien Bonaparte, Napoleon’s brother, courted her; Prince Augustus of Prussia proposed but she refused to divorce her husband/father; the French Romantic writer François-René de Chateaubriand was a constant visitor of her salon. The courtship never seized; despite advanced age, ill-health and reduced circumstances having lost most of her fortune, Juliette remained as charming as ever.
In this bust, her friend Chinard, a brilliant portraitist, enhanced her charming features by slightly tilting her head, paying attention to details such as her hair and including her arms and delicate hands.
July 18th, 2017
A work of art
There are many wonderful museums and art galleries in this world.
Then, there is The Getty.
Multilayered, modern design; open spaces; galleries drenched in natural light; gardens and streams; breathtaking views of the city and surrounding hills. If you can, go on a Saturday when the Getty remains open until 9 p.m. Because nothing beats watching the sunset from one of the balconies. Or the city lights as they begin to flicker.
June 15th, 2017
The Humble Fabulist 