Some months ago I
wrote about seeing a stunning painting in the Stadel Museum (Frankfurt). I eventually tracked down the painter (Charles Daubigny) and its title (Le verger) - but alas there is little about him on the web. Even Wikipedia only have a little more than a
stub about him - which makes no mention of the painting - which I consider one of the finest impressionist era paintings I have ever seen. Almost worth a trip to Frankfurt in itself. (Hint to the Stadel please commission some posters or even postcards of it - you have an unknown gem there!!). A few weeks ago I came across another of his works in the
Kroller Muller Museum but it wasn't nearly so heartstoppingly good.
The Kroller Muller is mostly famous for its Van Gogh selection - not the largest in the world - but by some accounts the most impressive and diverse. I visited it with my former PhD Supervisor, who had been to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam the day before and he concurred that it may have a larger collection but that there are more gems at the Kroller Muller.
The Netherlands has a history of producing outstanding world class painters and this is often attributed to the quality of
Dutch light but the Kroller Muller gives you the chance to see how Van Gogh's painting completely changed when he moved to the south of France. In the space of two years he shifted from using a palette of browns and yellows and greys to employing the full spectrum of the rainbow, as if the
absinthe mediterranean light had lifted a blind from his eyes. Which leads me to reflect that Van Gogh (like so many others) found his unique talent and greatness through becoming an ex-pat
2 comments:
Several years ago, an artist friend of mine suggested that I take a watercolor class: it really opened my eyes. I followed with drawing and life drawing classes. I'm not good at it, but I really enjoy exploring with charcoal and watercolor pen-and-wash. It teaches so much about how the real artists see light, color, and form.
I looked at your earlier post and it did remind me of the pre-Raphaelites. I've really enjoyed seeing the masterworks close-up here in Europe: you can see the painters solving the same problems I struggle with (and arriving at much better solutions!)
You're right that Daubigny is not covered well: I couldn't find a copy of the Frankfurt picture that you liked. In general, I look to artcylcopedia.com: they index museum collections and have a good selection by Daubigny. Artchive.com has a small biography, but it's not much better than Wikipedia's. His landscapes deserve better recognition.
I am not a Van Gogh fan, but I love the dutch painters. Jan Steen, Albert Cuyp, Frans Hals, Pieter de Hooch, Adriaen van Ostade, van Rijn, and of course Vermeer. My favs are the scenes of groups of people with a lot going on in them (hence my love of Jan Steen). My very favorite museum is the Rijksmuseum.
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