Thursday

I visited the "Birth of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musee D'Orsay" Exhibit this morning at the deYoung Museum. It was an incredible experience to see these beloved paintings, to stand next to them and examine the paint strokes that these master artists placed so precisely upon their canvasses so many years ago. It was such joy to stand before these works that I have glimpsed in books and, most especially, on the postcards I have collected for so many years, and look at them for as long as I wanted. And, even so, go back and look at them again.

Here are some of my favorites:

"The Tuileries" (1875), oil on canvas, by Claude Monet

"Still Life with Soup Tureen" (circa 1873-1874),

oil on canvas, by Paul Cezanne

"Flowers in a Crystal Vase" (1882),

oil on canvas, by Edouard Manet

"The Barge During the Flood, Port-Marly" (1876),

oil on canvas, by Alfred Sisley

"The Magpie" (1868-1869),

oil on canvas, by Claude Monet

I revisited "Flowers in a Crystal Vase" and "The Magpie" at least three times each. "Flowers in a Crystal Vase" is so beautiful: its pristine size and impressionistic clarity evokes the artist's love and devotion to such precise beauty. "The Magpie" has bountiful deep deep snow. I wonder how many times Monet went back to add more snow with his brush and so create its brilliant whiteness and the stillness of day.

"Still Life with Soup Tureen" was my favorite, though. I gazed at it for quite some time. The colors and textures that combine to create the background of paintings and the table cloth covered with fruit and a basket and a tureen in the foreground were magnificent to behold.