Sunday, June 2, 2013

Birds and Pearls


Last Wednesday, my husband and I drove to the de Young Museum in San Francisco to see "The Girl With a Pearl Earring" by Jan Vermeer.  This was an exhibit of Dutch paintings from the Mauritshuis, which is being remodeled.

The exhibit first took you through several rooms full of 200 or more small, sometimes tiny etchings & drawings from "Rembrandt's Century".  I needed to get up close to admire the amazing talent in these pieces but after 50 they all began to look alike.

Self-Portrait Drawing at a Window by Rembrandt van Rijn (1648)

Suddenly we were in a room full of color and there she was - The Girl With a Pearl Earring" (c1665).


I fell in love.  The pose is just so intriguing with her looking over her shoulder with those big eyes looking straight into the viewer with a slightly open mouth and just a hint of glistening on her lips.  The blues, the golds, the pearl and the head wrap all added to my fascination.  

I had to go back three times to look at her - "just once more"!


The only other piece that captured my heart was by an artist named Carel Fabritius and it was titled "The Goldfinch" (1654).




Yesterday a new exhibit opened that at the Legion of Honor - "Impressionists on the Water"
 June 1 - October 13, 2013.  I can't wait!

Claude Monet


1 comment:

  1. Jeanette, great post! I can hardly wait to see this exhibit!

    ReplyDelete

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