February 2022

Dance at Bougival, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1883; this is the first time the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, has lent this collection of Impressionist works to another museum with the MFAH being its only US exhibition; the show will run through March 22, 2022

Flowers and Fruit on a Table, Henri Fantin-Latour, 1865; the artist met Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas at the Louvre, where they went in the late 1850s and early 1860s to copy Old Master paintings

Pontoise, the Road to Gisors in Winter, Camille Pissarro, 1873; this town, 20 miles NW of Paris, was Pissarro's base for close to 20 years and he created around 300 paintings of the town and its environs during that time

The Loing at Saint-Mammes, Alfred Sisley, 1882; Sisley fell in love with this tributary of the Seine, painting it nearly 300 times; he's quoted saying 'every picture shows a spot with which the artist has fallen in love'

Port of Le Havre, Eugene Louis Boudin, c. 1886; both Boudin and Claude Monet (16 yrs his junior) grew up in Le Havre and Monet says of Boudin, 'I have said it before and can only repeat that I owe everything to Boudin and I attribute my success to him.'

Mixed Flowers in an Earthenware Pot, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, c. 1869; this painting marks Renoir's closest collaboration with Monet as the young artists painted the same subject, sitting side by side; Monet's version is at the Getty Museum in LA

The Forest of Compiegne, Paul Huet, c. 1830; this forest, 50 miles north of Paris, was the site of the Armistice which marked the end of fighting in WWI on November 11, 1918, as well as the Armistice of June 22, 1940 after the Battle of France in WW2

Souvenir of a Meadow at Brunoy, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, c. 1855-65; 100+ artworks from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, were part of an excellent temporary exhibition on the early days of Impressionism

At the Races in the Countryside, Edgar Degas, 1869; this picture appeared at the first Impressionist exhibition held in Paris in 1874 and provides a nice contrast to the usual ballerina paintings for which Degas is most famous

Spring Pasture, Camille Pissarro, 1889; Pissarro's art transformed in October 1885, when he met the young painters Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, who were exploring scientific theories of colors and optics in a style that came to be known as Pointillism

In the Opera Box (No. 3), Mary Cassatt, c. 1880; this etching is a tour de force with the museum showing some of the preliminary work where Cassatt worked hard to achieve the desired lighting effects

Street Singer, Eduoard Manet, 1862; one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, Manet was a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism; his early works are considered watershed paintings marking the start of modern art

Carmen Gaudin in the Artist's Studio, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1888; the artist was only 24 when he painted this work which I prefer to his caricatural depictions of cabaret and circus performers which dominate his later works

Algerian Girl, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1881; Renoir traveled to Algeria seeking to capture the exotic nature of North Africa and emulate the subject matter made famous in France 50 years before by Eugene Delacroix

Roses in a Glass Vase, Henri Fantin-Latour, 1890; the artist's paintings of flowers sold well with private collectors in England (England had, at this time, surpassed France in the cultivation of roses)

Grapes and Walnuts on a Table, Alfred Sisley, 1876; this work is believed to have been painted with the encouragement of his friend Claude Monet; Sisley would only paint 9 still lifes in his career, remaining committed to landscapes

Port of Saint-Cast, Paul Signac, 1890; Signac - 'it will be advisable first to stand far enough away to perceive the impression of the while, then stop and come closer to perceive the play of colored elements.'

River View, Frits Thaulow, c. 1890-1900; this noted Norwegian artist moved to France in 1892, living there until his death in 1906; he's famous for his depictions of rippling waterways under different light conditions

Fashionable Figures on the Beach, Eugene Louis Boudin, 1865; the advent of train travel in the 1850s brought seaside holidays within reach for middle-class Parisians, who flocked to new resort towns on the Normandy coast

Millet's Family Home at Gruchy, Jean-Francois Millet, 1854; planning to be a portrait painter, Millet altered direction after meeting landscape artists Constant Troyon and Theodore Rousseau; his works were sold by Paul Durand-Ruel (later Monet's dealer)

Grand Canal, Venice, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1881; Renoir's Venetian pictures generated some hostility from critics when first exhibited, since they constituted a radical departure from tradition where the city's monuments were shown in accurate detail

Morning Sunlight on the Snow, Eragny-sur-Epte, Camille Pissarro, 1895; committed across several decades to humble rural scenes and flickering brushstrokes, Pissarro varied his style from Impressionism to Pointillism, excelling at both

Built in 1759, the home of noted American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow for almost 50 years had previously served as the HQs of General Washington; Longfellow wrote Hiawatha and Evangeline here and all of the furnishings original to his ownership remain

In 1837, Ralph Waldo Emerson delivered his famous 'American Scholar' address to Harvard's Phi Beta Kappa Society—referred to by Oliver Wendell Holmes as America's 'Intellectual Declaration of Independence'—at the First Parish Church (established in 1632)

Brattle House was built in 1727 for Major General William Brattle, at that time the wealthiest man in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and a British loyalist; John Adams, visited here before his trip to Philadelphia to sign the Declaration of Independence

Built in 1761, Christ Church(at Zero Cambridge Common)was designed by Peter Harrison, the first formally trained architect to work in the British colonies; generations of Harvard students from Richard Henry Dana Jr. to Teddy Roosevelt have worshipped here

The Cooper-Frost-Austin House, built in 1681, is the oldest house in Cambridge; the city of 116,000, home to Harvard and MIT, has 57% of its residents possessing at least a bachelor's degree

The Longfellow Bridge, built in 1906, connects Boston's Beacon Hill neighborhood with Cambridge's Kendall Square near the MIT campus; designed to emulate the great bridges of Europe, locals know it as the Salt + Pepper Bridge due to the shape of its piers

Elmwood (1767) is known for prominent residents: Thomas Oliver, royal Lt Governor of MA; Elbridge Gerry, signer of the Declaration of Independence, Vice President and eponym of the term 'gerrymandering;' and James Russell Lowell, writer, poet and diplomat

Dedicated in 1831, 174-acre Mt Auburn Cemetery was the first garden cemetery in the US transforming the previous harsh view of death and the afterlife embodied by old graveyards and church burial plots; photographed here is the rotunda of Mary Baker Eddy's tomb

Initially constructed in 1685 and enlarged and remodeled many times thereafter, the Cooper-Lee-Nichols House is the second oldest home in Cambridge; the house was once owned by MIT's dean of architecture but it now houses the Cambridge Historical Society

Senator Elizabeth Warren lives in this home (valued at $2.9 million by Zillow) across the street from the Cooper-Frost-Austin House; my fellow University of Houston alum is married to a professor at Harvard Law School

Dedicated in 1870, this Civil War Memorial including the bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln is on Cambridge Common, bordering Harvard University; Matt Damon and Ben Affleck often played football here in the 1980s

The First Church in Cambridge, the 11th oldest congregation in New England, first gathered in 1633; the Massachusetts Constitution, the world’s oldest living constitution, was framed at the church in 1779

Legend has it that George Washington took command of the Continental Army in a ceremony underneath the Washington Elm on Cambridge Common; the original elm tree died in 1923 but the legend lives on

Brattle Hall (1889) today houses the Brattle Theatre and is located on historic Brattle St, off Harvard Square; over the years residents of Brattle St have given the world baking powder, Fig Newtons, Polaroid cameras and Sadie Hawkins Day

This Irish Famine Memorial was dedicated by the President of Ireland on historic Cambridge Common; the Common has long been a site for public gatherings before marching to Boston Common including protests for Civil Rights or against the Vietnam War

The $1.3 billion Getty Center opened in 1997 (after taking 14 yrs) on 110 acres high above the Brentwood section of LA; 2+ million people visit annually making it one of the country's most attended museums

Personnage, Joan Miro, 1976 and (background) Bronze Form, Henry Moore, 1985; the Getty has a couple of sculpture gardens that are pleasant spaces but the sculptures seem rather bland

An Old Man in Military Costume, Rembrandt van Rijn, ca. 1630-31; as a young artist in Leiden, Rembrandt developed a specialty genre of character studies known as tronies; they frequently portray elderly men or young women dressed in fanciful costumes

This showpiece cabinet, designed to resemble the facade of a Baroque church, was made around 1620 in Rome for Pope Paul V Borghese and was in the British Royal Collection until 1959, when it was sold along with the collection of Queen Mary

The Sermon on the Mount, Jan Brueghel the Elder, 1598; Brueghel's unmatched ability to minutely render facial features and costumes makes the crowd the focal point of the piece rather than Christ

This architectural scene, circa 1650, by German Wilhelm Fistulator is an example of the striking illusionism made by scagliola, where a mixture of stucco, glue and pigments adhere to a gesso ground to resemble marble or other stone mosaics

Flower Still Life, Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder, 1614; this artist specialized in recording the prized exotic flowers cultivated in Holland in the early 1600s; his delicate renderings profoundly influenced later Dutch artists

Rembrandt Laughing, Rembrandt van Rijn, ca. 1628; by the late 1620s, Rembrandt was enthusiastically producing small, single figure studies of intense emotional states with the aid of a mirror

Seated Cardinal, Giacomo Manzu, 1975-77; from the 1930s to 1950s, Manzu produced 50+ cardinals-standing + seated, large + small, in bronze, alabaster + marble; with 1 exception, the cardinals were all made without a model, their features entirely invented

A Hare in the Forest, Hans Hoffmann, ca. 1585; Hoffmann's hare is based on Dürer's famous and influential watercolor; at the time it was painted, this arrangement of nearly life-size subjects was entirely unique within the tradition of German nature study

This 1798 Neoclassical secretary was bought by King Frederick William III of Prussia; this piece originally housed a musical movement inside the base that played a tune when the clock struck the hour

The Grand Canal in Venice from Palazzo Flangini to Campo san Marcuola, Canaletto, ca. 1738; Canaletto was at the peak of his powers when he created this view of the sun-drenched palaces; imagine what it would have been like back then to visit Venice!

Aubert Parent carved this relief from a single piece of Limewood in 1791 in response to the tumultuous events of the French Revolution;this work symbolizes the hope that a reformed and constitutional France could coexist with an enlightened King Louis XVI

Two Boys with a Bladder, Joseph Wright of Derby, ca. 1769-70; animal bladders served as toys, either inflated and tossed like balloons or filled with dried peas and shaken like rattles; Wright heightened the luminosity here by applying metal foil to the canvas

From the Getty, you can see the Pacific Ocean as well as downtown LA although it's usually very hazy; this shot has UCLA in the center with the high-rise condos along Wilshire Blvd in the background

This 1670 private room from a Parisian residence is fitted with 14 carved panels that are the full length doors of an extensive bookcase; the Getty Center endowment exceeds $7 billion

In addition to the Getty Center, the 64 acre Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades is home to the museum's Greek, Etruscan, and Roman antiquities, and includes an outdoor theater that hosts classically inspired theater productions each fall

Decorative microscopes (like this 1751 model) were made for the wealthy intelligentsia of Paris, who had a passion for the study of natural history and who maintained collections of all sorts of natural specimens

After I dropped Lee off at the Cancun airport, I extended my Mexico stay for 4 beach days on Cozumel and so I could go scuba diving; my prior visits to Cozumel had all been via cruise ships where you don't get a real feel for a destination

This huge spotted eagle ray was the highlight of one of my dives; the coral looked in OK shape but there was surprisingly little marine life with no turtles, sharks, only one eel and even a smaller than typical range of tropical fish

Adult rock beauties are normally encountered as pairs and appear to form long term monogamous relationships so maybe I swam upon a menage a trois; the first Spanish expedition to visit Cozumel was led by Juan de Grijalva in 1518 with Cortes a year later

In 1861, President Lincoln ordered Secretary of State Seward to meet with the Mexican chargé d'affaires to explore the possibility of purchasing Cozumel for the purpose of relocating freed American slaves offshore

This was the only eel I saw when in Cozumel; as usual, I was the only diver who opted not to wear a wetsuit but the water temperature was 81 degrees and our dives were not very deep

Yellow stingrays were the only animals of note I saw when snorkeling from my hotel located north of Cozumel town; one day I saw 8 cruise ships docked here with just a narrow 2 lane road running along the coast to handle them all

Since the snorkeling was so poor, I opted for a couple of days of diving; it was a challenge finding a company to take me since most were either not going out or already were fully booked

The first dive one day was at the Santa Rosa Wall, one of the most famous Cozumel dive sites; there were numerous swim-throughs but surprisingly little current with the wall starting at 50 ft and plunging down to almost 3000 ft

French angelfish; the island of Cozumel is about 30 miles long by 10 miles wide and lies 12 miles off the Yucatan coast near Playa del Carmen, about 50 miles south of Cancun; the island has a population of roughly 100,000 excluding cruise ship passengers

Sea anemones were a rare sight diving around Cozumel; since I had a rental car, I took the slow car ferry to Cozumel which has fewer crossings, takes longer and is more expensive than the passenger catamarans which cross from multiple mainland cities

One day I drove an hour south of town to the southernmost coast of the island to visit Punta Sur Eco Beach Park which was supposed to have good snorkeling; it was virtually deserted but, other than rays and a few turtles, the snorkeling was still poor

The highlight of my snorkeling at Punta Sur Eco Beach Park was this spotted eagle ray; admission was $18 and you need your own transportation since it's prohibitively far from town for a taxi; ideal if you just wanted a quiet sandy beach with bar service

The queen triggerfish is called cochino in Cuba and this is the probable origin of the name Bahía de Cochinos, which is known as the Bay of Pigs in English; this species preys on a variety of invertebrates, notably sea urchins (good!)

The second dive one day was at Columbia Shallows which had a maximum depth of just 50 feet making it a good dive for beginners; this site, like all popular Cozumel dive locations, is on the west side of the island south of Cozumel town

I need help identifying this fish which has no apparent dorsal, ventral or anal fins; it's not one I remember seeing in other places and just has an odd-look so maybe some of my diving friends will know the answer to this mystery

American whitespotted filefish; the Cozumel reef is part of the much larger Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System which is the second largest reef in the world, stretching over 620 miles

The second day of diving included the San Francisco Wall and Palancar Caves which are part of the Arrecifes de Cozumel National Park which is included in the UNESCO protected area called Isla Cozumel Biosphere Reserve

In addition to their hard exterior, smooth trunkfish can produce a toxin through their body mucus that is used for defense; this toxin makes them a poor choice for an aquarium since they can poison the entire tank if stressed

The bluestriped grunt is a common fish in the Caribbean, more often seen in small schools; they are preyed on by larger fish such as sharks and groupers; rarely seen in private aquariums because of its size, it is fairly common in public aquariums

Yellow tube sponges were common and there were also many interesting soft coral species; Cozumel's coral reefs have been struggling due to cruise ships, hurricanes, climate change, etc. so several efforts are underway to restore/replenish the reefs

The red cushion star is the largest Caribbean sea star, growing to 20 inches in diameter; and inhabits nearshore sandy bottoms and coral rubble; in the winter, they migrate to offshore locations with little water movement in order to avoid turbulence

This scrawled filefish was swimming horizontally, like a flounder; Cozumel was struck by two Category 4 hurricanes in 2005, Emily and Wilma, with Wilma's eye passing directly over the island causing widespread destruction

Juvenile French angelfish have yellow bands that will disappear once they are about a year old; they act as cleaner fish, establishing cleaning stations where ectoparasites are removed from a wide range of other species such as jacks, snapper and wrasses

The stoplight parrotfish is a protogynous hermaphrodite that shows full sexual dichromatism, meaning that it changes its sex from female to male during its lifespan, and its color changes with its sex change

Camille Monet and a Child in the Artist's Garden in Argenteuil, 1875; this painting of Monet's wife sewing in front of their rose garden was my favorite of the pieces included in this exhibition; I just loved the colors and harmony

Grainstack (Snow Effect), 1891; the wheat stacks represented Monet's first series paintings; a critic said 'the grouping together of 15 canvases, each representing the same subject, is an extraordinarily victorious artistic demonstration'

Water Lilies, 1907; in May 1909, Monet presented this work, along with 47 other water-lily paintings, at a highly successful exhibition in the gallery of his art dealer; this isn't one of my favorites from the series

The Water Lily Pond, 1900; one of a series of this particular view, this composition is among his first to emphasize the reflections of the densely packed trees on the flat surface of the water

Grand Canal, Venice, 1908; Monet once told his wife that Venice was 'too beautiful to paint;' I generally love Monet's work but I prefer more accurate representations of Venice, like those of Canaletto

Antibes, Afternoon Effect, 1888; Monet spent January to May in this town on the French Riviera, avoiding the dreariest months in Paris, to satisfy his dealer's appetite for sun-drenched, idyllic seascapes

Fisherman's Cottage on the Cliffs at Varengeville, 1882; built as lookout posts for customs agents during the Napoleonic Wars, houses like this were commonly used in the late 19th century by fishermen to store their nets

Snow at Argenteuil, c. 1874; likely inspired by Japanese woodblock prints, this scene of a road near Monet's house is unusual for its attempt to capture actual snowfall; the subject appealed to Monet's desire to capture the effects of light and weather

Cap Martin, near Menton, 1884; Monet often spent weeks scouting painting locales commenting that 'you need to live in a place for quite a while in order to paint it, you need to have worked laboriously to render it confidently'

Meadow at GIverny, 1886; for fans of Monet, I recommend visiting his home, studio and gardens in Giverny, 50 miles WNW of Paris; because of Monet, the village attracted many Impressionist artists with the town now having a museum dedicated to their work

Boulevard Saint-Denis, Argenteuil, in Winter, 1875; when Monet lived in Argenteuil in the 1870s, the town was in the process of transforming from a small village to a Paris commuter suburb; Monet's house is on the right with the peaked roof

Road at La Cavee, Pourville, 1882; while he sometimes painted distinctive geological formations along the coast, more often Monet's compositions focused on unassuming features, such as this country road turning among grassy hillocks

Meadow with Haystacks near GIverny, 1885; the largest Haystacks collections are held at the Musée d'Orsay and Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris, and in the Art Institute of Chicago; this piece is one of the first in the series