The Reader

A Young Girl Reading, 1770-1772
Jean-Honore Fragonard
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
Image: wikimedia commons

I apologize for such a weak week in art of the day blurbing, I have been preparing for the conference I am headed to this afternoon. I set out looking for a Fragonard painting and via wikipedia discovered something I am surprised I hadn't yet. I've had a small print of this painting that I love for a number of years. I never took the time to figure out who the painting was by and am very happy it is Fragonard. Fragonard was part of my study into Rococo painting for my thesis. Oh how I love domesticity, frivolity and playfulness!

So, since it is art, a painting I love and of a lady reading it seems pretty fitting to sign off with it on my way to the ARLIS (Art Libraries Society) conference, to hang with art librarians. woo! Indianapolis here I come!

Enjoy the sweetness, the curved ring finger, the golden dress. I'll try to post while I am away but if I don't get the chance I'll be back on Tuesday!

The Sketch

Page from George Grosz's sketchbook, Manhattan Skyline, 1950-51
George Grosz (1893-1959)
38 pages of off-white wove paper; 23.3 x 15.3 cm.

My intentions were to share with you one of George Grosz's paintings of Manhattan but I had some trouble finding a good image of one, but I am including it here as well (Lower Manhattan, 1934, oil on cardboard, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco) I did in my inquiry find something very exciting though, a digitization of a sketchbook focused on the Manhattan skyline and mice! Why mice, I'm not sure, but being able to see the sketches of an artist such as Grosz is excellent. The sketchbook was part of an the exhibition, Under Cover: Artist's Sketchbooks held at the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard which has a large collections of intact artist sketchbooks. They digitized a portion of them, which can be accessed on the Harvard art museums website.

George Grosz is well known for his bitter satirical images but spent a lot of time with his adopted city of New York in imagery as well and being a sucker for nyc images, well, I think my choice is obvious. For today, I am more interested in the aspect of sketchbooks as an entry into the mind and work ethic of an artist, from vague sketches (check out Fragonard's) to full-fledged works of art.

More online sketchbooks

Fascinating little article from 1932, when George Grosz first came to the U.S. to teach at the Art Student's League.