Park Ridge & The Art Institute, Chicago 5-12-09
Late yesterday afternoon we drove to Park Ridge, IL, just a couple of miles north of our hotel so that I could get another pair of jeans for our trip. This is a very pretty town with this distinctive movie theater right downtown.
Today we got up at 5:40 am!! For those of you who know us in retirement, that is unheard of. We got up like this for too many years. To do it now unless there is a REALLY good reason is not a choice we make. My cousin, Julie, gave us her pass and invitation to a preview of the contemporary wing of The Art Institute. She had to be in Denver on business. This was for a select group of donors. The wing does not open to the public until next week. Since this was the place where our romance began, we were very motivated to get there. It was worth the effort. The breakfast was delicious, the new wing pretty, and the art amazing. I didn't realize that I could take photos until the end. There are pieces that I sure would have liked to share.
The entrance to the contemporary wing is on Monroe across from Millenium Park. There is a bridge that connects it to the park.
We are standing in the gift shop on the second floor looking towards the entrance. I overheard one patron criticizing the placement of the titles for the art pieces. Reminded me of being an elementary and middle school principal with everyone wanting to micromanage the school.
The view through screens on the second floor extends the art to include the architecture of the city. The panorama is much larger than this photo shows. That is the Pitzker Music Pavilion in the middle foreground. A close up of it is in the last posting.+1885+by+Renoir,+The+Art+Institute,+Chicago+5-12-09.JPG)
Renior painted this of Lucie Berard in 1880. It is also known as the Child in White. We both love Impressionist paintings.
A Sunday on La Grande Jatte by George Seurat is probably my favorite painting in this museum. I first saw it when I was nine. It is extremely large and I was so impressed with the minute brush marks. It hangs on the same wall as it did so many years ago. There is a small painting of the same subject on a near-by wall. Seurat painted many views of this park, just like we take multiple photos. He then took the best of his observations and put them into the final work.
At the Moulin Rouge by Toulouse-Latrec is one of several of his works here. At one point the lady with the blue and white face, May Milton, was cut out of the canvas. It has been returned and you can see the repair when you look closely. She was deleted because the agent thought that her notoriety would make the work too hard to sell. Why didn't I learn this in my college art history course? Sure would have made learning more interesting.
Ted and I enjoy seeing which masterpieces each art museum possesses. There are many recognizable ones here. This is one most people know. It is van Gogh's Self Portrait. I might never have figured out which combination of background colors would have allowed his portrait to stand-out, but then that is one reason he became a famous artist. The short, precise brushstrokes are striking when you see the painting in person.
Monet captured Ted's attention. He always does. Monet sat in a boat, rowed by his gardener, with racks for works in progress. As the day progressed and the light changed, he pulled up the appropriate painting and worked on it.
Late yesterday afternoon we drove to Park Ridge, IL, just a couple of miles north of our hotel so that I could get another pair of jeans for our trip. This is a very pretty town with this distinctive movie theater right downtown.
Today we got up at 5:40 am!! For those of you who know us in retirement, that is unheard of. We got up like this for too many years. To do it now unless there is a REALLY good reason is not a choice we make. My cousin, Julie, gave us her pass and invitation to a preview of the contemporary wing of The Art Institute. She had to be in Denver on business. This was for a select group of donors. The wing does not open to the public until next week. Since this was the place where our romance began, we were very motivated to get there. It was worth the effort. The breakfast was delicious, the new wing pretty, and the art amazing. I didn't realize that I could take photos until the end. There are pieces that I sure would have liked to share.
The entrance to the contemporary wing is on Monroe across from Millenium Park. There is a bridge that connects it to the park.
We are standing in the gift shop on the second floor looking towards the entrance. I overheard one patron criticizing the placement of the titles for the art pieces. Reminded me of being an elementary and middle school principal with everyone wanting to micromanage the school. 
The view through screens on the second floor extends the art to include the architecture of the city. The panorama is much larger than this photo shows. That is the Pitzker Music Pavilion in the middle foreground. A close up of it is in the last posting.+1885+by+Renoir,+The+Art+Institute,+Chicago+5-12-09.JPG)
Renior painted this of Lucie Berard in 1880. It is also known as the Child in White. We both love Impressionist paintings.
A Sunday on La Grande Jatte by George Seurat is probably my favorite painting in this museum. I first saw it when I was nine. It is extremely large and I was so impressed with the minute brush marks. It hangs on the same wall as it did so many years ago. There is a small painting of the same subject on a near-by wall. Seurat painted many views of this park, just like we take multiple photos. He then took the best of his observations and put them into the final work.
At the Moulin Rouge by Toulouse-Latrec is one of several of his works here. At one point the lady with the blue and white face, May Milton, was cut out of the canvas. It has been returned and you can see the repair when you look closely. She was deleted because the agent thought that her notoriety would make the work too hard to sell. Why didn't I learn this in my college art history course? Sure would have made learning more interesting.
Ted and I enjoy seeing which masterpieces each art museum possesses. There are many recognizable ones here. This is one most people know. It is van Gogh's Self Portrait. I might never have figured out which combination of background colors would have allowed his portrait to stand-out, but then that is one reason he became a famous artist. The short, precise brushstrokes are striking when you see the painting in person.
Monet captured Ted's attention. He always does. Monet sat in a boat, rowed by his gardener, with racks for works in progress. As the day progressed and the light changed, he pulled up the appropriate painting and worked on it.
These are two more versions of Monet's Lily Pond. He built this pond in his yard and used it to study light and color. If you looked at the photos from the Nelson-Atkins Museum on April 9, there is another version of the pond.
This is not a painting. It is one of many rooms of miniatures designed by Mrs. Thorne. These have been here since I was nine. They blew me away then and didn't disappoint this time. All the intricate rugs, tapestries, and some upholstery was done on minute needlepoint canvas by one woman. A master carver made unbelievably small molds for the plaster decorations. This photo does not do the room justice. There is one lady who cleans these rooms. She can only do three in a month.
For all of you who have requested a photo of me, here I am outside The Art Institute. You can see trees in Millineum Park over my right shoulder and a cherry in flower behind me.
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