Bouquets to Art - 2010 Part II

For the next leg of your tour of Bouquets to Art 2010 I take you to a gallery where I saw several people swiveling their heads trying to match this floral pergola with a work of art. Then when I walked around the arrangement I realized that the designer created a grand entrance for the portrait of the man in the yellow turban. I did not notice the window panes adorned with pressed flowers until I reviewed my photos at home.



The literal interpretation of James Abbott McNeill Whistler's  hunched, scaly-looking piano player in "The Gold Scab"  drew a lot of attention,

particularly because the sheet music was enhanced with editorial commentary about rich industrialists.

The luscious, traditional arrangement, composed of foliage from Filoli, is a perfect complement to Hudson River School artist Albert Bierstadt's "Sunlight and Shadow, 1862".

I like how Mary Ellen Wilson and Arnelle Kase of The San Francisco Garden Club mirrored the circular frame for these portraits.

Deidre Rastelli of Tutti Fiori Floral Design wanted to "represent the vows of poverty taken by the priests of that era."

I've always been fond of the chair collection at the De Young Museum. Pat Miller's entry featuring fiddlehead ferns and jasmine is an enchanting addition.

This display of white football mums in three barrel-shaped wooden vases atop the equisetum-covered table with hen-and-chicks (echeveria) finials would be the perfect addition to a room featuring Frank Lloyd Wright's Barrel Chair. The designer definitely achieved her aim for "the flowers to mimic the cushion of the chair... (and) follow Wright's philosophy that every piece is meant to match and compliment the building it goes in."

Kathleen Derby's purple Biedermeier-style design was a great choice for Rockwell Kent's seascape.

Of course I'm biased, but I thought Wendy Pine's selection of yellow kangaroo paw flowers, tall orange Mitsumata branches, with the blue cylinder worked well with the painting she selected.

Next time I will take you downstairs to the modern collection.

The Frick Collection

Mistress and Maid, 1666-1667 (Zoomable Image )

I am a museum junkie. I spent three glorious weeks in New York City this summer and went to about a dozen different museums. My favorite museum on this trip was the Frick Collection. I visited it three times as various members of my family floated in and out of the city. The museum is in Mr. Frick’s mansion and it houses only the artwork that Mr. Frick himself collected. He had excellent, consistent taste in art which is very well described in the audio tour. In my humble opinion, his collection rivals any museum’s carefully-curated art exhibition. Visiting the museum is a wonderful experience because the mansion is glorious, it is never very crowder there, and the collection is small and very accessible.
I am a huge Johannes Vermeer fan and this museum has three, count them: three!!! I think there are only about 35 known Vermeers in existence. The Frick beautifully displays its three prize possessions side-by-side in the vestibule in front of the staircase. I was familiar with the two smaller ones because they are often seen in print, but the largest one, named Mistress and Maid, I had never seen before.
It is believed to be unfinished, which added to my enjoyment because there was no background to distract from the portraits. It was Frickin’ gorgeous! Breathtaking – literally!
Here are the two smaller paintings:

Girl Interrupted at Her Music, c. 1658-1659

Officer and Laughing Girl, c. 1657

There was also a fantastic large painting of St. Francis of Assissi by Giovanni Bellini (c. 1430 - 1516) with beautiful colors:

St. Francis in the Desert, 1480

My family and I had the great fortune of going to Assissi in 2005. It was singularly the most inspirational Italian village we ever visited. This painting sent me sailing back to that glorious day we spent there.

The room that housed this painting also had other interesting portrait choices. Frick seemed to enjoy juxtaposing dark and light portraits painted by the same artist in the same room. In this room, he paired dark and light personalities.

In another room he had a pair of very dark full-length portraits by James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834 - 1903) on one wall:

Arrangement in Black and Gold: Comte Robert de Montesquiou-Fezensac, 1891-1892

Arrangement in Brown and Black: Portrait of Miss Rosa Corder, 1876-1878

and on the opposite wall was a pair of very light pastel-colored full-length portraits also by Whistler:

Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink: Portrait of Mrs. Frances Leyland, 1872-1873

Harmony in Pink and Grey: Portrait of Lady Meux, 1881-1882

The contrast was powerful. I heard somewhere that Frick was one of the most hated men in NYC in his day. His choices of art probably reflect his complex personality.

If you’re ever in New York City, make some time to visit the Frick Collection.