sharpening one’s pencil‏

by richibi

  Cottage and Woman with Goat - Vincent van Gogh

                     “Cottage and Woman and Goat“ (1885)

 
                                       Vincent van Gogh 
 
                                            __________
 
 
 

  Village Street in Winter - Gustave Courbet

                               “Village Street in Winter” (1865) 

 
                                     Gustave Courbet  
 
                                         __________
 
 
 
having considered that I’ve just spent
hours and days in some of the world’s
finest museums, you’ll perhaps pardon
my ebullience, I’ve never to date
juxtaposed two art works, I think, for
your consideration
 
but I scream, essentially, at everyone
with whom I visit a museum ever,
juxtapose, juxtapose, juxtapose, it
is the truest path to aesthetic erudition,
should you be so inclined, I call it,
sharpening one’s pencil 
 
 
having been overwhelmed by very
miracles of art, my mom and I, throughout
our European visit, in, specifically, Bruges,
Ghent, Amsterdam and Frankfurt, the
two above, van Gogh‘s “Cottage“, called
at the Städel Museum in Frankfurt, and
some of, therefore, our last, burn for me
especially bright, standing naturally
together as comparable works of art,
though choosing between them is like
deciding between oranges and apples
 
but that’s the point, your aesthetic
sensibility says more about you than
it says about art, if you’ll surrender to 
that exploration 
 
and like apples and oranges, it depends
on your mood that day
 
which is also the point
 
 
“Farmhouse” for me was a surprise, I’d
never seen this particular, wonderful, 
van Gogh, the Courbet, also a wonder,
stuck more to an anticipated style, where
van Gogh‘s more rural settings had never 
been for me his most successful, I’ll have
to change my mind about that
 
we’d visited the Städel for the splendid
Courbet exhibition we saw there the last
time we were there, when he became, 
along with Rembrandt – wow, Rembrandt – 
one of Mom’s now two favourite painters
 
right now for me it’s still, maybe, Canaletto,
either of them, or Chagall, Klimt, Schiele,
Monet, Avercamp, Filippo Lippi, and too
many others to really remember, I’ve
given up to merely enjoy 
 
here’s hoping you do too  
 
 
Richard  
 
        and follow the icon to enlarge it (+), for an
        alternate, more exact, if I remember, view of 
        “Cottage“, which I couldn’t copy for this page,
        you’ll notice a remarkable difference