De Girl With De Pearl At De Young

Somehow, when in the Netherlands, we always seem to have missed The Hague and its Mauritshuis museum.  But we have seen our share of Vermeers. And a decade ago we read Tracy Chevalier's excellent novel The Girl with a Pearl Earring with our Missoula book group (which we still miss). So when we learned that Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring and numerous other Mauritshuis treasures were coming to San Francisco's de Young museum, we had to go. (We also viewed the film, same name, which also was quite good). Rebecca, Jeremy and Penelope motored us in again, took in the visiting show, and then occupied themselves in the Golden Gate Park area while we did the rest of the splendid de Young. Penelope has limited tolerance for museums, and R & J had been there before.

Thus; in addition to the paintings there also were scores of
prints, etc.

And thus, the "Dutch Mona Lisa"; stolen directly
off the Mauritshuis website, I think; they had a no
fotos policy at the de Young's exhibit, so there will
be no fotos of the many Hals, Steens, and others
we admired; nor even of the obligatory Rembrandt
self-portrait

At this point, the considerable imp in me
requires that I again post, for comparison,
Dali's immortal The Girl with the Pearl,
which is actually, I suppose, a reference to
Las Meninas

And now we return to the de Young's very
eclectic and largely American collection, just
a few bits we particularly liked; here, Karen
LeMonte's Dress 3, cast entirely in glass

Edward Hicks' Peaceable Kingdom

Edward Hovenden's Last Moments of John
Brown

Albert Bierstadt's Arch of Octavius (Roman Fish Market)

Detail: ugly Americans even in 1858

Thomas Moran's Yellowstone Falls

And his Grand Canyon

Willard Leroy Metcalf's Winter Festival; reminds me a lot
of Russell Chatham; and here, a note: we signed up for one
of the 30 minute museum guided tours, but no one else
showed up, and en route to our first masterpiece collected
three more docents who had no takers: thus, four docents
to lavish their expertise on us...a real privilege!

Jerome Thompson's 1857 Recreation; OK, lose a few ladies,
lose the ladies' clothes, and you've got Manet's Le déjeuner
sur l'herbe; or better, Giorgione/Titian's, Pastoral Concert

And, a KO for us, Whistler's The Gold Scab:
Eruption of Frilthy Lucre; we'll see the
decor that led to it at the Freer someday in
DC

All in all, another pretty good day in The City