Impostors at the Frick

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The FRICK COLLECTION is a sight to behold. One of those rare places where old master paintings and French furnishings exist in their original settings. The jewel box mansion in New York houses collection after collection.
I love porcelains-I inherited the sickness from my GranMa-in my case pure and simple genetics.

a Sevres platter from the collection

Treasures abound at the Frick-an extraordinary installation of Boucher paintings can be viewed HERE.

& an Impostor or 2:

the little IMPOSTOR
made of TIN-

at the FRICK MUSEUM SHOP.

THE ORIGINAL  
Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne (1704 - 1778) Manufacture, 1782
Edme-François Bouilliat (active 1758-1810)
Plate: Part of a Dessert Service with Flowers and Turquoise Blue Ribbons, 1782
porcelain, soft paste

the Impostors-posing in the midst of some old pieces of my own.

AN ORIGINAL
Dish with Plum-Blossom Decoration, 18th century porcelain, blue and white
 

The IMPOSTOR
made of Tin

from the 18th-century Chinese porcelain dish with plum-blossom decoration in The Frick Collection.

the Frick Collection Museum Shop
and only $7.00
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My own Zurbarán

Saint Casilda (isabel/ elizabeth) by Z.

...right now the Frick Museum has a wonderful still life by Francisco de Zurbarán’s (1598–1664) Still Life with Lemons, Oranges and a Rose on loan to them from the Norton Simon Museum. Zurbarán is one of my many favorite painters and I actually have his Saint Isabel on as a screensaver right now.

Still Life with Lemons and a close-up by Z.

close up of Saint Apollonia by Z. at the Louvre

I've always found myself finding resemblances with this person and that person- call it a gift or a curse- It is inherited from my mother. This happens all the time, on the screen, in a magazine, looking at paintings, Anywhere. People that pass in and out of my life are etched Everywhere.

It is Proust's character Swann that draws comparisons to people and paintings throughout the novel. There is a superb new book I was given for Christmas- Paintings in Proust: A Visual Companion to In Search of Lost Time by Eric Karpeless. It is a fascinating look at all the paintings or painters referenced in Proust accompanied by the Proust passage.

How SURPRISED I was when on my niece's Facebook page- MY VERY OWN ZUBARAN! Liz and friends from her stay at the Penland School of Crafts in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. She spent time there the summer after her freshman year and studied printmaking. The occasion was a parade of sorts-pictured with fellow artists-and wearing a helmet made by a metal sculptor. Liz is now a graphic designer in Chicago.

my own Zurbarán~ lucky me!

Saint Apollonia

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oh no they didn't

the Comtesse d' Haussonville

would not be amused.

nor would Ingres.

sometimes I wonder what in the world advertisements are meant to accomplish-


...of course I know it is to SELL the thing- but when I see something like this it shocks my steely sensibilities. they have become very steely and it takes a great deal to shock. at times SHOCK can be a wonderful tool- it conveys the message with imagery meant to shock. In this case- I am sure this was not the intent- what was their intent: to say great jewelry-great art. No so fast.


This Comtesse was wearing a simple gold ring and bracelet. The grand-daughter of Madame de Stael- one of the most fascinating women in Europe," she was also a remarkable person in her own right and the author, among much else, of a two-volume life of Byron and an unpublished autobiography that is remarkable for wit, candor and breadth of perception."

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (French, 1780–1867) Comtesse d’Haussonville, dated 1845 Oil on canvas, 51 ⅞ x 36 ¼ inches (131.8 x 92) The Frick Collection, New York