A very meaningful, moving and provocative trip to the Clark Institute of Art. What follows are several observations and opinions about the art that excited me most.

Gerome's Thumbs Down is a powerful painting of a gladiator pit immediately after a violent contest has ended. The victor stands over his bleeding opponent, his sword raised triumphantly. The crowd unanimously and enthusiastically point their thumbs down to indicate their preference that the loser die.Crowd behavior portrayed brilliantly. The pleading loser is the focal point for me.

Rossi's A Young Woman Reading demonstrates Berger's contention in Ways of Seeing that in nudes, women are displayed for a male audience. Whole ostensibly reading, the woman in the painting seems aware of the presence of the artist, the viewer, or the voyeur.

Arthur Devis' Richard Moretan, Esq. of Tackley with his Nephew and Niece John and Susanna Weyland also validates Berger's idea of the wealthy landowner, in portraits, portrayed as lords of their domain, served by children, with their estates sprawling into the distance.

Claesz' 1640 oil painting Still Life displays succulent meats, fresh fruits, silver goblets, decorative furniture, and other signs of wealth. Berger wrote that oil paintings served to show off the wealth and taste of the artists' patrons. This painting is an example.

Edward Hopper's  Manhattan Bridge Loop, an oil painting from 1928, moved me because I see the exact place depicted in the painting all the time. I picture what that spot looks like now compared to how it looked 80 years ago. It evokes a sense of place with which I am very familiar.

One of my favorite paintings at the Clark is Van Gogh's The Night Cafe'.  Van Gogh wrote about this painting that he "tried to express the terrible passions of humanity by means of red and green." A man is slumped over a table, head in hands, while a loving couple sit side by side at a table behind him.  A man dressed in white seems to look at the viewer, his expression wistful. Two others commiserate drunkenly at a table.



Matisse's The Three O'Clock Sitting reverses the typical artist/model dichotomy in that the artist is female and the model a nude male. A mirror to the artist's right reflects the pair.

Sargent's A Street in Venice shows a narrow alley. A young man entreats a woman, his expression plaintive. The woman looks away, toward the viewer, in apparent rejection. It reminds me of a scene at the Pitcher's Mound the other night...