Children’s Games, by Pieter Bruegel. This is my number one most favorite work of art of all time. I am intimately acquainted with every inch of it. I have pondered every single child, tried to figure out every single game — some are more obvious than others — wondered what’s inside the building, where are the grownups, why do the kids look like grownups. Grim little grownups.
With art, familiarity breeds love. No question about it. And the reason I’m so familiar with this particular painting, why I’ve pored over every square inch of it like this — can you guess? Yes! I have a jigsaw puzzle of it.
The problem I have with Children’s Games is that the individual children whom I know so well distract me from seeing the picture as a whole. It’s almost impossible to think about the composition and color and what-have-you because I’m still so enchanted by the science lab (?) in the lower left corner. It prevents me from noticing, for example, that “paired figures and figure groups are clustered and distributed in such a way as to occasion an extended sequence of dialectical reflections on such themes as innocence and experience, isolation and sociability, nature and culture.” Heh, heh! (Complete article here.)
My recent proofreading job reminded me of Children’s Games. I’ve done tons of proofreading prior to this particular gig, but it’s always been boring academic stuff. I’ve never proofed an interesting book, one that I could actually imagine curling up with on a rainy afternoon. Same problem. Poring over it word by individual word, it’s very hard to see the whole. With law review articles I never felt any regret over missing the forest for the trees. But the memoir, definitely. I found lots of obscure typos but I lost something in the process.
Do you have a favorite painting?
13 Comments
I think if I have a favorite it is John Duncan’s St. Bride. I haven’t found any good images of it on the web, but you can get the general idea of it here.
Mine would have to be Monet’s Poppies at Argenteuil. It reminds me of a carefree day somewhere in Europe.
After looking at that painting it’s no wonder you do web site design and can write HTML.I bet you love all of Anno’s books too!
Me, I love the sun drenched Impressionists. We took the train from Austria to Paris and I remember seeing the hay stacks in the fields and getting all excited because the light and color was just like it was in the painting. I woke My Beloved Up with my squeals. She was not amused.
Van Gogh’s Starry Night. The color and the movement in the painting always get me and I can imagine myself sitting on a hill above the city looking at the sky.
I like Monet. :)
Fred Williams for landscapes, and Jeffry (bugger, I can’t remember his name….ah) Jeffry Smart for total weirdness of landscapes…
Bruegel is amazing. I prefer The Fight Between Carnival and Lent. My favorite painting, though, is probably Vermeer’s Young Girl with a Turban (known as Girl With a Pearl Earring). And I have to agree with you, my love of it comes from familiarity.
Claude Monet, the ingenious impressionist, is my inspiration for many of own paintings.
I have so many favorites, but I love “The Coronation of Josephine” by Jacques Louis David (I think that’s the title, it may be something else officially). The painting is HUGE. It’s in the Louvre. Figures are almost life size and there are maybe 20-30 figures in the painting. It is lush and rich and gorgeous. The fabric in the drapes and clothing are so amazing, you just want to touch them. I also love Bruegel (which I am certain that I just spelled wrong and am too lazy to look it up). Nice nice post. Do more!
Thanks, guys! It’s fun to hear what you like. Bruegel notwithstanding, I’m very fond of the abstract expressionists, particularly Klee. And Matisse. I love Matisse. When I saw his collage of Sheherezade at the Carnegie Mellon museum in Pittsburgh — my goodness! — it gave me a whole new appreciation of the story.
My favorite is just about anything by Andrew Wyeth. There is this amazing one of a deer about to eat an apple, just the head is emerging from the edge of the forest. I can sit and look at Wyeth paintings for hours and hours (and I have).
I love Pieter Bruegel and that is an excellent choice but I have two that I think tie as my favorites. The first is Boating on the Seine by Pierre-Auguste Renoir and the second is Vincent Van Gogh’s Flower Beds in Holland. I usually prefer pictures of the ocean, sailing and such but I am also a huge flower lover. I have enjoyed reading through your blogs. Great books choices as well.
My favorite painting is an odd old triptych by Paolo Uccello called the Battle of San Romano, especially the panel that depicts the knights prior to the battle sitting their horses with what can only be looks of sorrowful consternation on their faces. It is a beautiful statement of the sadness of war — while the two surrounding panels show its glory.