Humble and Human: Impressionist Era Treasures from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and the Detroit Institute of Arts, an Exhibition in Honor of Ralph C. Wilson, Jr.

At almost the last minute we finally made it to the Detroit Institute of Art to see the Impressionist exhibit Humble and Human which runs through October 13, 2019.

I loved seeing how art and individual artists developed over time.

 Alfred Sisley, Village Street in Marlotte, 1866

Clearing in the Woods, Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Woman Sewing, Berthe Morisot, abt. 1879

Violinist and Young Woman, Edgar Degas, abt. 1871

Cafe Scene in Paris, Henri Gervix, 1877

Political Woman, James Tissot, 1881-5

 Tissot was a master at replicating fashion!

After several paintings of the rich and powerful came portraits of ordinary and plain folk.

Woman With a Bandage, Edgar Degas, 1872-73

Jockeys on Horseback Before Distant Hills, Edgar Degas, 1884

View of the Crotoy from Upstream, Georges Seurat, 1889

 Note how Seurat continued his pointillism onto the frame.

Study for "Le Chahut", Georges Seurat, 1889

Morning in Provence, Paul Cezanne, 1900-6

Mont-Sainte-Victorie, Paul Cezanne, 1904-6

Study for "Le Pont de L'Europe," Gustave Caillebotte, 1876

Many of these paintings are in the permanent collection of the DIA. Including these wonderful Van Goghs.

The Old Mill, Van Gogh,

Spirit of the Dead Walking, Paul Gauguin, 1892

The Yellow Christ, Paul Gauguin

We then had to visit our favorite gallery of American paintings.

They remind us that empires fall but nature is eternal.

Syria by the Sea, Frederic Edwin Church, 1873

 And of the magnificent and awesome beauty of nature.

Indian Summer, Jasper Francis Cropsey, 1866

 And I will end by sharing my favorite Frederick Edwin Church painting, Cotopaxi.

from the DIA website:

In Humble and Human: Impressionist Era Treasures from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and the Detroit Institute of Arts, an Exhibition in Honor of Ralph C. Wilson, Jr., a selection of more than forty Impressionist and post-Impressionist treasures from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and the Detroit Institute of Arts traces the arc of a period that elevated the irreducible beauty of the everyday to the status of fine art.

A testament to the power of collaboration among artists, museums, and cities, the exhibition explores the pioneering work of leading Impressionist and post–Impressionist artists, including Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, and Berthe Morisot. It also celebrates the life and vision of Ralph C. Wilson, Jr., who saw in the art of these late nineteenth-century avant-gardists, especially that of Claude Monet, evocations of values and ideas that were close to his own heart, capturing the ephemerality of the everyday experience while dignifying hard work, simple pleasures, and ordinary people.

On the hundredth anniversary of Mr. Wilson’s birth, both institutions are proud to celebrate these extraordinary works and Mr. Wilson’s legacy as a philanthropist, business leader, and advocate for the citizens of Detroit and Buffalo.

Ofrendas: Celebrating El Dia De Muertos at the DIA

Ofrendas: Celebrating El Dia De Muertos is on exhibit at the Detroit Institute of Art until November 10, 2019. I was unprepared for what I would find when I entered this exhibit. I was immediately moved by the first display and the tears continued to well in my eyes throughout the exhibit.

The first display was in memory of the 43 students who went missing.

 Learn more about this tragedy here and about the missing here.

 

 The Border included a teddy bear in a cage.

 This altar was for the artist Robert Wilbert.

Samples of his art are included.
This tree includes Mexicans who left their mark on the world.

This haunting contribution addresses the unknown migrants who died on their journey.

 This heartbreaking map includes known deaths in the borderlands.

Courage is for the refugees displaced by violence, poverty, and human rights violations.

 Grandparents Know It All

Read about this display, below, for a doctor here.

The dark room made it hard to take good photographs and I only shared some of the 16 displays. This is art at its most powerful. This is art that can move us and educate us and allow us to understand the greater human experience.

Fri, Oct 13, 2017 — Sun, Nov 12, 2017In celebration of Dia de Muertos, the Detroit Institute of Arts, in partnership with Detroit's Mexican Consulate, invite you to explore a community exhibition of ofrenda altars. In Mexico, and other Latin American countries, the Day of the Dead is the time of the year to celebrate the lives of close relatives, friends or community members who have passed away. Objects important to lost loved ones, such as favorites foods, drinks, mementos and pictures, are collected and incorporated into elaborate displays that include pan de muerto (bread of the dead), sugar skulls, candles, flowers, papel picado (paper cutouts) and other decorations. Ofrendas: Celebrating el Día de Muertos will be on view during regular museum hours and are included with general museum admission.

The Little Women Cook Book: Tempting Recipes from the March Sisters and Their Friends and Family

For one hundred and fifty years readers have identified with the March sisters. Louisa May Alcott drew from her family members and life, making Little Women a beloved story with relatable characters.

Set during the Civil War, with Mr. March at war far from home, the March sisters and their mother struggle to obtain their basic needs. Food insecurity impacts their home and the community. The novel begins with the preparation of a Christmas breakfast feast which the girls valiantly donate to an immigrant family. The women content themselves with a meal of bread and milk. The book ends with a meal as well, a picnic supper.

Wini Moranville, "writer, cookbook author, and lover of historic and heirloom recipes," was asked to write The Little Women Cook Book in conjunction with the 2019 Little Women movie.

With charming illustrations and quotations from the novel, it is a delight. I enjoyed revisiting the novel through the lens of communal meals. Well-chosen quotations from Little Women keep our attention on the inspiration source for the recipes.

Wini researched American cookbooks from the mid 19th c. Some foods from the novel, like the pickled limes traded between schoolgirls, would not appeal today, so Wini gives us "Pickled Lime" Sugar Cookies.

Milk-Toast was a simple meal of warm milk poured over buttered toasted bread, perhaps seasoned with salt or sugar and cinnamon. I recall my grandfather, born in 1905, enjoying it as a dessert from his country childhood.

From the passage, "The omelet was scorched, and the biscuits speckled with saleratus",  Wini gives two recipes, omelets and Maple-Cornmeal Drop Biscuits, and a history of baking powder.

Other recipes from the past include:

"Meg was already covering the buckwheats..."~Buckwheat Pancakes

"It was too bad to laugh at the poor little jelly pots."~ Meg's Currant Jelly Sauce

"We'll have lettuce and make a salad."~ Jo's Lettuce Salad

"...and Amy made lemonade..."~Amy's Lemonade

Also appearing are Mr. Bhaer's Chocolate drops; Bonbons and mottoes, candies wrapped in papers printed with riddles and sayings; Jo's Gingerbread; the apple turnovers from the picnic; and Meg's Plum Pudding.

Where the novel is silent on specifics, Wini turns to recipes popular during the time period.

Newlywed Meg uses a popular cookbook, The Young Housekeeper's Friend. Indian meal--cornmeal--was popularly used in many dishes. Wini offers us Indian Meal Griddle Cakes, with a version with blueberries that caught my attention.

Meg also has Mrs. Corneliu's Receipt Book and Wini shares Meg's Macaroni and Cheese from that book. It is very like the recipe I have used all my life.

The recipes are tempting!

I was given access to a free ebook by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

The Little Women Cookbook: Tempting Recipes from the March Sisters and Their Friends and Family
by Wini Moranville; Louisa May Alcott
Harvard Common Press
Publication October 1, 2019
Hardback $19.99 / £12.99
ISBN: 9781558329911

Helen Korngold Diary: September 22-28, 1919

Helen quit her first teaching position and is back at home, bored. After all the excitement of her senior year at Washington University and a trip to Colorado, these last months have been dull. Even her birthday does not deserve much attention in her diary.

September
Monday 22
Wash day again.

Tuesday 23
Received pictures & letters from Mae – she’s engaged

Wednesday 24
I was ironing today

Thursday 25
Ironing – party

Friday 26
I was pretty blue. Ida left for Portland.

Saturday 27
This was my birthday.

Sunday 28
Not much doing

Notes:

Sept. 26

Ida Goodman's address appears at the beginning of the diary as in Monument, KS. Helen wrote Ida a letter on April 10. On May 1, Helen wrote, "Ida is here! I drove over to see her. She's darling." On May 2, Helen wrote that Ida came for dinner and they stayed up until midnight talking. On June 29 and July 30, Ida also came to Helen's home.

I have not been able to pinpoint Helen's friend in the records.

Researching in The Jewish Voice on Newspapers.com, I discover an Ida Goodman was a Sabbath School teacher at Montefiore Congregation. There is an Ida Goodman married to the St. Louis Zionist Chapter founder Sam Goodman. There are lots of Ida Goodmans as a married name!

I found an August 1818 wedding of an Ida Goodman to a George Willis of Kansas City. But no Ida Goodman marrying in 1919! 

In the news, there was a national steel strike involving riots and deaths; the ice dealers reported that cooler weather saved St. Louis from an "ice famine," the ice being depleted after a long, hot summer; and there were 2,000 dead from a hurricane striking Texas.

I noted this article in the Sept. 23, 1919, St. Louis Star and Times because Helen was friends with Florence Funston, mentioned in the diary on Jan. 8, 1919. The Funston Brothers were digging a foundation for a new building when a 'prison' was discovered.

Century-Old Cellar, Apparently a Slave Prison. Excavated Here Men Digging for Foundation of New Building at Fourth and Market Streets Find Sub-Cellar With Barred Window and Fire Place.

Excavation of ground at the southeast corner of Fourth and Market streets for the new eight-story building for Funsten Brothers & Company yesterday revealed a prison-like sub-cellar apparently constructed about 100 years ago when Broadway lit the western boundary of St. Louis. 

The odd formation of the cellar, apparently unattached to any of the buildings that had surrounded or covered it lent color to the belief that it might have been a part of the old fort that was in the vicinity In the early days. This belief, however, Is not shared by Walter B. Douglas, vice president of the Missouri Historical Society. 

The cellar was about 25 feet square, and lay about 50 feet east of the Fourth Street line and about 80 feet south of the south line of Market Street. It's walls excepting the south wall have been torn up to make way for the new $700,000 building for the fur exchange. The top part of the wall had been covered and an alleyway built over it. 

About six feet from the eastern wall, apparently, was a flue that led upward from the basement, while five feet west of this was an iron-barred window about three feet square. Because of its prison-like appearance, it gave rise to the belief that it was the burial place of Pontiac, the Indian chief murdered at Cahokia, Ill., in 1769 and brought to St. Louis for burial by Gov. St. Ange de Belle-rive. 

Mr. Douglas examined the excavation yesterday to find out whether there could be any connection between the cell-like basement and the famous Ottawa chief. "I came to the conclusion that the cellar, while very old. was constructed many years after Pontiac's death," said Douglas. "The bars, for instance, are of cast iron, and if they had been put in before Pontiac's death they would have been wrought iron. Apparently, the place was constructed for the slaves of St. Louis families. The fireplace to the left of the barred window shows that it was built with a view to habitation. In addition, the contractor tells me that the flooring was apparently of cobblestones." 

Douglas said the cellar could not have had any connection with Pontiac's burial place, because, so far as he can learn, the spot where the Indian was burled was about seventy-five feet south of the south line of Market street halfway between Fourth Street and Broadway. He called attention to-the tablet to the Indian's memory on the left wall of the Broadway entrance to the Southern Hotel, which he said as placed there merely because it was the nearest available place to the grave. Nor could the building have been any part of the old fortification, which stood north of Elm Street between Broadway and Fourth Street and extended northward for about seventy-five feet north of Walnut street. 

Douglas said that there was an old graveyard north of the old fortification for the burial of those who could not be Interred in the cemetery of the Catholic Church. Pontiac, not being a member of that church, consequently, was buried in the cemetery north of the fort, which would be south of Market Street between Fourth Street and Broadway. 

The date of 1815 was fixed as the date of the building by Judge Douglas from the fact that the structure which originally covered it was of brick. The oldest brick building in St. Louis, according to Judge Douglas, was erected in 1813. He is of the opinion from the character of construction that the cellar was constructed some time afterward. 

CLIPPED FROM

The St. Louis Star and Times

St. Louis, Missouri

23 Sep 1919, Tue  •  Page 3