Friday, September 22, 2006

Cultured girl

This is the last weekend the Americans in Paris exhibit will be at the big city museum. I missed another wonderful exhibit over the summer at a different museum and was determined to get us to this one.

We got ahead of the crowd and walked into a gallery. Before us was Sargent's The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit, one of my favorite paintings when I was a little girl. Here we were, all alone, me and my daughter, with this grand painting of four sisters. It was a moment to tear up for.

Accept all she wanted to do was "swim" on the bench in front of the painting. And yell. Loudly.

It is so easy to forget, especially with a kid as good-natured as this one, that she is a kid. A typical two-year-old. And while I wasn't expecting a lengthy discussion contrasting the brushstrokes of Mary Cassatt to Sargent, I was hoping for a bit more "Look for the dog on the blue chair" or "What colors are in that painting?"

Nope. Swimming on the bench.



At least I got a 54-piece puzzle with the Boit daughters (on sale). I can look at that.

3 comments:

Kate said...

Ahh, I can totally relate! Last month, while on vacation, we went into NYC and visited the Museum of Modern Art with our kids, ages 4 and 8 months. They had an AWESOME Dada exhibit that I wanted to completely absorb, and all I had was a 4 year old tugging on my hand saying, "Can we go yet??" But we were at least pleased that he did like some of the works. Especially the Dada films, which are cooky anyway. So, life at art museums aren't what they used to be!

soccer mom in denial said...

Ugh - NYC museums. One of my favorite memories is of a young boy yelling "MAN POOPING" as he pointed at a naked statue in the large entrance of the Met. It echoed for miles...

AB said...

See - yet another taste we share in common. While I am not familiar with this painting or the artist, I immediately saw the simalarities to Velazquez who I love along with the Dutch masters who are my favorites (especially Jan Van Steen. Good taste you have. And now I have another painter to learn more about. And I am sure it won't be long before your daughter shows more interest. After all, she has already shown her great taste in music!
Amy