Architect’s Dream, Thomas Cole

Link is to zoomable image on Google Art Project; downloadable file on Wikimedia Commons, original is in the Toledo (Ohio) Museum of Art, which also has an interactive feature on the work.

This fantastical combination of Egyptian, Greek, Roman and Gothic architectural styles — in the midst of which we find the dreaming architect, surrounded by plans and oversize books atop a gigantic column — was painted for New York architect Ithiel Town.

Town had commissioned a view of Athens, and was taken aback by the finished work which was, to say the least, not quite what he was expecting. He rejected it.

The painting has the painted inscription: “Painted by T. Cole / For I. Town Archt.”, and it stayed in Cole’s possession, and that of his family, until purchased by the Toledo Museum.

I like the contrast between the dark, shadowed Gothic spire in the foreground and the almost etherial Egyptian temple and obelisks in the distance. I particularly like the fact that he has portrayed his Egyptian pyramid in the original finished form — covered in polished white limestone.

Still Life with Fish, Vegetables, Gougéres, Pots, and Cruets on a Table, Jean-Siméon Chardin

The original is in the collection of the Getty Museum, which has both a zoomable image, and a large (21MB) downloadable file available on their website. There is also a zoomable file on Google Art Project, and a downloadable version of that somewhat smaller file on Wikikedia Commons.

Though there are other still life painters that I admire greatly (Luis Meléndez springs to mind), there is something special for me in the still life paintings of 18th century French master Jean-Siméon Chardin.

Part of it is his mastery of painting, his subtle, harmonious compositions, brilliant command of edges and tactile surface qualities, but part of his appeal is ineffable — a rare sense of the suspension of time, and an almost magical suggestion that the ordinary is, in fact, extraordinary, if only we would slow down and look.

In a season frequently and too loudly declared to be “magical”, but often represented instead by the flashy special effects of billboard consumerism, perhaps there is still magic to be found in quiet moments with family and friends, and the simple pleasures of food.