Word: gooding
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Gogh's famous Tarascon Diligence is still a fresh visual experience upon its first encounter; its use of heavy brushwork, vividly dominant colors and incised outlines are Van Gogh at his best. Only an awkwardly distorted ladder disturbs this great masterpiece. Next to this work are a small and good Renoir Nude and a very fine Woman in a Round Hat by Manet...
...Maurice Wertheim bequest (it eventually goes en bloc to the Fogg) is also on view upstairs at the Fogg, where its future owners have complemented the collection's brilliance with a well-balanced, elegantly proportioned, and grandly spaced installation--which looks good from any spot. The 19th century gallery is particularly impressive with Van Gogh's Self Portrait, the primus inter pares of the lot. The brilliant lime-green brushwork which forms a halo around the artist's head is both economical and expressive and the demonic eyes with yellow pupils, the red defining lines of the nose and mouth...
...alone. The other painting, the Maternite, is a great masterpiece of the Blue Period, an altar-piece of modern painting. Its cool blues, El Grecoesque modeling of the light on the draperies, and monumental rendering add up to the finest work by Picasso I can remember having seen--for good measure I'm even tempted to throw in Guernica! This painting is seen to best advantage on an overcast day when the Fogg puts an overhead light upon it. The best setting for it, however, would be the magnificent shadowed light of an Early Gothic Church. The other works...
...this weren't enough, your reviewer has just returned from the basement of the Fogg where the Registrar's Office is temporarily sheltering oils by Modigliani (one of his most famous), Monet (a great Venetian study), Monticelli (a good still-life by this long underrated Impressionist master), Utrillo, Cezanne, Degas, Redon, and Rouault. This excellent collection, belonging to Dr. and Mrs. Erich Kahn, will soon be on display upstairs--"that is," Miss Elizabeth Strassman, the Chief Registrar, happily lamented, "if we can find any place for them...
...case, one on top of the other, has never been the dream of the artgoer, and the use of different levels is handled poorly--without any strong accents on the bottom level of the main gallery, the collection is allowed to dribble off to nowhere. I'll add one good note about the exhibition's installation: two incredibly large and mildly good Van Goyens have been sent over to the Fogg where they are suitably scaled in size and gloom to the second floor gallery arcade. In all, though, I'm afraid that I'll just have to fall back...