painting of the month

Large Blue Horses -- Franz Marc, 1911

(Happy Chinese New Year -- Year of the Horse!!)

all about the benjamins

Benjamin Franklin -- politician, diplomat, author, inventor, sage, kite flyer and musician -- was born on January 17th, 1706 and lived a most impressive 84 years.  His best known and eagerly desired portrait is on the American $100 bill, but it should be of no surprise that many other artistic representations of Franklin were made throughout his lifetime (click on any of the paintings for a larger view).  Pictured here are Franklin's first portrait by Robert Feke in 1748, with young Ben seeming a bit dandified in his hand pose and sporting ruffly cuffs -- this in contrast to Benjamin Wilson's 1759 likeness of a more confident and assured Franklin, and if you look closely you can see a flicker of lightning in the background.  (The wild bolt is about to hit a church steeple, but the church is likely grounded by a Franklin lightning rod.)  The subtlety of Franklin's electrical experiment in Wilson's painting is the complete opposite of Benjamin West's 1816 Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky, with our departed forefather in the midst of cherubs and divine guidance like a conduit between the heavens and earth. 


British artist David Martin's 1767 portrait of Franklin places America's wise man in a setting of lush knowledge, amid tones of red and gold and blue along with books and papers and a bust of Sir Isaac Newton looking on with further inspiration and approval.  Perhaps Franklin was pondering his 13 Virtues in Martin's painting, though Franklin was human enough to admit that even he had trouble putting all of the ideals into action simultaneously.  And finally, the elderly Franklin appears in Charles Wilson Peale's 1785 portrait, around the time that various health problems began to take their toll on Frankin's otherwise hearty being. 


I wish the Bald  Eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country; he is a bird of bad moral character; like those among men who live by sharping and robbing, he is generally poor, and often very lousy. The turkey is a much more respectable bird.  (Benjamin Franklin,  1784)

art and appetites

The Art Institute of Chicago's Art and Appetite exhibit is reaching its final weeks and closing up the visual kitchen on January 27th.  This is a sumptuous showing of American food-related art from colonial times to the late 20th century, with occasional social or satiric commentary -- but for the most part a fine spread that confirms the fact that Americans like their food and drink, and plenty of it.  Some of my favorite works are featured, like Willard Metcalf's The Ten Cent Breakfast, John Sloan's Reganeschi's Saturday Night and Richard Estes' Food City.  And the pictured Vegetable Dinner by Peter Blume, which I like even more because Blume was apparently a fellow vegetarian.  All in all an enjoyable show that includes some beautiful servingware as well, and a book of postcards available for sale in the gift shop with vintage recipes on the back.  (The corn "oysters" from Jennie June's American Cookery Book of 1870 fry up nicely and are especially tasty with a splash of green Tabasco.)  My only negative commentary on American appetite in general was in the Members' Lounge at the Art Institute, when the poor guy who works there was trying to bring out a fresh pot of hot chocolate and was descended upon by some rather aggressive persons.  Hot chocolate is free for members, but I've seen stock footage of Depression-era folks waiting in breadlines with more courtesy and patience than these supposed patrons of the arts.  Clearly paying for a membership to the museum entitles a body to shove ahead and cut in line and crab at student workers, all in pursuit of a the privilege of a cup of cocoa worth about $1.50. 


Pictured:  Vegetable Dinner (Peter Blume, 1927) Smithsonian American Art Museum