With Laynes’s declared remission from arthritis, and the subsequent long path to vaccination stability we can at last date to behave as though Covid may not kill her. The New Orleans Museum of Art seemed a good place for a first cultural outing.
Charles Giroux, a Louisiana road scene from 1875.
There is a remarkable amount of art packed into the heart of City Park in NOLA (New Orleans, Louisiana) and we took two weekdays to Cody the sculpture garden one day and two more hours the corridors of the museum itself. Photographing art is a skill I don’t possess and therefore neither the tools so in reproducing the pictures I offer only a faint outline of the richness within.
My favorite room and the one I returned to contained the snapshots of Louisiana captured in the last decades of the 19th century. The paintings offer a glimpse into life of the era but don’t hint at the controversies and social miseries of the time. They are street views in the style of the time not exposes or social commentary.
South Shore Lake Pontchartrain 1880 by Marshall Smith.
The boats, the human and animal figures set in the darkened landscape set me to wondering who lived there and how they coped. I can’t imagine the agony of life before DEET in these boggy places or the awkwardness of unremitting poverty to the passerby. And yet as I stood there I saw the reality depicted reflected in my own recent travels in Mexico land of stark social contrasts. I stood in this room a long time.
And then the full on Frenchness of France dominated the room next door. A female portrait painter…revolutionary…
And then suddenly the exhibit of instant photos of artists in the city by a photographer well known in the city but unknown outside.
The simple equipment:
The man himself not portrayed in the exhibit but whose portrait I found online. The article at Go Nola is well worth a read:
There was so much more in the building, furniture jewelry and all the objects that create beauty in the home. It was overwhelming for a one day visit.
Oh and let’s not forget the dog stealing lunch at the French Market.
Outside the Besthoff sculpture garden glowed in evening sunlight. I hope the pictures give an idea of the pleasure of the walk. Admission here incidentally is free. I’d spend a piece of every day passing trough if I lived here. We walked only half of the entire outdoor art museum here.
