Date/Time
Date - May 5, 2018
1:00 pm until 3:00 pm
Location
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY, 10028
Join me for a visit to The Metropolitan Museum of Art to see two exhibitions: Thomas Cole’s Journey: Atlantic Crossings and Public Parks, Private Gardens: Paris to Provence. I have several guest passes, for those of us who are not Metropolitan Museum members. Before our visit, let’s meet for brunch – either at one of The Met’s restaurants, or one nearby, I will share some options with those attending via email.
Kindly RSVP to Laura by Friday, March 23rd.
From the website: metmuseum.org
THOMAS COLE’S JOURNEY: ATLANTIC CROSSINGS
January 30 – May 13

View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm—The Oxbow
by Thomas Cole (American, Lancashire 1801–1848 Catskill, New York). Photo by Laura Schroeder
Thomas Cole’s Journey marks the 200th anniversary of Cole’s first Atlantic crossing, when he emigrated from England to the United States in 1818, and examines in depth Cole’s return journey to England in 1829–31 and his travels in Italy in 1831–32, revealing the development of his artistic processes. Seminal works created by the artist in the years immediately after his return to New York, between 1832 and 1837—notably The Oxbow and The Course of Empire—are presented as a culminating creative response to his complex experiences of British art and society and of Italian history and landscape. In addition, Cole’s abiding passion for the American wilderness resulted in his fervent visual warning in these paintings to his fellow American citizens of the harsh ecological cost of unchecked development of the land.
This exhibition brings to prominence the dialogue between American and European artists in the mid-19th century by hanging Cole’s work in direct juxtaposition with works he studied on his formative journey, including paintings by J. M. W. Turner and John Constable, among others. It concludes with an examination of Cole’s extraordinary legacy in the work of the next generation of American landscape painters whom he personally mentored, notably Asher B. Durand and Frederic E. Church.
Thomas Cole’s Journey marks the 200th anniversary of Cole’s first Atlantic crossing, when he emigrated from England to the United States in 1818, and examines in depth the development of his artistic processes. This exhibition brings to prominence the dialogue between American and European artists in the mid-19th century by hanging Cole’s work in direct juxtaposition with works he studied on his formative journey, including paintings by J. M. W. Turner and John Constable, among others, and concludes with an examination of Cole’s extraordinary legacy in the work of the next generation of American landscape painters whom he personally mentored, notably Asher B. Durand and Frederic E. Church.

Ulysses Deriding Polyphemus – Homer’s Odyssey by Joseph Mallord William Turner (British, London 1775–1851 London).
Photo by Laura Schroeder
PUBLIC PARKS, PRIVATE GARDENS: PARIS TO PROVENCE
March 12 – July 29, 2018
The important role of parks and gardens in French life during this period is richly illustrated by paintings, drawings, photographs, prints, illustrated books, and objects in The Met collection by artists extending from Camille Corot to Henri Matisse, many of whom were gardeners themselves. Drawn from seven curatorial departments at The Met and supplemented by a selection of private collection loans, Public Parks, Private Gardens: Paris to Provence will feature some 150 works by more than 70 artists, spanning the late 18th through early 20th century. Anchored by Impressionist scenes of outdoor leisure, the presentation will offer a fresh, multisided perspective on best-known and hidden treasures housed in a Museum that took root in a park: namely, New York’s Central Park, which was designed in the spirit of Parisian public parks of the same period.
The Met Fifth Avenue, 1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY