A week and a half ago, Philadelphia Museum Of Art opened its arms nice and wide when my wife Sandy and I entered the building. Then, with feeling, it embraced us. “Yeah,” I thought to myself, “this is going to be a good visit.” And it was. How could it not have been? I mean, over the years I’d roamed through PMA’s galleries more than 100 times, coming away invigorated each trip. The museum rocks.
Arriving with no advance plans as to what to see, we took a look at the museum’s website after showing our PMA-membership cards at the admissions counter. Any number of special exhibits listed on the site, ranging from small to large, piqued our interest. An hour and 45 minutes later, we’d toured them all, plus other gallery spaces. Whew! Had we covered too much ground a bit too quickly? Probably, but little matter. In any event, the museum was readying to close at that point, so off we went to retrieve our car in the museum’s parking garage. The visit, though, didn’t fade from my mind.
Faces! I’m still thinking about some of the face-centric artworks I saw at the museum, more so than the landscapes, seascapes, town scenes and city scenes, and abstractions. Maybe that’s because Sandy and I began our trek at a mini exhibit whose centerpiece was a privately owned, seldom-shown-in-public sketch by my favorite artist, Vincent van Gogh. The drawing, from 1885, is a rendition of The Potato Eaters, an oil painting Van Gogh was working on at the time in the Netherlands, the country of his birth. That painting is now generally considered to be one of his most important pieces.
The five folks in the sketch are Dutch farmers, a hard-working family that never had, and undoubtedly never would have, more than the minimum necessities needed to get by. Van Gogh didn’t try to portray them in exacting detail. He wasn’t a precisionist. His intent was to get to the heart and soul of these people. Hell, getting to the heart and soul was his intent in every one of his works, no matter what the subject matter. And he almost always pulled it off. His enormous popularity developed largely for this reason, I think. Posthumously, needless to say, as the general public was unaware of Van Gogh during his lifetime. (Van Gogh moved from the Netherlands to France in 1886, and died there, by his own hand, in 1890.)
On the opposite side of the museum’s ground floor, hundreds of feet away from the Van Gogh sketch, Sandy and I admired a portrait of James Baldwin, the American writer, social activist and deep thinker. Painted by Beauford Delaney, a devoted artist whom success mostly eluded, the work, painted in 1945, depicts Baldwin in his early twenties. It captures him brilliantly, with bold strokes and an expert disregard for photographic-like realism. As a result, Baldwin comes alive on the canvas. Van Gogh would have approved.
Many other faces greeted us from PMA’s gallery walls that day. I’ll comment on only two of them. They are the visages, as some of you will recognize, of myself and my better half. Man, there was no way I was going to let pass the opportunity to snap a photo when I noticed our reflections in a mirror designed by Stephen Burks. The mirror was part of a dazzling exhibit of Burks’ modern interior-design items.
Somewhat amazingly, it is the only picture I took in the museum that day (the other two pix in this story are from the PMA website). That’s because, while at PMA, I had no intention of writing about Sandy’s and my visit and illustrating the story with photos captured by my phone’s camera. I just wasn’t in a reporter-on-the-scene mood. And yet, this essay emerged anyway. Well, all I can say is, “You never frigging know.” Ain’t that the truth!
Yeah, Another Blogger 
Nice one
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Hello, and thanks. Appreciated.
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Hello friend, I enjoyed reading your post. I subscribed. See you often. Have a happy and bright day🌙💫🔆☀️
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I have a Dutch buddy. Maybe I’ll paint him eating Rollmops. He loves the stuff.
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You sent me to google to find out what the heck rollmops are. I think I’d like them. I think they’d be good with pumpernickel bread. Hi CB. After you paint your friend’s picture, please post it on your blog.
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Rollmops? You are my hero. Yeah I’ll send a signed painting.
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I went to a Van Gogh special exhibit when I was in Chicago, Neil. His artwork is mesmerizing, especially when we know his tragic history. I can’t view his work without wondering what was happening in his mind and what he was seeing, what he wanted to convey. I’m so glad you shared your day at the museum. And a fun pic of you and your better half. 🙂
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Here’s a fascinating, unusual film about Van Gogh:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loving_Vincent
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Oh, thanks for sharing that. It sounds like such an interesting production and lots of awards. I starred it to look for late. Thanks Neil.
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Very nice, Neil! Did you see the virtual Van Gogh exhibit when it toured the US? I think you would’ve really liked it.
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Hi. I should have gone to it, but didn’t.
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Oh shoot, I think my comment was left as annonymous a moment ago. Sorry! I am rewriting it now… It’s great that you have such a wonderful exhibit there for you and your wife to go to. You would have adored the Van Gogh exhibit I went to last year. So many faces there too!
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Hi. My guess is that Van Gogh is by far the most popular artist among people today. His works really connect with folks.
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I’m glad your visit inspired you to write a blog post, Neil, thank you for the virtual tour of the PMA.
I’m always amazed at how well some painters have captured facial expressions, I think that must be one of the most difficult details to depict.
I thought it was interesting that both VanGogh and James Baldwin happened to end up up living and dying in France.
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That’s a sharp observation. I hadn’t known, or didn’t remember, that Baldwin passed away there.
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Another American who was treated better abroad than in his home country.
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nice
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Van Gogh and Baldwin I find to be at opposite sides of creativities and era. Both were passionate about their works. And as always Neil, your connect makes the cyber excursion most enjoyable. 👠 ☕️🎨 ✍️
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I like the way you phrase things!
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Love the connection between these two works. I’ve always been fascinated by the Van Gogh but other one was new to me – like you say, it brings Baldwin to life.
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Hi Andrew. I saw a million paintings, photos, sculptures at the museum that day. Not all that many made a deep impression on me, The Baldwin portrait was one of the ones that did.
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It has been a long time since I have been to an art museum. I need to do something about that.
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Hello, J.P. — art museums can be fun. You never know what will catch your eye at them.
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Missed this interesting post and the fascinating faces. Glad I caught it now.
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Thanks for reading it. I appreciate that.
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Singing Starry starry night now. Such a great song about such a fabulous artist 🤗
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It’s a fabulous song. I hadn’t thought about it in a long time.
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I have a really wonderful video of the song set to Van Gogh’s paintings. A forward sent by a friend on WhatsApp, made by an unknown person. I’d like to share it with you, but how?
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I found this on YouTube. Is this the one you have?
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Can’t open the link! Does it have his paintings and subtitles?
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Oh I found it on YouTube too, posted by someone called wysty67
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Yes, that’s the video. I imagine that Don McLean sings the song at every one of his concerts.
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The Philadelphia Art Museum is a wonderful asset for the city. I miss going there. I love all of Van Gogh’s art and his drawings are less known and especially interesting. Back then artist’s studied drawing intensively, even if they abstracted it later. Today there is not such an emphasis on drawing and now with AI it may sadly become a thing of the past.
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Hi. I remember seeing many of his drawings at an exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum in NYC. That was a long time ago.
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Fabulous post! I loved the insights and ending with a mirror selfie. 🙂 True, oftentimes we ourselves are not aware, where a story may be lurking.
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Hi, and many thanks for adding your thoughts. Writing is a pretty mysterious process. I’m continually amazed by it.
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The description of the museum is so vivid, it was as though I visited the museum!
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You’re very kind to say that. I thank you.
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A nice reflection and show of appreciation of some of the greats! 👍👍 Have a inspiring week ahead.
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Thanks. I don’t know who this is, though. Your comments are listed as being from Anonymous.
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Enjoy images and information!
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Thanks
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Mr Neil, I am a great admirer of the artist Vincent Van Gogh & his amazing masterpieces !Potato Eaters was one of them:depicting the harsh reality of poor peasants who have so little for their subsistence on this Holy Earth!I get literally moved by their plight:the harshness on their faces,hands & feet.I have been to Eindhoven thrice for 3 months each & never missed out going to Nuenen(almost religiously) where Van Gogh spent his initial phase as a painter.He painted this masterpiece in Nuenen.Sir, I am already going through your posts, please find time to go through my posts on my site!Happy Reading!
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He was a wonderful artist. His works have a tremendous amount of feeling in them.
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You are absolutely right, Neil
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I was so mesmerised by his creations that I wrote a blog on his works!I am sending you the link please :
https://wordpress.com/post/travelandshare.travel.blog/16091
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Nicely done 💯
Grettings regards my friend 🫂
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