This is a wonderful interior scene to focus on, especially this time of year, the history, story of the girls and psychological insights.

The high resolution reproduction here is better than the one in my book but still it’s not like standing before the painting itself- 8 plus feet by 8 plus feet- which is a different experience altogether. My art history professor ( lucky me it was William Rubin so many years ago) speaking of Mark Rothko’s paintings, who awakened me to the phenomenon that 4 feet of yellow is a different experience, size matters. But you do need at least the reproduction to appreciate this conversation and to begin to feel the actual painting itself and to whet the appetite to see it or see it again. We really need to stand before the painting and give the time.

My first response to the painting, and I get it even in reproduction, is sensual- to the lusciousness of the paint and to the strokes… as always with Sargent. Since we already have experienced what came after Sargent our modern sensibility about painting is therefore more liberated.

I think I did see that show at the MFA so many years ago. But anyway I am going to detour to see this painting again in a couple of weeks- with new eyes.

I have to mention that Sargent’s watercolors are masterful….I don’t know if there are any on view at the moment.

This has always been one of my favorite paintings. I’ve had specific and weighty ideas about their silence. It comes from working with many, many girls, and from being one. I doubt if Erica Hirschler considers my reason for their staring and silence, but I’m looking forward to hearing her voice.

Though he had a great talent, much of Sargent’s techniques and methods were learned from his studying of Frans Hals, Velazquez and taking lessons from his spectacular teacher Carolus Duran. Sargent is a great reaffirmation of the traditional approach to painting while his individual virtuousity, freshness and elan are every modern artist’s dream.

Thinking back, it was also Chris who got me interested in Jazz, in the 90′s. And in the Transcendentalists. And so many other topics.

Thanks.

You remind me uncannily of John Updike’s observation on this painting: “The effect is of silence: silent vases… silent carpet… A great hushed world waits around these children to be tasted, explored, grown into… Sargent, catching his subjects where they have alighted like white butterflies, displays deep spaces about them, and permits them all the gravity their young femininity warrants… These young ladies are watching, not just the painter, but us, to see what we will do next, and whether what we do will be worthy of their responding. Like butterflies, they will elude us if we startle them.”

http://www.allpaintings.org/d/54618-1/Edgar+Degas+-+The+Duchess+di+Montajesi+with+Her+Daughters.jpg

I also notice that the vases are much bigger than the girls…I sense those vases taking precedence in this household…these ornaments so priceless are give license to say more than the adolescents in the room, I suspect.

And the dresses of these prim and proper white girls all match a whiteness that bonds them in blandness. Ironically the head of this household could surely go on for hours about the vibrant colors of their rug, but the style of their offsping will most assuredly stay beneath the rug…emotions in this painting are kept as close to the vest as the motionless hands of the girls.

Now that I’ve looked at the painting, I will listen to the interview and post later on. Thank you, Christopher Lydon, as always. Lots of Love. We especially need the arts as an antidote of beauty during this oppression of carnage.