Paul Claude-Michel Carpentier: Self-Portrait with Family in the Artist’s Studio

Self-Portrait with Family in the Artist’s Studio, Paul Claude-Michel Carpentier
Dallas Museum of Art

I look for this painting whenever I visit the DMA. This loving portrait shows a man's love of his family, especially in that his wife isn't particularly beautiful but she has a warm, loving expression.

Lady in a Red Hat

Lady with a Red Hat, Frank Duveneck, 1904
Dallas Museum of Art

This is another of those paintings which just can't be fully appreciated on screen. The way the artist captured backlighting with the light coming through the red feathers and casting red highlights on the lady's face is mesmerizing and unique.

Dorothy

Dorothy, John Singer Sargeant
Dallas Museum of Art

I love Sargeant's portraits anyway, but this little lady's expression just wins me over every time. She brims with personality.

The Icebergs

The Icebergs, Frederic Edwin Church
Dallas Museum of Art

Nothing can replace sitting in front of this painting and taking it all in. The tints and coloring are impossible to adequately convey on a screen.

I love the story that this was bought by a private collector and kept out of public view for over a hundred years. When it came back into public sight for auction, it raised the most ever given for an American painting. The anonymous buyers donated it to the Dallas Museum of Art. After Lamar Hunt's death, he and his wife were revealed as the generous donors.

Time and Tide

Time and Tide, 1873, Dallas Museum of Art
Alfred Thompson Bricher

I just love this painting. I could stand in front of it all day.

Workers, Flowers and the Virgin of San Juan

The Workers, Alfredo Ramos Martinez
Dallas Museum of Art

Continuing last week's Dallas Museum of Art post, we then wandered into an exhibit of Alfredo Ramos Martinez. His style isn't one I'd normally be drawn to, but after just having been immersed in Latin American art, we were primed to take a closer look. I particularly was intrigued by his paintings done on newspaper. All those stripes? Yes. Creative use of newsprint lines in the newspaper. It was really fascinating. Tom especially liked the use of black outline to give a three dimensional aspect to the elements.

Not all his work was like that, of course. I was struck by his floral paintings. These were on loan so we were lucky to see them.

Blue Jar with Flowers, Santa Barbara Museum of Art

La Virgen de San Juan, Santa Barbara Museum

And the Latin American theme continued when we went to lunch afterwards at the San Martin Cafe and Bakery on McKinney Street. It is a Guatemalan restaurant and very trendy, as it turns out. The service and food were excellent. Rose discovered it and she and Mom love going there.

They also had art displayed high up on several walls and the textile art was another link in the chain to the art we'd seen at the DMA. Some it put us in mind of a collection of huipils for putting on statues of the Virgin Mary.

Huipil for a figure of the Virgin of the Rosary, Maya -- Kaqchikel, c. 1905–1925
Dallas Museum of Art

I'll be featuring other paintings soon. No themes, just the stuff that I like a lot.