Elysha and I visited the John Singer Sargent exhibit at The Met during our anniversary jaunt to New York City last week.
I don’t typically like portraits very much, and though I liked Sargent’s work, the paintings that I liked best of his were not portraits.
The next day, we went to The Whitney to look at the work of portraitist Amy Sherald — who painted (among many other things) the portrait of Michelle Obama — and though I still don’t love portraiture, the back-to-back examination of two brilliant artists doing the same work but separated by more than 150 years was fascinating.
I came away appreciating portraits a little more than I had before, and I found some paintings that I loved a great deal.
While standing in front of this painting, “Portrait of Edouard and Marie-Louise Pailleron,” which I don’t like very much at all, I overheard the woman beside me say:
“Look at that boy. Long, thin fingers. He’ll make a good gynecologist someday.”
Sometimes, a little bit of narration can really cause you to see a painting in an entirely new way.
It can also force you to stifle a laugh.
I’ll never look at this somewhat creepy painting in the same way again.
