Travel
When my husband gave me 'The Story of Art' by E.H. Gombrich, little did he know it will also cost him a trip for two to Vienna. Twice!
I have to confess the drawings I saw at Albertina made me reevaluate my opinion about this graphic art form. But then we got to the watercolors, and I was hooked. Emperor Ferdinand I's watercolors collection was on display in a temporary exhibition called 'At His Majesty’s Service'. In 1835, he commissioned the leading watercolorists of his day to create a "picture book" of the major towns and most scenic regions in the Austrian Empire and neighboring lands. And if these watercolors were good enough for the emperor, they surely were good enough for me too.
Albertina was a mind opening experience for me. And I am grateful for it and I have to give my thanks to Albrecht Durer's rabbit, which is actually a young hare. The bunny was cute, as expected, but nothing out of this world. It was just a lead. Maybe following the brown rabbit was more fortunate than following the white one.
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Travel
How I Fell In Love With Watercolors Following The Brown Rabbit
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| 'Young Hare' - Albrecht Durer |
If you've read the 'about' page, you already know I'm passionate about art (among other things, like anthropology and cats). But watercolors didn't used to be among my favorite forms of artistic expression, probably because I used to bore myself to death trying to mix the colors with not a hint of success when I was a kid.
Anyways, one of the first pictures in Gombrich's book was a particularly famous rabbit I knew nothing about. With its abnormally long ears and impeccable fur, the brown bunny was cute and memorable enough to make me want to meet it in person.
Our first trip to Vienna was part of a two month trip around Europe. But we were busy packing and planning, and the rabbit and his lair were the last things on our mind before leaving home (that was before the smartphone era and before we even had a laptop). Therefore, we didn't check which museum hosted the rabbit. We remembered it on the road and we started looking for it, needless to say, without any luck. It felt like the bunny was playing hide and seek with us and we were loosing all the time. Nobody we asked knew its whereabouts either.
In spring 2010, we went to Vienna the second time, with our homework done and determined to visit Albertina, where Durer's bunny was hiding from us. But faced with the pricey ticket for a vast collection of drawings and prints that were't really our cup of tea, we hesitated. Eventually, we decided to enter, if nothing else, for the rabbit's sake. After all we had been chasing it around Europe for years now.
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| 'View of Salzburg' - Rudolf von Alt (watercolor from Albertina) |
I have to confess the drawings I saw at Albertina made me reevaluate my opinion about this graphic art form. But then we got to the watercolors, and I was hooked. Emperor Ferdinand I's watercolors collection was on display in a temporary exhibition called 'At His Majesty’s Service'. In 1835, he commissioned the leading watercolorists of his day to create a "picture book" of the major towns and most scenic regions in the Austrian Empire and neighboring lands. And if these watercolors were good enough for the emperor, they surely were good enough for me too.
These masterpieces were like nothing I'd seen before. So beautifully composed, so soft and yummy they were, I fell in love with them. I stared at them for hours, analyzing each detail, each dress, each architectural element immortalized on modest pieces of paper. Lives past and love stories meant to repeatedly consume themselves forever, in a poorly lit museum room, at His Majesty's service.
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| 'Die Esplanade in Ischi' - Rudolf von Alt (watercolor from Albertina) |
Albertina was a mind opening experience for me. And I am grateful for it and I have to give my thanks to Albrecht Durer's rabbit, which is actually a young hare. The bunny was cute, as expected, but nothing out of this world. It was just a lead. Maybe following the brown rabbit was more fortunate than following the white one.
- Puzzle Time!
As always, there is a jigsaw puzzle being worked on the dining room table. This time it's as diabolical as always - a picture in the shape of a triangle, with pieces that are all triangular shaped. I placed a few of the pieces last night,...
- My Last Week In Ny
It seems that whenever I say I'm not going to do something, I find myself smack in the middle of it! Yesterday I stood under a tent in the pouring rain watching the first two games of Joshua's soccer tournament. The games were...
- Putting My Energy To Use
I didn't want to waste all this energy I seem to have, so after two loads of laundry done I decided to clean. My house is a complete wreck, with clutter everywhere and dust that shows when the sunbeams shine in. So what do you think I...
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