The Best of Both Worlds

I had first read about the new Rembrandt exhibit at the Norton Museum in West Palm in a glowing review in the Wall Street Journal. It’s rare to have a showing of great works of art in Florida, and I didn’t want to regret missing it. I also try to take advantage of every opportunity to introduce Anthony to great works of art.

It was a Friday, and we were both off from school and work. Ant did so well on the drive down. 3 hours, but he made it

As soon as we walked into the exhibit we see a painting, not by Rembrandt, entitled ‘Self-Portrait With Magic Scene’. It was a nearly comical picture of a man with his mouth wide open, and big bug eyes staring at two giant claws coming out at him from the right side of the painting. It was full of occult images including a skull on top of a wood fire, an open book with a pentagram and a heart with a dagger printed on the open page; and less ominously a page of music that he recognized. Anthony deemed this one “The Halloween picture” and that would be his favorite of the day.

At the back of that same room was a Rembrandt painting of the goddess Minerva. Stunningly beautiful. A middle age woman, opulently dressed, looking off just over the viewers shoulder, in a study, with her left hand on an open book and light coming in on the right side to illuminate the scene.

The docent compared this painting to another from the previous century that was hanging on the adjacent wall. He explained how that older painting wanted to show a scene, with details, like we were looking at an actual picture. In this painting, Minerva, however, Rembrandt wanted the viewer to feel a sense that this was alive. Very real in the way the fabric was depicted, how the light was painted and the personality of the subject. Not cold and distant. It felt very human to me. I could feel like I was there with this person right now. And every thing about it was just perfect. Beautiful and inspiring. I could have sat and looked at this painting for another 30 minutes.

Anthony liked it a bit. He did sit and listen to the entire docent’s lecture without making a peep. I was proud of him.

Right beside this painting is a Rembrandt self-portrait. It had many of the same qualities as Minerva, but just with less of the grand scale of that picture. Anthony was interested here in the fact that the painter painted himself.

In the next room was a painting from later in Rembrandt’s life called ‘Portrait of a Seated Woman with her Hands Clapped’. It was an older woman in a black head scarf. She looked old. This was not made pretty. But again, it captured her humanity. The way the paint itself was pasted, in broad strokes, almost like it wasn’t finished, and the cold, stoic look on her face along with the somber mood and dark colors reminded me very much of a Goya painting from his black period. The docent even agreed with me! Goya was heavily influenced by Rembrandt, which I did not know. In my mind I have separated Spanish from Dutch painting, but that was too simple a view.

There were other Rembrandt paintings, all worth the time to sit and contemplate. But with Anthony there I couldn’t sit for 3 hours in that room, it wouldn’t have been fair.

Before we left I did want to show him the one Vermeer on display. ‘Young Woman Seated at a Virginal’ is exactly that , a girl in a yellow tunic, sitting on a chair with her hands on the keyboard in front of her (although you can’t see the actual keys, they’re hidden by a kind of cover, and this confused Anthony a bit). Typical beautiful, delicate, Vermeer. By this point Ant wanted out so I asked what he thought of her yellow tunic, which I particularly thought was beautifully painted, but he just said “yellow isn’t my favorite color”.

We still had time to see the rest of the museum, and to my pleasant surprise, he also wanted to. I showed him the Japanese wood block prints, but it didn’t grab him much. On the first floor there is some modern sculpture that drew his eye. The first piece gravitated to was a giant chunk of rusted metal from an old car with old car lights still attached. He said it looked like a shell, and sure enough that’s what the piece was called! Proud of him for spotting that. Anthony was paying attention.

We then saw a video installation of a close up of a person’s eye crying. He asked me why the person was crying. I said I didn’t know, what do you think? That gave him some thoughts.

The rest of the afternoon was spent at the John D. MacArthur Beach State Park just up the road on the coast. Another gorgeous Florida oceanside state park. Visiting a place like this reminds of why I’d be sad if we ever leave the state. Green trees, soft sand, a beautiful lagoon with cool water flowing through it, the clear light blue water of the ocean contrasting with the white sand. This park had it all.

We ran ahead and grabbed the last kayak rental before closing. Working clockwise we did one complete lap around the lagoon- part of the intracoastal waterway- tugging close to the shore and the mangroves. We didn’t see much wildlife, certainly no manatees, but just floating along the water, with no cars in site, it’s so nice. It’s the water. I just love being on the water. What is it that’s so pleasing?

After out hour long kayak trip, we made our way over the long man-made causeway/bridge that takes you to the other side of the lagoon and the dune separating us from the beach. Lately Ant has shown no interest in swimming in the ocean so instead he just sat down and made some sandcastles while I tipped toed into the water.

Another beautiful day spent with Ant.