My 10 Favorite Paintings from the Dallas Museum of Art
Ten short commentaries on ten beautiful paintings
Introduction
In his book Adorning the Dark, songwriter and author Andrew Peterson speaks of the great importance an artist’s work has for the cause of the Kingdom. Above the dark blanket of tears we call “real life”, artists hang up small orbs of beauty that gift hope to those who are hurting. Petersons says,
“Those of us who write, who sing, who paint, must remember that to a child a song may glow like a nightlight in a scary bedroom. It may be the only thing holding back the monsters. That story may be the only beautiful, true thing that makes it through all the ugliness of a little girl’s world to rest in her secret heart. May we take that seriously. It is our job, it is our ministry, it is the sword we swing in the Kingdom, to remind children that the good guys win, that the stories are true, and that a fool’s hope may be the best kind.”
I love visiting art museums for this reason — you are able to engulf yourself into a world of beauty not often seen or felt beyond the golden frames of a painting. The reflected beauty of a breathtaking art piece reminds us that there is good in this world. This beauty reminds us of that sehnsucht (“inconsolable longing”) we all have for real beauty, for Beauty Himself.
The Dallas Museum of Art is home to several beautiful paintings. The complete descriptions of the paintings in this article can be found hanging next to the actual paintings in the museum. These are ten of my favorites (in no particular order):
The Icebergs, Frederic Edwin Church (1861)
The inviting colors, glowing subterranean light, and glossy tactile surfaces deceive the observer into believing the facade of serenity. Vibrantly colored with cold blues and greens in the shadows of the icebergs, warmed by hues of oranges, pinks, and whites on top of snowy surfaces, this painting actually presents the viewer a scene filled with danger, as the broken mast in the foreground indicates.
Following its successful exhibition in England, the painting was purchased by Sir William Watkin. Rediscovered inside a country house since converted into a boys school, this painting was auctioned, purchased, then donated to Dallas Museum of Art by the Hunts in 2010.
Hermit in the Colosseum, Hubert Robert (1790)
Among the ruins of an ancient Roman Colosseum, a monk prays at an alter to his Lord. Behind him are two young village girls, sneaking into to room to steal flowers placed before a small picture of the Virgin Mary. An older woman discourages their mischievousness, yet their youth makes the young girls deaf to the warnings. The monk, so absorbed by his devotion, takes no notice of the women close behind him.
Hubert Robert painted many variations of this scene. The artist was occupied with the theme of praying hermits and flower thieves for over 30 years. One cannot help but contrast the contemplative repentance of a monk deep in devotion against the youthful sins of careless girls blissful in their ignorance.
The Cottage Door, Thomas Gainsborough (1785)
In the foreground of a beautiful landscape decorated rushing waters and towering trees is a small cabin populated by a mother and her children. The long brush strokes composing the flowing water, the dirt, the branches, and the leaves create a sense of flowing serenity. The clear and detailed human subjects almost feel foreign in such a landscape filled with soft and long strokes of paint.
Gainsborough’s real passion was for landscape painting, but his preferences were at odds with the popular artistic trends of 18th-century England, which favored portrait paintings. This piece represents a compromise, where Gainsborough bridges the gap between landscape and portrait art work by painting a romanticized peasant family within an expansive woodland landscape.
The Fountain of Vaucluse, Thomas Cole (1841)
The castle in the top right of the painting immediately attracts the attention of the observer, its mediaeval architecture dominating the exaggerated cliffsides. What drew Cole to the region of Vaucluse in Southern France was not this castle, however — it was the smaller structure far below it near the river. It is in this small building by the waters that the exiled 14th-century Italian poet Petrarch lived out his final days.
When painting this scene, Cole selectively altered the landscape, overemphasizing the cliffsides and restoring the castle, which, in reality, lays in ruins. Cole visited Vaucluse in 1841, sketched several drafts, then painted the actual work when he returned to Rome. Both this painting and Cole’s preparatory drawings once belonged to a church.
The Bath of Diana, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1855)
The Roman goddess Diana bathes in a river in this scene, accompanied by the nymphs and dogs that were her constant companions. Corot uses a muted palette of greens, grays, and browns to depict the forms of the trees, rocks, and hills. Although the scene of Diana at her bath is often treated as an erotic subject in painting, the nude figures in this scene appear immaterial and even chaste.
This dreamlike and poetic landscape populated by mythological beings (along with Corot’s other works) was greatly admired by his contemporaries, as well as subsequent artists. Artists who admired and were inspired by Corot include Eugene Delacroix, Gustave Courbet, Claude Monet, and Pablo Picasso.
The Indian Paradise, Thomas Moran (1911)
The Green River Valley in Wyoming was a site dear to Thomas Moran’s heart. He painted this scene over forty times after he first encountered it in 1871 on an illustration commission for Scribner’s magazine. This was one of his later pieces, with Moran’s nostalgia informing his decision to blend together fantasy with reality.
The grand mountain range of Toll Rock recalls Moran’s numerous scenes of Venice, and contrasts greatly with the harsh environment of the actual American West. By 1911, when Moran gave this painting its name, native American riders had long vanished with the dominance of Anglo-American culture after Wyoming’s statehood in 1890.
Female Bathers near a Fountain (Nymphs Bathing in a Pool), Jean-Baptiste Pater (1730–1733)
This scene illustrates aristocratic men and women frolicking and flirting in an elegant outdoors setting. This is a significant departure from the fête galante style of his predecessor, Jean-Antoine Watteau. Unlike Watteau’s figural scenes set in an ideal of peaceful sociability, Pater’s bathers bring eroticism to the forefront.
Although reflecting a sexual experience that is inherent to the human experience, this painting departs greatly from Biblical traditions of marriage and sexuality, instead indulging in the “freedom” and “enlightenment” that was characteristic of France during the 18th century. This “enlightened thinking” resulted in many art pieces, such as this one, which are aesthetically pleasing yet sinfully immoral — a temptatious lie wrapped in deceiving beauty. This is, perhaps, a good description of enlightened humanist thinking itself.
Grace Darling and Her Father Rescuing Survivors from the Wreck of the “Forfarshire” on the Farne Islands, Sep. 7th, 1838, Charlies Achille D’Hardiviller (1838)
This dramatic painting illustrates the courageous bravery of Grace Darling, the daughter of a British lighthouse-keeper. Taken straight out of newspaper headlines, this art piece shows Darling and her father on a raft rescuing the survivors of a terrible shipwreck despite the dangerous weather conditions. The turbulent purple clouds and windblown whitecaps are meant to inspire awe and terror in the viewer. This composition centers around Darling as she reaches out to the castaways, one of which is holding her deceased children.
D’Hardiviller emphasizes the emotions, individualism, and power of nature in this painting. This reflects the greater tenants of Romanticism, a literary and artistic movement that flourished in the first half of the 19th century.
Ecce Homo, Giulio Cesare Procaccini (1615)
At the top left of this painting is Pontius Pilate, looking disdainfully indifferent toward the bloodied figure of Jesus Christ, who is being presented to the people of Jerusalem before His crucifixion. This altarpiece was meant to appeal to the viewer’s emotions, inspiring empathy and reverence for Christ’s suffering. His calm accepting expression, lit by golden light, contrasts with the agitation and pain presented in every other corner of this painting.
“Ecce Homo”, Latin for “Behold the Man”, was a popular theme often found in Christian art between the 15th and 17th centuries. This phrase comes from the words of Pontius Pilate to the Jews who demanded the crucifixion of Jesus. The gospel of John says:
So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!”
A Mountain Landscape with an Approaching Storm, Claude-Joseph Vernet (1775)
The drama of this landscape consists of a thundering waterfall, a craggy coast, and approaching of ominous storm clouds. This painting anticipates the emotional intensity characteristic of Romanticism, which reached its height at the first half of the 19th century.
This is one of a pair of landscapes commissioned by the Marquess of Lansdowne for his famous collection at Berkley Square in London. This depiction was meant to find its compliment in a beautiful sunset harbor scene. The two paintings were separated in the 19th century; the pendant to this piece hangs now in a private collection.
Conclusions
The Dallas Museum of Art is home to many more paintings than just these ten works. The museum showcases artwork from beyond Europe and the Americas as well (I am just a little biased toward Western art).
Although fewer things are better than the pleasure of getting lost in art work by observing the paintings in-person, perhaps my reflections (comments) of reflections (photographs) of reflections (paintings) of reflections (the subject — landscape, scene, or figure — of the painting) of beauty (found in its most perfect form in God) can serve to inspire, encourage, and awaken the sehnsucht (“inconsolable longing”) we all have for our real eternal home.
As long as we live, we continue to traverse this difficult and dark world, foreigners in a country far from home. We sojourn in the hope that we will finally find our peace one day — until that day, may the authors write, painters paint, singers sing, and theologians preach.
