visiting connecticut with morgana

morgana and i drove up to connecticut to visit with my sister and brother-in-law. we decided to go to the hartford atheneum, where i hadn't been in many years and which morgana may have visited as a child, but had no memory of it.

 the wadsworth atheneum was named after daniel wadsworth, and was built in 1842 on the site of the wadsworth family home, whose personal collection of art contributed to the museum's first opening. the building also housed the hartford public library and the connecticut historical society, thus the word "athenuem" in its official title. as a public institution, it has hosted theatre and dance performances, and even sponsored the immigration of george balanchine in 1933 (whose first american ballet, serenade, was performed at the museum's avery theatre in 1934).

warren is standing in front of a painting by richard anuszkiewicz, (titled summer sunset reds), whose work i recognized from my visit in july at the whitney with my friend jeanette.

and guess whose work this is! sol lewitt! . . (remember? from mass moca in august.)

warren told us a story of a time when he had dinner here at the museum, in one of its rooms with all the paintings on the walls. he said it was amazing to eat amongst such artwork. i wish i had thought to take a photo of the room in which he ate. maybe next time i go . . !

yayoi kusama's pumpkin, painted bronze made in 2018.

the days, by thomas wilmer dewing (1884)

a turtle plate and bat plate: pottery, made in detroit in, about, 1905.

the lawrence tree, (a ponderosa pine) by georgia o'keeffe, painted when she spent a summer in 1929 at the new mexico home of d. h. lawrence (where she moved to, finally, in 1949).

isamu noguchi's bell child (unglazed seto white stoneware) 1950. it's modeled after the prehistoric tomb figurines haniwa, which i think one also sees in the studio ghibli movies (many of hayao miyazaki's films).

more sol lewitt . .

here we're in a maritime exhibit we particularly wanted to see (sailing on the sound) as it had a painting we all liked by julius leblanc steward, titled on the yacht namouna, venice, 1890.

afterwards, we drove home through wethersfield and stopped for ice cream at a place morgana remembered stopping at in the past.

it was too cold for me to have ice cream . . i had a cup of peppermint tea instead.

it was such a fun time, and we had fun remembering our last visit together (which you can see here).

the first church of christ in wethersfield, which has a beautiful bell choir we saw in 2017.

and this is a very blurry picture of the house that inspired elizabeth george speare's the witch of blackbird pond.

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we came home today after boating on the lake in the morning. it was a beautiful day in the sunshine; morgana kayaked, kathy steered the long board, and warren and i paddled the canoe.