The Wadsworth Atheneum

This is a picture of the Wadsworth Atheneum. I probably would have had a more enjoyable experience if I did not choose to visit on the same day as the Veterans Day Parade in Hartford. In case you were unaware, the main stage for the parade is across the street from this gorgeous building. I had parking issues, crowd issues and the worst part was trying to leave the city after my tour through the museum was over. But all that pain and anguish aside, the Atheneum is a high-class place with gorgeous pieces and wonderful exhibits that are culturally diverse.

The Wadsworth Athenium was finished in 1842 and is America's oldest public art museum. Daniel Wadsworth founded the Atheneum out of his love of the arts and the knowledge that only the wealthy at the time were able to purchase art for their own personal enjoyment. He set out to bring art to the masses which dramatically supplemented the culture of the people of Hartford and surrounding towns. The art museum quickly grew in size and was named the Atheneum in honor of the greek goddess of wisdom, Athena. This cultural center was dedicated to preserving and presenting history, literature and art in all its forms. The original art donors were Wadsworth himself, the wife of Samuel Colt - Elizabeth Hart Jarvis Colt, and J. Pierpont Morgan. It was also the first American museum to acquire works by masters such as Caravaggio, Frederic Church, Salvador Dalí, and many others. Right now, the Atheneum is featuring a Rembrant exhibit. Below is a video I took of the plague that is to the right of the main entrance to the Atheneum detailing the dedication of the building to Wadsworth. I took a picture as well, but it could not capture the upclose detail of the words.

While I was waiting for my two friends to join me, I started my tour in the first gallery behind the front desk. This gallery is full of European paintings that are just amazing. Some are gigantic while others are very small. The one that caught my eye was called The Old Man and Death by Joseph Wright of Derby. I was in the gallery for all of five minutes when I saw this piece and knew that it was the one that I was going to write about. But first, here is some background information of the Wright of Derby.

Joseph Wright was born in Derby in the 18th century. He was the son of an attorney and decided at an early age that he was going to become a painter. He studied under Thomas Hudson, a renowned portraitist in London. Wright became known for his use of chiarascuro and for his paintings of landscapes. The picture to the right is a self-portrait that shows his use of chiarascuro - his face and upper torso are illuminated while the rest of him is fading into the darkness of the background. His title "Wright of Derby" came from the ettique of the time. There was another painter, Richard Wright, and at that time painters were referred to (and if you think about it, are still referred to this day) by their last names. To distinguish himself from Richard Wright, he was given the name "Wright of Derby" and the name stuck with him long after his death.

The Old Man and Death is a painting that incorporates his talent as a landscape artist. It is based from the Aesop Fable in which the old man is tired and in pain and wishes for Death to release

him from his suffering. Death appears, and the old man is so repulsed by Death's visage that he begs Death to leave him alone and go away. The moral of the story is that it is better to suffer, than to die. While the fable is a dark one, this picture is anything but. Sure there are gothic undertones, but does this painting look dark to you? It is a interesting point of the painting that something which has such a dark theme to it, is painted in such a bright color palette. The use of bright colors was mentioned on the information plague next to the painting, but it wasnt the color palette that hooked me and reeled me in. It was the skeleton.

I came around a corner, looking at a vase that was made in Germany but looked like something that came from China when I looked to my left to see a skeleton. What amazed me so was the detail of the skeleton. This painting was made in the 1700s. How was he able to recreate a skeleton in such complete detail? "Did he go to medical school?" I asked myself. Was he another Da Vinci and study cadavers? Turns out, he did not. And I could not find an answer to my question of how he was able to paint that skeleton. Upon closer look, you can see all the small bones in the ankles, feet and hands - not to mention the ribs, shoulder blade and the fuse marks in the skull. I was blown away but this skeleton and the great about it once I got over the initial puzzlement as to how it was made, was the setting that it was in. Here is a skeleton - not grotesque by our modern standards, but to the old man, the most repulsive, terrifying thing he has ever seen. And here was that skeleton in the middle of this picturesque landscape - ruins in the background next to a lake or sea with nice puffy white clouds in an endless blue sky. I took video again to try to get the details upclose - to be honest, I did not want to take too many photographs because I was not sure of the photography policy and there was about six security guards per exhibit.

I have been to the Atheneum before - freshman year of high school I was in a humanities class where we took English and History in a combined manner. While the English midterm was a regular paper exam, our History exam was a trip to the Athenuem where we had to pick a painting and write about it in a historical context. I chose a painting of Napoleon at the time which is no longer at the museum, but I think that trip was the first time I enjoyed going to a museum. I loved going back and thought the experience inside the museum was fantastic. I am sure the outside experience would have been better if I was aware of the goings on in the city. It really was a nightmare.