The Everyday Bon Vivant: The Darker Side of Light

Illuminating, dramatic, and actually, a little shocking. If you will be in Chicago between now and June, I highly recommend that you go see The Darker Side of Light: Arts of Privacy, 1850-1900 at the University of Chicago's Smart Museum of Art. Organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, the exhibition explores private, mysterious worlds of late-nineteenth century Paris, London, and Berlin.

Although the art of this period is most often associated with impressionism—art that evoked the pleasures of the landscape and the radiance of Paris—there is another dimension to this period. The Darker Side of Light—a title chosen for its play on "the city of light" and impressionist art, which captured light in its brushstrokes and combinations of colors—focuses on works of art (primarily etchings) that would not have been displayed in the parlor.

Some of the art would have been considered unsuitable (some drug addiction, death, and demons), but mostly the art was meant for private contemplation. This art will make you think of Edgar Allan Poe and his dark romanticism prose. Well known artsists represented in the exhibition include Edvard Munch, Edouard Manet, Mary Cassatt, Edgar Degas, Victor Hugo, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. The exhibition is at the Smart Museum until June 13, 2010. Peter Parshall, Curator of Old Master Prints at the National Gallery of Art will present a free lecture on the prints and private worlds of The Darker Side of Light on April 15 at 5:30 p.m.

Sleep by Eugene Carriere, 1897