THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION, Washington, D.C., Part 1: America’s First Museum of Modern Art

Detail from Auguste Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party at the Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC. is not exactly off the beaten path, but many visitors to the capital do not realize the wealth of art that it contains. On our recent trip to Washington we discovered that the museum was just a few blocks from our hotel, so we went for a visit.

Music Room, Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. Note the ornate gold ceiling.

In 1921, Duncan Phillips, and his wife, Marjorie Acker Phillips, a painter, turned the family art collection into a public museum, the Phillips Memorial Gallery, in their home near Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C. The collection soon expanded and the family moved across the street, turning over the entire house to art.

Henri Matisse, "Interior with Egyptian Curtain." The curtain is based on a Middle Eastern textile owned by the artist.

From the beginning the collection focused on “modern” art, acquiring paintings by French Impressionists such as Monet and Renois and Cubists such as Picasso and Braque. Giving equal focus to American and European artists, Phillips juxtaposed works by Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins, Maurice Prendergast, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, and Albert Pinkham Ryder with canvases by Pierre Bonnard, Peter Ilsted and Édouard Vuillard.

Luncheon of the Boating Party by Auguste Renoir

But the painting that makes the museum famous and draws the most visitors is Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party. On our recent visit to the Phillips Collection we happened upon a docent talk in which we learned the identities of all the people depicted in the painting and the history of its acquisition. (The man in the lower right corner is painter Gustave Caillobot, a friend and financial supporter of Renoir.) Phillips paid $125,000 for the painting–a sum far beyond anything that had ever been paid for a painting before. It turned out to be a good investment!

As the collection expanded over the years it became necessary to add a new wing to the museum. Every room is filled with remarkable art. One small room is devoted to four paintings by Mark Rothko, each intense canvas taking up most of each wall. Standing in the middle one feels bathed in color on every side. (It is the one room in the museum where photography is not allowed.)

Migration Series by Jacob Lawrence

Another room contains the 60 paintings of the Jacob Lawrence Immigration Series, depicting the migration of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North.. As one circles the room, it is like reading a book. In another room was a remarkable series of photographs, all taken at night and therefore very dark, but with small glimmers of light. The series traces stops on the Underground Railway as they look today.

The Phillips Collection continues to expand and in two years will be celebrating its 100th anniversary. Visiting the permanent collection is free. Special exhibits require paid tickets. We did not have time to see those.

The museum has a nice small café (where we had lunch) and a very nice gift shop. And when I went to the ground floor to the rest room, I passed an exhibit of children’s art created in a joint project of the museum and the Maryland Department of Education. Art education is so often neglected in today’s schools, so I was pleased to see the museum’s involvement in the local community.

VOTES FOR WOMEN: A PORTRAIT OF PERSISTENCE, Exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.

Photo from the 1913 Women's March at the Capital at the entrance to the Votes for Women exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.

In anticipation of the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution giving women the right to vote, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. has organized a special exhibition tracing the more than 80-year movement for women to obtain the right to vote as part of the larger struggle for equality. It is called Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence. 

Map of states and women's suffrage in 1920. White indicates states with full suffrage, black no suffrage. Some states gave women limited rights to vote. The 14th Amendment gave all women the right to vote in every state.

On my recent trip to Washington, I had a chance to see the exhibit–a wonderful array of photos, videos, paintings, posters, books, pennants and much more. From a 19th century portable ballot box to a Suffragette cookbook, every object in the exhibit has a story. A few of the items that particularly fascinated me are below. But the best way to get a sense of the breadth of the exhibit is at the Google Arts and Culture website with its slide show of selected items. The accompanying book for the exhibit, Votes for Women: A Portrait for Persistence by Kate Clarke Lemay, who also curated the exhibit, is available at the museum shop and online.

Winning poster design by Bertha Margaret Boye for the San Francisco College Equal Suffrage League, 1913. It is on the cover of the exhibition book by Kate Clarke Lemay.

In 1917, women who picketed the White House and refused to pay the fine after being arrested were sent to the Occoquan jail. One of them, Natalie Gray, embroidered her name and those of fellow picketers onto this scrap of fabric as a record of their time there.

Ida B. Wells-Barnett, journalist. In 1913, at the suffrage parade in Washington, D.C., she famously refused to march in the back with the other African American women. Instead, she marched at the front of the Illinois suffrage delegation.

Belva Ann Lockwood. She was the first woman to campaign for the presidency (1884 and 1888). Her platform focused on women's rights issues, particularly suffrage, temperance, and reform for divorce and marriage laws.

In Belva Ann Lockwood's presidential campaign in 1888 she had satin ribbons with a rebus puzzle, picturing her name with images of a bell, the letter "v", a lock, and a log of wood, thereby assisting illiterate voters. Belva, a trained lawyer, testified in Congress helping to achieve the 1872 equal pay bill for government employees. Her efforts also led to legislation enabling married women in the District of Columbia to retain their property rights and the passage of a bill to empower widows to claim full guardianship of their children.

These are just a small sample of the items in this exhibit. Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence will be on exhibit until January 5, 2020. If you are in Washington, D.C., it is well worth a visit.

The National Portrait Gallery is part of the Smithsonian. Admission is free.
National Portrait Gallery:
8th and F Streets NW
Washington, D.C. 20001

MACHU PICCHU: Guest Post by Tom Scheaffer

Machu Picchu, Peru

My brother Tom loves to travel and is a true intrepid tourist. He is currently on a trip to South America, which has included stops in Ecuador, Peru and Paraguay. In Peru he and his friends visited Machu Picchu, the World Heritage ancient Inca site in the Andes. I have never been to Machu Picchu but would love to go some day. Several Intrepid Tourist readers have shared their experiences at Machu Picchu in past articles. I am always impressed that even though the place is the same for everyone, each person's experience is unique, depending on the time of year, the weather, and what they personally bring to the visit. Here are a few of Tom's comments and photos.
 
Today we took the train from Cusco down to Machu Picchu. (The elevation of Cuzco is over 11,000 feet (3399 meters);  the elevation of Machu Picchu is 7,972 feet (2,430 meters) above sea level.)

Taking the train to Machu Picchu

We are staying in a really nice hotel right by the river looking at a beautiful green mountain.

View from the hotel window.

Tomorrow morning we go up to the temple and spend the day hiking around up there.

Machu Picchu, viewed from above. For scale, note the size of the people compared to the ruins.

Machu Picchu was built by the Incas more than 500 years ago. It was part of a large network of settlements throughout the Andes.

A path leads down into the valley below Machu Picchu

Amazingly, no mortar was used for building the walls of Machu Picchu

In 1983, Machu Picchu was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

For more about Machu Picchu, click HERE.

For Owen Floody's report on Machu Picchu (TIT Jan 2, 2017), click HERE.
For Scott Chandler's report on Machu Picchu (TIT Nov 28, 2016), click HERE.

THE SUPERBLOOM CONTINUES: Spring Wildflowers in Gorman, CA

Poppies and Lupins on the hills of the Tejon Pass, Gorman, California

California’s torrential rains this past winter have produced the most spectacular bloom of wildflowers in years. From the deserts of Anza Borrego and Joshua Tree National Park to the Poppy Preserve in the Antelope Valley to people's back yards, flowers are everywhere. (See Gretchen Woelfle’s recent guest post 4/15/2019.)

California poppy (Eschscholzia californica)
It grows wild throughout California, and became the state flower in 1903.

While the giant fields of poppies at lower elevations in Southern California have been replaced by sage and other less colorful vegetation, the hills and valleys at higher elevations are still blooming. At the Tejon Pass through the Tehachapi Mountains near Gorman, the hills look like they’ve been painted with a giant brush–orange for poppies, blue for lupins, yellow for goldfields.

Lupins (Lupinus albifrons)

On Easter weekend, as we headed north on I-5, we took the bypass on the local road through Gorman for a closer look at the flowers. Here are a few of the many flowers we found growing near the road.
The superbloom continues!

Fiddlenecks (Amsinckia menziestii)

California chickoree (Rifinesquia californica)

Bladderpod (Peritoma arborea) also known as Burrofat

Clusters of California poppies sprout like giant bouquets amid the grass.

BIRDS OF ZIMBABWE, Part 2: Guest Post by Karen Minkowski

Red-headed Weaver, seen near Dete, Zimbabwe, Africa

My friend Karen Minkowski is spending several months in Africa and sent me some of her wonderful photos taken on her morning bird walks. Karen and I were on the same memorable trip to East Africa in 1971 that I wrote about in my post on May 16, 2011. Karen has been back to Africa many times since then, both for work and for pleasure. I thank her for sharing her terrific photos and observations of African wildlife with The Intrepid Tourist. Here is the second part of her post on the birds of Zimbabwe.

Early each morning I walked along the road observing and photographing birds. The abundance, diversity and beauty of Zimbabwe's birds were a continual source of enjoyment for me. The beautiful Red-headed Weaver, seen above, builds its nests in smaller colonies than does the Southern Masked Weaver I wrote about in last week's post.

Some of the most intriguing interactions I witnessed were between two different species. Here, a fledgling Jacobin Cuckoo begs for food from its host parent, a Dark Capped (Common) Bulbul.

Cuckoos are brood parasites that lay their eggs in the nests of other species who (for the most part) accept the egg and expend their time and energy rearing the parasites' young, often along with their own. The cuckoos' strategy demands close cooperation between male and female. Together they quietly approach a potential host nest. The male cuckoo starts calling to distract the host. Eventually he perches just above the nest, taunting the host. When the host leaves the nest to attack the intrusive male, the female cuckoo moves in and lays her egg. Then the cuckoo pair flies off, leaving their genetic legacy to the (hopefully) good parenting skills of the host.

Five days later I saw the young cuckoo again with its host parent. It looked to me like the cuckoo had grown and was now using its size and and perhaps aggressive nature to bully the bulbul. The cuckoo would relentlessly thrust its bill at the host parent, until it would finally fly off in search of another meal. At other times the host parent, probably by now exhausted, appeared to resist: a standoff.

Whenever the cuckoo finished eating what the bulbul had brought to it, the bullying began again.

Often I used my photos, like this one of the Red-backed Shrike, to identify a bird with my app once I was back home.

Striped Kingfisher with an insect in its bill. Many kingfishers feed on insects, reptiles, and frogs, even small mammals, either exclusively or more frequently than on fish and other aquatic creatures.

When I photographed this Yellow-billed Hornbill I thought it was eating a flower. Enlarging the image revealed that it was actually a moth. 

The Laughing Dove is distinguished by its blue wings.

The Tropical Boubou's call is lovely, haunting. I only saw it making that sound once, or I would have forever been mystified. When the bird was foraging low in the foliage or on the ground for insects, I could often see that it was uttering a completely different call, hoarser, and more coarse.

By eight a.m., the sun was burning away the cool, fresh morning air and I headed home, eager to rehydrate, look at my new photos, and identify new bird sightings.

 

BIRDS OF ZIMBABWE, Part 1: Guest Post by Karen Minkowski

 Southern Masked Weaver(male) near Dete, Zimbabwe

My friend Karen Minkowski is spending several months in Africa and sent me some of her wonderful photos taken on her morning bird walks. Karen and I were on the same memorable trip to East Africa in 1971 that I wrote about in my post on May 16, 2011. Karen has been back to Africa many times since then, both for work and for pleasure. I thank her for sharing her terrific photos and observations of African wildlife with The Intrepid Tourist.

For six weeks I lived in Dete, a small town of about 3,000 people in western Zimbabwe on the border of Hwange National Park, while I was volunteering for a foundation that works with local communities. A dirt road separated my house from the bush and the nearby national park boundary. Early each morning I walked along the road observing and photographing birds. The abundance, diversity and beauty of Zimbabwe's birds were a continual source of enjoyment for me. Here are some that I managed to capture with my camera.

A female Southern Masked Weaver is inspecting a nest that appears to be undergoing repairs, as suggested by the juxtaposition of old and new grasses. The male builds the nest, and if the female accepts it she'll line the inside with soft plant materials. Like many weaver species, this one also nests in colonies.

The birds chatter away as they prepare their nests. Each bird extracts a single blade of grass from the surrounding bush or gardens and then flies back to the colony to weave it into the nest. Taking a break to feed, small flocks of Southern-masked Weavers gorge on grass seeds or forage for insects.

The Blue Wax Bill's small size and habit of flitting quickly in and out of bushes made it difficult for me to get a photo. I finally resorted to continuous burst shooting in hopes that one of many images might come out in focus and with the bird acceptably posed.

This is the stunning, yet somehow oddly put-together Southern Red Bishop in full breeding regalia. He looks to me as though he'd donned a red head scarf and then casually tossed the end around his neck before showing up at his display site. Perched below him is his rather drab-colored (potential) mate. 

I loved watching birds interacting. Sometimes an encounter lasted just long enough for one bird to land and another, nearby, to fly off, clearly ceding space to the first; at other times a prolonged interchange would occur.

These two African Golden Orioles faced each other while one chirped at the other. Then they would separate, likely foraging for insects, but never more than a couple meters away. Then they came close together again, with more chirping, and again separated. I couldn't tell if they were mates or a parent and offspring. After a few minutes one flew off to another tree, and the bird remaining behind suddenly changed its call from chirping to a lovely warble. Soon it, too, left the tree and both flew out of my sight.

Late one afternoon, I photographed these Arrow-marked Babblers through my open bedroom window as they huddled together and engaged in mutual and self-preening. They forage in small groups of 9-12 and babble as they move through the lower strata of vegetation and on the ground. The babbling probably serves to keep the group together.

Quite a bit of commotion - movement and noisy vocalization - attracted my attention to these two very animated Southern Yellow-billed Hornbills.

Eventually one, I assume a parent, fed its hungry, insistent young. 

Look for Part 2 of BIRDS OF ZIMBABWE next week.