Albert Pinkham Ryder, Macbeth and the Witches, after mid-1890s. Oil on canvas, 28 1/4 x 35 3/4 in. Acquired 1940. The Phillips Collection, Washington DC
Who knew you could find so many dark images in our collection to get your spirit ready for Halloween? We’ve got ghost towns, floods, and graveyard times. There are dead trees, three dead birds, witches and spooks! Bonfires, dark rivers, and dark entrances. There is also an artist or two who could be considered a little creepy, an ominous man in the grass and a ghostly portrait.
What are your favorite works of art for sending a chill up your spine?
A little poem to mark the occasion:
The Art of the Ghostly
Witches make bonfires of the dead
trees, let loose creepy little spooks
into ghost towns. Three dead birds
sit for their ominous portrait, dark
as the spirit-ready rivers entering
the graveyards. Oil floods a canvas
of grass. There, the artist finds his
own chilling image at the entrance
to The Phillips’ Halloween Collection.
Thanks, Maureen! We love your ode to Halloween at TPC. There really was great spooky fodder to be had in the collection. Who knew a poem would be the result?
Agree! And Ryder’s “Moonlit Cove,” is pretty scary, too, though not as dark, so maybe there is hope!
Oh and I forgot Soutine’s “Pheasant,” which can be scary too.
Be sure to check out Patti’s post from Thursday, then. It looks just as scary out of the frame.
http://blog.phillipscollection.org/2013/10/31/date-soutine/