Rain: Brussels --- Day 15/15

Walk: Short, Rain

Distance/Activity: 1.5 miles, 1 hour Yoga Room

Rene Magritte (Belgian) , Golconda, 1953, oil on canvas

So, if you find yourself confused by exactly what Rene Magritte is communicating in his art, artist mission accomplished.  The Belgian painter was a mystery writer at heart, a devoted follower of the French crime series Fantomas and a prolific writer in genres stretching from poems, film scripts to manifestos. Beyond these real world activities, he believed deeply in mystery itself, at least once saying "Art evokes the mystery without which the world would not exist."

Are the 'raindrop men' in Golconda above rising, falling, just hovering in mid air?  Why are they dressed as the same Belgian businessman complete with bowler hat (one his real life trademarks)?  What is Magritte saying here?

Like everyone, Ciwt doesn't know, but she has some guesses what Magritte may have had in mind. He had remained in Brussels during World War II during the nearly five years it was occupied by the Germans. Daily life was an ongoing surreal experience of his countrypeople going about ordinary business as usual while arrests, executions, checkpoints, credential checks, betrayals were highly unusual menancing and deadly norms  Perhaps he is alluding to these times.  Also, even though a communist in his thinking, maybe was aware of the sameness, lack of individuality of that system.   Also Magritte may have been thinking of Golgonda, an actual ruined city in 14th to 17th centuries India.

Or maybe he didn't have any of these things on his mind.  He was about evoking mystery, not solving it. Like a good mystery writer, he invites his viewers to be a detectives using clear, common images to create puzzles that spark curosity, humor, and imagination without needing any complex art-world knowledge.  Even if you don't 'understand' them, there is humor, fun, wonder on his canvasses, and, like Ciwt, you are invited to find your own meaning.

Rain: Etretat --- Day 15/14

Walk: AMC Kabuki (The Secret Agent)

Distance: 3.25 miles

Claude Monet, Rain, Etretat, 1886, oil on canvas

Perhaps you've seen this rock formation before. It is the Porte d'Aval, a massive, natural arch visible from Etretat and one of Claude Monet's fascinations.  Followers of Monet's work certainly have: he portrayed it in more than sixty works in all weather from tranquil to storms.

The rainy one above begs the question: Did Monet paint it outdoors (en plein air)?  He wasn't the first artist to paint en plein air, but he was the first to immerse himself so thoroughly in that method.  Come snow, rain, wind as well as quieter days, Monet famously rigged up ways to protect his canvas, paints and himself to withstand the elements and stay directly engaged with nature's fleeting effects of light, color, atmosphere.  This personal dedication had revolutionary effects not just in his self-taught development impressionistic brushwork and techniques but because it challenged the studio-bound traditions of academic painting and paved the way for contemporary and future artists to experiment and innovate.

That said, Monet was also a practical man who realized the final touches that a fine artwork required were not possible in blowing wind, rain, shifting light and other obstacles.  After he had captured the essence of those natural elements, he often brought his canvasses back to his studio to complete to his satisfaction.

A note on the particular painting above:  It was the very first of his to be acquired by a public art institution.  Notably, that museum was in Norway because French critics, academics and other dictators

of French taste were still far from accepting Impressionism as a serious and valid art form.  

Rain: London --- Day 15/13

Walk: Hood

Distance: 3 miles

JMW Turner, Rain, Steam and Speed - The Great Western Railway, 1844, oil on canvas

Thirty+ years before Caillebotte painted his 'rain' work (CIWT 15/9,10,11), JMW Turner was also looking at a new landscape in England.  This time a landscape that had brought a massive shift from an agrarian econmy to one dominated by machine manufacturing.  In a word, the upending of the Victorian era by the Industrial Revolution.  And, like Caillebotte, Turner was one of the few artists to find things to embrace in this newness.

He accepts to the point of embracing that technological change is not going away.  In fact, like the train it is racing toward us and the future.  He also equates the immense power of torrential nature with the might of steamy technological power, finding both overwhelmingly thrilling, part of his ongoing fascination with the sublime.

The Great Western Railway he names in his title was an actual railway company and new means of travel, and the location of the painting is widely thought to be the Maidenhead Railway Bridge across the Thames.  But, above these factual references, Turner is communicating the immense and emotionally awesome impression of stunningly intense velocity.  And arguably he is the first artist to capture the sublime in both nature and the new technology advancing on the world..

And Now, 2026 --- Day 15/12

Walk: Small; Rain

Activity: 2.5 miles

Every year the same card and every year Ciwt's favorite sentiment.  Welcome to 2026, dear readers.

Rain: Paris --- Days 15/9,10, 11

Walk: No, Rain

Activity: One hour Yoga Room combination cardio, yoga, pt 

Gustave Caillebotte (Fr. 1848-1894), Paris Street, Rainy Weather, 1877, ca 7' x 10', oil on canvas

The San Francisco weather people are predicting six straight days of cold, blustery rain.  So Ciwt thought it would be a good time to visit some ways artists have depicted rain over the years. She begins with one of several masterpieces by the seminal artist, patron, collector,Gustave Caillebotte without whom there probably would not be a D'Orsay Museum in Paris.*

The main parts of Baron Haussmann's vast renovation of of Paris (1853-187) were only recently completed when Caillebotte Paris Street, Rainy Weather.  The Parisians had been subjected to decades of dislocation, demolition, massive inconvenience and turmoil.  Few beyond Caillebotte were ready to welcome the new visuals, the steep architecture, the wide boulevards, the new parks, the doubling of the city's size.  But it was Caillebotte's way to embrace the new, and in Paris Street, Rainy Day he turned his artistic eye to how the light, weather and season affected the atmosphere and human activities of this new urban landscape.  

The large painting is owned by the Art Institute of Chicago where it has delighted visitors for nearly a century and a half.  This is what how they present the work on their website:

This complex intersection, just minutes away from the Saint-Lazare train station, represents in microcosm the changing urban milieu of late nineteenth-century Paris. Gustave Caillebotte grew up near this district when it was a relatively unsettled hill with narrow, crooked streets. As part of a new city plan designed by Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann, these streets were relaid and their buildings razed during the artist’s lifetime. In this monumental urban view, which measures almost seven by ten feet and is considered the artist’s masterpiece, Caillebotte strikingly captured a vast, stark modernity, complete with life-size figures strolling in the foreground and wearing the latest fashions. The painting’s highly crafted surface, rigorous perspective, and grand scale pleased Parisian audiences accustomed to the academic aesthetic of the official Salon. On the other hand, its asymmetrical composition, unusually cropped forms, rain-washed mood, and candidly contemporary subject stimulated a more radical sensibility. For these reasons, the painting dominated the celebrated Impressionist exhibition of 1877, largely organized by the artist himself. In many ways, Caillebotte’s frozen poetry of the Parisian bourgeoisie prefigures Georges Seurat’s luminous Sunday on La Grande Jatte—1884, painted less than a decade later.

* See CIWT Day 9/84 and Day 13/230

From Seedy to Tweedy --- Days 15/7 & 8

Walks: Hood

Distances: 3.75 average

So Ciwt has been considering what she might watch in this Christmas - New Years stretch.  Marty Supreme is getting excellent reviews for Timothee Chalamet's Oscar worthy performance, its director, cinematography and other perfomers.  But Ciwt is hesitating because she saw Uncut Gems by the same director a few years ago and found it a lot of work to watch.  Adam Sandler was excellent but the movie, with its close up view of a seedy slice of life was difficult for her to take in.  It also moved jittery fast so was agitating to stay with.  And the dialogue was so machine gun rapid, Ciwt strained to hear and keep up with the plot.  Her sense is Marty Supreme has most of these same elements, so she is passing for now. (But will need to get there before Oscar season).

Instead she decided to try an older, English series called Portrait Artist of the Year.  It had been recommended by a friend, and, as much as Ciwt likes to learn about art, she was doubtful.  Probably too ho-hum and twee. Intrigued, she went to Amazon Prime and gave one episode a look-see.  Amazingly, it was very informative and a real nail biter.  So, she's off to episode two.  TaTa...

'Natural' Choice --- Day 15/6

Walk: Hood making post xmas returns

Distance: 4 miles

So, in this winter holiday season Ciwt looks at the winter scenes in so many Christmas cards and remembers her times skiing down mountains in Idaho, sliding down hills on flying saucers, skating on frozen lakes in Minnesota and other exhilerating activities in her youth.  Would she rather still be living closer to nature surrounded by the wonders of winter, coming into warm hearths with friends after cross country skiing in the soft white beauty of new snow?  Absolutely.

Same for paddle tennis, cycling, long country walks and horseback rides in the spring and winter.  And glorious summers playing tennis, water skiing, zooming all over the lake in boats with friends.  

Here in Northern California, we have one season:  luckily it is fall, the one she resonates with most deeply, in all its various moods.  Yet, yes, she misses the changing seasons.  But she thrives in light and winters are often long, frigid and dark, spring is very short and muddy, after June, summer is muggy with dog days on the lake and mosquitos throughout, fall is short with the spectacular autumn leaves only lasting a few weeks.  Plus, and most important, she was lucky enough to have enjoyed all these seasons and their wonders, sports, heartwarming get togethers with nearby family and friends. These are wonderful memories.

But now is no longer the time for sports that might break bones, twist ankles, wrench backs.  And  drives on icy roads or walks on icy paths to various appointments and necessary errands are best avoided.  Friends and family who are still here are scattered.  

It is time now for maintenance, resting, enjoying the life she has put together over decades with as much ease, stimulation, convenience and health as possible.  And San Francisco, city living where she can easily walk, bus or drive to all necessary appointments, daily supplies and extensive parks and trails, cultural activities that challenge and keep her growing, is what suits her now.  The place she chooses to be.  But, yes, parts of her long for country, sports and all four seasons.

Christmas, 2025 --- Days 15/4 & 5

Walks: Hood between storms

Distances: 2.5 miles

Wishing CIWT Readers Peaceful Christmas Hoidays

Claude Monet, Snow Scene at Argenteuil, 1875, oil on canvas