sarah in nyc

 Yesterday was Mothers Day. We planned a lovely day with the kids that began with a visit to the Met and the excellent John Singer Sargent exhibit. A truly great exhibit helps the viewer to understand  an artist a bit differently. This exhibit certainly did that for me with an artist whose work I have admired since childhood. I am not going to put my art historian hat here and write an essay about my new insights into John Singer Sargent because that isn't the point of this post, (although if you ask me I will be happy to share my insights). As we left the exhibit we passed by this Degas. I remember visiting the Met soon after my mother in law had died or perhaps she was at the very end of her life. I was struck at just how much the woman in this painting resembled my mother in law. Here she is in 1964, and at our 1986 wedding. It isn't just that my mother in law resembled Degas' model but also the way the model holds her hand to her face. The resemblance is so strong that ...