|| 31 March 2016

Visting Museums Online

My first iris bloomed for Easter. Now mid-week I have an array of blossoms in view as I sit working at the computer. I love iris, especially purple iris. Van Gogh’s paintings of purple iris have long been favorites. I remember how thrilled I was the first time I saw (in Amsterdam) that Van Gogh painting of the purple iris in the ochre vase.

Today with so many of the world’s best museums putting their collections online in digital format, we can view our favorite paintings without an expensive plane trip and standing in line for museum tickets. And with our monitors showing such high definition digital images, sometimes viewing on screen allows us to better view a painting than if we were in the museum craning our necks to see over the crowd. A search on Goggle Images can take you to almost any painting in which you have an interest.

The link below is to my favorite Van Gogh iris painting now housed in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. The iris appear blue on screen because the red pigment in the original purple oil paint has faded. This is the way the painting looks today. My memory, however, tells me that the irises were still purple (or at least purple-hued) when I viewed the painting in the mid-1960s.

Van Gogh Iris at Van Gogh Museum

image: First purple iris blooming in garden at Provence-sur-la-Prairie spring 2016

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