Moonlight Coastal Scene, Robert Salmon, 1836

After viewing the “Saint Louis Modern” show, I started to wander around the rest of the museum, just to see what new elements of the collection were now on display. I found this painting and was attracted to it by its nautical theme. While I was viewing it and taking its photo, one of the museum’s guards approached me and asked, “Do you like it?” I assented and she began to regale me with her history with the painting. She first found it downstairs in the decorative arts part of the museum, it was part of a period room display, but it had been so poorly situated that no one could really see it. She had asked an electrician to at least throw a spot on it, but was evidently surprised and pleased with herself to find it now on display in one of the museum’s main halls. She just wanted me to know. I call it an art education.

This painting also serves well for discussion of the Rep’s Christmas show, “Peter the Star Catcher”, which we saw yesterday afternoon. “Star Catcher” is a “Peter Pan” prequel that was co-written by the humorist Dave Barry. Barry offers us part “Pirates of Penances” and part “Pirates of the Caribbean”. It was funny, the jokes were good — no they weren’t, they were bloody awful, but let’s not split rabbits. All of the characters were there by the end of the play, Peter, the lost boys, the mermaids, the Indians, the pirates, the croc, Nana, Smee, Captain Hook and even Tinkerbell, all except Wendy. In her place we have Molly, played by the only female actor in the company. The play is the story of how these characters came to become themselves, in “Peter Pan”.