The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit


This large painting greets viewers as they enter the second floor of the American wing at the Boston Museum of Fine Art. It is an important work by a major American artist, who is well represented at this museum. Before I saw it, I heard it described by a guide as a must see and one their personal favorites.

The Boit family were friends of Sargent and in later years the daughters donate this work to the Boston art museum. They also gave the two vases that can be seen flanking the painting and within it. The painting’s unusual arrangement of the girls has led wags to claim that the painting offers a portrait of vases and a still life of the girls. Over time though analysis has transitioned from dismissal of the portrait as portraying nothing more than happy playtime to deeper themes.

One critic supposed that instead of four girls, Sargent portrayed one girl at four different ages. The four daughters were Florence (14 years old), Jane (12), Mary Louisa (8) and Julia (4). Art historians have interpreted the painting as revealing Sargent’s psychosexual thoughts. In the succeeding years, none of the girls would marry, and the two oldest suffered emotional disturbances in maturity. Was it Sargent or someone closer to home, after Epstein don’t we all have to deal with these kinds of fears now?

I like to try to imagine the painting process. Because of the painting’s large size, I imagine that it was created insitu. Moving it would have been difficult. Sargent would come every day and the girls would pose. The perfect combination of tedium and excitement. After each session the four girls would race to see how they looked. I wonder as their appearances developed on canvas how that affected their perception of themselves in real life.

Phat Thaiger

Phat Thaiger

Last night, we all went out to dinner at Phat Thaiger, a popular Thai and Japanese fusion restaurant in Malden, known for its creative “izankaya” ambience (a casual Japanese pub for drinking and sharing small plates). Lots of Anime on lots of screens had the kids mesmerized. The food was excellent. I had a pad Thai dish. The children seemed to enjoy it too. Today we head home. Looking forward to sleeping in my own bed. I’ll post this before we go to the airport, which because of Dave’s daycare schedule will be early. I wonder if I will see ICE at the airport? The orange beast has really f’ed up this country.

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Photo by Sindy Sussengut on Unsplash

Maren returned from California late last night. The boys were surprised to see her in the middle of the night when they independently awoke.

This morning, we had dueling YMCA appointments. David and Anne took Wyatt to swim class at one Y, while Maren and I took Declan to a different Y for gymnastics. Dave got in the pool with Wyatt while Anne watched. Wyatt was still less than enthusiastic about infant swimming. It was better than last week’s waterboarding, but not much. He fussed after first entering the pool and then stoically resigned himself to his fate. It was agreed that he was not having much fun.

Meanwhile, at the gymnastics center Declan was finding it difficult to get with the program. Aiden, his friend from daycare was in class too and there was some rivalry occurring between the two. He did enjoy bouncing on the trampoline and swimming in the pool-of-balls, which were actually not balls at all, but cubes 8″ on a side. I got to observe these proceedings from the second-floor lookout.

With Maren’s return our reason for being here is done. Tomorrow, we fly home. Hopefully. It appears in the news that TSA’s patience with working without pay is getting thin. I expect that tomorrow, when we pass through security, ICE agents will be there. While we never joke at these checkpoints, this time will be especially unfunny. I hope we make it home OK. 

Minions

Minions

It’s Saturday-Saturday! No work for David, at least none that he gets paid for. So, we divided our forces and split the party. Anne and I took Declan to the library. While Dave took Wyatt to the grocery store. This worked out pretty well, except Declan wanted to go to the grocery store too. He also wanted to go to the library but has not learned to replicate himself. Now, that’s a scary thought! On a Saturday morning, its children’s section was doing a pretty good business. We stayed for about two hours, until David called us home. We could have stayed longer, but this boy has a schedule to keep. I’ll leave you with a poem, My Mother Made a Meat Loaf by Jack Prelutsky:

My mother made a meat loaf that provided much distress, she tried her best to serve it, but she met with no success, her sharpest knife was powerless to cut a single slice, and her efforts with a cleaver failed completely to suffice.

She whacked it with a hammer, and she smacked it with a brick, but she couldn’t phase that meat loaf, it remained without a nick, I decided I would help her and assailed it with a drill, but the drill made no impression, though I worked with all my skill.

We chipped at it with chisels, but we didn’t make a dent, it appeared my mother’s meat loaf was much harder than cement, then we set upon the meat loaf with a hatchet and an axe, but that meat loaf stayed unblemished and withstood our fierce attacks.

We borrowed bows and arrows, and we fired at close range, it didn’t make a difference, for that meatloaf didn’t change, we beset it with a blow torch, but we couldn’t find a flaw, and we both were flabbergasted when it broke the power saw.

We hired a hippopotamus to trample it around, but that meat loaf was so mighty that it simply stood its ground, now we manufacture meat loaves by the millions, all year long. they are famous in construction, building houses tall and strong.