…and his latest mystery. Or maybe more accurately, a little more on Babette’s story of her great-great-great-great-gasp-great-great grandmama. There will be an art history quiz at the end.
For those of you who have missed the first 4 episodes, you can see Episode 1: here, Episode 2: here, and Episode 3: here. And just because I’m that kind of bear, I am reposting episode four, along with today’s episode:
Episode four of The case of the Picturesque Panda…
And now, for today’s episode….
Let’s see who stayed awake during art history classes!
I told you there would be a quiz, didn’t I? The first 5 people to CORRECTLY identify all five of the painting references (by artist, extra credit for titles) will receive a small envelope full of panda swag. You can leave your answers in the comments. I will contact the winners for their addresses. (US addresses only, sorry, Vicky, but you should be getting a whole BOX of panda swag any day now!)
And I would be remiss, if I did not mention that yesterday was Canada Day, better known around here as Panada Day! Thanks again to Liam Francis Walsh who suggested this drawing:
Oh Panada, Oh Panada, how tasty are your maple leaves….
And would someone please tell the morons who are setting off fireworks NOW, that the 4th of July is FRIDAY?????
Sigh…being the bear….
Bob T. Panda
This Canadian appreciates your Panda Day photo!
I’m so glad! Hope your Canadian pandas enjoyed their first Canada day!
OK – here goes…L-R, top to bottom:
1. Madame Moitessier (Madame Mon Amour) by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres; 2. Star Dancer by Edgar Degas; 3. Afternoon Tea by Bittinger; 4. Woman With a Parasol by Monet; 5. Whistler’s Mother by James Whistler….
Am I close?
Alas, you only got three out of four correct. I won’t tell you which ones right now, till the rest of the folks have a chance to try their luck. (I mean, it wouldn’t be fair if I gave them the answers, would it?) Thanks for taking the quiz. (obviously you did not sleep through art history like “some” people did.)
Um…there are 5… I didn’t sleep through math!! 🙂
OOps. Did I mention I suck at math?
I think it’s a right/left brain thing…!!! So does “close” count when it comes to Panda swag? Hm…??
Maybe…we’ll see how many entries there are. Maybe the five “most right” answers will prevail. stay tuned.
I shall! (Much better to stay tuned than “B” flat…!)
Woman w/Parasol – Monet
Arrangement in B & W – Whistler
Madam X – John Singer Sargent
Prima Ballerina – Degas
The cup of Tea – Mary Cassatt
Huzzah! you are correct! The Mary Cassatt painting resides in your fair city of Boston, but as far as I know, they only exhibit the one with people in it.
Madame X by John Sanger Sargent; La Promenade by Claude Monet, Whistler’s Mother by James Whistler; Cup of Tea by Mary Cassett; Star Dancer by Edgar Degas
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Huzzah! you are a winner!
It’s not La Promenade by Monet, its woman with a parasol.
Yes, indeed!
Monet painted more than one woman with a parasol, all very similar, and I seem to recall that one is indeed called The Promenade. (Anne can confirm or deny. 🙂 ) A boy is present in at least one parasol painting, but not in all.
Yes, he did. I was just going for “iconic Monet woman with parasol” :o)
I know 4 of them, but the woman in Bittinger’s Afternoon Tea isn’t wearing a hat and coat, so I don’t know what your version represents. It looks familiar…
Actually, I can’t remember if the woman in the original painting is wearing a hat either, since I didn’t um…look it up again. I can give the hint that the actual painting resides in the Museum of Fine Art in Boston. I got to see this painting last year on my museum extravaganza last fall.
I only know the last one- Whistler’s Mother. Or should it now be called Whistler’s Panda?
I’m probably not giving anything away to confirm that this painting is indeed Whistler’s Mother’s Panda (Otherwise known as “Arrangement in Black, White, and gray”)
By the way, you are going to be making a return guest appearance in tomorrow’s Fabulous Furry Friday Encore Presentation. (My diatribe on the bombastic nature of the 4th of July as celebrated out here in the provinces (Hey! let’s set off fireworks and burn down the island!))
You realize, don’t you, just how many impressionist paintings were done of women drinking tea at tables? One might get the (cough) impression that ladies back then did little else. So I think this is a trick question. 🙂
No, it’s actually not a trick question, or at least it wasn’t meant to be. I’ll reveal the answer tomorrow. I had a very specific painting in mind, although I was too lazy to look it up in my books to represent it accurately, so I suppose in that respect, it was a trick question.
All will be revealed tomorrow.
That striped chair! I knew I’d seen it before. Mary Cassett’s Cup of Tea. I took my one and only art history class in Boston many many years ago. Not sure I knew it from back then, but I visited that museum twice in the last two years and must have been paying attention… maybe.
I also recognize John Singer Sargent’s Madame X from Minette’s exotic pose!
That is one of my favorite Cassatt paintings, and I too, have gotten to visit it recently in Boston.
Could Minette be the breathtakingly beautiful Babette de Panda’s mother or grandmother? Might the mysterious, ethereally celestial fairy-winged creature and multi-talented Bee the Bear be some sort of descendant of Minette?
As for the art stuff. I studied Art History abroad in England, like a hundred years ago. I used my spare time at university wisely my first go-around. I joined a sorority and considered myself a femme fatale. So sorry to fail you Bob T. Panda. The second time around I conquered the campus.
Actually, Minette is Babette’s grea-great-great-great-great-gasp-great grandmother, or so she SAYS, and yes, it is very possible that Bee (the bear) is also a descendent of Minette.
I’m so sorry you spent your university Art History career vamping around to pubs (hey! why didn’t I try that? I merely slept through all the lectures, the dark room, the hum of the projector, the stupefying voice of the professor…who wouldn’t fall asleep?) How wonderful to be in jolly England, anyway.
A note to all of you who actually answered the questions, I will reveal the answers in tomorrow’s post, as well as reveal the winners.
1. Portrait of Madame X by John Singer Sargent; 2. Edgar Degas; 3. Cassat (probably not – I know I have seen this but can’t find it) 4. Woman With a Parasol by Monet; 5. Whistler’s Mother by James Whistler….
Yes, #3 was Cassatt, so you are a winner! Huzzah!!!! BTW, the Mary Cassatt painting lives at the Mueum of fine Arts in Boston, one of my favorite museums, especially for their large permanent collection of Sargent paintings. (Hmmm, I wonder if there was a group of toddler pandas available for him to paint a panda-esque version of “The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit?”) I shall put my team of art historical researchers on this question.
Huzzah indeed!!! Thanks to help from DoxieMom 😉
Yay, Doxiedad. I never said that contestants couldn’t get help. Any help, whether by person or Google was OK. It’s fun to get people thinking about art. (part of my subversive plan, don’t ‘cha know?)
That’s okay, I don’t think I would have had much of a chance anyway. My guess for number 4 was going to be Mary Poppins 🙂
Ha ha! No, it wasn’t Mary Poppins, but that was an excellent guess. Perhaps in a futire episode, Babette will star in a re-creation of Mary Poppins. Good casting, don’t you think?
1. John Sargent Singer–Portrait of Madame X
2. Degas–L’etoile (Looks like Princess Pinky when she’s doing her ballet :))
3. Jean Baptiste Chardin–The Tea drinker; or maybe it’s Mary Cassatt (the striped chair reminds me of a Cassatt painting.)
4. Monet–Madame Monet and her Son-Woman with a Parasol
5. John Whistler–Whistler’s Mother
Actually, Whistler’s first name is “James”, but we will not disqualify you on that little technicality. congratulations for getting all correct!
Yes! Bob T. could wish for a nanny to help him with the Panda Kindergarten – voila! – Babette arrives.
Imagine the songs you could write:
“A Spoonful of Sugar Makes the Cuppycakes Rise”
“Supercuppycakesdeliciousextrapandadoses!”
“Feed The Pandas (Tuppence a Cuppycake)”
I could go on – but I won’t 🙂
Excellent thoughts. I shall put it in the “future pandas” file.
Do you mean the Mary Cassatt painting? There are two women in it, which is why it didn’t occur to me. One of them is indeed wearing a hat, and the other one is in the same posture as Minette.
There’s also an over abundance of impressionist paintings by Monet and Renoir of women with parasols, but there’s only one Madame X (I was awestruck by the Sargent exhibit at the National Gallery), only one Star Dancer, only one Whistler’s Mother.
Yes, it is indeed the Mary Cassatt painting, and I thought maybe there were two women in the painting, but of course, poor Ms Cassatt only had one panda to model for this painting, so this is a different version. I guess that makes this a trick question.
Lucky you to have seen the Sargent exhibit at the National Gallery. I believe Madame X normally resides at The Metropolitan Museum in NYC, where I got to see her on my museum binge last fall.
The panda in the tutu…..is it only me who sees a cultural reference not to Degas’ ‘ballerina’ ….but to Fantasia ….and the dancing hippos?
Ha ha! I hadn’t actually thought of that. But since Walt Disney was not around in late 18th century paris, I’m afraid that answer is incorrect. Excellent idea, though.
Anne, did you know that the National Gallery currently has a Cassatt/Degas exhibit? It includes of 70 works that demonstrate not only his influence on her but her influence on him. Come back to DC before October and you can see it for yourself. And you can see the princess again too, of course.
Aw, wish I could come back before October, but I did get to see the show on my trip there last May. It was,, indeed, most excellent.
I thought Minette was holding a dog in the parasol picture. 🙂
I can’t recall. (that must have been “one” of the lectures I …um…slept through.
No, no, I meant I thought at first glance that Minette in your drawing was holding a dog, and I kept trying to think of a Monet parasol painting with the woman holding a dog. No reflection on your drawing, just an example of the crazy way my mind works (and perhaps my poor eyesight!).
I think it was the ruffle on her sleeve. :o)
You cleverly combined the hat of one woman in Cassatt’s painting and the posture of the other. So some part of your brain was indeed remembering all the details of the original.
Well, I think the woman sitting in that pose had her hair pulled back, and Minette didn’t want to wear a wig.