Princeton museum of art

We saw Rothko to Richter, Mark Making in Abstract Painting, a provocative exhibition of paintings collected by a Princeton alumnus.  Then it was on to the museum's small, but exquisite, permanent collection, including the two Jasper Cropsey panels above.  Cropsey, from Staten Island, was an important landscape painter of the Hudson River School.

Following the scandal of Sargent’s risqué portrait of socialite Madame X he retreated to London, where his notoriety and flamboyant style kept critics and patrons alike at bay.

Henry Marquand invited Sargent back to America to paint his wife’s portrait. Though Sargent named an exorbitant fee, Marquand accepted it.  The portrait turned his fate, establishing Sargent’s bona fides in the conservative cultural milieu of the American gentry,  giving him the freedom to pursue other works.

Trippers relax outside the Princeton Art Museum in perfect weather.