Blake Gopnik is doing a series of five articles for the Washington Post, focusing in on elements of paintings in the Phillips Collection:
A morning in a special exhibition is a fine thing, but it forces you to spread your affections among too many works. Better to spend that time on one room in a permanent collection. Or on one work. Or, best yet, on a tiny corner of one work.
He begins today by discussing glassware in Renoir's "Luncheon."
(I also quite liked his piece on the Guggenheim's Kandinsky exhibit, which was the only touristy thing we managed in New York. It was lovely.)