When did painting mature?

[Tom Edgerton]

Or as Sticks McGee, and later Jerry Lee Lewis, requested: "Pass that bottle to me!"

Marvin's summation is well constructed and thorough, and I agree with prit' near all of it. One thing about this thread that's dismayed me, and that I may have unfortunately sparked, is the debate over Bouguereau. I see him for the giant that he is, with a near unassailable technique, even if most of his content does leave me stone cold. Besides, Tim's query was about chronology and not individuals.

That wasn't my point, and in naming WB to try, badly, to articulate what I'm really trying to say, I helped steer this down the "My artist can beat up your artist!" path--a slippery slope even on a good day. Everyone has their favorites, and will passionately defend them as we've seen.

But Carl's imaginary ramble through the museum has given me a way to clarify, maybe. My point is, it's maybe less rather than more helpful to oversell a particular artist, school, or era when trying to point the way to artistic quality or maturity. There's just too much to learn from the whole Long March for this to be very profitable, to my mind.

If Carl's fledgling Young Realist came to me and said "Oh Great Master (hey, it's my movie ain't it?), what should I study?" I'd say "Tour the whole museum, child." (Except for that turn through the 20th Century, though that may also be instructive, at least to identify where things can go cosmically wrong.)

But this is the last from me on this, as I've taken too much space. And again, I'm more interested in what y'all think.

Cheers, and a tip of the glass to you all.--TE