Showing posts with label Korea. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Korea. Show all posts

Monday, March 25, 2024

Art Eyewitness Essay: Chiseled in Soap, Sculptures by Meekyoung Shin at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

 

Chiseled in Soap

 Sculptures by Meekyoung Shin at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Original Photography by Anne Lloyd

Text by Ed Voves

Nothing lasts forever.

In the world of art, the constant danger of loss, damage and destruction is an inescapable fact of life. No group of professionals is more aware of the physical fragility of works of art than art curators and conservators - except artists themselves. Spectacular disasters like the fire which devastated MOMA in 1958 are  - thankfully - rare. Yet, the safety of beloved art treasures can never be taken for granted.

Creative genius and hard work giveth. Time, tide, and misfortune taketh away.

Recently, the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) and a brilliant sculptor, Meekyoung Shin (born,1967), collaborated on an unconventional, multi-figure sculpture which directly addresses the tenuous nature of artistic endeavor. By extension, this visionary work of art confronts the universal fate of all humanity.

"The idea of impermanence," Shin succinctly described the theme of her work, "like people's lives."



Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023)
 Meekyoung Shin’s Eastern Deities Descended,
 photographed on 10/20/23

Entitled Eastern Deities Descended, Shin's sculpture was commissioned by the PMA to complement the recent exhibition, The Shape of Time: Korean Art after 1989. In keeping with the unconventional nature of many of the works of art in the exhibition, Eastern Deities Descended was created using a most unusual material. It was carved from soap - 50,000 bars of Neutrogena soap.



Elizabeth Leitzell, Photo (2023)
 Meekyoung Shin, Artist at Work. 
Courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art

The Shape of Time exhibition provided an interesting and provocative look at the way Korean artists have responded to vast social changes in their nation and the challenge of global influences since the end of the Cold War. 



Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023)
 Gallery view of The Shape of Time exhibition,
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Oct. 20, 2023-Feb. 11, 2024

Meekyoung Shin went a bold step beyond these recent events and contemporary concerns, addressing existential issues basic to life itself.



Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023)
 The Prophet Isaiah from Eastern Deities Descended,
 photographed on 10/20/23

Eastern Deities Descended
was not displayed in the Dorrance Galleries, along with the eclectic mix of other art works in The Shape of Time exhibition. Rather, it was situated outside the building on the Toll Terrace leading to the museum's West Entrance. This site overlooks the spectacular vista of the Schuylkill River where the rowers immortalized by Thomas Eakins practiced their sport in the late 1800's.



Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023)
 Meekyoung Shin’s Eastern Deities Descended
displayed on the Toll Terrace, 12/15/23

Shin's Eastern Deities Descended comprise a three-figure ensemble, based on the design of a never-completed figure group. This was intended to occupy one of the eight pediments of the Greek-revival styled Philadelphia Museum of Art when it was dedicated in 1928. 



Anne Lloyd, Photo (2019)
View of the East Entrance of the Philadelphia Museum of Art

The story of the PMA's unrealized masterpiece is a complex one, which this Art Eyewitness essay will attempt to clarify. Much of the following text may read like an art history article. But the accompanying photos of the open-air installation offer a pictorial meditation on Meekyoung Shin's theme of the impermanence of man-made objects  - and human lives.

With dogged perseverance, my wife, Anne, took these photographs over the course of frequent visits to the PMA during the autumn/winter of 2023-24. 

"There was something about the figures, a sense of nobility that compelled me to photograph them repeatedly," Anne said. "Because the statues were outside, the light was always changing. No matter how many times one photographs the group, they're never the same three figures. There is always something new to capture."



Ed Voves, Photo (2024)
 Anne Lloyd with the Eastern Deities Descended2/12/24

Even as Anne documented the erosion of a physical work of art, her photos revealed the release of psychic and spiritual energies from Eastern Deities Descended as its "life force" slowly ebbed away, or wafted into the air with the scent of Neutrogena. 

Back in 1926, as construction of the Philadelphia Museum of Art neared completion, a model of the three figures in Eastern Deities Descended, along with several others from Asian culture and religion, was approved. 

The sculptural group, Eastern Civilization, was designed by the noted sculptor, John C. Gregory. A photo of the model, which was made at 1/3 scale of the projected statues, was placed at the base of Shin's Eastern Deities Descended. The circled figures show (from left) the Prophet Isaiah, an allegorical representation of India and Xerxes, the Persian King of Kings. 



The portrait statues, along with others representing the Buddha, King Solomon and Scherazade with the Sultan were to be executed in glazed terra cotta ceramics, an "almost" indestructible material resistant to industrial pollutants and harsh weather. When finished, these awesome figures of Asian spirituality and culture would be hoisted-up and positioned on the museum's southwing pediment.

It never happened.

To this day, the triangular space above the temple-like columns, approximately twelve feet at its highest point and seventy feet wide, remains "uninhabited." Destined to be the abode of prophets, goddesses and kings of the ancient Orient, the pediment was bricked-up to preserve the structural integrity of the building.



Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023)
View of the Southwing Pediment, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 
projected site of John Gregory's Eastern Civilization sculptures 

In October 1929, the Wall Street financial crash and the ensuing Great Depression brought a decade of "hard times" to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Donations and endowments to the new museum dwindled and funding was found for only one of the eight pediment sculpture groups, on the northwing pediment. A brilliant rendering of Zeus and other figures from Greek mythology, these pediment statues were designed by Carl Paul Jennewein and installed in 1932-33. 



Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023)
View of the East Courtyard of the Philadelphia Museum of Art
and Northwing Pediment sculptures by Carl Jennewein

A look across the PMA's grand courtyard to the northwing pediment and a closer inspection of Zeus, Hera, Aphrodite and the ten other Olympians brings a twinge of "what might-have-been" for their Asian counterparts. 



Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023)
Close-up view of Carl Jennewein's Western Civilization Pediment

Actually, the more one studies the backstory of Jennewein's Greek gods and heroes, the more understandable is the failure to repeat the success by completing and installing Gregory's Eastern Civilization statues. From conception to completion, Jennewein's statues took five years. Special kilns had to be built at the Perth Amboy, NJ, factory which cast the colossal terra cotta figures. Lastly, an arduous, ten-week campaign, November 1932 to January 1933, was needed to raise and install Zeus and his minions to the northwing pediment.

November 1932 to January 1933 was the darkest period of the Great Depression. The song of the hour was "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" Nobody had a dime for terra cotta statues of Asian prophets and heroes.

It is no wonder then, that the current curators of the Philadelphia Museum chose Meekyoung Shin, an artist who specializes in sculpting with soap, when they decided to revisit the ill-fated Eastern Civilizations project of the 1920's-1930's.



Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023)
 Meekyoung Shin’s Eastern Deities Descended, 12/15/23

It was a wise decision, as well, to to stay with the 1/3 scale dimensions of Gregory's model rather than go "big." 



Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023)
Allegorical Figure of India, 12/15/23

Jennewein's Zeus measures twelve feet high and weighs approximately one ton. The allegorical figure of India, occupying the equivalent center position in Gregory's design, would have had similar dimensions. The number of bars of soap needed to create such a towering goddess does not bear thinking about!

What does deserve serious reflection is the brilliant use by Meekyoung Shin of a prosaic, limited-lifespan substance - soap - to create images which address cosmic issues on a down-to-earth level. 

The serene, terra cotta Greek gods remain aloft in the "Olympus" created by Carl Jennewein. By contrast, Shin has incarnated John Gregory's Asian holy men and women in soap. Thus embodied, they are able to mingle with us, mortal men and women, and to live, to age, to pass away as we do. 




Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023)
 The Prophet Isaiah, photographed 10/20/23 (top) & 12/04/23

In a remarkable process of visible decay, the bodies of these Eastern sages started to disintegrate, drip-by-drip of melting soap. And as they did, the light of transcendence began to pour through.
   


Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023)
Weather-erosion of the Shield of Xerxes, 12/04/23

What really impressed Anne and me about Eastern Deities Descended was its ability to channel sun light and project shadow. In dazzling visual displays, light streamed through the faces, hands and arms of the "deities", through the folds of garments, the scroll of sacred scripture carried by Isaiah and Xerxes' shield.

 Humble soap was made to glow, transformed to glisten like precious amber or molten gold. In the pure, sparkling light of our December 15, 2023 visit, Anne's most successful photo session, the features of Isaiah, India and Xerxes projected a celestial radiance.

Luminous had changed to numinous light.





Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023)
The Prophet Isaiah (top), India and Xerxes, 12/15/23

There is, of course, a scientific explanation for all of this, based on optics - the power of light penetrating substances of varying degrees of solidity, etc. People of a religious frame of mind, however, are alive to symbolism in art and nature. The ancient prophets and magi portrayed by Gregory and Shin certainly took manifestations of light seriously.

During our repeated visits to photograph Eastern Deities Descended, a number of uncanny light effects seemed to confirm that something magical, ineffable, call it what you will, was taking place.

On our December 4th visit, an overcast day generally unfavorable for photography, a single ray of light suddenly illuminated Isaiah, enhancing his status as one of the Bible's great prophets. Ten minutes later, the clouds parted just enough, for Xerxes' eye to cast an imperious glance our way.




Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024)
 Meekyoung Shin's Eastern Deities Descended, 12/04/23

On a later visit, February 5th, 2024, the "skies opened" again. Another beam alighted, this time on the plaque giving details of the sculpture group and its historical background. We could not have planned this photo "op" if we tried.




Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024)
 Views of the Eastern Deities Descended2/05/24

Then, we were brought down to earth. The Prophet Isaiah's mighty staff was missing.  And his hand along with it.



Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024)
 The Prophet Isaiah, Eastern Deities Descended2/05/24

January had been a cold month in Philly with several snow storms, causing us to postpone regular visits to the museum. During our absence, the freezing weather had shown the Eastern Deities to be mortal after all.



Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024)
 View of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, West Entrance,
 and the Eastern Deities Descended2/12/24

We paid our final visit to Eastern Deities Descended on February 12th, another gloomy day. The Shape of Time exhibition had closed the day before. We hoped that the PMA would keep the Eastern Deities on view a while longer. This was a site-specific exhibition and the statues, despite the loss of Isaiah's staff were holding their own, amazingly well, against the weather and the vicissitudes of life.

As we left the museum on the afternoon of February 12th, Anne took a long-range picture of the Eastern Deities. We hoped it would not be Anne's last photo of them.

It was.



Anne Lloyd, Photo (2024)
 The Toll Terrace, Philadelphia Museum of Art, March 2024

The removal of Eastern Deities Descended has left an empty, almost desolate, space on the PMA's Toll Terrace. There is an unsettling sense of loss in our feelings about the fate of Eastern Deities Descended

Anne and I came to regard the three statues as powerful statements of art and life. We even took to calling them the "soap people." These Eastern Deities made quite an impact on our lives.

One thing is certain. Meekyoung Shin's message of the impermanence of life has been powerfully confirmed. Yet, the "here yesterday, gone today" departure of Eastern Deities Descended feels like a life has been terminated before its time. All we are left with is our memories. 



Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023)
 Meekyoung Shin’s Eastern Deities Descended,
 photographed on 12/15/23

Perhaps, that is the ultimate lesson here, a blunt manifestation of the reality of impermanence. Life is short and art is long, but even art is not forever.

*** 

Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved.

Original photography, copyright of Anne Lloyd, all rights reserved. Unless otherwise noted, all photos are by Anne Lloyd.

Introductory Image: Anne Lloyd, Photo (2023) Statue of the Persian King, Xerxes, one of three figures in Meekyoung Shin's Eastern Deities Descended, 2023.



Saturday, April 5, 2014

Treasures from Korea at the Philadelphia Museum of Art



Treasures from Korea: Arts and Culture of the Joseon Dynasty, 1392–1910
With Reflections on Landscape Painting, East and West

Reviewed by Ed Voves

The inspiring exhibition currently at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Treasures from Korea: Arts and Culture of the Joseon Dynasty, 1392–1910, presents works of art from the golden age of a country which sadly has known more of war than peace.
 

During the eighteenth and most of the nineteenth centuries, Korea experienced prosperity and stability rare in its history. The wondrous paintings, ceramics, fabric art and rare books on display in the exhibition are a testament to what the Korean people, ruled by the Joseon Dynasty, were able to achieve when not threatened by foreign invasion or civil war.

Joseon means "Fresh Dawn." But this new beginning for Korea took a long time in coming. The Joseon Dynasty fought nomad attacks from Mongolia early in its history, survived palace coups and defeated a massive invasion by the Japanese warlord, Hideyoshi, during the 1590's. Almost all of the works of art on display date from the 1700's and 1800's.

Treasures from Korea: Arts and Culture of the Joseon Dynasty, 1392–1910, will continue at the Philadelphia Museum of Art until the end of May and then travel to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. As a result, a wide audience in the United States will have an opportunity to study the culture of this long-lived Korean dynasty.

The experience of seeing several spectacular landscape screens in the Treasures from Korea exhibit made an especially powerful impression on me. Studying these magnificent evocations of nature revived my interest in the question of how the very different traditions of landscape painting, Asian and European, eventually reached a point of parallel insight, if not outright synthesis.

These Korean landscape screens are monumental in size and astonishing in the artistic skill and verve needed to create them. The late eighteenth century screen, Ten Longevity Symbols, and Sun, Moon, and Five Peaks, an eight-fold screen created during the 1800's, are very colorful. This use of color was a departure from the more muted tones of earlier landscapes, no doubt reflecting the indirect influence of European art via China.

 


Sun, Moon, and Five Peaks, 19th century

Both Ten Longevity Symbols and Sun, Moon, and Five Peaks are idealized landscapes rather than naturalistic representations of actual topography. This is in keeping with the cultural ideals of Imperial China, dating back to the Tang Dynasty (618-906), which profoundly influenced Korea. Humans, when they appear in Chinese and Korean art, are often depicted as miniature, insignificant beings, dwarfed by the vast scale of nature.

These screen paintings also represent the two paramount ideals of the Joseon Dynasty: the harmony of a well-ordered society based on the teachings of Confucius and the spirit-restoring effects of country living. For the ruling elite of Korea, known as yangban, the natural world represented a refuge from the stress and uncertainties of the political world.


Portrait of Yi Jae (1680-1746)

These scholar-statesmen of the Joseon Dynasty are depicted in several works in the exhibit, particularly Portrait of Yi Jae (1680-1746). This hanging scroll, created with ink and colors on silk, dates to the same period as Ten Longevity Symbols. Yi Jae compiled the essence of the teachings of Confucius into a ready-reference work for public administrators entitled the Easy Manual of the Four Rites.

The Joseon Dynasty took power in 1392 after a long series of civil wars. The Joseon rulers abolished Buddhism as the state religion in order to impose systematic codes of behavior based on Confucianism. Yangban bureaucrats like Yi Jae greatly benefited by the invention of a phonetic Korean alphabet known as hangul by King Sejong, who reigned from 1418–50. For the first time, Korean scholars did not have to depend on Chinese script and could communicate their Confucian laws directly to their people.

Buddhism and the spiritual teachings of Daoism were not expunged from Korean society, however. These religious beliefs and their adherents retreated to the countryside, especially to mountain shrines and temples. In Korea, the countryside, remote from the temptations and dangers of power, was the realm of the spirit.

In Ten Longevity Symbols, you can see how the unknown artist "squared the circle," rendering a landscape that was politically acceptable to the yangban, while extolling spiritual values that could be embraced by all.


Ten Longevity Symbols, 18th century.

Each animal, each tree, the waterfalls and the mountain peaks, even the mushrooms, occupy their proper sphere and represent a unique value in Ten Longevity Symbols. Turtles and evergreen trees symbolize long life; the deer are gentle animals living in harmony. A particularly charming touch is the presence of the white cranes. In Daoist teachings, cranes featured as messengers from Heaven, while in Confucianism they represented the dignity and constancy of scholars. This was a symbol sure to please yangban administrators like Yi Jae.

There were in fact many more symbolical elements in Korean landscape painting, to the degree that almost every animal and plant represented an important spiritual value.

Bamboo branches, which appear as a motif on an exquisite white porcelain vase from the sixteenth century, Korea's National Treasure No. 166, symbolized strength, endurance and adaptability. Bamboo trees bend but do not break even in gale force winds. Such "grace under pressure" earned bamboo trees the nickname of "gentlemen" in Korea, for this was what was expected of the yangban elite. The greatest of Korea's heroes, Admiral Yi Sun-Sin, who defeated the Japanese Samurai during the 1590's war, embodied these traits to perfection.

Peach trees and their succulent fruit likewise symbolized a key facet in Korea's spiritual values: immortality. This belief reached back to the beginnings of Daoism in China, where there was supposedly a mystical peach orchard in the western mountains. Transmitted to Korea, this mythological realm came to figure in one of the greatest of all Korean works of art, the fifteenth century landscape known as Mongyu-dowon-do or Painting of a Journey in a Dream to the Peach Orchard.

Mongyu-dowon-do is not on display in the Treasures from Korea exhibit. But don't blame the curators of the exhibition for this omission. Now in the collection of a Japanese university, the fate of Mongyu-dowon-do reflects the tortured past of Korea.


Dream Journey to the Peach Blossom Land by An Gyeon

Mongyu-dowon-do was painted in 1447 by the gifted artist, An Gyeon, for Prince Anpyeong, (1418-1453), the son of King Sejong, inventor of the Korean alphabet. Prince Anpyeong was a noted scholar of Chinese literature. The painting underlines both China's continuing influence on Korea and the cultural breakthroughs which took place under the Joseon Dynasty.

According to the historical narratives of the period, Prince Anpyeong dreamed of a journey deep into rugged hill country where he eventually discovered a beautiful peach orchard surrounded by mountainous terrain. The peach orchard symbolized refuge from the political infighting at the Joseon court, for Prince Anpyeong was engaged in a struggle for dominance with his brother, Prince Suyang, for control of the throne as King Sejong neared death. The peach trees also represent the survival of Daoism. Daoist spiritual teachings traced their roots back to ancient shamanic beliefs, in a land now ruled according to Confucian secularism.

Prince Anpyeong's vision of a Utopia was never realized - at least not in his abbreviated lifetime. Prince Suyang launched a well-planned coup, executing Anpyeong and numerous other family members, court officials and scholars. The painting by An Gyeon disappeared, later surfacing in Japan. It is believed to have been taken from Korea as part of the war loot seized by Hideyoshi's army in 1592.

If Prince Anpyeong's dream was "a dream deferred," it came close to realization during the eighteenth century. Events like Suyang's bloody purge and Hideyoshi's invasion receded into memory. Landscapes such as Ten Longevity Symbols represented the world that men like Yi Jae wanted to believe was possible - and worked diligently to achieve.

Another amazing screen painting, Scholar’s Accoutrements, is a virtual catalog of the implements of power which the Korean elite used to preserve the traditional culture of their nation. This ten-fold screen was painted in the nineteenth century, just at the moment when the outside world was beginning to intrude into the "golden age" of Joseon Korea.


Scholar’s Accoutrements, 19th century.

These amazing painted screens on display in Treasures from Korea are fascinating and important in their own right. However, there is a wider significance to these works which can only be briefly sketched here.

The Korean view of nature, reflecting the cosmology of East Asia, was very different from what developed in Europe during the 1400s through 1700's. Landscape painting in the West, with only rare exceptions, served as a backdrop to the religious or mythological narratives of European painting from the Renaissance to the era of the French Revolution.

By the end of the nineteenth century, however, the landscape traditions of East and West reflected a meeting of minds. Impressionist painters like Claude Monet often reduced the scale of humans and animals in their paintings in proportion to the expanse of the landscape. Was this the result of Asian influences transforming the European conception of nature?

Chinese art certainly made an impact on Europe during the 1700's. Later, the craze for
Japanese woodblock prints in France helped shape the revolutionary impact of Impressionism. But the momentous shift in the way that the West has come to perceive the natural world occurred independently from what had transpired in China and Korea.


Take a look at the 1818 masterpiece by J.M.W. Turner, Raby Castle, the Seat of the Earl of Darlington, now in the collection of the Walters Museum in Baltimore. Turner painted the country estate of the fox-hunting Lord Darlington very much in the scale and the spirit of the landscapes of China and Korea. Yet, Turner created this breathtaking view of the English countryside decades before landscapes from these Asian countries became widely known in the West.



J.M.W. Turner, Raby Castle, the Seat of the Earl of Darlington

Turner's Raby Castle is a dreamscape like Ten Longevity Symbols. Lord Darlington was as determined to preserve "his" lands as a refuge from the outside world, as were the Korean yangban elite. The very year that Turner exhibited this great work, Lord Darlington used his political clout to prevent a railroad being constructed through his estates that might disturb his fox hunting.

The route of the railroad was diverted so that Lord Darlington could continue his pursuit of England's foxes. On September 27, 1825, the re-configured Stockton and Darlington Railway, the world's first public railway using steam locomotives, was inaugurated.

Turner's Raby Castle evokes a key date in the Industrial Revolution. It shows the natural world as English aristocrats wanted it to remain, at the moment just before it would be transformed forever. So too, An Gyeon's Painting of a Journey in a Dream to the Peach Orchard, shows the idealized world view of Prince Anpyeong shortly before he was murdered by his brother in one of Korea's savage civil wars.

Great works of art cannot stop the march of time. But these Korean landscape masterpieces and Western counterparts like Turner's Raby Castle share a kindred view of the sacredness of the earth. Moreover, these great works have helped shaped an appreciation for Planet Earth as a refuge for all humankind - not just yangban bureaucrats or fox-hunting English "milords."

When we look at Ten Longevity Symbols and Raby Castle, the Seat of the Earl of Darlington, we are witnessing early steps in the "journey in a dream" to the greatest landscape of all time, Earthrise, photographed by the Apollo 8 astronaut, Bill Anders, on December 24, 1968.

William Anders, Earthrise-Apollo 8-Dec. 24, 1968

These Treasures from Korea are treasures indeed - for all humanity, talismans of our dream of Earth.

March 2 - May 26, 2014 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

June 29 - September 28, 2014 - Los Angeles County Museum of Art

November 2, 2014 - January 11, 2015 - Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

*** 


Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved

Images from Treasures from Korea Exhibit Courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Introductory Image:

Jar with Design of Bamboo and Plum Trees, 16th to 17th century. Porcelain with underglaze iron decoration, 15 3/4 x 14 15/16 inches (40 x 37.9 cm). National Museum of Korea, Seoul. National Treasure No. 166.

Sun, Moon, and Five Peaks, Artist/maker unknown, Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), 19th century, Eight-fold screen; colors on paper, 82 11/16 × 217 7/16 inches (210 × 552.3 cm), Private Collection

Portrait of Yi Jae (1680-1746), Artist/maker unknown, Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), Late 18th century, Hanging scroll; ink and colors on silk, 38 1/2 × 22 3/16 inches (97.8 × 56.3 cm), National Museum of Korea, Seoul.

Ten Longevity Symbols, 18th century. Ten-fold screen; colors on paper, 98 7/16 × 231 1/8 inches (250 × 587 cm). Private Collection. PMA Only.
                                                          
Scholar’s Accoutrements, 19th century. Ten-fold screen colors on silk, 78 1/4 x 154 3/4 x 4 3/4 inches (198.8 x 393 x 12 cm), each panel: 77 15/16 x 15 1/2 inches (198 x 39.3 cm). National Museum of Korea, Seoul. PMA Only.

 
Additional Images from Wikipedia Commons - Public Domain.                                          

Courtesy of Tenri University, Nara, Japan; Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD; NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), Washington D.C.

Dream Journey to the Peach Blossom Land, slight colours on silk by An Gyeon, 1447; in the Tenri Central Library, Tenri University, Nara, Japan. 38.7 cm × 106.5 cm.

J.M.W. Turner, Raby Castle, the Seat of the Earl of Darlington, oil on canvas, 1817, Accession Number 37.41, 46 7/8 x W: 71 1/8 in. (119 x 180.6 cm). Walters Art Museum, Baltimore MD.

William Anders, Earthrise-Apollo 8-Dec. 24, 1968. Photo ID: 68-HC-870. Image Credit: NASA