Do April Showers Really Bring May flowers?

[00:00:00] Karena Ingram, host: Welcome to Free Admissions, the Walters Art Museum podcast where we bring art and people of every background together to inspire creativity, curiosity, and connection. I’m your host Karena Ingram, and in this episode, 19th-century art is in full bloom as we embrace the stormy April showers that bring May’s beautiful flowers.

It’s only fitting, with our favorite annual neighborhood event, Mount Vernon Place Flower Mart, just around the corner. We’ll speak with photographer and performer Chris Jay about the calm beyond the storm while gazing at the painting Clearing Up—Coast of Sicily by Andreas Achenbach. Then we’ll burst into full bloom with a close look at Monet’s famous work Springtime with curator Jo Briggs.

Lastly, we’re giving flowers to the phenomenal docents of the Walters Art Museum. No tickets needed. Free Admissions starts now.

I had the pleasure of attending my first Queering the Collection back in June of 2023, led by photographer and performer Chris Jay. Queering the Collection is an in-gallery program at the Walters that invites artists, scholars, and visitors to connect queer identifying perspectives with art historical knowledge about works in our collection.

During this program, each guest speaker walks through our galleries highlighting a selection of artworks that speak closely to their personal experience as a queer artist and invites visitors to join in on this discussion. While Chris talked about an array of artworks during their Queering the Collection program, I found that their optimistic perspective of the painting Clearing Up—Coast of Sicily by Andreas Achenbach resonated deeply.

At first glance, it’s a stormy sight, with large waves crashing against the rocky coastline. Seagulls are seen struggling to fly in the violent wind, but in the distance the soft light of sunset breaks through the dark skies, casting light on the waters below. To talk more about this calm amidst the chaos of a storm, here’s Chris Jay.

[00:02:00] Chris Jay: My name is Chris Jay. I am a photographer, and I’ve been a photographer for about 20 years now, maybe a little bit longer. And I guess my journey in art is just something that’s always been there. So, it’s just who I am and my fabric of my DNA. I mean, not just photography, but I’m also a performer, and I do speaking engagements, and I’m, like, really big in crafting right now for some reason.

So, this piece in particular—it’s a coastline, but in the midst of a storm. The waves are crashing very violently, and you know that there’s danger there, but in the horizon of this image, it’s sunlight. It could be probably early morning or early evening sun, low to the horizon, that kind of highlights the waves and across the canvas, so to speak.

And you’ll see clouds that are billowing and kind of filling out the rest of the space in the top of the portion of the artwork here, that is also highlighted by this peak of sunlight, which is what I love about this so much.

I love light. It brings everything to the forefront. It’s literally how we see. And without the light in this image, you would not see these waves. You would not see the clouds. It would just be darkness, and this light is actually kind of showing you what’s happening. Uh, just this painting is just so deep. It is so deep, y’all.

As a queer person, there’s a lot of dangers. There’s a lot of rough water, so to speak, that we have to tread through to figure out who we are. ‘Cause while the rest of the world has this blueprint of who you can be, we are constantly reinventing those things. We are constantly finding new words, and it is, it’s like a storm because you’re figuring this out at the same time people are telling you that you shouldn’t exist.

And then there’s this light that highlights this trouble, this storm, and it’s hope. It’s like telling you that like all the stuff that you go through and all the troubles that you are faced with, that’s right there. There is always light in the end of it, and I think that’s just amazing and it’s just incredibly powerful.

And also in this piece, you’ll see some birds, you’ll see life. And coming through this light that there’s life there. There’s an ability to live your life, and every moment is your own. And that’s why it just drew me—it just seemed very deep and complicated, but also very relatable.

I don’t know if I can see the—you’ve given me this really cool printout so I can, like, reference because I, like, remember it, but I do remember that there was like a flag, like a tattered flag. And it kind of represents the past. So, like where these storms are happening, it destroyed this flag, but also there’s life coming. So, I think that flag was a really cool detail to show that one, how powerful water can be. Like water’s the most powerful thing on this planet. And then, like, to show also that, yeah, that thing might have gotten hurt, but things are still happening after that.

And that reminds me of things where, as simple as like, losing your possessions in a house fire to the AIDS epidemic, where we lost a generation of queer men. Like, we lost a generation of people, but somehow we’re still going forward. We didn’t stop. We didn’t stop trying to have our rights. We didn’t stop fighting. We didn’t stop pushing. Life happened. Then we got—it was legal to get married. If we had stopped in the nineties, I don’t know if that would’ve happened. I don’t know if we would be able to have the conversations that we’re having now.

And sometimes, when things are devastating, you have to know that there’s a moment after the next beat. You still have to figure out what you’re gonna do next. What’s life looks like post-tragedy?

[00:06:33] Karena Ingram, host: You spoke a lot here, but then also in Queering the Collection, of kind of finding that optimism during a hard time. What are you finding yourself being the most optimistic about? Where are you finding your joy now? I know. Yeah.

[00:06:47] Chris Jay: Well, really, it’s always gonna be art for me. It’s my release, it’s my blanket. Mostly I’m finding my joy in music and in community in general. I think I’m realizing that being joyful as a collective, being in a room full of people who are cheering and dancing and being unapologetic about who they are, even if it’s just that moment where you let go, but that happens as a collective.

That is powerful, and that is the biggest form of resistance that we could do right now. It’s something that no one can touch. Joy is not tangible. You can take everything away, but you can’t take away my joy. Just that thought brings me joy. It makes me feel better about everything that’s going on.

There’s something that they can’t take, and I’m gonna exercise that as much as possible and try to live in joy as often as possible.

[00:07:49] Karena Ingram, host: All right, Chris, thank you so much.

[00:07:51] Chris Jay: You’re very welcome.

[00:07:52] Karena Ingram, host: Could you please let our listeners know where they can find you?

[00:07:55] Chris Jay: You can find me on all socials as Chris Jay. That’s J-A-Y.

And right now, which is a brilliant time, is I’m relaunching my long-running podcast into a radio cast actually now. It’s internet radio. It’s Coffee with Chris. It’s gonna be on Saturdays from noon to two o’clock Eastern standard time on Gutsy Radio, which is GutsyRadio.org or G-U-T-S-Y radio.org.

And check it out. It’s—I am determined to live in joy, and if we’re gonna have that for two hours every Saturday, we’re gonna listen to some good music and feel good about ourselves.

[00:08:39] Karena Ingram, host: Incredible.

[00:08:39] Chris Jay: And I’m here for it.

[00:08:40] Karena Ingram, host: I love it. Thank you so much.

[00:08:42] Chris Jay: Thank you.

[00:08:44] Karena Ingram, host: To see Clearing Up—Coast of Sicily, visit Art.TheWalters.org or check the links in this episode’s description.

Springtime, for many, marks a new beginning. It’s a time when we shed winter layers, when the tulips pepper the parks in Mount Vernon, a time of exploration and enjoyment. It also happens to be the title of one of the Walters most-loved artworks by French impressionist painter Claude Monet. Let’s talk with Jo Briggs about why visitors are so drawn to Springtime.

[00:09:17] Jo Briggs, Jennie Walters Delano Curator of 18th- and 19th-Century Art: My name is Jo Briggs. I’m the Jennie Waters Curator of 18th- and 19th-Century Art at the Walters Art Museum. Monet’s Springtime is one of the best-loved paintings at the Walters Art Museum. Arguably, it’s one of the most reproduced of all the paintings at the museum. It’s also among the most highly requested for loan. And since the 1980s, it’s been loaned to exhibitions in—and this is just a selection—New York, Boston, Kansas, San Diego, Chicago, Tokyo, and it’s even been to Paris twice.

Perhaps its popularity is because it represents all the things people like about impressionist paintings. It focuses on nature and leisure. It depicts a woman reading a book. The colors are vibrant and it’s a beautiful sunny day. The woman wears a light pink dress that spreads out over the grass, and patches of sunlight cover the dress filtering through green leaves above her. Springtime has an almost fairytale-like quality. It’s also, of course, by Claude Monet, the most famous of the Impressionists.

So, just as a quick recap on Impressionism, the Impressionists were a group of artists in Paris, France, that formed their own exhibition society and had their first exhibit in 1874. Their paintings tended to have, to their contemporaries, an unfinished look, and they often portrayed modern life. Springtime might at first look like it does not have much to do with modern life in mid 19th-century France, but we have to look closely and know a little bit more about the context of the work.

As Monet was a highly prolific artist, a lot of what we know about Springtime, we know because we can compare it to other paintings and extrapolate from there. For example, we know the woman pictured is sitting reading under a blooming lilac tree, although we don’t see any flowers in the painting. And this is because there are two other paintings in public collections, which show the same scene of a woman sitting under a tree, but from further away. So, the painting includes the trees above her in flower, and these are lilacs.

Monet signed Springtime, but he did not add a date as he does for some of his other works. So the date given to the work has been figured out from other paintings with the same subject matter which are dated. These paintings are dated 1872 and 1873, so we give 1872 as the date of Springtime. It’s interesting to note that this means that the painting was made prior to the first impressionist exhibition in 1874.

It was, however, exhibited in the second impressionist exhibition held in Paris in 1876. On this occasion, Monet gave the painting the title of Springtime, and this is how it’s been known for most of its existence. The painting was titled The Reader when displayed in an exhibition of Monet and Rodin’s work in 1889, when the painting was owned by the American-born impressionist painter, Mary Cassatt and it was actually from Mary Cassatt that Henry Walters purchased the painting in 1903.

Henry Walters used Monet’s original title of Springtime, and this is how the painting’s been known since he published his first catalog to his newly open museum in 1909. Springtime is an accurate title, as lilacs come into bloom in France in early May. Given that this work dates from 1872, we can figure out where this work was painted.

In late 1871, Monet moved to the first of two houses he occupied in the suburban town of Argenteuil on the right bank of the Seine and northwest of Paris. In Argenteuil, Monet painted the bridges, the river Seine dotted with boats in the summer, or reflecting the orange leaves of the trees in the fall. He depicts walks through the poppy fields roundabout, the railway, and even a town fête.

This was a happy time for him, as his art was starting to sell and he was living with his wife, Camille, and their young son. So, Monet’s most famous garden was at Giverny, with the bridge over the waterlily pond that he famously depicts in many later works. He moved there in 1883, but even before then, his gardens were well tended and were important subjects for his paintings. While living in Argenteuil, the artist particularly seems to have focused on lilacs in the springtime and dahlias in the late summer and early fall.

Although the woman in Springtime has long been identified as Monet’s first wife, Camille, there’s no written proof of this. The woman’s face is not painted in any detail, and her features are just suggested. This could be the result of the indirect lighting as she’s sitting in the shade. And the sunlight is bouncing from her book and skirts up onto her face. Monet did, however, often paint his wife in their garden making her likeness more obvious than it is in Springtime.

What is clear is that the woman is very fashionably dressed. Her dress appears to comprise a jacket or bodice with loose, tube-like sleeves, which were in fashion in the early 1870s. In these years, women’s dresses were starting to get more trimming and ruffles, whereas in the previous decade, they were bell-shaped and trimmed quite simply.

Although it could just be the way she’s sitting, there appears to be a bunch of fabric at the back of the skirt, a sign that this is the start of the so-called first bustle era. The hairstyle is also fashionable. Her hair is pushed to the back and pulled up more than in the 1860s, when the hair was styled closer to the head and also more symmetrically.

The woman’s hat is also very elaborate, with a top knot of ruffles and what could be pink flowers at the crown. The sides of the hat are pulled down by large pink ribbons. We know that the Impressionists paid close attention to women’s dress and the small changes that occurred to create the fashionable Parisian look.

So, Springtime is a fairytale painting, but it’s a very modern one. This is a suburban garden filled with newly developed types of plants and flowers, inhabited by a modishly dressed woman.

[00:15:15] Karena Ingram, host: Thanks so much, Jo. You can visit Art.TheWalters.org or check the links in this episode’s description to see Springtime for yourself. Now that we’ve weathered the storm with Chris Jay, and Jo has walked us through Monet’s garden, let’s pick some flowers together to share with the members of our Docent Program.

2024 marked the 50-year anniversary of the Walters Docent Program. Established in 1974, the program coincided with the substantial expansion of permanent exhibition space in anticipation of a need to accommodate and inform a greatly expanded visiting public.

Over the decades, the docents have played an impactful part of the museum’s adult and school tour programs. These educators have expanded the experiences of countless visitors in an impactful and memorable way, sharing their knowledge and encouraging lifelong learning.

As the Docent Program sunsets this July, we wanna give flowers to all the docents who have taught at the Walters Art Museum over the past 50 years, and thank them for their dedication, thoughtfulness, and knowledge. I’m thrilled to introduce two members of our docent program, Charles Springer and Jan Thorman.

[00:16:18] Charles Springer: My name is Charles Springer and I’ve been a docent at the Walters for 29 years.

[00:16:24] Jan Thorman: And I’m Jan Thorman. I’ve been a docent for 17 years.

[00:16:27] Karena Ingram, host: Well, thank you both for joining us today to talk about the Docent Program. But before we dive into the program, I just wanna know what draws you both to art itself? What moves you about art? What’s your connection with art? When did that kind of start for you?

[00:16:42] Charles Springer: Well, I’m from a small coal mining town back in the hills, and 12 grades in one building, so on and so forth. So we didn’t have an extensive art program. We did have an art teacher who inspired me to, as we’ve sketched at various places, he always played jazz music in the background and introduced me to jazz through my art teacher.

And the local church one time had an exhibit of Norman Rockwell’s Saturday Evening Post illustration, his covers, and that really impressed me. And I went there many times right across the street and was just impressed about all the thoughts that came to my mind as I watched these. And so I wasn’t aware of it, but I was getting involved with art at the time, and I never really was in a museum until I was in the Army at Fort West, Texas.

But as I started to teach history, I became more and more aware that one of the good things which would promote discussion, as well as documents, was an appropriate painting or something like that. And over the years I relied more and more on art.

I was an adjunct at the, a lot of the local colleges, and when I taught courses in Western civ, I just would have a van and we’d take half the kids down here. So I gradually became, it became more and more part of my life. So when I retired, I became a docent. And often I’ve had various discussions about, one time the docents were talking and, well, where they were first [in a] museum and were first start, and I told ’em Norman Rockwell, but one of those told me, “Well, he’s only an illustrator.”

And I proceeded to caution her about using those four-letter words, because where I’m from, a picture of Elvis Presley on a velvet cloth with acrylic is meaningful to those people, and that’s art.

[00:18:40] Karena Ingram, host: That’s art.

[00:18:41] Charles Springer: And so, but I’m not taking anything away from a museum. No, no, no.

[00:18:44] Karena Ingram, host: But I, I do appreciate you saying that, like art comes in so many different forms and people interact with it in so many different ways, that I agree. Using “only” as this kind of diminishing word is just so funny because I feel like for centuries people have probably looked at the art that we cover today and it was like, well, it’s only a painting or sculpture, so thank you for sharing. How about you, Jan?

[00:19:06] Jan Thorman: So I really was introduced to art my freshman year of college. I decided to take an art history class and it literally opened my eyes. I was a very verbal person. I had studied languages and in Art History 101, I would go into Boston to visit the museums there and it was just incredible to me to discover that there were ways to communicate that didn’t involve words, it just was earth shattering for me.

I became an art history major because it was so fascinating, and I didn’t go on to work in art history, although, I did have an internship at what’s now the Smithsonian American Art Museum, but I’ve been interested in art ever since.

[00:19:52] Karena Ingram, host: Do you remember the first work that you saw that you were like, “Wow, this is really speaking to me,” without actually speaking to me.

[00:19:58] Jan Thorman: Titian’s Rape of Europa.

[00:19:59] Karena Ingram, host: Yeah. Wow.

[00:20:01] Jan Thorman: At the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Just looking at exactly how he had done that.

[00:20:06] Karena Ingram, host: Wow.

[00:20:06] Jan Thorman: And seeing the hand of the artist at work, it was just this amazing thought of creativity and how that still existed, even though he’s been dead for hundreds of years.

[00:20:19] Karena Ingram, host: Mm-hmm.

[00:20:19] Jan Thorman: He was still talking to me.

[00:20:21] Karena Ingram, host: Wow. Through time itself, still having a conversation with the artist. That’s beautiful to think about and kind of with the collection like the Walters that is so historic and spans seven millennia. I’m curious as—was that the draw to you to become a docent at the Walters? How did your connection with the Walters Art Museum start?

[00:20:40] Charles Springer: Primarily because I could use it for both European history, and both Ancient and Renaissance, and Medieval. I mean that they had that wide range. And later in my academic career, I became involved with Asia, so I came back to Walters. Over the years it became a natural place to go to meet my needs as regarding art instruction.

[00:21:04] Karena Ingram, host: Mm-hmm. So you have been a docent, you had said for 27 years.

[00:21:09] Charles Springer: Yeah.

[00:21:09] Karena Ingram, host: So how did you join the docent program?

[00:21:12] Charles Springer: I had a lot of positive feelings working with students in art and I would bring my kids here in, grandkids, so on and so forth. And I was often impressed with how all the docents. So, I went down and I applied for the job and interviewed by some really smart people, John Shields.

And they haven’t got rid of me since.

[00:21:34] Karena Ingram, host: I love that. How about you, Jan?

[00:21:36] Jan Thorman: So, during that summer internship at what’s now the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the part of the internship that I liked best was museum education. I just thought it was fascinating. I did not, however, go into museum work. I went into doing other stuff, but I worked with the school that our kids went to to help them when they were doing field trips to museums to help get the kids ready. I’ve been interested in, for a long time, in connecting people to art, particularly kids.

[00:22:04] Karena Ingram, host: Mm-hmm.

[00:22:04] Jan Thorman: So, I live in Annapolis and Annapolitans tend to be oriented either towards Baltimore or Washington, D.C. Well, I was born in, grew up in and worked for 35 years in Washington, and I decided on my retirement that it was time to learn about Baltimore. And I knew the Walters. And the Walters was, at the time that I was ready to start planning for my retirement, the Walters was looking for docents, so the timing was perfect. And I decided this is where I wanted to be.

[00:22:34] Karena Ingram, host: I love how it brought you in kind of similar but different paths to still serve as a docent here at the Walters, and you’ve probably guided countless amount of tours and had so many different connections with the students or visitors that we’ve had throughout these galleries.

And so I’m curious if there’s a particular interaction or memory that kind of resonates with you during your time as a docent here?

[00:22:57] Jan Thorman: So, I actually have been thinking about this a lot. I believe it’s Catholic Charities, right up the street, had a program where they were working with young, unmarried pregnant women to try and help give them the skills and resources they needed.

And as part of the program, I think kind of towards the end, they offered them the opportunity to come to the Walters and I did several of those tours. But the one in particular that I remember is there was, I think about 12 very pregnant women. The theme I chose was Mothers, Heroines, and Goddesses.

And at the end of the tour, when I was ready to go home, I was walking out the Centre Street exit. One of the participants in the tour was sitting there waiting for her ride, and so I stopped and chatted with her. And I asked about her baby and when it was due and this sort of thing. And she said, “It’s a girl,” and she was going to name her Isis after the great Egyptian goddess who she had met on that tour that day. And that, the reason it affected me so much, is that this is something she will remember every time she calls her daughter by name.

[00:24:06] Karena Ingram, host: Wow. That’s magical. That, that’s powerful.

[00:24:10] Jan Thorman: I think she wanted her baby girl to have a connection with power and strength.

[00:24:16] Karena Ingram, host: Wow. That’s incredible.

[00:24:17] Jan Thorman: So yes, it’s those kinds of connections with people, and I have lots of other ones, are what make being a docent such a pleasurable, an exciting and important part of my life.

[00:24:29] Karena Ingram, host: Mm-hmm.

[00:24:29] Charles Springer: Like Jan, I had so many experiences that really had an impact on me. It was about six or seven years ago, the Baltimore City schools had a program for kids who were identified as very bright, so on and so forth. And they didn’t want to lose what learning they had over the summer, so they had a program in which selected kids would go to the Walters and to the aquarium and to the various institutions.

And so I had this one group and we’re just doing a general tour of the museum, fifth and sixth graders, 11, 12 year olds. And the first room we went in had sculptures of the lions and the hunt. And I asked the kids, “What’s going on?” and “How’s the artist create movement?”—the lines crawling up the elephant’s back.

And this little boy said, he says it’s, “They are all V-shaped.” And he says, “like your elbow,” so on and so forth. And I thought, wow, this kid picked, he says, “that’s just like the video games when you have play in advanced, it’s a V.” Uh, wow. Well, the kid continued to dazzle me. As we were leaving, I was walking across the lobby and I told the teacher, I said, “These are some really bright kids here.”

She says, “You’re talking about Jason?” I said, “Yeah.” She says, “He’s amazing. And you know, he lives in a car with his mother.” Oh wow. With that, I started to well up, I mean, wow. I mean, that was, that affected me. I’m glad I had the interaction with him.

[00:26:00] Karena Ingram, host: Right. I think in a lot of these interactions, as much as the visitors take away from your tour and your knowledge, docents also take away this kind of like personal interaction with these people and their own lived experiences, and it makes me think of the impact that this program has had on our community for the past 50 years. And so I would love to hear from you both what you think the legacy is of the Docent Program at the Walters Art Museum and how it’s kind of shaped our art community, but also the community in Baltimore as a whole.

[00:26:34] Jan Thorman: One thing that I’ve been thinking about is a tour I did a long time ago for a group of third graders from a Baltimore inner city school.

And we were in the 16th-century Gold Gallery. One of the boys came over to me and sort of nudged me and said, “Where do they keep the good stuff? You know, the real stuff, the really important stuff.” And I leaned down and said in a conspiratorial voice, “Right here. It’s right here because it’s yours.”

[00:27:00] Charles Springer: Yeah.

[00:27:01] Jan Thorman: And that sense of, ”This belongs to you. This is your resource for you to use and come and enjoy whenever the museum’s open, it’s open for you.” I think that’s really important. Giving the community a sense that this is their place. And that’s actually one of the reasons why I wanted to come to the Walters is that even 17 years ago, there was a real emphasis on being involved with the community, having this be a community resource.

I think that, particularly in my experience, we’ve sometimes had people open their minds to things that they might not have considered before, and seeing connections between themselves and their own lives. People who lived a long time ago, people who lived in very different places, people with completely different backgrounds that we can find connections with those people, I think helps to solidify our common humanity, which I think is just so important right now.

I think docents have been really well positioned to help visitors make those connections that they might not see just walking through and reading the labels. Another thing is I think that we’ve helped to improve visual literacy, which is also incredibly important right now because so much of our culture is visual.

Those are three things that I think will be legacies of the docent program, and I hope that the museum will be able to carry them forward.

[00:28:20] Charles Springer: I often run across people when you tell ’em you were a docent and they say, “Yeah, I remember that. We went there, and that was really some neat school trips.” And so on, so forth.

So, over the years I get feedback from people that really had a good experience at the Walters that does have a positive, you know, a legacy.

[00:28:38] Jan Thorman: We can never know what kind of impact we’re gonna have, but the fact that people do come and say, you made a difference. Your tour made a difference. I could never have done that on my own.

[00:28:48] Karena Ingram, host: It’s incredible to hear and know that so many people have been touched by their experience with you and the whole crew of docents that we have had, and currently have here. And I think that it is important for people to really look at art in these kinds of ways and, and continuing in these practices.

So I thank you both for being docents, for being advocates of art and education, for talking with me about the docent program and, and your relationship with art. It means a lot to hear these stories from you both.

[00:29:17] Jan Thorman: Thank you.

[00:29:18] Charles Springer: Oh, thank you.

[00:29:19] Karena Ingram, host: Yeah.

Free access to the Walters Art Museum online and in person is made possible through the combined generosity of individual donors, foundations, corporations, and grants from the city of Baltimore, Maryland State Arts Council, Citizens of Baltimore County, Howard County Government, and Howard County Arts Council. To learn more about engaging with or supporting the Walters, visit TheWalters.org/Give.

A big thanks to Chris Jay, Jo Briggs, Charles Springer, and Jan Thorman for chatting with us today. Free Admissions, the Walters Art Museum podcast is made possible by Marketing and Communications Director Connie McAllister, Communications Manager Sydney Adamson, Head of Graphic Design Tony Venne, Graphic Designer Rachel Minier, Web Specialist Dylan Kinnett, Content Writer Erin Branigan, IT Specialist Frank Dickerson, and edited and hosted by me, Karena Ingram.

We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please leave us a review and share this episode with your friends. You can visit TheWalters.org for more information and to plan your visit. Hope to see you at the museum soon.