Degas/Cassatt - Paired Together at the National Gallery of Art (East Wing of West Building) Until October 5, 2014

[Tweaked]

Perhaps I'm burnt out with Impressionists after touring the Barnes Collection.

First of all Degas/Cassatt was packed over the Memorial Day weekend, barely able to move packed, can't read the walk text packed, stumbling over other people packed.  Which was good to see.  The show investigates the long relationship between Degas and Cassatt and how they influenced each other.  Perhaps the most interesting room was the side room  featuring a body of work by Degas known as Cassatt at the Louvre:  The Etruscan Gallery.  The show features many small etchings and studies, which in a packed room are tough to enjoy.  But in the end, few of the major, finished pieces are particularly strong.     

[DonRocks]

Perhaps I'm burnt out with Impressionists after touring the Barnes Collection.

First of all Degas/Cassatt was packed over the Memorial Day weekend, barely able to move packed, can't read the walk text packed, stumbling over other people packed.  Which was good to see.  The show investigates the long relationship between Degas and Cassatt and how they influenced each other.  Perhaps the most interesting room was the side room  featuring a body of work by Degas known as Cassatt at the Louvre:  The Etruscan Gallery.  The show features many small etchings and studies, which in a packed room are tough to enjoy.  But in the end, few of the major, finished pieces are particularly strong.     

I just got home, thinking a late-Sunday crowd might have thinned, but I came away with the exact same "impression" that you did.

This is not a knock on the exhibit; just the crowds - by the time I got there, I was already getting tired (I'd been in other parts of the museum), and spent a total of about two minutes in there. I recognized many of the paintings as ones I've seen over the years which made me even less interested.

"If we want to go to the zoo," I said, "let's go to the zoo." My colleagues agreed.

This autumn, I will return so I can pay proper respect to what is probably an interesting juxtaposition of two artists about whom I know a fair amount; for now, I'll leave it for the tourists.

[LauraB]

We went on a week day a few weeks ago and the crowds were much less than on weekends and did not interfere with our ability to enjoy the show. (We had tried earlier on a weekend and gave up after 5 minutes.)  We both concluded that this exhibit, with its focus on the connection between Degas and Cassatt does not include either artist's best works.  I agree with Tweaked above that the most interesting feature was Degas's studies of Cassatt at the Louvre.

Speaking of the Louvre, museums and crowds: I can remember as a student in Paris in the 1970s being able to visit the Louvre and Jeu de Paume and walking right in without having to stand in line and leisurely enjoy the art in uncrowded rooms.  Twenty years later, you had to stand in a long line outside and wait to gain admission to the museum itself.  Once inside, your view of the artworks was seriously impeded by large tour groups of foreign tourists each videotaping the artwork, not even bothering to look at it with their actual eyes.  Sad.