VERMEER!

Sunday, December 24,

CHRISTMAS EVE

At the National Gallery...

As usual I was up early for meditation and a bit of writing while Elle slept on a while longer. When she was up and about, we took a morning stroll along Georgetown’s M Street, nearly deserted on the morning of Christmas Eve.

We bought a copy of the Sunday New York Times at a cut rate from what seemed like a homeless guy camped out on the street--checking first, with unjustified mistrust, to make sure none of the sections was missing! Then stopped at Starbucks for a cup of coffee and a muffin.

Tim and the whole gang (Sarah, Luka and David) arrived in David’s car to pick us up shortly before noon and we drove through very light traffic to the National Gallery. I had been determined not to miss the once-in-a-lifetime Vermeer (and fellow masters) show and everyone seemed delighted to join me. “Vermeer and Masters of Genre Painting: Inspiration andRivalry” included 10 magnificent paintings by Vermeer himself, and some 60 other works by his contemporaries in the late 17^th century. The curatorial intention was to examine these artists’ artistic exchanges at a time “when they reached the height of their technical ability and mastery of genre painting, or depictions of daily life.”

Luka..

It was a fantastic exhibition. I would have liked to spend longer and paid closer attention than I was able to; the price of being a grandfather is that sometimes the six year-old grandson does not share the same interests or attention span, and little Luka soon tired of spotting the little (Jake-like) brown and white dogs...

who make their appearance in so many of these paintings and made it know that he was anxious to move on to more interesting things. Actually, give him his due, he did very well, for a six year-old. But his presence did make a difference to the viewing experience. Still, we saw enough to be awed by the quality of the paintings of this narrow period in art history; and to be able to note, beside all those wonderful paintings, the sublime superiority of this one great master.

Tim drove us back to Georgetown, where we dropped off David and Luka at his parents’ condo building and drove back into town for a bite to eat and some last-minute shopping. At a bit of a loss to know what would be a good gift for the Aarons, aside from the “Fabergé” easter egg Christmas tree (!) decoration we had bought for them in the Met bookshop. We settled on the idea for a lox-and-bagel brunch. Surprisingly, lox and bagels and cream cheese all proved hard to find, even at Dean and Deluca’s, and we had to settle for the last of their deli bagels, some Scotch smoked salmon, and a handful of little containers of cream cheese.

I headed back to the hotel for a needed nap while Ellie kept shopping for the last Christmas essentials (wrapping paper, anyone?) and we bundled up, on her return, for the short walk from our hotel to La Chaumière, where David and Chloe had made early dinner reservations. I enjoyed a gimlet with David before the rest of the gang arrived, and we took our time ordering from a wonderful, distinctively French menu. Two bottles of wine accompanied our excellent dinner...

David, Peter & Tim

Ellie & Chloe

Luka prefers Italian...

... at the end of which we two elders were presented with the gift of fine Cuban cigars brought back by Tim and Sarah from a recent trip to Mexico. We debated whether to enjoy them, with a glass of Calvados, as an after-dinner treat that evening, but eventually decided to postpone the treat for Christmas Day.

Ellie and I returned to the hotel in good time to do some packing in preparation for tomorrow’s departure for Los Angeles…

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