It seems to Father Pitt that it is about time for an orchid, so here is a Phragmipedium hybrid.
-
Skyscrapers, Old and New
The Tower at PNC Plaza under construction in March of 2015. In front of it, three of the Fourth Avenue towers: the Benedum-Trees Building (1905, architect Thomas H. Scott), the Investment Building (1927, architect John M. Donn), and the Arrott Building (1902, architect Frederick Osterling).
5 responses
-
Chocolate in Its Raw Form
Chocolate comes from this tree, Theobroma cacao, here seen growing in the Fern Room at Phipps Conservatory. Each of those fruits bears a number of bitter seeds, known as “cocoa beans,” from which chocolate is made. The Phipps tree is unusually productive.
Camera: Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3.
-
Frick Art Museum
Until April 4, the Frick is hosting an exhibit called “Impressionist to Modernist: Masterworks of Early Photography.” The “early” part is debatable—the exhibit begins in the 1880s and concludes in the 1930s, by which time photography was already a century old. Father Pitt would call these works “middle” photography. There is no room for debate on the quality of the exhibit itself: all the artistic possibilities of photography as a medium are on display. It was enough to inspire old Pa Pitt to try some work in black and white, so here are some ducks:
Camera: Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3.
Well, it’s not Steichen, but Father Pitt liked the ripply reflections of cattail stalks.
-
John White Alexander
A good number of artists have been born in Pittsburgh and the surrounding area, and some of them even have large museums here dedicated to their works. (Father Pitt is thinking, of course, of the John A Hermann, Jr., Memorial Art Museum in Bellevue. What were you thinking of?) But we could argue that the one who made the most lasting contribution to the city of his own free will was John White Alexander, whose mural composition Apotheosis of Pittsburgh covers thousands of square feet in the splendid Grand Staircase in the Carnegie. Alexander was born in Allegheny in 1856, and the Grand Staircase was his last significant work, so we can say that he began and ended his work here. A rather fawning (but perhaps justifiably so) 1908 article in The International Studio describes the high position he had reached in the world of art, and gives us good monochrome reproductions of a number of Alexander’s works, especially portraits. Here is an album of those pictures, in tribute to one of Pittsburgh’s great artists.
Portrait of Mrs. H.
Portrait of Fritz (Frits) Thaulow.
Portrait: Sisters.
Portrait of Walt Whitman.
Portrait of Miss R.
Pen Sketch of Mark Twain.
Portrait of Miss B.
Portrait of Mrs. R.
Fragment of Decoration, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh.
-
Faces on the Times Building
Two carved Romanesque faces on the Fourth Avenue side of the Times Building.
Camera: Kodak EasyShare Z1485 IS.
-
The Phipps Spring Flower Show Opens Today
Yesterday Father Pitt got a preview of the show, which is up to the usual standard of whimsy and spectacle.
-
Phalaenopsis Hybrids in Phipps Conservatory
These orchids are identified only as “Phalaenopsis Group,” which probably means that somewhere along the line the identifying tags were lost.
Camera: Konica Minolta DiMAGE Z3.
-
St. Augustine Church, Lawrenceville
John T. Comes (sometimes spelled Comès) designed a splendid Romanesque church for this congregation. It was built, however, on an improbably narrow street in the most crowded section of Lower Lawrenceville, so it is impossible to see the front as Comes designed it—unless we appeal to technology, merging fifteen separate photographs to produce one overall picture. In spite of the distortion caused by taking the pictures from a low position and altering the perspective, this imperfect picture comes very close to presenting the front of the church as the architect drew it.
-
Lower Fifth Avenue
Camera: Kodak EasyShare Z1485 IS.
In the distance, the Tower at PNC Plaza looms over the next block.
