At Leisure: Images of Repose from the Permanent Collection

This exhibition of works from the museum’s permanent collection features images of leisure and repose. In The Poetics of Space, French philosopher Gaston Bachelard considers our relationship to the spaces we inhabit and the significance of these experiences “[…] the house shelters day-dreaming, the house protects the dreamer, the house allows one to dream in peace.”

This exhibition presents a selection of works that depict interior scenes and leisurely activities in private settings at home and in nature. Featuring two important recent acquisitions to the museum’s permanent collection—An Elegant Company Playing a Game of Trictrac in an Interior and An Elegant Company Playing Music in an Interior, both by 17^th century Dutch painter Dirck Hals, At Leisure explores ideas of leisurely activity, moments of respite, and enjoyment.

These works by European and American artists from the 17^th to the early 20^th century, invite us to reflect on how we experience our surroundings and how artists articulate visually notions of repose and recreation. This exhibition is a complement to The Place as Metaphor: Collection Conversations and features works by Paul Cézanne, Roger Fry, Dirck Hals, Nicolas Lancret, Elie Nadelman, and John Sloan.