Aberdeen Art Gallery

The Aberdeen Art Gallery is famous for trendy, provocative curating. When we visited, the curators had shuffled and scrambled the collections, added framed mirrors and empty frames, and covered up the dates, titles, and attributions of the artworks. Make of them what you will! Ask questions! No wrong answers! You belong here! Art for the people!
But I just wanted to hunt down a key to tell me what I was looking at. So go ahead and lash me with a lock of my Sainted Mother’s hair; I love sentimental Victorian-era art. So I’ll share three Victorian-era favorites on the family theme:

Maternité by George Hitchcock 1889 American

Flood in the Highlands by Sir Edwin Landseer 1860 English (based on 1829 flooding)

Baptism in Scotland by John Phillip 1850 Scottish

These are amazing, full-size oil paintings of strong and vivid emotion.
Maternité is grounded and peaceful, with the figures rooted in their wild natural surroundings. We are invited to find Christian imagery in the shadow of crossed vines and the basket on the mother’s head. Flood in the Highlands shows animals in distress and animals huddling with their people to survive. I love the expressive postures of the animals in this painting. The onlooker might be reminded of Noah’s Ark. Research indicates the painter was depressed and lonely at the time. And finally, this Baptism scene of humble domestic tranquility brought me into the frame and involved me in the blessing. I shared their joy. It isn’t avant-garde. But it’s pleasant.