Ways of Seeing by John Berger

Ways of Seeing by John Berger

On Tuesday, June 5th 2012, I went to the Museum of Fine Arts. The atmosphere was peaceful and quiet even though there were a lot of students from a high school. If you decide to go to a museum you have a special attitude. First of all it is your choice to go there. The museum will not come to you.

I spent quite some time walking around to find a picture that was “speaking” to me. Then I came across the “Behind the Scenes: Caring for working of art” room. It is an electrical room with a touch screen under the picture. The screen explains a lot of the different things about the history and background of the painting (picture 1).

The painting was of Mrs. Timothy Rogers (Lucy Boylston). I was intrigued by the historical background of the Boylston Family and the timeline (1766 – 1767) during which John Singleton Copley painted six portraits of the Boylston family. It reminded me of a line in John Berger’s essay: “They are declared art when their line of descent can be certified” (150). I wonder how many wonderful and beautiful paintings were just thrown away because they were not of someone important, rich, or famous.

There was also information about the cleaning of the painting. I was able to see the difference in the 1921 unclean portrait and the 1950 clean portrait. First, I just saw a nice painting of a woman, but now I can see and appreciate the portrait of

Mrs. Timothy Rogers. “The meaning of an image is changed according to what one sees immediately beside it or what comes immediately after it” (156). How very true.

After the electrical room, I continued to walk around and found myself paying much more attention to details. Each picture frame is a piece of art in itself! All these intricate details were incredible. “We only see what we look at. To look is an act of choice” (141).

Picture 1:

The electrical room in the MFA with the portrait of Mrs. Timothy Rogers on the left hand side and the touch screen below.

When I was...