When Mother and I discovered and fell in love with Tolg’s ‘tailor’s cottage’ in 2003, we had no idea that a huge part of our Tolg happiness would be generated by you…
Tag: Sweden
Forest Bathing
Today, I did something that for me was once unremarkable but nowadays isn’t: walking in the forest of southern Sweden. For most, it was a stay indoors kind of day—chilly, thickly overcast, windy, and intermittently drizzly…
See with Your Heart
The first time I saw Gustaf Fjaestad’s magnificent pastel, The Boy Who Sees with His Heart (1898), it was love at first sight…
Midsummer
Swedish artist Anders Zorn (1860-1920) painted Midsummer Dance (1897) at a moment when, throughout Europe, many felt it important to assert and reify one’s geographical identify—local, regional, national…
Vision: Motif from Visby
As a staunch Social Democrat from the bourgeoisie, Bergh hoped to dissolve social demographic barriers, establish common ground, and generate empathy among social layers…
Last Suppers #1
Twenty years ago, I realized that some of the social moments I recalled with the greatest clarity were the meals I shared with friends or family at our last (unexpectedly last) meeting before they died….
Swedish Art #1
After the End of a Modeling Session, an 1884 painting by Swedish painter Richard Bergh, reveals a lot about the lives of artists during the Impressionist era….
Rural Paris
What were you doing in late July 2020, during that first pandemic summer? I was rowing. Here, a teaser from my forthcoming book: An American in Pandemic Paris. A Coming-of-Retirement-Age Memoir:
Cultural Misunderstanding
I’m fascinated by the jolts that occur when you assume you’ve understood something, but it turns out you didn’t…
Surprises
I shared the horror as Russia invaded Ukraine and also delighted in the discovery of a rare, natural work of art.