The Art of Diagnosis

wikipedia: Claude Monet

What do you see in this painting?

The Boston Globe reports on medical students being offered art classes to improve their observational and diagnostic skills.

Monet? Gauguin? Using art to make better doctors
New courses improve powers of observation

Baby Heads Are Staying

Boston Globe: Permanent Baby Head Situation

Good news for fans of giant baby heads. Gail and Ernst von Metzsch have donated the money to allow the Museum of Fine Arts to acquire the bronze sculptures created by Antonio Lopez Garcia. The heads, which are 8 feet tall and weigh 1.6 tons each, have been moved to the Fenway side of the museum in anticipation of this week's opening of the State Street Corporation doors.

Speaking of Van Gogh

The Ravine is not available online, so here's another Van Gogh:
Café Terrace at Night
Oil on canvas, 1888

A conservator at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts has discovered a "lost" Van Gogh painting; behind another painting, which he apparently painted over. Why did he do this?

In his early years, van Gogh often reused canvases or turned them over and painted on the other side to make the most of his limited funds. But by 1889, a year before his death, he was being supported by his brother. Van Gogh painted over "Wild Vegetation" not because he couldn't afford to buy another canvas but because Theo was slow to send along new canvases, according to MFA curator George Shackelford.

"He was so eager to paint that he wasn't willing to wait," said Shackelford. "We deduce he decided to sacrifice a picture, maybe of the ones that he had that he liked the least, and he painted straight over the very highly patterned design of the first canvas without introducing a layer of white. It's fantastically amazing."