High Impact Art

When my husband lived in Alexandria, LA, as a boy, he attended St. Francis Xavier Academy. (photo above) Although he was enrolled for just third and fourth grades (1966-67, 1967-68), the nuns made a huge impact on him.

He vividly remembers looking at art masterpieces on glass slides in the attic. Additionally, the nuns would pass out art prints, and each student would have to write a story to go along with the picture. Herb liked one of the prints so much, he took it home and showed it to his mother. He asked her to paint one like it for him, and she did.



While Herb was in Amsterdam last week, he visited the Rijksmuseum. He was overwhelmed by Rembrandt's "The Night Watch", mesmerized by Vermeer's "The Milkmaid", and haunted by Hals's "The Merry Drinker"--haunted because it reminded him of something he had seen before but could not place. He finally realized that it reminded him of the picture that he had asked his mother to duplicate for him. After some quick research, he found that the artist is the same. The painting he had loved as a boy at St. Francis Xavier was Hals's "Jester with a Lute".