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The Artwork That Saved Bill Murray’s Life
Art News ^ | 8/3/2021 | Staff

Posted on 08/04/2021 4:43:11 PM PDT by simpson96

Early in his career, the actor Bill Murray was depressed, mulling suicide, and walking around Chicago when he wandered into the Art Institute. There, he came across a painting that saved his life: The Song of the Lark (1884) by the French painter Jules Breton, as he explained at a 2014 press conference that has suddenly begun circulating online. (The event was for The Monuments Men, in which he stars.)

The painting shows a girl lost in thought, taking a break from working in a dimly lit field with a sickle.

Murray: “I thought, ‘Well, there’s a girl who doesn’t have a whole lot of prospects, but the sun’s coming up anyway and she’s got another chance at it. So I think that gave me some sort of feeling that I, too, am a person, and I get another chance every day the sun comes up.”

As it happens, the Breton is on view at the museum now, in Gallery 222, where it perhaps feels a bit overshadowed by works from bigger names, like Manet, Courbet, and Constable. No longer!


(Excerpt) Read more at artnews.com ...


TOPICS: Arts/Photography; Chit/Chat; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: art; billmurray; chicago; hollywood
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1 posted on 08/04/2021 4:43:11 PM PDT by simpson96
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To: simpson96
Bill Murray was depressed, mulling suicide . . .


2 posted on 08/04/2021 4:46:18 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (THE ISSUE IS NEVER THE ISSUE. THE REVOLUTION IS THE ISSUE.)
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To: simpson96

Could also be a sunSET, Bill, and she’s about to play out a slasher movie...


3 posted on 08/04/2021 4:49:23 PM PDT by grobdriver
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To: simpson96

That girl looks a little like my wife - when she was younger.


4 posted on 08/04/2021 4:50:53 PM PDT by SamAdams76 (Give me a Pigfoot and a Bottle of Beer)
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To: Jeff Chandler

So the movie What About Bob was autobiographical


5 posted on 08/04/2021 4:53:39 PM PDT by Captain Peter Blood (https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/3804407/posts?q=1&;pag, and that )
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To: simpson96

My mom, a Kansas girl, always loved the sound of the meadowlark. It was worth stopping and listening.


6 posted on 08/04/2021 4:54:35 PM PDT by married21 (As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.)
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To: Captain Peter Blood
Baby Steps™
7 posted on 08/04/2021 4:55:10 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (THE ISSUE IS NEVER THE ISSUE. THE REVOLUTION IS THE ISSUE.)
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To: simpson96

Am I cynical enough to surmise this article was written right now, to trick people into sympathy for Hunter Biden? That artwork is therapeutic, that it can be life changing for the good? Am I THAT CYNICAL? Yes, yes I am.


8 posted on 08/04/2021 4:55:47 PM PDT by KobraKai
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To: simpson96

That’s a good painting. It almost looks like an early stage version of something Andrew Wyatt would have done.
Great anatomy from a raised perspective.


9 posted on 08/04/2021 4:55:52 PM PDT by lee martell
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To: grobdriver
I thought it was a sunset as well, at the end of the day's work.

But in looking up this artwork, I found that the title alludes to it being a sunrise, because the Lark sings at daybreak.

10 posted on 08/04/2021 4:56:28 PM PDT by simpson96
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To: simpson96
shows a girl lost in thought, taking a break

Since her right heel is up, I'd say she's walking and, unless french girls are more often mouth-breathers than not, I wouldn't call that expression "lost in thought".

I'm not sure you can conclude the whether the sun is rising or setting either.

If I took a whirl at mind reading, I'd say the expression indicates:

If morning: "Crap, not only did I forget my shoes, I came all the way out here with my sickle and there's nothing to cut!" (note the bare field)

If evening: "Crap, I left my bundle behind!"

11 posted on 08/04/2021 5:00:13 PM PDT by fruser1
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To: Captain Peter Blood

Maybe Groundhog Day was autobiographical.


12 posted on 08/04/2021 5:03:34 PM PDT by Larry Lucido (Donate! Don't just post clickbait!)
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To: Captain Peter Blood

Funny, though. Watching What about Bob while reading this thread.


13 posted on 08/04/2021 5:04:42 PM PDT by Larry Lucido (Donate! Don't just post clickbait!)
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To: KobraKai
It is so therapeutic, the Muslims that cut off peoples heads and stone women, and kill, kill kill...those that WE released attended art therapy.

How stupid are we??

14 posted on 08/04/2021 5:15:01 PM PDT by Sacajaweau
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To: simpson96

Looks like she is looking for someone trying to force her to be vaccinated.


15 posted on 08/04/2021 5:15:46 PM PDT by alternatives?
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To: alternatives?

Lol


16 posted on 08/04/2021 5:16:13 PM PDT by simpson96
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To: simpson96

I had lunch with the dude. Straight up down home kind of guy but definitely strange as hell.


17 posted on 08/04/2021 5:17:03 PM PDT by Openurmind (The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world it leaves to its children. ~ D. Bonhoeffer)
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To: simpson96

“I feel good, I feel great, I feel wonderful!”


18 posted on 08/04/2021 5:21:59 PM PDT by Flick Lives (We may or may not have reached herd immunity, but we've definitely achieved herd stupidity.)
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To: simpson96

I also thought it was sunset.


19 posted on 08/04/2021 5:23:52 PM PDT by Jane Austen (Neo-cons are liberal Democrats who love illegal aliens and war.)
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To: lee martell

I believe you mean Andrew Wyeth


20 posted on 08/04/2021 5:25:45 PM PDT by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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