Manet's "Luncheon" is a deft family portrait with qualities lifted from Vermeer and Valesquez.

Shushan is a tiny hamlet in upstate New York located on the famous trout fishing river the Battenkill. We don't have much in the way of industry as the shirt and collar factories were burnt down at the turn of the century by none other than our police chief -- Shushan hasn't had a policeman since. But what we still do have is a lot of farming.

A few years ago Michael Yezzi and Jennifer Small bought a large farm  at the top of a hill overlooking the Battenkill where they raise heritage pigs mostly for the New York City restaurant market. These pigs come in a range of colors and are smaller than contemporary pigs. I tend to see the world through the filter of art history and one of the pigs reminded me of the above drawing that I mistakenly thought was by Albrecht Dürer, but is actually by Hans Hofmann, who was considered in the school of Dürer.