Art Freak

I can't imagine a better day than walking through an art museum. Of course, I like some art museums more than others. I well remember a trip to the Indianapolis Museum of Art when we were first married. They had evidently sunk their whole budget into a glorious new building. But there wasn't any art. Not kidding. A few paintings and some Chinese vases. I'm sure they have some now.

Sometimes the art is great and the location is not. The Kunsthistoriche Museum in Vienna has one of the most glorious paintings of all time stuck in a crowded corner room. The portrait of the Infantin Margarita Teresa by Velásquez  is one of the most gorgeous things I've ever seen. But the only way to appreciate that blue velvet dress is to take a few steps back from the painting. Which you can't do because the room is too small.

Sometimes the location is great but the art is something I just don't get. Witness The Winged Victory of Samothrace in The Louvre. The location is superb. It took me a while to appreciate the statue. If you haven't seen Funny Face with Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire, the statue makes an important appearance in it.

Which brings us to the Philadelphia Museum of Art that we visited on Saturday. The huge Calder mobile is dramatic in that huge space between the staircases. It becomes more dramatic when you learn that you can see sculptures by Calder's father and grandfather by looking through the windows behind you. Who knew? Pas moi.

The Philadelphia has a very comprehensive collection. This rainy Van Gogh is breathtaking. And we went to this small town on our thirty-fifth anniversary trip.

There are a few artists I always look for in a big art museum and I wasn't disappointed.

Here is the Elisabeth-Louise Vigée-Lebrun portrait of Madame du Barry. She's one of my favorite artists. I love her paintings and the story of her life which you can read online

They also have a Caillebotte. Not many people have those as Caillebotte was wealthy and sold very few of  his paintings. His heirs sold many of them in the 1950s. He loved to play around with perspective and there is so often a strong diagonal line in his paintings. The Wikipedia article on his life is worth a read. It's pitiful how a big part of his collection ended up in Pennsylvania when it should have been left in France.




So it was a grand trip. And we'll be going back. We certainly didn't see it all. And now we have some new favorites which we will want to visit again and again.

Photographs: Michael and Susan Denney. All rights reserved.