Saturday, December 21, 2019

the Fogg Museum (and Mass. Historical Society)

Saturday, Dec. 21, 2019 - A week after Wendy's Ordination, we went into Boston/Cambridge for a fun date-day. I last saw the Fogg Museum 5 years ago, and I have been wanting to get back to it - they have a nice Winslow Homer exhibition, which only runs through Jan 5, 2020:


But I'm getting ahead of myself. Earlier this month I had gone into Berklee College of Music to see a couple of semester-end recitals - the Jimi Hendrix Ensemble and the Blue Note Ensemble. I REALLY Like doing this - the events are free, the kids are wonderful musicians, the venues are small recitals rooms (one was the size of my playroom!), and they are working hard to keep the music alive:



Well, right next door is a building I have never noticed before - the Massachusetts Historical Society:

and on Sat Dec 21 they are having a 10 AM tour of "The History & Collections of the MHS". So that was our first stop this morning:

Um, if you like portraits, and learning about the Revolutionary War Period, then this place IS FOR YOU. For me, not so much.

But they did have a nice map hanging in an office:



We then drove over to Cambridge and, after a fun lunch at Bartley's, we got to the Fogg Museum:


We started on the 3rd floor, and worked our way down, so the Winslow Homer exhibit was the first thing we saw:

"Gloucester Harbor and Dory", 1880 watercolor:


"The Lookout", 1882 watercolor:


"Sea Garden", 1885 watercolor:


"Canoe in Rapids", 1897 watercolor:


Other wonderful pieces in the collection include:

Utagawa Hiroshige - "Mimasaka Province: Yamabushi Valley (Mimasaka, Yamabushidani)", 1853 woodblock print:


Francesco Guardi - "The isola della Madonnetta on the Lagoon of Venice", c. 1785-90 oil:


Canaletto - "Piazza San Marco, Venice", c. 1730-34 oil:


Sanford Robinson Gifford - "Leander's Tower on the Bosporus", 1876 oil:


Jasper Cropsey - "Morning Fog", c. 1854-55 oil:


Albert Bierstadt - "Rocky Mountains, "Lander's Peak"", 1863 oil:


Claude Monet - "Red Boats, Argenteuil", 1875 oil:


Claude Monet - "The Gare Saint-Lazare: Arrival of a Train", 1877 oil:


Claude Monet - "Charing Cross Bridge: Fog on the Thames", 1903 oil:


John Singer Sargent - "Lake O'Hara", 1916 oil:


Pablo Picasso - "Mother and Child", c. 1901 oil:


Pablo Picasso - "The Pomegranate", 1911-12 oil:


Pablo Picasso - "Still Life with Inkwell", c.1911-12 oil:


Jackson Pollock - "No. 2", 1950 mixed media on canvas:


detail:


Wendy got back to Christ the Redeemer for a 3 PM appointment - Thank You God for a Great little adventure!!

Audio today - Wendy continued reading me a book she loved, and it sounds GREAT:

Robin Sloan - Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, 2013