Today I will be heading back east, hitting only 1 museum and covering 375 miles:
As I was originally mapping this all out, I was going to be coming straight home today, getting back in time for the 7 PM Town Meeting. As they always do, they had me going over the George Washington Bridge through upper Manhattan - which I hate to do. But then I thought that maybe The Met might be open on Mondays (which is when almost ALL Museums are closed). And YES, THEY ARE OPEN ON MONDAYS (at 10 AM)!! So I did a $25 SpotHero parking spot on 89th Street for 9:30-to-3. Although "the map says" it should only take me 2-and-1/2 hours to go the 146 miles into the Upper East Side, I decided to hit the road at 6:44 AM. It was a bit chilly on the highway:
First sighting of The City at 9 AM:
I was able to be at The Met at 10:13
VERY COOL SPACE:
OK - just to get things straight, The Met (formerly The Metropolitan Museum of Art) is a WORLD-CLASS ART MUSEUM. That means that, if you have access, you can see examples of every artistic movement (certainly in Western Civilization, but also to a lesser extent The World). It also means that you will see at least a couple of the pieces in ANY list of the "Top-200 Pieces of Art in the World". I have visited here 3 times in the last 10 years (Nov. 22, 2013 [no blog], Oct. 8, 2019, and April 9, 2021), and have taken pictures of over 200 items.
32 of the images have appeared in my 2 previous blogs. There were 3 duplicates: "The Temple of Dendur", Thomas Moran's "The Teton Range", and Canaletto's "Piazza San Marco". Since The Temple of Dendur is "closed for something", and The American Wing is closed to prepare for an upcoming Fashion Exhibition, I don't have much chance of repeating those.
But there is a wonderful Winslow Homer exhibition:
Similar to my trip to the MFA with Wendy in April, The "Homers-of-wonderfulness" fall into 4 categories:
1 - BLOCKBUSTERS that I have seen (but love to see again):
"The Veteran in a New Field", 1865 oil (The Met):
"The Fog Warning (Halibut Fishing)", 1885 oil (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA):
"Undertow", 1886 oil (Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA):
"The Gulf Stream", 1899, reworked by 1906 oil (The Met):
2 - watercolors that are NEVER on display because of their fragility:
"A Basket of Clams", 1873 watercolor (The Met):
"After the Hunt", 1892 watercolor (Los Angeles County Museum of Art):
"Hudson River", 1892 watercolor (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA):
"Nassau", 1899 watercolor (The Met):
3 - HIS OCEAN PICTURES:
"Cannon Rock", 1895 oil (The Met):
"Northeaster", 1895; reworked by 1901 oil (The Met):
"Early Morning after a Storm at Sea", 1900-03 oil (The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH):
4 - There are 11 paintings that are from Private Collections:
"Shark Fishing", 1885 watercolor:
"Rest", 1885 watercolor:
"Diamond Shoal", 1905 watercolor:
Other WONDERFUL pictures throughout The Met include:
John Constable -"Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop's Grounds", ca. 1825 oil
Vincent van Gogh - "Cypresses", 1889 oil:
Claude Monet - "Poppy Fields near Argenteuil", 1875 oil:
Claude Monet - "Haystacks (Effect of Snow and Sun)", 1891 oil:
Claude Monet - "The Path through the Irises", 1914-17 oil:
Claude Monet - "Water Lilies", 1919 oil
Pablo Picasso - "At the Lapin Agile", 1905 oil:
There are 2 EXCELLENT Jackson Pollock paintings in their collection - "Number 28, 1950", 1950 [shown in my April 9, 2021 blog) and "Autumn Rhythm (Number 30)", 1950 enamel on canvas:
Edward Hopper - "Office in a Small City", 1953 oil
Pablo Picasso - "Still Life with a Bottle of Rum", 1911 oil:
Johannes Vermeer - "Young Woman with a Lute", ca. 1662-63 oil:
Daniel Chester French - "Mourning Victory from the Melvin Memorial", 1906-8; this carving, 1912-15 marble
Daniel Chester French - "The Angel of Death and the Sculptor from the Milmore Memorial", 1889-93; this carving, 1921-26 marble:
Another "Great Space":
Tiffany Studios - "View of Oyster Bay", 1908 (Lent by the Charles Homer Morse Museum of American Art, Winter Park, FL):
wonderful galleries:
Canaletto - "The Grand Canal, Venice, Looking South toward the Rialto Bridge", 1730s oil:
Francesco Guardi - "The Island of San Michele, Venice", 1770s oil:
And ending with a piece from The Henry R. Luce Center for the Study of American Art - a visible-storage facility. I call it "The Annex".
William Louis Sontag - "River Landscape", ca. 1865 oil:
MapMyWalk at The Met (4.99 miles):
After leaving The Met, I walked down 81st Street, past our old apartment:
Our old "corner bar" where I proposed back in November 1978 ("Willie's") is long gone. It is replaced by another restaurant: Emmy Squared Pizza, and I had a great lunch:
It was a bit cool when I got back to Manchester-by-the-Sea, just in time for our Town Meeting:
1,805 miles in 4 days - Thank You God for all these Wonderful Adventure/Art Days!!!
Music for today:
Steve Forbert - Jackrabbit Slim, 1979 second album
And because I'm going to NEW YORK CITY: Dave Matthews Band - Live In New York City, 2010 live double-album
Drive-By Truckers - Southern Rock Opera / Act I & II, 2001 double album
Gearwhore - Drive, 2006 first album
Kylie Minogue - Ultimate Kylie, 2007 double album
Shameless Plug: if you enjoy this blog, you may like my other one about Hiking the 4,000 footers in New Hampshire/Vermont/Maine/New York:
hyperlink: dixonheadingnorth
http://dixonheadingnorth.blogspot.com/
