Pennsylvania Art Museums: Day 2/4

Friday, Nov. 1, 2019 - Wendy has a Retreat this Friday-Saturday-Sunday up in New Hampshire, so I'm leaving a day early for a 4-day road-trip, mostly focused on Pennsylvania Art Museums. I needed to do a mid-week day visit to see the University art collections (Penn and Drexel), so Friday I would visit Philadelphia Art Museums:


Although I would have 150 miles on the road today:

90% of that would be after Philadelphia. So the morning looks like this:

with a zoom-in on the important stuff:

The Red Circles are my Art Adventures, and the Black Xs are my parking stops.

This will be my first visit to Drexel University, so 2 weeks ago I wrote their Director of their Collection about seeing their 6 artworks by Edmund Darch Lewis (2), Thomas Moran, William Trost Richards, Felix Ziem and Giovanni Battista Piranesi. She wrote back that although the Lewis works are unavailable, we should be able to see the others - how does 10:30 AM sound?

Well, I think that sounds GREAT!

So my next question is Logistics - although Google Maps says it takes 27 minutes to go the 16.5 miles from the Econo Lodge to the parking lot at Drexel, how long does it REALLY TAKE??

So I took a nice picture of the Crosstrek in the morning light, and headed off to Philly a little after 8 AM:


I crossed over the Delaware River into northeast Philadelphia, and headed down into Central City:


Although there was traffic, we were all moving fairly nicely, and I was parked by 9 AM. So I took a quick walk over to 30th Street Station to see their beautiful statue by Walter Hancock, alternately called the "Pennsylvania Railroad World War II Memorial" and the "Angel of the Resurrection":



A magnificent piece in a magnificent space.

fyi On display in the Cape Ann Museum (Gloucester) are two scale models of the work, both done in plaster.

After I got my breath back, I still had plenty of time before Drexel, so I went over to Penn.

I have previously had a difficult time seeing the art collection at the University of Pennsylvania. Although they have a newly-renovated "Penn Museum", its former name was "The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology"; hence, no paintings. Their Paintings/Art Collection is scattered around campus (I can sort-of see that - they are now seen by many more people/students than if they were tucked away in a gallery). Penn has pieces by Thomas Cole, Auguste Rodin, William Stanley Haseltine, Utagawa Hiroshige, Andrew Wyeth, and N.C. Wyeth. Two weeks ago I started correspondence with the Art Collections Manager (Penn Art Collection, University of Pennsylvania), and she told me that although the Hazeltine and Andrew Wyeth pieces "are in private offices of senior university staff that are not available for viewing" [and the Hiroshige is in storage], the other 3 pieces can be seen around campus. So I made a map:

Well, the N.C. Wyeth was in Hill House Atrium. Since Hill House is a dorm, I need "an active Penn ID card" to enter the building; well, better luck next time. So I headed up Locust Walk, past my old Psi Upsilon frat house:


A little farther up Locust Walk was Steinberg Dietrich Hall, with Rodin's "Jean D'Aire", 1889 in the lobby:


Back down Locust Walk to the Van Pelt Library, and in their 6th Floor Reading Room is Thomas Cole's "The Last of the Mohicans: The Death of Cora":



I returned to Drexel, and had a cup of coffee while waiting for my 10:30


Lynn was right on time, and I was able to see Thomas Moran - "Ripening of the Leaf (Autumn on the Wissahickon)", 1863 oil:


William Trost Richards - "The Wissahickon", 1872 oil:


Other highlights include "The Storage Area":

where I got to see Piranesi's "Plan of Rome and the Campus Martius", 1774 engraving:



After saying "Thank You", I got back to my car. That was a great 4.5-mile morning walk around West Philadelphia:


I then drove over to my SpotHero parking lot on N 20th Street, and walked over-and-down to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. In addition to their regular (WONDERFUL) collection, they have a special exhibition - "From the Schuylkill to the Hudson: Landscapes of the Early American Republic", running from June 28 to Dec. 29, 2019


Highlights of the Exhibition and their Collection include:

Albert Bierstadt - "Niagara", 1869 oil:


Thomas Cole - "View of Sicily", 1842-45 oil:


Frederic Edwin Church - "Valley of Santa Ysabel, New Granada", 1875 oil:


they have a lovely display area next door in their original building:


Winslow Homer - "Fox Hunt", 1893 oil:


After a nice lunch in their cafeteria, I walked up to the Philadelphia Museum of Art:



I have been here 3 times before 4/22/2014, 10/24/2015 and 4/22/2017. I wanted to come back and get Better Pictures than I had gotten before - The place still looks great!

Not repeating myself from previous blogs, Wonderful Highlights include:

Thomas Cole - "Landscape, the Seat of Mr. Featherstonhaugh in the Distance", 1826 oil:
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Winslow Homer - "A Huntsman and Dogs", 1891 oil:


Winslow Homer - "A Temperance Meeting", 1874 oil:


Claude Monet - "Bend in the Epte River near Giverny", 1888 oil:


Claude Monet - "Poplars, Three Trees in Autumn", 1891 oil:


Claude Monet - "Poplars, End of Autumn", 1891 oil:


Vincent van Gogh - "Rain", 1889 oil:


Pablo Picasso - "Man with a Violin", 1911-12 oil:

This is 1-of-25 Picassos that I have taken a picture of in the past 6 years. I didn't think that I liked Picasso, but I think I will write a blog about them next week.

Canaletto - "The Bucintoro on Ascension Day, Docked in Front of the Doge's Palace", c. 1745 oil:


Francesco Guardi - "The Meeting of Pope Pius VI and Doge Paolo Renier at San Giorgio in Alga", 1782 oil:


Hubert Robert - "Ruins of a Roman Bath with Washerwomen", after 1766 oil:


J.M.W. Turner - "Bonneville, Savoy", c. 1812 oil:


Nice view from an upstairs window::


Said goodbye to the Museum, and walked back to my car - a good 5.7-mile afternoon hike:


Drove 135 miles out to the Super 8 in Carlisle, PA:

Dinner out at Chick-fil-A (and reading my Expanse scifi book) - WOW, What A GREAT Art Day!! Thank you God!

Today, for my listening pleasure, I am listening to a special Philadelphia-based selection from my iPod:

various artists - soundtrack to "Philadelphia", 1994


Todd Rundgren - Something/Anything?, 1972


The Who - Quadrophenia, 1973 double album

Pennsylvania Art Museums: Day 1/4

Thursday, October 31, 2019 - Wendy has a Retreat this Friday-Saturday-Sunday up in New Hampshire, so I'm leaving a day early for a 4-day road-trip, mostly focused on Pennsylvania Art Museums. I knew that I could get as far west as Pittsburgh (in 2 days):

Pisstburgh is far-left, and the other museums-I-could-get-to are on this map (Philadelphia on the far-right).

I needed to do a mid-week day visit to see the University art collections (Penn and Drexel), so Friday I would visit Philadelphia Art Museums:


Which left me Thursday to get down to that area. After my Thursday Mens Breakfast in Boston, I banged the corner in Albany, then headed south:


In addition to the Hudson River School, I really like Jackson Pollock's "drip paintings", and have been blessed to have seen 33-of-the-84 works he did between 1943 and 1954. Today I get to see "Number 12, 1952" (1952 oil) at the Empire State Plaza Art Collection, Albany, NY. Pretty impressive area:



The indoor mall area - not so impressive:


but it was great seeing the Pollock:


and also Paul Jenkins - "Phenomena Mistral Veil", 1970 acrylic:


45 minutes later I was down at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site:

Their 2019 exhibit was "Thomas Cole's Refrain: The Paintings of Catskill Creek", which ran from May 4 through Nov. 3, 2019 (ends Sunday!!!). There are 15 pieces on display in The New Studio, including 4 from "Private Collections". Very tastefully displayed:



Quite a contrast to the Albany State Plaza mall/concourse.

Highlights include:

Thomas Cole - "Autumn Landscape (View of Mount Chocorua)", 1827-28 oil [The Jack Warner Foundation, Tuscaloosa, Alabama]:


Thomas Cole - "View of Catskill Creek (formerly Distant View of Roundtop)", c. 1833 oil [Albany Institute of History and Art]:


Thomas Cole - "Mill Dam on the Catskill Creek", 1841 oil [Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, N.H.]:


Frederic Edwin Church - "The Catskill Creek", 1845 oil [Olana State Historic Site, Hudson, N.Y.]:


From Catskill, New York, I made it down to the Princeton University Art Museum by 5 PM:

Wendy and I had visited here in April 2014 - glad to see not much (outside) has changed:


Although many areas were closed for Exhibit Preparation, beautiful highlights include:

Claude Monet - "The Houses of Parliament, Seagulls", 1903 oil:


Claude Monet - "Meadow at Giverny", 1894 oil


J.M.W. Turner - "London, from Greenwich", 1811 etching and mezzotint


Giovanni Battista Piranesi - "The Man on the Rack", 1761 etching and engraving


And finally a "picture from across the room" - Childe Hassam - "Rainy Day, Fifth Avenue", 1916 oil:



Easy drive from Princeton down to the Econo Lodge in Mount Laurel, New Jersey (right across from Philadelphia). Pizza and Thursday Night Football - Thank you God for these wonderful adventures!

Today, for my listening pleasure, I am listening to a book-on-cd. My last day-trip to NYC worked out so well, listening to one, that I thought I would try Issac Asimov. "The Stars, Like Dust" is the first of his "Galactic Empire" series, and I got the 6 cds from Topsfield Library on Wednesday:



Well - it was lousy. I don't know if it was because it was written SO LONG AGO (1951) [although that was a part of it], or because it is actually a LOVE STORY [although that was a Big Part of it] - it was just a very dissatisfying audio experience for the day. Rock and Roll for the rest of this trip!

North Carolina visit to see Deede

Thurs., Oct. 24 - Sat., Oct. 26, 2019 - Although I saw Deede on the highway in Wyoming in August, it has been a while since Wendy had a "Deede fix", so we're going down to Durham to see her (she just started the Masters program in Environmental Science):


Although we were an hour late Thursday evening, the Raleigh-Durham Airport is pretty cool:


Deede picked us up, and we had a nice dinner out and then headed back to her place. She shares a house with 4 other girls, and they were all out-of-town for the weekend - plus one of them let Wendy and me stay in her room!

A nice Friday morning breakfast out:

and then we went over to Duke for a mini-tour:

Duke Chapel is Very Impressive:



Deede had classes/meetings that day, so Wendy and I headed southeast to the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh. They have 2 buildings, only the second of which had "nice" art. I had previously been here in March 2015, and it was great seeing pieces I remembered, along with some new beauties - highlights include:

Francesco Guardi - Roman Ruins near the Lagoon, circa 1765-1775 oil:


a pair of monumental paintings by Bernardo Bellotto:


Claude Monet - Waves at the Manneporte, 1883 or 1885 oil:


Yes, it is pretty cool hanging out with Monet:


The Museum's "American" area included:

Andrew Wyeth - Winter, 1946, 1946 tempera:

the detail is exquisite:


Thomas Moran - "Fiercely the red sun descending / Burned his way along the heavens", 1875-1876 oil:


Sanford Robinson Gifford - A Sketch at Mount Desert, Maine, 1864 oil:


William Keith - Mono Pass, Sierra Nevada Mountains, California, 1877 oil:


After I finished the "American" area (blue circle), I did a quick walk through their "Modern and Contemporary" areas (red circle):

Imagine my surprise when I discovered a Wonderful Bierstadt!!!!

Albert Bierstadt - Bridal Veil Falls, Yosemite, circa 1871-1873 oil:


This area is where they also put Andrew Wyeth's "Weather Side". From 1965, I guess that is more understandable ["Modern and Contemporary"]. But that is why I try to see ALL the Areas in a Museum - you just never know what you might encounter.

Friday afternoon Wendy and I did the "Parents Come To Town" stuff - filled the gas tank, got a car wash, fixed/replaced a damaged tire - car stuff. Low-key afternoon. Picked up Deede and had a nice walk through Durham:

and a fun dinner out.

Saturday morning we had a late-breakfast, then drove east for a 5.5 mile hike along Falls Lake:


It was a lovely day for a hike-in-the-woods:





Lunch, headed back to pack up, and Deede drove us to the airport. Super time in the Admirals Club, perfect flight home, and the end to a great 3-day adventure - Thank You God!!