In Which I Visit the Last Museums

Flashback to Monday!

By my parents' recommendations, I watched the documentary Herb & Dorothy Monday morning as I packed.  The film tells the story of the New York couple who put together one of the greatest post-modern art collections in the country on the salaries of a postal worker and a librarian.  The film ends with their donation of over 4500 works to the National Gallery of Art, which now displays several of their pieces in the modern art wing.  It's worth watching before you visit - for the first time I looked eagerly at each placard to hunt for the "From the Herb and Dorothy Vogel Collection" text. I also recognized some of the art work from the movie, like the series behind me in the picture I took for my parents:




These bronze hands were not from the Vogels, but I liked the effect of the cluster:




My dad challenged me before I left for DC to find Dali's version of the Last Supper. Happily I did:



although why it is hung in a dim hallway next to the elevators, I don't know.


The modern art collection on display was actually surprisingly sparse, although I did love the airiness of the museum's design:




The west building, which houses the older collections, has a more traditional look:




I loved the tunnel that connected the modern art wing to the west building:



The lights ripple in patterns as you cross.

I covered the entire collection in the west building. Here are some pieces that caught my eye:

"Hide and Seek" by James Jacques Joseph Tissot

"The Dinner Horn" by Winslow Homer

"Neapolitan Fisherboy" by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux

"Woman with a Balance" by Johannes Vermeer (a Humanities class favorite!)

"Esther and Mordecai" by Hendrick Van Steenwijk the Younger

"Antwerp Cathedral" by Peeter Neeffs the Elder

"The Fall of Man" by Hendrick Goltzius

"Two Women at a Window" by Bartolome Esteban Murillo

"Nymph of the Fields" by Pittaluga

And, hey! Look what I found:

"Young Girl Reading" by Jean-Honore Fragonard

C'est moi!

After the interior museums closed for the day I wandered through the sculpture garden next door, then took the metro to the Kennedy Center for a Millenium Stage concert.   I got there ten minutes early, but it was already standing-room only:



It was a jazz quartet that included a vibraphonist. I've never heard a vibraphonist play jazz before. I enjoyed it.

Back on the metro then to meet Jason for dinner at Georgia Brown's:

Fried Green Tomato (gourmet version)

Steak, Frites, and Rocket Salad

We had a non-eventful evening after dinner - just chatting and going through Jason's new book about container gardening. It was a quiet way to wrap up my time in DC.