Museum of Fine Arts Boston

https://www.mfa.org/

The Museum of Fine Arts is vast, and you will not be able to see everything in a day. It is valuable to look at the museum map and decide what your priorities are going to be. The museum has a fabulous restaurant and cafe, which means you can spend the whole day there, and late openings are something to look out for.

I wanted to look at the American paintings, and was impressed with the landscape paintings, particularly those of Niagara, we have been there and it is a spectacular site.

My MOFA top ten are:

1) Le Domino Rose by John Humphreys Johnston - There is a lady in a vivid pink dress, sat down, leaning back, she has read a letter, and it looks like it is bad news, as she is looking away from the artist. The background of this painting is plain, dark, wooden furniture, her bushy hair is chestnut brown, and tied up with a some red ribbon. But, covering 2/3rd's of this painting is this voluminous, shimmering, folded, fuchsia pink dress. The museum have made this painting the centre-piece of a furnished space, with chairs, side boards, a tall clock, and a vase, that are fashionably Victoria, with an Eastern influence. The walls are papered with Bee paper, that reminds me of the Mark Twain House.

2) Postman Joseph Roulin by Vincent Van Gogh 1888 - Van Gogh wrote to his brother about the Postman, about his uniform, his beard and how he looked like Socrates. It is said that Van Gogh sympathised with Joseph Roulin's left wing politics. It's a hard job being a Postman, fairly relentless, and in this painting, he sits at a table, looking proud in his royal blue uniform, a matching cap, with gold brocade and buttons. He is looking confidently at the painter with vivid blue eyes, and his bushy beard and eyebrows, a mix of short, purposeful, linear, thick oil paint in browns, yellows, orange and white. His hands look arthritic from the work. 

3) Niagara Paintings - there were two large, great paintings of Niagara, one by William Morris Hunt 1879 and this one by George Innes 1884. I think this one is a bit more life-like, you get more of a sense of the power of the water, as it crashes foaming down the falls, the painting shows both sides of the waterfall, a small rainbow has formed over the blue green water, you can see the small town in the distance, and a solitary bird in the sky. 

4) Parakeets and Gold Fish Bowl by Louis Comfort Tiffany - Full of fabulous bright colours, the greens of the parakeets and the plants, the blue of the sky, the yellows of the goldfish and the parakeet's heads, and the white fluffy clouds, all surround the blooming, bending, branches of the pink flowered magnolia tree.

5) Men's Redingote by a Métis artist - made from tanned hide, porcupine quills and Venetian glass beads. The embroidery and all the detail on it is superb. I can imagine the wearer, tall, slim, weather worn, and tough, but also the jacket shows someone fun and loved.

6) At Dusk (Boston Common at Twilight) by Childe Hassam - we had walked along this part of Boston Common, although on a very hot day, and I liked the familiarity of the scene, the sunset, the orange glow, that contrasted with the browns of the people, buildings and trees, and then with the greys and whites of the snow.

7) The Slave Ship by JMW Turner - it is a gruesome painting, and if you look at my London page I said that the painting there is his best, but having seen this, this is probably his most memorable, and conveys his opinion about the atrocities of slavery.

8) The museum has a whole room dedicated to Claude Monet, with some fabulous haystack paintings, and the wonderful painting of Reims Cathedral. But, most unique is La Japonaise 1876, a portrayal of his wife Camille in a deep red kimono, holding a concertina fan, with a range of Japanese fans on the wall behind her, and two on the floor. I was interested in this Monet painting as it is so different from all the other Monet paintings I have seen. It is said that Monet did not like it, and only painted it for money, and it caused controversy at the MFA when they organised a replica kimono to be made for visitors to try on.

9) Long Branch, New Jersey by Winslow Homer 1869 -  A bright summer seaside scene, on the right of the painting are two fashionable young ladies, holding their parasols, while looking out over the edge of a grassed clifftop, a stilted grey beach hut is halfway down the sandy cliff, and at the bottom left of the painting is the busy beach, and the calm blue, grey sea.

10) Mother and Child in a Boat by Edmund Charles Tarbrell 1892 - He was one of the Ten American Painters, who exhibited together, and an American Impressionist who spent time training in France and Italy. This painting is of his own wife and child,  who often modelled for his paintings. The water is painted with thick broad strokes, with blue and whites. Her dress is similarly painted in pinks, whites and blues. The rowing boat is moored at the edge of the river. Light dapples over the water, the boat, her dress and the babies white dress.

Isabella Stewart Gardner museum

https://www.gardnermuseum.org/

More of an old Venetian palace filled with paintings, tapestries and furniture. A unique gallery that Isabella Stewart Gardner had built in 1903. There are some fabulous paintings displayed quite uniquely, in rooms that look designed around the paintings. The building has dusky pink and grey walls, old arched windows, and an atrium centre which features a pretty garden with flowers, mosaic floor and sculptures. It is excellent for great photos.

Isabella Stewart Gardner was passionate about Venice, where she and her husband Jack would stay at the Palazzo Barbaro on the Grand Canal. In 1897, they travelled across Venice, Florence, and Rome to collect architectural fragments for the house and gallery. Purchasing old Italian columns, windows, and doorways for every floor of their new building, as well as reliefs, balustrades, capitals, and statues from the Roman, Byzantine, Gothic, and Renaissance periods. Unfortunately her husband died, but they had already an idea to purchase land on the Fens area, that they may have know was going to be close to the new Museum of Fine Arts. Isabella then made sure the building matched her desires, visiting most days and letting the builders know if they needed to do things differently.

By late 1901 the construction was almost finished and Isabella moved into her fourth floor apartment, and then spent time arranging her paintings, sculptures, tapestries, furniture, manuscripts, rare books and decorative arts. 

She continued to purchase more items and display them over her lifetime. This is why it feels like such a personal collection and that it is not like an art gallery at all. 

Of course there was also the heist that took place in the early morning hours of March 18, 1990, 13 works of art were stolen. The case is still unsolved, no works have been recovered and they are valued at hundreds of millions of dollars. 

My favourite paintings in the museum are:

1. The Rape of Europa By Titian - It was the first authentic Titian painting to arrive in America, and demonstrates her great taste in paintings. I also love the Titan painting Bacchus and Ariadne at the National Gallery in London, in an ideal world these would sit side by side. The detail, the story, the skills and the blue, are extraordinary in both paintings. 

  2.  The John Singer-Sargent painting La Jelea in the Spanish Cloister. I enjoyed this huge painting for the                  light, the fabric, the movement of the dancer, the nighttime feel and the musician asleep.

  3.  John Singer-Sargent’s painting of Isabella Stewart-Gardner. It really shows his admiration of her, she                  looks glorious.

  4.  Gerard Ter Borch - The Music Lesson - this painting is reminiscent of a Vermeer painting, the                           placement of his hand above the music gives the painting depth, the light of the fabric of her dress and           the fur on her jacket are both very skillfully executed.

  5.  Virgin and Child with Angel by Sandro Botticelli - The vivid blue, their beautiful Botticelli faces, the angel’s          gathered fabric, and the 3D effect with the countryside in the distance.