The Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET)
One of the must visit museums in New York is The MET (The Metropolitan Museum)... it is huge and amazing!
So on a windy November morning I set out solo on a subway to the MET.... I had no idea what to expect... and boy I was in an awesome suprise!
The MET is open from 10AM to 5:30 PM Sunday through Thursday and from 10AM-9PM on Fridays and Saturdays.
The entry fee is upto you....though the suggested fee is $25 for Adults and the digital tour guide is extra.
at the entrance..
The huge lobby cum sculpture gallery...
Sculpture section..
Marble column from the Temple of Artemis at Sardis
That is the Floor map....
Yup its huge!!!...... I had no idea how big this could be so I begain with Greek and Roman Art section... half an hour in I realised this would take forever... and I had just one day to spend... so I looked around asked for the european oil paintings section and I was refered to the the Robert Lehman Collection....
On the death of banker Robert Lehman in 1969, his Foundation donated 2,600 works of art to the museum. Housed in the "Robert Lehman Wing," the museum refers to the collection as "one of the most extraordinary private art collections ever assembled in the United States".
Unlike other departments at the Met, the Robert Lehman collection does not concentrate on a specific style or period of art; rather, it reflects Lehman's personal interests. Lehman the collector concentrated heavily on paintings of the Italian Renaissance, particularly the Sienese school. Paintings in the collection include masterpieces by Botticelli and Domenico Veneziano, as well as works by a significant number of Spanish painters, El Greco and Goya among them. Lehman's collection of drawings by the Old Masters, featuring works by Rembrandt and Dürer, is particularly valuable for its breadth and quality.
Following are images from the Robert Lehman's collection and few from other wings that intrested me...
Georgia O’Keeffe, American, 1887-1986East River from the Shelton Hotel, 1928
O’Keeffe painted this during her stay at the Shelton hotel which was then the world’s tallest hotel. She took advantage of the bird’s-eye view from her 13th floor apartment to capture this.
Painted in dull tones, it shows her displeasure with modern urban life.
© Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
© Wassily Kendinsky
© Henri Matisse
© Claude Monet
© Paul Signac
© Pollock
© Raphael
Madonna and Child Enthroned with saints (Oil and gold on wood)
Raphael painted this altarpiece around 1504/5 for the small Franciscan convent of Sant’ Antonio in Perugia.
The Colonna family in Rome acquired the altarpiece in 1678 and it is sometimes referred to by their name. Its purchase by the New York financier J. Pierpont Morgan received world press coverage.
Met has about 4-5 cafes and resturants and a cafetaria... Now the lesser I speak about the cafetaria the better it is.... but the Petrie Court Cafe had amazing soup, bread and lovely ambiance!
© Piet Mondrian..... I love his work...
© Pablo Picasso....
It was intersting to see Picasso's journey as an artist at Met... artworks of his various styles were at display...
© Pablo Picasso... painting of his lover Marie, reading at a table with the lamp...
© Pablo Picasso .... another painting of Marie now a new mother asleep at the table... probaly exhusted...
© Pablo Picasso..... Oil, sand and paper on Canvas.
© Giovanni Paolo Panini..... an amazingly detailed artwork!!
© Giovanni Paolo Panini ... Paintings in a painting ...mind blowing!!
© Rembrandt.... yes he gets a velvet wall!
© Rembrandt... more here... amazing portraits!!
view of the galleries in this section... it was like a maze...each gallery leading to 2-3 other galleries.... well there was no way I saw all of those 2700 paintings at the Robert Lehman Collection..
© Edward Hopper ......
My new love!! I first saw his work at MoMa few days earlier... and here at Met were few more artworks....
I am in awe of the colors and such stunning capture of light!...
© Edward Hopper... stunning work and he cleverly adds a sole figure... that single women sitting by the window up there...
© Edward Hopper
© Giovanni Battista Tiepolo...... was another love I discovered at Met.... his use of colors and the complexity of his compositions were amazing...
© Giovanni Battista Tiepolo...
these paintings were oil studies to be used for one of Tiepolo’s greatest religious works,
the large altarpiece in the apse of the cathedral at Este, near Padua.
You can see the value study !
It was beautiful day outside too!! Bit chill but loved the walk back to the Sub!
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