Day 4 - 07/26/12 : Boston's Museum of Fine Arts / Skyscape
On this fourth day we were to visit the famous Museum of Fine Arts of Boston, and as an art history student, you can safely guess that my excitement was at its highest.
As you can see on this picture, the museum is gigantic, and it is as big in the inside. We did not have much time so we had to do a very quick and quite rushed visit of the museum. I could have spent the whole day there, but we only had three hours. All-in-all, it was a very satisfying visit though, for I have seen the art of many legendary artists from different periods of time, from ancient Egypt to contemporary art. It was amazing to see in real life some paintings and sculptures I have studied at university. It is a very different feeling to see the painting in real than a reproduction in a book. When you have it in front of you, you can feel an sense the aura the artwork has. I also love to get veeeeeeeery close to the paintings to see all the details and the touch of the artist, I was glad that we could get that close to the art, not all museums permit that. It was also permitted to take pictures so I have taken a few, though I was sometimes too absorbed by the artwork so I have not taken that much.
These are art by (from left to right) Paul Gauguin, Pablo Picasso, Oskar Kokoschka, Édouard Manet and Piet Mondrian. They are all artists and paintings I had studied at school and I was in awe in front of them haha. Sadly, Gauguin's D'où venons-nous, Qui sommes-nous, Où allons-nous? (I think it's not the exact title but I'm too lazy to look it up xD) was not at the museum at the time of the visit, it was lent to another museum -__- I was a bit disappointed, but I had seen enough awesome artwork from legendary artists that I was satisfied even without seeing this famous painting.
It was also great to see authentic art from ancient Greece. Up are some red-figures ceramic and the portrait of Homer, all originals from Greece. There was also a slightly disturbing Greek ceramic, here it is haha :
Apparently this was about the legend of Pan. We also came across a beautiful sculpture of Eros. You probably all know (even more if you have read my book :P) that Eros is one of my favourite deities so I liked the sculpture a lot
Crazy to think that was sculpted thousands of years ago and that it still looks so great! Another painting I was in awe in front of was Isabella and The Pot of Basil, by John White Alexander, an american symbolist painter. A truly amazing piece of art.
We also had fun trying to mimic this painting that was actually a painting representing the gallery we were in haha :
That was close, but my brother is not looking at the good side XD Anyways, that was a mind-buggling painting XD Oh another amazing piece, by one of my favourite artists ever, William Turner :
Gorgeous!!!! Here are a few pics of other artwork, if you have a question about any of them, just ask in the comments ^^ :
Visiting this museum has been an amazing experience, it was my first time seeing such legendary pieces and I loved it.
We would end the day by going to visit Boston's highest building, the Prudential Tower.
I had visited it before and the view from up there is truly amazing! I particulary enjoyed seeing well the golden dome of the capitol built by the architect Charles Bullfinch. Here are pictures taken from the tower :
So that's it for the day, I shall end this blog post by posting some pictures I have taken around town during the day. Boston has beautiful architecture, so here are a few pictures of it :
Day 5 - 07/27/12 : Nature Exposed / Road back Home
On the last day we went to visit Harvard's Museum of Natural History, which was basically exposing Dinosaur skeletons, animals, plants and rocks. It was very interesting, especially the rocks part which I love. Though there is not much to say for the pictures speak pretty much for themselves. I shall answer any question you have about them though ^^
After visiting that museum, it was time for us to go back home. It has been a short but wonderful trip to a place I love more and more after each visit. From the wonders of witch city to the liveliness of Boston, it had been an exciting week I will not forget soon :D
