Museum of Fine Arts-Boston

Recently, Albertus had a day off from classes and I decided to take advantage of that day and take a road trip to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts. So on Monday, February 20th., 2012, my boyfriend Mike, my close friend Chris, and I, all went on a trip on that windy and sunny day. The trip up there took a little over two and a half hours, but with great company, it went by quickly. Mike likes museums and history and Chris is a web designer and graphics art designer and loves art so they were great companions to go with on this trip.


The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, originally was open to the public at a different location on Copley Square, also in Boston. This building was designed by Sturgis and Brigham. It opened on July 4th in 1876 and contained 5600 pieces of art. Many people came to view the works and as popularity grew, it was decided that it would be moved to a new building on Huntington Avenue in May of 1909. It is called the Beaux Arts Building designed by a Boston architect by the name of Guy Lowell. For the on coming years, the museum would continue to grow and new additions would be built to create more space for more beautiful works of art. In February of 1915, another wing was added that was also designed by Guy Lowell. Another part of his design, the Decorative Arts Wing was added in November of 1928. This wing allowed for more collections of European and American decorative art. In June, 1970, Hugh Stubbins designed the George Robert White Wing which was added to the west side of the building. More added onto the west side of the building was the West Wing designed by I.M. Pei. It opened in July of 1981 and contained space for exhibitions, restaurants, and shops. As the years went by, more art was added and more rooms were added as well. In September of 2011, the Linde Family Wing for Contemporary Art opened and as of today, the Museum of Fine Arts contains 450,000 works of art including Egyptian and Contemporary Art and is visited by over one million people each year.

Statue in the front lobby
when you first walk in.

Beautiful mural when you look
 up in the center of  the museum.



Corner of the Church of
San Stae, Venice.
John Singer Sargent, 1913
Oil On Canvas

Triad of Penmeru
Old Kingdom Dynasty
Limestone



As I approached the museum, I was in utter awe of the size of it, just from the outside. There was a line out the door to get in, however, it went by very quickly but it gave me time to look around and see how truly massive the museum looked just from the outside. The entrance towered over me, which really got me excited to get inside and look around.  When we finally got in, my first impression of being inside was a little overwhelming. I did not know where to start. There are so many different wings and floors to go to and therefore I just started to walk straight ahead to see what was there. The middle of the museum, when you look up, there is a gorgeous mural on the ceiling. The mural looks like a fresco made in the 16 hundreds and is absolutely beautiful. In that same center area, there were some paintings and drawings from various artists that were beautiful as well such as the painting created by John Singer Sargent in 1913 with oils on canvas called Corner of the Church of San Stae, Venice. It had beautiful lighting to it and shading as well as amazing detail.



Letter to the Dead
2350-2150 BC,
Old Kingdom Dynasty
Ink on Papyrus





Two Handed Amphora with
Achilles and Ajax playing a 
Board Game
Archaic Period-525-520 B.C.
Ceramic; Red-Figure and
Black-Figure Techniques

Around the corner from that area was Egyptian and Roman art. I have always been fascinated by the Roman and Egyptian stories and learned even more during my art history course last semester. Therefore when I saw this section of the museum, I got really excited. See the Triad of Penmeru from the Old Kingdom Dynasty was really exciting as well as looking at the Letter to the Dead from the Old Kingdom Dynasty. That letter was so fragile and delicate, but was so interesting to look at. I also got to see some amphora in the Roman section that I was really interested in after learning about them in art history last semester. The Achilles and Ajax Playing a Board Game amphora was one that we had talked about in class so it was really exciting seeing it in person.





Gilbert Stuart

George Washington 1796

oil on canvas

In the American wing, there were amazing paintings that represented our history. There were massive paintings that took up an entire wall and others that showed historical leaders. One example was the painting by Gilbert Stuart. He painted a portrait of George Washington in 1796 with oils on canvas. The painting is such a historical painting for our country and to see it right in front of me was inspirational. He is the father of our country and so I was really excited to see this piece. There was also a hallway near the American wing covered from top to bottom of paintings that were all amazing to look at as well.



Edward R. Thaxter
Meg Merrilies 1881
Marble

Another piece that I got to see that was really amazing was a piece by Edward R. Thaxter. It was in between wings but the carved marble has such an amazing expression on it that I had to stop and look at it.
There were many exhibits at the MFA during the time that I was there. Including a Wood Sculpture exhibit created by Ellsworth Kelly. I was a little hesitant about these pieces because most of them were not actually sculptures at all, they were planks of wood stood on their side or standing lengthwise. It was one of the areas that I was not too impressed with because I did not understand it, however, I'm sure that if I looked into it and learned about the artist, I would have a better understanding. There were also areas that showed different rooms from the 1700s and the 1800s. They contained different rooms that would be in a wealthy home and had beautiful beds with draperies and silk fabrics. It was very interesting to look at and learn about the history of interior design. 

Cosimo Rosselli
Virgin and Child with an Angel
1470, oil and tempera on panel

There was a wing that contained more modern art such as this piece (the the left) which was located in the middle of the room. It used a mirror affect to make the one row of silver artifacts look endless. There were four sides to the piece and each side looked like this. Working at the Trail of Terror allowed me to know how this affect was done, with two way mirrors and other mirrors. However, I never got to see it done with this type of look with the silver pieces and lighting being so bright. 

Bernardino Luini
Salome with the Head of Saint
John the Baptist
oil on panel

Another wing, the Art of Europe, contained a lot of religious arts including a piece by Cosimo Rosselli. This piece was called Virgin and Child with Angel created with oil and tempera in 1470 on panel. This piece was another that I had learned about in art history class so I was pleased to see this piece before my eyes. Another piece in that wing was a piece by Bernardino Luini with oils on panel called Salome with the Head of Saint John the Baptist. This piece reminded me of the paper I recently wrote about John the Baptist and the painting by Leonardo Da Vinci. So I knew the story and remembered what had happened to the baptist.

Vincent van Gogh
Postman Joseph Roulin 1888
oil on canvas

Arcus III
Cast Glass 1994

I was also lucky enough to see more Van Gogh paintings including a postman and his wife. The one of the postman was called, Postman Joseph Roulin created with oils on canvas in 1888. There were quite a few of him there as well as an entire section of Monet's that I got to see as well.
On my way out, I saw some more modern pieces. One that had caught my eye was a cast glass piece made in 1994 created by Arcus III. This piece, although there was only white around the edges, made it seem as though it was glowing. It was a miraculous piece. 

Oscar-Claude Monet was born on the 14th of November, 1840 in Pari to Claude-Adolphe Monet and

Louise-Justine Aubree Monet. In 1845, his family moved to Le Havre in Normandy. He also had an older

brother Leon. His father owned a grocery store business and wanted his son to join him. But, Monet wanted to be an artist. In 1851, he went to the Le Havre secondary school of Arts. He had also became well known for his charcoal caricatures which sold for 10-20 francs apiece. Monet took his first drawing lesson from Jacques-Francois Orchard. In 1856 he met Eugene Boudin who, as his mentor, taught him the technique of using oil paints "en plein air" (outdoors).

His mother died in 1867. He was 16. He left school and went to live with his aunt Madame Lecarde. In

1861-1868, he joined the army and was sent to Algiers . Over there, he contracted typhoid and his aunt

intervened and brought him back if he promised he would complete an art course at a university.

Monet did not like the teachings of traditional art at the universities and became a student of Charles

Gleyre in Paris. He was also inspired by Johann Barthold Jongkind who did landscapes.

Claude Monet’s painting ‘Camille’ drew attention to his work in 1866. He later married her., Camille

Doncieux. In 1870. She also had their first child, Jean. In 1868, Claude Monet attempted to commit suicide by throwing himself into the Seine, due to money issues .In 1872, he painted “ Sunrise’ depicting a scene at Le Havre. Art critic Louis Leroy criticized Monet and depicted his painting with the term ‘Impressionism’ and it stuck.

In 1878, Monet’s second child with Camille, Michel was born. In 1879, Camille died of tuberculosis. After Camille died he moved in with Ernest Hoschede, who was a store owner and patron of the Arts. After Ernest went bankrupt, his wife Alice helped raise Monet’s sons and their own 6 children. After Ernest died, Monet married Alice in 1892.

During the 1880s and 1890s, He painted a subject in several light and weather conditions. He would

spent hours painting one landscape over and over again in different lights and times. In 1911, Alice died and in 1914 his son Jean also passed away. Monet also developed cataracts. He had surgery to correct cataracts and then re-painted some of pictures because he noticed a red tinge in the pictures that he did not like. December 5, 1926, Monet died of Lung Cancer. He is buried in the Giverny church cemetery. He had

asked for a simple ceremony, and only 50 visitors attended his funeral.

The two paintings that I photographed of Monet's are called the Rouen Cathedral, they are both depictions of the Rouen Cathedral one in the morning light and the other during the day. They were painted both in 1894 and are created on canvas with oil paints. I thought that these paintings were beautifully done and the technique that he used looked like a stipple affect. The way that he was able to do short pokes of a brush and form such masterpieces was amazing to me.

Monet's painting in this series, devoted to the Rouen Cathedral, began in 1892 and continued until 1894. He took a room above a shop in the rue Grand-Pont where he could observe the west front of the church. He broke off to return to Giverny but resumed work at Rouen in the spring of 1893. The rest of that year and most of 1894 was spent in completing the paintings from memory. He painted twenty pictures ranging in effect from dawn to sunset, and are  exhibited at Durand-Ruel's gallery in 1895 with great success. As always, the pictures gave him intense difficulties, which threw him into despair. He had vivid nightmares of the cathedral in various colors – pink, blue and yellow – falling upon him… [Monet wrote:] ‘Things don’t advance very steadily, primarily because each day I discover something I hadn’t seen the day before… In the end, I am trying to do the impossible.’ (224).





Bibliography

• "Architectural History". Museum of Fine Arts: Boston, 2012. mfa.org/about/architectural-history
• "Claude Monet Biography". A & E Television Networks LLC. Bio. True Story: 1996-2012. biography.com/people/claude-monet-9411771
• "Museum History". MoMA. NYC, 2012. moma.org/about/history
• "Rouen Cathedral Series" Monet. 2012.  http://www.learn.columbia.edu/monet/swf/

Here is a video of Monet painting. It's a silent, black and white film, but it's interesting watching him. I did not even know that there was video of him so when I stumbled upon this, I was extremely excited. Its memorizing watching him work.