Metropolitan Museum of Art

I have never taken a ride on a public bus in NYC- but, given the cold and the snow, I was more than happy to ride one directly from the Cloisters to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Ahh, the Met. I was there for 2 visits over two days for 5 hours total :-) I was able to see the Stieglitz, Steichen, Strand photography exhibit, Filippino Lippi's Restored Madonna and Child as seen below. The blue is even more vibrant and striking in person.

This was one of my favorite of the four Vermeer's that they had on display

My photo of one of Rembrandt's many self-portraits turned out blurry so I'm not including it

The Monet Sunflowers- which have a different feel to them than Van Gogh's sunflowers

I was in absolute HEAVEN in the impressionist-post impressionist section. I am glad that I read the panels next to the paintings in this section because I learned something new about Renoir.
Take a look at this painting-

Beautiful isn't it- but what makes it even more incredible is that Renoir painted this towards the end of his life when he was suffering from severe arthritis. His hands were so crippled that he had to sit in a wheelchair with a brush strapped to his hand to paint this. This painting is even MORE incredible to me after learning this. It shows just what a true artist he was, continuing to create even up until his death. His story reminds me of Matisse who was similarly affected by age and produced these amazing paper cutouts when he could no longer paint.

Here is an earlier painting from Renoir- just to compare and show how amazing talented he still was suffering from arthritis

The piece below is made up of several hundred (maybe even thousand) little mirrors which produce unique reflections when people stand in front of them. This is the type of modern art that I like.

Even with the two visits, there is still so much that I wasn't able to see. I bought a guidebook of the collection- which was quite helpful for the early 16th century European art- and I can't wait until I can visit again and see more of this amazing museum :-)