Museum of fine arts

Friday started like this:
- What are we doing today Cecile?
- Er... Sorry guys you're not going to like this... We're going to a museum.
- What kind of museum?
- The museum of fine arts. Pleeeeease behave, I'm begging you...
- Mmm, it's true that we weren't very nice at the JFK museum. But you say we're going to the museum of fine arts? That's different. Fine arts is interesting, it's not like that museum about a guy we don't know and don't care about.

Kennedy, a guy they don't know and don't care about? Oh Lord forgive them for they don't know what they're saying.

Anyway, we went to the museum of fine arts. It is a huge museum with a lot of artworks of all kinds placed in rooms according to where they come from. So there's an American section, a European section, an Asian section and so on.

After making sure my kids got my message (something in the lines of "If you don't behave I'll kick your asses") I went on my own and I decided to start with the American section. I'm in the US and well decided to make the most of my stay to learn things. The first thing I learned is that if you walk on your own in a museum wearing a cute little summer dress, there are good chances that the security guy will have a crush on you and will find plenty of reasons to come and talk to you and won't leave you alone. You can always try to say a "I'd like to see the exhibit now" and he'll say "ok, enjoy the exhibit", you'll go watch a painting and he'll be back a few minutes later with another reason to chat. "What are you looking for? Can I help you?" or "Sooo, what kind of art do you like the most?" (here you can answer anything, the guy just has no idea and regrets asking this the moment you answer.), or even, and here I was offended "Excuse me, are you in charge of those kids? You cannot let them wander around, you have to stay with them." What? So I should hold 13 hands and walk around the museum with them all? Any other silly suggestion?

But I'm very good at avoiding people who annoy me and I managed to get rid of the guy and enjoy the exhibit. Here are pictures of the paintings I liked the most. Well, I really liked two of them and found the one with the shark funny.

John Singer Sargent - The daughters of Edward Darley Boit, 1882

John Singleton Copley - Watson and the Shark, 1778

Thomas Doughty - Mountain and Lake, 1834

When I left the American section, which is just one small section of this huge museum, I saw two of my students sitting on the stairs.
- You don't want to see the museum?
- Oh, we're finished already. We've seen everything.
It took them about half an hour. What was I expecting?

As I promised the kids they wouldn't have to stay more than an hour in the museum, I waited for everyone to come back to our meeting point, made sure they all got their things back and left alright, and then I came back into the museum to see other sections. Following the kids' advice, I went to the music section. It was a room full of old music instruments of all kinds. Of course I immediately spotted the oboes and stayed a moment there, admiring the ancestors of my instrument. There were all sorts of oboes as well as the rest of the double reed family, including my personal favourite, the English horn.

By the way, do you know that there's nothing English about the English horn? The country of oboes is France, and the name English horn comes from the French "cor anglais", which is a confusion. Originally the English horn had an angle in the middle and was therefore called "cor anglé", which, with time, became "cor anglais" and was translated "English horn". Any questions?

The double reed family

Oboes

English horn

I went on to the Asian section and was dazzled by the collection of kimonos they had there. They were gorgeous! I remember when I was reading the Memoirs of a Geisha and wishing I could see all the kimonos that were described in the book. Now I got to see some, and it really is something beautiful. Here's a photo of one of them, but as flash photography wasn't allowed in the museum, the quality of the photo is really bad and it doesn't show at all how gorgeous these kimonos were.

There was an old man in the room who was also amazed by this and he came to speak to me. We talked a little, and when he told me I should go to the NYMet museum, I told him I couldn't because I don't live in the US and I'm leaving in a week.
- Oh, and where are you from?
- France.
- Really? Your English is very good, I didn't detect any accent.
Hahaaaaaaa! I was mentally doing a victory dance. But to be honest, that old man must be half deaf because despite all my efforts I do have an accent. But anyway, I felt very proud for a few minutes.

I've been criticising my students about not being interested by museums and leaving as soon as they could, but to be honest, I'm not much into museums myself and I cannot stay very long either. So I did the Chinese and the Muslim sections quickly, skipped many other sections and decided to finish with the European section. And I was surprised to see Degas' Little 14 year old dancer there. I'm pretty sure I saw that sculpture a few years ago in the Tate Modern in London. I've tried to find out if there were several copies or if it was travelling around, I didn't find any information on that. If anybody knows about that, information is welcome.

So, that was my exciting Friday afternoon. Coming soon on the Pigdog Diaries: How I followed the red brick road and saw marvellous things along the way.