A Day with Monet

Claude Monet, The House Among the Roses

I have noticed recently that my blog has not included very many posts about what I have been doing in Madrid! Strange, since this is where I’m actually living and I explore A LOT. So today I am writing about my visit to the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza off of the Paseo del Prado in Madrid. While I have been to the Prado several times (I am taking an art history class there, how lucky am I?!), I had never been to the Thyssen-Bornemisza and wanted to go to see their collection of Monet’s work. There aren’t very many Monet paintings in Spain, and I just couldn’t wait another two weeks to go to France, so that’s how I ended up spending my day there today.

I had a wonderful time. My roommates and most of my friends took a weekend trip to Portugal, so I went all by my lonesome. This turned out to be a HUGE bonus as I could wander around at my own pace and ended up spending close to 3 hours in the museum. I was a little disappointed, as several of the Monet’s that the museum owns were being restored, but they had several out so I was still satisfied. The museum also had enough other well known artists and paintings to more than make up for the lack of Monet’s. These included Vincent Van Gogh, Edgar Degas, Caravaggio, Rubens, Ribalta, Salvador Dali, Roy Lichtenstein, Pablo Picasso, and many many other talented artists. Pictured below are some of my favorites from the museum, though I could not possibly post all of them.

Pablo Picasso, Bullfight

Salvador Dali, Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee around a Pomegranate a Second before Waking Up

Georgia O’Keeffe, From the Plains II

George Henry Durrie, Autumn in New England

Ribera, The Pietá

Vincent Van Gogh, “Les Vessenots” in Auvers

Edgar Degas, Racehorses in a Landscape

Roy Lichtenstein, Woman in Bath

These were just a few of the highlights for me, but there were so many great pieces by so many talented artists. I would highly recommend this museum for anyone who is at all interested in art and who is in the area. It has discounted tickets for students (mine was 7 euros to see the permanent collection, not bad at all). They also have time when people may enter for free, on Mondays from 12:00-6:00pm for the permanent collection. After my museum visit today, I went and grabbed a coffee as my feet were begging me for a break. So I sat inside and enjoyed warming up with a latte. I was feeling pretty good after walking around the museum, as you can see from my snap chat below…

Pinky out for being more cultured!

Next on my list of museums in Madrid is the Reina Sofia, the Museo Taurino (a bullfighting museum), and the Museo Archeologico. So when I get around to those, I will post summaries of those too! From now on, I’m going to try and post more what I have been up to in Madrid, so stay tuned for more Madrid blog posts!

 

Much love and happy traveling!