Travels Past - a visit to one of the World's Oldest and Largest Museums - The State Hermitage Museum located on the banks of the River Neva in Saint Petersburg has over 3 million works of art. Founded by Catherine the Great in 1764 as her private museum it adjoined the Winter Palace. It opened to the public in 1852 and today includes the Winter Palace along with four other connected buildings.
Outside the Museum as we await our scheduled entry:
The view at the entry:
One of the first exhibited paintings after climbing the staircase:
Rembrant's "The Return of the Prodigal Son" has been ranked as the Museum's Number One Painting. It is Rembrant's largest religious painting. Painted in 1669 it was acquired by a Russian diplomat in France and has been at the Hermitage since the founding of the United States in 1776!
Stepping back, one appreciates the painting's size:
The Hermitage Museum's Number Two ranked painting is Leonardo da Vinci's "Madonna Litta." Like the Louve's Mona Lisa it is of a much smaller size than the Rembrant:
Ranked Number Five is Van Gogh's "Thatched Cottages" which he painted in 1890 several months before he died. Although then living in France it has been suggested that the subject reflects back on his homeland in the Netherlands. The Hermitage acquired it in 1719 from the collector Sarra Motozov:
Paul Gauguin's "The Woman Holding Fruit" Ranks as Number Six. Painted in 1893 on Gauguin's first visit to Tahiti, the museum also acquired it in 1719 from the collector Sarra Motozov. The painting was originally known as "Where are you Going?" Following it is another Gauguin painting from his time in Tahiti:
The Guide directs us to one of his favorites, "The Birth of John the Baptist" by Venetian Painter Jacopo Tintoretto of the Robusti Family, It was painted in 1550:
Two of Renoir's Paintings found in the Impressionist Hall include "Girl with a Fan" and "Child with a Whip." The child holding the whip is actually a five year-old boy, the son of a French Senator. In 1885 when it was painted it was common for boys to dress as depicted.
While also not in the top ten, Leonardo Da Vinci's "Madonna with a Flower" is another of the Hermitage Museum's most popular paintings:
Stepping aside from the paintings, this courtyard located between the museum buildings has a special historical tale to tell. When then named Leningrad was under siege by Germany in World War II, food crops were grown here to help sustain the starving Russians. (In 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union Leningrad was renamed Saint Petersburg.)
Here are some selected works of art captured by my camera at the Hermitage:
For the finale, here is Charles Cottet's "View of Venice from the Sea" as painted in 1896:
Thanks. I took it in Kyoto in the Gion District where the homes the Geisha live in have been preserved as originally built in the distant past. Kyoto is one of the few large cities in Japan that the Alllies purposely did not bomb because of its cultural importance so we can still today see original structures built before World War II.
So cool. Seeing the "Flat Iron Building" at the age of five is one of my still held memories of my first visit to Manhattan. That and a visit to the Automat" where you cold put a nickel into a slot next to a post office mailbox sized window and pull open the door to take out a piece of pie.
I remember seeing an article about that vehicle many years ago.
It is a standard Ford Thunderbird with an Oldsmobile Vista-Cruiser roof grafted on to it.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
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USN & USAF retired 1971-1993
Successful Transactions with more than 100 Members
USN & USAF retired 1971-1993
Successful Transactions with more than 100 Members
USN & USAF retired 1971-1993
Successful Transactions with more than 100 Members
USN & USAF retired 1971-1993
Successful Transactions with more than 100 Members
USN & USAF retired 1971-1993
Successful Transactions with more than 100 Members
Is that building still standing?
I’m guessing that’s lower Manhattan and the building is still there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatiron_Building
Travels Past - a visit to one of the World's Oldest and Largest Museums - The State Hermitage Museum located on the banks of the River Neva in Saint Petersburg has over 3 million works of art. Founded by Catherine the Great in 1764 as her private museum it adjoined the Winter Palace. It opened to the public in 1852 and today includes the Winter Palace along with four other connected buildings.
Outside the Museum as we await our scheduled entry:
The view at the entry:
One of the first exhibited paintings after climbing the staircase:
Rembrant's "The Return of the Prodigal Son" has been ranked as the Museum's Number One Painting. It is Rembrant's largest religious painting. Painted in 1669 it was acquired by a Russian diplomat in France and has been at the Hermitage since the founding of the United States in 1776!
Stepping back, one appreciates the painting's size:
The Hermitage Museum's Number Two ranked painting is Leonardo da Vinci's "Madonna Litta." Like the Louve's Mona Lisa it is of a much smaller size than the Rembrant:
Ranked Number Five is Van Gogh's "Thatched Cottages" which he painted in 1890 several months before he died. Although then living in France it has been suggested that the subject reflects back on his homeland in the Netherlands. The Hermitage acquired it in 1719 from the collector Sarra Motozov:
Paul Gauguin's "The Woman Holding Fruit" Ranks as Number Six. Painted in 1893 on Gauguin's first visit to Tahiti, the museum also acquired it in 1719 from the collector Sarra Motozov. The painting was originally known as "Where are you Going?" Following it is another Gauguin painting from his time in Tahiti:
The Guide directs us to one of his favorites, "The Birth of John the Baptist" by Venetian Painter Jacopo Tintoretto of the Robusti Family, It was painted in 1550:
Two of Renoir's Paintings found in the Impressionist Hall include "Girl with a Fan" and "Child with a Whip." The child holding the whip is actually a five year-old boy, the son of a French Senator. In 1885 when it was painted it was common for boys to dress as depicted.
While also not in the top ten, Leonardo Da Vinci's "Madonna with a Flower" is another of the Hermitage Museum's most popular paintings:
Stepping aside from the paintings, this courtyard located between the museum buildings has a special historical tale to tell. When then named Leningrad was under siege by Germany in World War II, food crops were grown here to help sustain the starving Russians. (In 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union Leningrad was renamed Saint Petersburg.)
Here are some selected works of art captured by my camera at the Hermitage:
For the finale, here is Charles Cottet's "View of Venice from the Sea" as painted in 1896:
USN & USAF retired 1971-1993
Successful Transactions with more than 100 Members
USN & USAF retired 1971-1993
Successful Transactions with more than 100 Members
Thunderbird Phantom Station Wagon
USN & USAF retired 1971-1993
Successful Transactions with more than 100 Members
USN & USAF retired 1971-1993
Successful Transactions with more than 100 Members
USN & USAF retired 1971-1993
Successful Transactions with more than 100 Members
I like that one!
My YouTube Channel
Thanks. I took it in Kyoto in the Gion District where the homes the Geisha live in have been preserved as originally built in the distant past. Kyoto is one of the few large cities in Japan that the Alllies purposely did not bomb because of its cultural importance so we can still today see original structures built before World War II.
So cool. Seeing the "Flat Iron Building" at the age of five is one of my still held memories of my first visit to Manhattan. That and a visit to the Automat" where you cold put a nickel into a slot next to a post office mailbox sized window and pull open the door to take out a piece of pie.
My YouTube Channel
USN & USAF retired 1971-1993
Successful Transactions with more than 100 Members
USN & USAF retired 1971-1993
Successful Transactions with more than 100 Members
USN & USAF retired 1971-1993
Successful Transactions with more than 100 Members
.
I remember seeing an article about that vehicle many years ago.
It is a standard Ford Thunderbird with an Oldsmobile Vista-Cruiser roof grafted on to it.
.
USN & USAF retired 1971-1993
Successful Transactions with more than 100 Members
USN & USAF retired 1971-1993
Successful Transactions with more than 100 Members
USN & USAF retired 1971-1993
Successful Transactions with more than 100 Members
USN & USAF retired 1971-1993
Successful Transactions with more than 100 Members
My picture, Chicago.
Which one would you like to go to dinner with?
I'd like to have breakfast with number 3.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
USN & USAF retired 1971-1993
Successful Transactions with more than 100 Members
USN & USAF retired 1971-1993
Successful Transactions with more than 100 Members
So this is how you get toenail fungus
USN & USAF retired 1971-1993
Successful Transactions with more than 100 Members
USN & USAF retired 1971-1993
Successful Transactions with more than 100 Members
Mt Rainier, July 2016
Cleveland, June 2023
Mammoth yesterday
Without even looking closer I immediately thought Thailand. Looking at the background I see I am correct.
DPOTD-3
'Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery'
CU #3245 B.N.A. #428
Don
USN & USAF retired 1971-1993
Successful Transactions with more than 100 Members
USN & USAF retired 1971-1993
Successful Transactions with more than 100 Members
Photos taken standing on the completed bridge including the bridge's shadow evident: