Museum of Fine Arts
The Museum of Fine Arts houses masterspieces of art in downtown St Petersburg.
There are six sections of the permanent collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, as well as a continuously dynamic array of visiting exhibitions. Of the permanent collections, they are categorized as follows: European Art, American Art, Photography, Greek and Roman Antiquities, Pre-Columbian, and Asian.
Of the European Art and my personal favorite, the collection is further broken down into groups by either time period or by individual artist’s names. They are as follows: 14th Century, 15th through 16th Century, Jan Brueghel The Younger, Abraham Bloemaert, Lorenzo Bernini, Bartolome Esteban Murillo, Edwaert Colyer, Louis Silvestre The Younger, Guillaume Voiriot, Hubert Robert, George Romney, Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun, Eugene Isabey, Eugene Frometin, Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, Paul Cezanne, Jacques-Emile Blanche, Richard Hall, Aguste Rodin, Paul Gauguin, Berthe Morisot, Pierre-Augtuste Renoir, Alfred Stevens, Claude Monet, Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida, and Wilhelm Morgner.
The piece pictured above is by Jacques-Emile Blanche, and is entitled “Contemplation.” Blanche was a French artist and completed this masterpiece in 1883. During his lifetime 1861-1942, he modeled his paintings after many famous earlier artists, but mostly after the British portraiture artists.
In “Contemplation,” Blanche is trying to show the stark contrast of the still life objects sitting on the white tablecloth against the dynamic background of a moving landscape outside the window. The woman in the painting stares at us aimlessly as she sits in her upper class world reflecting over the ever charismatic outside world near the end of the 17th Century. The things going on during that era didn’t really effect her as much as the lower classes struggling to pull themselves up, yet the on-goings of the day were violently changing, enough to make a pretty wealthy head spin, even if it never impacted her personally in any way. Thus explains the dull look on her face. What is she to do? Nothing; it doesn’t effect her.
Of the American Art, my close second favorite, they are further broken down into groups based on artists: John Frederick Peto, David Johnson, Jasper Francis Cropsey, Jams Henry Beard, Thomas Moran, Theodore Robinson, George Inness, Milton Resnick, George Bellows, Robert Henri, Randall Davey, Guy Pene Du Bois, Georgia O’Keeffe, Carl Robert Holty, Purvis Young, Llya Bolotowsky, Childe Hassam, Willem de Kooning, Balcolm Greene, Jimmy Ernst, and some modern artisits with as much talent as myself, on a good day.
The remaining four categories are the least populated, yet worth a look as well.
The Museum of Fine Arts in St Petersburg, Florida is located at 255 Beach Drive, North East, St Petersberg, Florida 33701. Admission is $17, with a wide offering of annual membership types. The MFA is for patrons with a serious appreciation of the fine arts.
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Very beautiful, interesting and top-notch museum.