We expected a short visit to the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Md., to see some Impressionist paintings in their collection, but we discovered a delightful museum with lots to see – and all for free! The museum, opened in 1934, holds the collection of William Thompson Walters and his son Henry Walters. Their collection of 22,000 works (along with the building housing it and the adjacent mansion) were bequeathed to the city upon Henry’s death “for the benefit of the public.”
Here are some of the items that struck our fancy, including the cover photo (above) of Kimura Yoshiro’s Blue-Glaze Bowl with Wave Pattern.
Vase with Bamboo Leaves from the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exhibition. Artist: Itaya Hazan.
18th Century Flask with the “Eight Auspicious Symbols of Buddhism.”
House of Faberge Rose Trellis Egg (1907) and Gatchina Palace Egg (1901).
Camille Pissarro, The Church of Eragny, 1884.
Amazing detail on a Potpourri Vase from the late 1700s.
Giovanni Boldini, Lady With a Guitar, 1873.
A collection of netsuke, Japanese adornments from the Edo period (1615-1868) used as women’s hair ornaments or fasteners for men’s small carrying cases and kimonos. They were very detailed, as you can see in the right picture.
Doug is a fan of these objects and recommends the netsuke collection in the British Museum in London if you’re ever visiting there. He learned about netsuke in The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance by Edmund de Waal, a memoir about de Waal’s family’s efforts to recover their collection of priceless artwork that had been confiscated by the Nazis in 1938. But their collection of more than 250 netsuke were easily hidden in a mattress due to their small size and thus were saved and passed down through the generations.
And of course my favorite painter, Claude Monet. Springtime, 1872.
As always, I love how different a close-up look at Monet is compared to the view a few feet away.
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I love netsuke! I was so touched by the “imperfect” bamboo leaf on the vase. A perfect example of wabi-sabi.
Jennifer here wondering if she’s the only one who’d never heard of netsuke before…