{"id":14664,"date":"2026-08-26T14:52:48","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T18:52:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/?p=14664"},"modified":"2026-08-26T14:52:52","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T18:52:52","slug":"visit-to-the-met-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2026\/08\/visit-to-the-met-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Visit to the Met"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I love New York City. I lived in Manhattan and later in New Jersey. These days I only go there to visit the art museums. My oldest son and I visited this spring to see the Raphael exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum. It was one of the best exhibits I’ve ever seen, second only to the Titian show at the National Gallery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My fondest museum experiences occurred during my first visit to Paris. I made a pilgrimage to the Balzac museum on the Rue Raynouar, and another pilgrimage to the Louvre expressly to see the Davids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you claim to be a literature lover but are unfamiliar with Balzac’s La Com\u00e9die humain<\/em><\/a>e<\/em><\/a>, you are a poseur. When my son, the same one who accompanied me to the Met this spring, rebelled from going to college, I assigned him La Com\u00e9die humaine<\/em> instead, and he dutifully read the books that summer. I consider La Com\u00e9die humaine<\/em> the equivalent of a college education. But I digress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I learned my defensive driving skills as a cabbie in New York, but I was dismayed to discover how much worse the traffic is. The dedicated bike and bus lanes turn Midtown into a gridlocked morass. Seeing the edge-to-edge traffic jam, I was glad we took the train and left the car at the Princeton Junction station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On this perfect spring day, the area in front of the museum was filled with visitors enjoying the beautiful weather, as you can see in my photograph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Cleveland Museum, my hometown museum, so to speak, is free, but I buy a membership level that provides reciprocity with other museums. My membership card serves me well on my travels across the country, but unfortunately the Met does not honor it. Surprisingly, the Met does honor membership to the Toledo, Ohio museum. Whenever I visit the Met, I am reminded of my nineteen-year-old self who could not afford the admission fee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Raphael exhibit was really tremendous, filled with many Raphael paintings and drawings. Many “blockbuster” exhibits contain few works by the featured artist and instead pad out with works by the artist’s contemporaries. That was not the case here, as most of the works were by Raphael. Among the paintings by Raphael’s contemporaries, I was glad to see paintings by Raphael’s master, Perugino. I like Perugino; his color sense is satisfying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


I had to cut my tour of the exhibit somewhat short because my mild claustrophobia was triggered by the crush of bodies. I dislike being surrounded by the “art-loving,” virtue-disfigured type, the type that gives the art world its well-deserved bad reputation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am very much glad I visited the exhibit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After leaving the museum, we walked through Central Park down to 60th Street. The park was filled with people and families enjoying the brilliant spring weather, as you can see from my photo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All photographs copyright Thomas Hudson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love New York City. I lived in Manhattan and later in New Jersey. These days I only go there to visit the art museums. My oldest son and I visited this spring to see the Raphael exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum. It was one of the best exhibits I’ve ever seen, second only to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":14575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1,251,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-aesthetics","category-art-museum"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4303,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2014\/10\/visiting-the-cleveland-museum-of-art-101714\/","url_meta":{"origin":14664,"position":0},"title":"Visiting the Cleveland Museum of Art 10\/17\/14","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"October 17, 2014","format":"status","excerpt":"The NY Times recently ran a piece about visiting art\u00a0museums. I consider myself something of an expert on the subject, and I'm writing\u00a0a post about the article, which--knock on wood!--I'll publish soon. As readers know, I average one visit per week to museums. So far this year, I've visited the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art Museums"","block_context":{"text":"Art Museums","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/category\/art-museum\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4270,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2014\/10\/review-the-art-of-slowing-down-in-a-museum\/","url_meta":{"origin":14664,"position":1},"title":"Review: The Art of Slowing Down in a Museum","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"October 18, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"In her\u00a0recent New York Times article,\u00a0The Art of Slowing Down in a Museum, Stephanie Rosenbloom admonishes us to slow down when we visit museums. 20 minutes, she says, in front of a single work of art provides the most therapeutic experience. She sights several studies and experiments to buttress her\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art Museums"","block_context":{"text":"Art Museums","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/category\/art-museum\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/met.jpg?fit=500%2C397&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4018,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2014\/08\/planned-visit-to-the-cleveland-museum-of-art\/","url_meta":{"origin":14664,"position":2},"title":"Planned visit to the Cleveland Museum of Art","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"August 22, 2014","format":"status","excerpt":"I'm going to the Cleveland Museum of Art later today to visit the Durer exhibition for the 3rd time. The small exhibit contains three-dozen prints--engravings\u00a0and\u00a0woodcuts, and a single\u00a0etching. I love prints and printmaking so this is a wonderful exhibit for me.","rel":"","context":"In "Art Museums"","block_context":{"text":"Art Museums","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/category\/art-museum\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4576,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2015\/01\/a-visit-to-the-cleveland-museum-of-arts-asian-collection\/","url_meta":{"origin":14664,"position":3},"title":"A visit to the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Asian collection","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"January 17, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The Cleveland Museum of Art recently rotated its vast Asian collection, which I happily discovered during Friday's visit. After a Caesar salad in the Atrium cafeteria--'extra anchovies, please'--I started my weekly ramble in the galleries above the cafeteria where the Asian collection is housed. Major museums, like Cleveland, \u00a0rotate parts\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art Museums"","block_context":{"text":"Art Museums","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/category\/art-museum\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Cleveland Museum of Art's New Atrium","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/IMG_0261.jpg?fit=552%2C395&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/IMG_0261.jpg?fit=552%2C395&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/IMG_0261.jpg?fit=552%2C395&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13594,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2024\/07\/painting-by-tissot\/","url_meta":{"origin":14664,"position":4},"title":"Painting by Tissot","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"July 16, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"I love it when I visit a museum and discover a new painting. I found this painting, The Proposal, by James Tissot (1836 - 1902) during my last visit to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Large museums like Cleveland's display only a portion of their collection, which means frequent visitors\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art Museums"","block_context":{"text":"Art Museums","link":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/category\/art-museum\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/tisot.jpg?fit=784%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/tisot.jpg?fit=784%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/tisot.jpg?fit=784%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/tisot.jpg?fit=784%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10341,"url":"https:\/\/thomasparkerhudson.com\/wordpress\/2022\/05\/cleveland-art-museum-visit\/","url_meta":{"origin":14664,"position":5},"title":"Cleveland Art museum visit","author":"Tom Hudson","date":"May 15, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Why is a visit to the art museum blog-worthy? After all, my near-weekly museum visits are a longstanding habit. The headline is that this is my first visit to the Cleveland Art museum since the COVID mess started. 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