Sorry for not updating my vacation. We made it to the UK but cannot find good and cheap Internet. I am sending this from my Kindle temporarily. Hopefully, France will be better.bet
Where's Rembrandt?
October 21: Southern California boasts the third largest collection of Rembrandt paintings in the U.S., behind Washington D.C. and New York. And yet that amounts to only 15 works spread out over five museums. The National Gallery in London boasts about 20, with most in one room. Multiply that number by the number of great artists that you know: Titian, Veronese, Turner, Monet, etc, and you'll understand why I wandered the museum with my mouth open in wonder.
I violated my rule of never spending more than two or three hours at a museum because of the quality and quantity of work. Not a good idea because even with a lunch break, we experienced the paintings as one tiresome mass by the afternoon. The necessary audio guide didn't help, since it described nearly every one of the 1,500 or so paintings. A better strategy would've been to follow a highlight tour from Rick Steves' travel guides or from the museum. Or to break up the visit across several days, since the museum is free anyway (though the audio guide is not).
Still, I felt privileged to be able to view works that I've seen only through picture books.
