A Day at the Met

From the Medieval Collection.

Looking down into the lobby of the Metropolitan Museum in New York where
we spent most of the day, seeing several special exhibits and some of the permanent collection.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder: "The Harvesters."
Though a fan of Bruegel, I was unfamiliarwith this incredible work from 1565. The harvesters are eating
lunch in the lower right corner, and working at left, while the background goes all the way out past the fields
 to the sea. A treehides a church and perhaps a village. I sat and contemplated this work for a long time.

One of the harvesters, cutting bread.

The open-air meal.

We managed to see the costume institute's special exhibit on mourning dress in the 19th century, an El Greco exhibit; "Madame Cezanne" containing all Cezanne's portraits of his wife; a recently restored mural by Thomas Hart Benton; and the Lauder collection of cubist paintings by Picasso, Braque, Gris, and Leger. We spent quite a bit of time in the permanent collection of Dutch Golden Age art including works by Rembrandt, Hals, and Vermeer, as well as Breugel. I've posted a few here, more may be on the way eventually.

Exhausting day, but worth it!