Trip to the Museum of Fine Arts Boston

Since 2017 is the fiftieth anniversary of 1967’s Summer of Love, The Museum of Fine Arts is showing an exhibition on this seminal moment in American pop culture. Mom and I are eager to go see it after falling in love with the work of artist Peter Max during our cruise.

Orpheus and Cerberus by Thomas Crawford

Today was the perfect day to go into the city: sunny and pleasant with a crisp autumn coolness. We took the 10:13 AM train to Boston and arrived around eleven o’clock. By the time we got to the MFA, around 11:30 AM, I was starving and ready for lunch.

After getting something to eat, we went to see the Summer of Love exhibition. It was in a small gallery and were mostly displays of album covers, some of which, I imagine were designed by Peter Max, since I know that he collaborated with the Beatles on their cover art. What the Beatles were to the sound of the 1960s, Peter Max was to its look.

Summer of Love Album Covers

The Summer of Love exhibition had its own little gift shop, where I purchased a beautiful book on Max’s work with a foreword by Neil deGrasse Tyson of all people.

I had made a list of my favorite works of art on display at the MFA and which galleries they are in. First on the list was the ancient Egyptian beadnet dress on display in the Art of the Ancient World wing, Gallery 105B. In a little activity sketchbook that they were giving out for free, I sketched all of my favorite artworks, starting with the beadnet dress.

Mrs. Billington as Saint Cecilia by George Romney

Next was Mrs. Billington as Saint Cecilia by George Romney in Gallery 141 of the Art of Europe wing, a painting I saw on the MFA’s Instagram page this morning and felt that I had to go see. We also looked in an exhibit of eighteenth-century porcelain, which I wanted to take all of home.

The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit by John Singer Sargent

Upstairs in Gallery 232 of the Art of the Americas wing hangs one of the MFA’s most iconic possessions: The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit by John Singer Sargent who is one of my favorite artists. Aside from sketching an outline of its composition in my book, I also drew the two giant Japanese vases, similar to those found in the painting, which flank it on either side. We finished up our tour of Art of the Americas by looking at depictions of the elegant and privileged lives of the turn of the century elite done by Sargent, Cassatt, and Whistler.

Haymaker and Sleeping Girl by Thomas Gainsborough

Returning to Art of Europe, we passed through galleries of eighteenth-century rococo furniture, including my dream bed, to Gallery 246, where the next artwork on my list hangs. Thomas Gainsborough’s Haymaker and Sleeping Girl is a romantic image of a rustic country lad staring longingly at a refined young lady, asleep under a tree.

Little Fourteen Year Old Dancer by Edgar Degas

Last on my list was Degas’s Little Fourteen Year Old Dancer in Gallery 255. The section of the MFA dedicated to the nineteenth-century French Impressionists is one of my favorites in the whole museum. One of my new favorite paintings in the MFA’s collection is La Japonaise by Claude Monet which features his wife, Camille, wearing an elaborate kimono.

La Japonaise by Claude Monet

Mom had me check to see what time the train was coming. The time given on the MBTA app was 3:15 PM, so we made a dash back to North Station. After checking the schedule there, we found that I had been wrong; the train to Gloucester was not coming until 5:30 PM. There was a train to Beverly coming at 4:30 PM, so we had Dad pick us up there.