"Rainbows Everywhere"

June is "Gay Pride Month" ending with tomorrow's "March on 5th Avenue".
As I can remember we only had rain one time on the last Sunday in June.  That is always the day for the most celebrated street event in a year.  Some people call it a Parade, but it is a "March".  The happiest & most colorfull people will be walking down 5th Avenue. 
I'll be taking lots of photos tomorrow, then I'll will share them with you later.  
But today, I'll show you pictures I saved for this Very Special Day to post .
As you well know, Rainbow Flag is the symbol of "Gay Pride".  We will see many Rainbow Flags every where in New York and other cities in USA.  
But, here are other shapes of rainbows you could see every where.

A Happy Gay Pride ! 

"A Perfect Simple Image"

We are having the Heat Wave.
So, here is something you to look at..... 
Doesn't it make you feel COOL even just a little ?

"The American Hispanic Society pt 2"

 

As I mentioned in the previous entry, the American Hispanic Society has many Spanish Masters' works.  
After we finished the main floor we proceeded upstairs.  

Notable among 16th century paintings are The Portrait of the Duke of Alba by Antonis Mor(1516 /19 ~1576), The Holy Family by El Greco(1541 ~1614), and three portraits by Diego Velazquez(1599 ~ 1660).  And of course you can find more works by Francisco de Goya(1746b ~1828).

But for me balcony itself was worth going to see, you will feel the true essence of Spain from the design of the main room.  
Staircases and doorways are so diferrent from any other museum in this city.  

Here are some of those paintings I found at the balcony.  

The last photo of the Painting is another one by Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida(1863 ~1923). They are showing two more works by Sorolla, but they are too big for me to take a photo.

The Hispanic Society has many Decorative Arts from Spain, Portugal, Latin America, and other countries.  

Our guide told us that Ceramics represent one of the most significant facets of the collection, ranging from 3000 year old Bell-Beaker Pottery to contemporary works. The collection of Spanish Luster-wear, numbering over 150 pieces, is considered the finest in the United State.

Other Decorative Arts include silver, glass-wear, secular, and ecclesiastical furniture, decorative iron-work, and textiles dating from the 15th ~19th Centuries.

I liked very much their Luster-wear, those Shiny Golden Plates & Bowls are just fantastic.  Come to think of it, I do have some antique ones in my kitchen.

In addition to Ancient and Classical Sculpture, the Hispanic Society collection contains Islamic and Christian Religious Works dating from Middle Ages to the early 20th century.

With more than 600,000 books, manuscripts, documents, and letters dating from the 10th century to the present day, the Library on the Hispanic Society offers resources for researchers interested in the history and culture of the Spanish (and Portuguese) speaking world.

When you get to the Library section you will see walls covered with those small drawers all the way to the ceiling.  

That is the kind of walls I'd love to have even if I don't have that many library cards.  Can you imagine how easy to organize your recipes or your hankies & sox, if we have these wall of small drawers in our home ?

           Even if you are out of the Museum, 

           you feel like you are somewhere in Europe.

    Can you believe you will see this kind of scenery in Manhattan ?

    You could take many pictures without fighting with other visitors.

    When I visited, almost no one else was taking photos in the court yard.

"The Hispanic Society of America"

We have been talking about going to the museum even people who live in Upper West Side of Manhattan don't know.  It's called "The Hispanic Society of America" located on West 155 Street & Broadway. 
This location was originally the estate of Audubon.
It was founded as a free museum and research library in 1904 by the American scholar and philanthropist Archer Milton Huntington(1870 ~ 1955).  
This museum and Library constitute the most extensive collection of Hispanic Art and Literature out side of Spain and Latin America. 
Archer Huntington's fascination with Spanish culture started at age of twelve, by nineteen he revealed his aspiration to found a "Spanish Museum".  
Working toward this goal, he began his collection with Spanish rare books and manuscripts, then decorative arts, followed by paintings and sculpture.

First thing you see at the museum is this Plaque.

 Founder of the Museum

The main reason I wanted to go this Museum is to see paintings by El Greco, Diego Velazquez, Francisco de Goya.  Yes, you can see paintings by Master Spanish Painters up close without fighting with other museum visitors.
There is one more reason for us to go to the part of Manhattan we hardly ever go visit.  That is to see works by "Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida" who painted a series of Oil Paintings of Spain through out all its regions for this museum.  
We did get there easily by subway and it's only a few blocks from the station.  
We arrived there just on time to join the Museum Tour.  We didn't even know they have free guided tours.
Our guide was obviously a Spanish American Lady who spoke perfectly elegant spanish and understood the whole history of the museum and its paintings and other art objects we saw that sunday afternoon. 
The tour started at Sorolla's Room, then main gallery, and the balcony ......

This is the Formal Entrance to the Museum.

There were 2 flags welcoming the visitors.

I have a fascination for Iron Work.

To me they are the lace for the buildings.

The quality of iron work makes buildings cheap or rich.

Just like quality of the lace makes a dress elegant or ordinary....

This is the main gallery.

You see only one painting on this level of this large room.

"Portrait of Duchess of Alba" by Francisco de Goya.

This is the most renowned painting in the collection.

According to our guide he painted 2 versions of the portrait for the Duchess.

One with White Linen Dress which he presented to her.

And this one with Black Lace Dress which he kept for himself.

She is wearing 2 rings.  One has "Goya" on it.

And this finger pointed at the floor where you can see  

some message to us from Goya.

There are many stories behind this painting.

When you take the tour in the Museum you will hear all about.

Doesn't it make you want to go ?

"Vision of Spain"

Among the most popular works at the Hispanic Society are those paintings by Spain's "Painter of Light" Jaquin Sorolla y Bastida (1863 ~1923). 

The Sorolla Room is located next to the main gallery and filled with panoramic series of 14 canvases.  Each painting has title and location under them.

The Provinces of Spain (1911 ~ 1919 ) presents a celebration of regional costumes and cultures that surround visitors in the room with the artist's "Vision of Spain".  That means you will never find landscape exactly the same as in those paintings.  They are all his vision, designed to fill all walls of the room with Ordinary Spanish Life, not with big cityscapes nor emerging modern Spain.

This work is all commissioned specifically for this room.  Those paintings were all done in his studio in Madrid.  He sketched all around Spain to compose the scenery.  Between Sorolla & Hutington corresponded many times to design the room.  Although Sorolla himself never saw all of his work hung in this custom made big gallery.

I took many pictures without flash in this room, but it is impossible to give you the whole scale of paintings and colors.  I edited parts of the paintings I adore.

Hope these photos will give you some feeling of those fantastic Lights & Shadows of Spain.  It is so alive !   Just fantastic !! 

Make time to go up there to see them with your own eyes.  It is well worth it....

The scale of this gallery is not able to be shown with Square Format.

So, I'm breaking My Blog Rule for this one.

With this photo you will be able to sense this fantastic room.

After seeing the main gallery one more time, we are ready to leave the museum.

 Up Stairs we did find other great paintings and other works of art.

So, I'll be posting another page with those findings at 

"New York's Best Kept Secret !" 

"Run Boy Run"

Do you have 3 minutes to spare ?
Then watch this...
 You may like this video as well !