Monday Moaning or Monday Marveling? 12/15/25

Marveling this 15th Day of Advent, remembering our FASCINATING few hours last week at Philadelphia’s uniquely beautiful Barnes Foundation.

Have you heard of this incredible art museum? I hadn’t.

“Philadelphia art collector Albert C. Barnes (1872–1951) chartered the Barnes in 1922 to teach people from all walks of life how to look at art. Over three decades, he collected some of the world’s most important impressionist, post-impressionist, and modern paintings, including works by Renoir, Cézanne, Matisse, and Picasso. He displayed them alongside African masks, native American jewelry, Greek antiquities, and decorative metalwork.” Barnesfoundation.org

I’ve never seen a museum like this!

The exhibition rooms are arranged in what is referred to as “ensembles,” mixing paintings with decorative objects like door hinges and metalwork to create visual dialogues across cultures and time periods. There are no explanatory notes beside each piece. Barnes did not want to tell the observer what to think about the art. (Today you can download an app which will give you info, if you choose to do so.)

After a bit, HR and I went our separate ways exploring and discovering.

Then I turned a corner and … saw my … my … Joy.

Wait, no, not Robert.

The colorful painting to the right of HR’s bald and shining pate.

I walked quickly past the interfering, albeit smooth, head and stood mesmerized in front of the painting which had so captured my consciousness.

The blue, or blues, drew me closer and had me standing, at peace, at calm.

The over-plenty of fruit spread across the table reminded me that my table never lacks bounty.

The painting shouted loudly that diversity of color, of shape, of direction and intent is a good thing. That colorful difference should be celebrated and displayed. Should be framed as masterful.

I stood entranced by art’s aim.

And I hope that Matisse somehow sensed, back in the warm summer of 1907 when he completed this scrumptious still life, that he was painting it specifically for an old fellow in the cold of 2025.

“This painting belongs to a remarkable group of still lifes made between 1906 and 1908 in which Matisse explores arabesques—designs of intertwined, flowing lines that function to move the viewer’s eye around the canvas. Matisse had been studying the works of Cézanne, who had died in 1906, and Cézanne’s influence can be seen in the tension here between two and three dimensions. To create the illusion of depth, Matisse constructs a series of horizontals and verticals that recede like a staircase.” Barnes Foundation