Granet Museum, Musée Granet, Aix-en-Provence, France It’s not surprising that the smart, prosperous town of Aix-en-Provence has a major art gallery – especially considering the fact that two major artists were born here. Before the start of the French Revolution, the town hall housed a collection of historical and archaeological objects and in 1821, a cabinet of curiosities belonging to…
Museum of Fine Arts, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon, France Knowing that Lyon is one of France’s most culturally significant towns, I had high hopes for its Museum of Fine Art. The museum is housed in an important former abbey, which has its origins in the 6th century. In 1659, the abbess Anne de Chaulnes began construction of the Royal Abbey…
National Gallery of Denmark, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark Like practically everywhere else in Copenhagen, the National Gallery of Denmark (SMK), which I was expecting to be not that interesting, was absolutely fantastic. The Danes are masters of doing everything wonderfully. The museum itself is attractive, the art is great, the lighting, the level of information given – everything was…
Basel Art Museum, Basel Kunstmuseum, Basel, Switzerland I had been looking forward to visiting Basel’s Art Museum ever since I first read about it in a guide book. Apart from the fact that it has a formidable group of works by the city’s son, Holbein the Younger, the museum also supposedly has one of the largest and best collections in…
The Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland Every great capital city needs a great art gallery and so it makes sense that Edinburgh, which is a great city, has a great art gallery. There is a formidable mix of Scottish and international paintings and sculptures, in a nicely ‘old-fashioned’ setting, and the quality and range of what’s on display can probably…
Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, Portugal While America is littered with museums built around the varied collections of their millionaire founders, this sort of thing is much rarer in Europe. The Armenian Calouste Gulbenkian, who made his fortune from oil, put his money to good use and amassed an amazing little collection of objects from across the ages which…
Kelvingrove Museum, Glasgow, Scotland Standing majestically in the middle of lush greenery, the red-stone Kelvingrove Museum looks like a museum. It opened in 1901 and and was refurbished in 2006, displaying its wide and varied collection thematically. There are sections on stuffed animals, paintings, the Egyptians, Mackintosh… in short, it’s almost like an enlarged cabinet of curiosities, with a few…