Museums for when the Met Is Too Crowded
Museums for when the Met is too crowded
As much delight as we take in our own youthful adventurers, especially when they traveled by stroller and drank juice from a box, we aren’t quite, quite as joyful when we get to spend rainy days with throngs of their unrelated colleagues. If you happen to be heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City when rainfall is imminent, bring along your migraine medicine and get there early if you hope to avoid lines extending outside the building. Be prepared for the hum of three-year-olds who would much rather be spending quality time in Central Park, or Carl Schurz, or anywhere with a swingset and a sandbox.
For a slightly more civilized experience on the Upper East Side, head toward the Neue when the weather is not cooperating, or further down Fifth Avenue to the Frick, once the home of a different kind of coke dealer, and one who had pretty decent taste in art
Contemplate the Woman in Gold on a rainy day in New York City.
The Neue, of course, is home to The Woman in Gold, Gustav Klimt’s portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, which was stolen by the Nazis during World War II and then found its way to in Austria for many years. Reticent to return the work to the heirs of its prior owner, the Austrian government finally did so after lawyers became involved. Ronald Lauder of the lipstick Lauders purchased it and put it on display in Manhattan.
The Neue is a small museum that offers a quick glimpse of a time past. Enjoy the exhibits and then savor some Austrian pastries in Café Sabarsky, the restaurant on the first floor. Browse the bookstore and walk through the entrance like you own it.
Sixteen blocks south, the Frick Collection building was once home to Henry Clay Frick, an industrialist who became a New Yorker by way of Pittsburgh and a whole lot of steel forged with the help of coke-fueled heat. Spend a civilized afternoon imagining the life he led in this place and appreciating the rooms filled with painting after painting after painting that he could have kept to himself but opted not to. I most especially like the Renoir beneath the staircase and the pipe organ.
Neue Galerie, 1048 Fifth Avenue at East 86 Street, New York
The Frick Collection, 1 East 70 Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues, New York
Can’t make it to Manhattan? Spend a rainy day watching Woman in Gold, starring Helen Mirren, or reading the book, The Lady in Gold, by Anne-Marie O’Connor.
—Lori Tripoli
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Looking for things to do in New York City? Consider these posts:
- Beyond the New York Public Library: The Morgan
- A Visit to the African Burial Ground
- Irish Coffee at the Plaza Hotel