Friendship

As promised, a few more pictures from my trip to the Maryhill Museum of Art across the Columbia river in Goldendale, Washington. This place is so random and so amazing; it would take me all day to describe it. Imagine, in really the middle of no where in the high desert, is a stately mansion holding so many impressive private works of art. It is really random. The founder, Sam Hill (I think the phrase "What in Sam Hill ..." came from) built this very institutional building overlooking the Columbia with the intention of living there. This place is a testament to his friends, who happened to be very famous and very wealthy. There must be over 30 pieces by Rodin. There is a section devoted to Loie (there should be umlauts over the e) Fuller; a world reknowned cabaret dancer with Folies Bergeres at the turn of the century. Finally, there is a whole floor dedicated to Queen Marie of Rumania. Queen Marie contributed a bunch of fine furniture, sculpture, knick nacks (if you call Faberge knick nacky!) and paintings. The painting I posted previously was there and a pretty amazing example of American Classical Realism. I just couldn't believe that in the middle of this desert was this amazing collection of art. That is not all. There was an incredibly large collection of Native American art. And, finally, my favorite part of the museum was called the Theatre de la Mode. Apparently, right after WWII they made these diaramas of Parisian fashion which traveled the world. This museum has a bunch of these and they change them out yearly to showcase three diaramas. The picture above has a dress by Balmain. The models, made of wire, are about 1 foot tall! Insane.

I will post more about this amazing place later.