Houston Art Museums

Woman in a Purple Coat by Henri Matisse 1937. The model is Henri's companion of many years, Lydia, reclining in an exotic Moroccan costume.



Henry Matisse
"Woman in a Purple Coat" 1937

Above and below: The Fine Arts Museum is a very large, impressive two-building museum in the Museum District of Houston, Texas. I watched a docent teaching a class of attentive children about this painting.The kids liked the strong colors and relaxed pose.

 

Below: Auguste Rodin, "Flying Figure #1", 1890
Anyone recognize Notre Dame in Paris on the left? (Maximillen Luce, 1900)

Below: Another nearby art museum, The Menil Collection, is the collection of John and Dominique de Menil. Increasingly disillusioned with conventional museum practice they decided to build a museum of their own which opened in 1987. No photos are allowed of the contemporary art inside, but this peaceful pond was outside the Rothko Chapel, an interfaith chapel commissioned by the Menils.

I didn't see the famous Byzantine frescoes as they were returned last year after evidence emerged that they had once been looted from a Greek Orthodox chapel in Turkish-controlled Cyprus.

No, not an art museum! An unexpected Trader Joes in a vintage theater near the museums.