The visit to the Barnes Foundation gallery turned out to be a lot of fun. Sponsored by law firm Ballard Spahr, we had drinkies and artistic nibblies before viewing the extraordinary collection of paintings brought to Philadelphia by the eccentric Dr Albert C. Barnes. The collection, funded by Barnes' dreadful patent medicine ( a silver nitrate concoction used to treat gonorrhea or indeed anything ) was derided in its day by the cultured burghers of Philadelphia and accordingly he barred the elite from the collection in perpetuity. Recently the trustees of his estate ~controversially~ moved the collection to a fab new gallery in town and since then a lot more people have seen it.
I was very impressed with the art on offer. Paul Cezanne, Henri Matisse, Van Gogh, Picasso, lots of Renior, Monet and some excellent Modigliani. The collection is displayed as Barnes liked it - dozens of paintings in each room, interspersed with antique furniture and a whole lot of wrought iron objects.
Ballard Spahr were great hosts and provided sweet boxes in the company colours with matching sweets - yellow M&Ms, chocolate-covered sunflower seeds, lemon sherbets and others.
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