One of my biggest dream: see Van Gogh and Monet at the Met and MoMA

         I've always wanted to visit New York. Of course who doesn't? But for me, the vision of beholding the Manhattan skyline, the Statue of Liberty or being overwhelmed at the Grand Central Terminal or the Times Square or looking at Brooklyn Bridge is in no way more profound than seeing an original Van Gogh or Monet at the Met or the MoMA. A Picasso here and there would also be nice ;)

Here are the paintings I'm dying to see at the Metropolitan Museum of Art:

                       Blind Man's Meal
                             Picasso
Because I'm more into his Blue Period paintings than when he became a truly Modern artist.

The Third Class Carriage
Honoré Daumier
Because just looking at this painting, the word "squalor" and "pathos" are personified.

                                                Vincent Van Gogh
                                     Self Portrait with straw hat
Because...it is the master himself....

    Jules Bastien-Lepage

    Joan of Arc
Because, it intrigues me...the visions in her mind, the lost, almost "carried away" look in her face ....

Madame Georges Charpentier

Auguste Renoir
Because no one can make portraits of people come alive the way Renior does...you keep guessing what's on their minds

Shoes

Vincent Van Gogh
Because Van Gogh drew those shoes...period.

The Water Lily Pond

Claude Monet 

Because he is the greatest of the Impressionists...one I have admired since I was a kid and was learning the effect of light bouncing off of objects .                                                                                                                                          

Bain à la Grenouillère

Claude Monet
Beacase of the way the water ripples, and the overall composition of the painting that has been done in seemingly effortless strokes.

                  The Little fourteen year old dancer
                                     Edgar Degas
Because I read somewhere that the young ballerina almost looks like she is ready to spring and start dancing....

Water Lilies
Claude Monet
I don't need a reason to look at Monet...especially when he paints Water Lilies

 The Harvesters
               Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Because I was so intrigued by this guy after I saw " Museum Hours", an exquisite, subtle movie on how art reflects life...

Wheat Field with Cypresses at the Haute Galline Near Eygalieres

Van Gogh

Because no other artist can paint a sky like that, and make tress sway like that....  

And finally, my favorite, which is in the MoMA....

    

                                       Needs no introduction....The Starry Night...by Van Gogh

And was just curious to look at the provenance of this world famous painting, and looking at it, I wonder how many countless people would have laid eyes on it, marvelling at the sheer brilliance, technique and inimitable style of this very disturbed artist, who shot himself at the age of 37, never to know how famous these very paintings would make him one day. What an absolute irony.

Provenance

Owner	City	Country	Date acquired	Comments
Theo van Gogh	Paris	France	1889-91
Johanna van Gogh-Bonger	Amsterdam	Netherlands	1891-1905
Oldenzeel Gallery	Rotterdam	Netherlands	1905-06
Miss G.P. van Stolk	Rotterdam	Netherlands	1906-38	On loan to Museum Boymans, Rotterdam, until May 1924.
Paul Rosenburg Art Gallery	New York	United States	1938-41
Museum of Modern Art	New York	United States	1941	Acquired through the L.P. Bliss bequest.

Just looking at this brief list, I'm breathless with part anticipation, part sheer gratitude to the Cold Spring Harbor Conference due to which I have this exceptionally wonderful opportunity to go to New York and visit these hallowed spaces called museums and above all be in the presence of some of the greatest art in the world.