Merci, Monsieur Durand-Ruel

We left early this morning and stopped in Philadelphia to see the "Discovering the Impressionists" exhibit, which closes tomorrow. It follows the career of Paul Durand-Ruel, a Parisian art dealer, who championed the Impressionist painters when they were scorned by all the art critics of the day.  He bought their work, gave them stipends to live on so they could continue to work and ultimately sold a large number of their paintings to wealthy Americans, with many of them later bequeathed to our museums.  It is a superb exhibit and a fascinating story.  

Before we left Philly, I took a few moments to go out onto the plaza in front of the museum which sits at the top of what are known to many as the “Rocky” steps.  My husband patiently waited for me at the top of the steps while I faffed around with the fisheye lens and then I snapped a shot of him.  I was delighted later to see that this woman had photo-bombed my image with a “Rocky” pose.  This shot has been significantly cropped.

After lunch at the museum, we drove on for another 4 hours to our final destination.