Cambridge continues to surprise me every day. It seems I discover some new place or aspect of the city that amazes me and makes the city increasingly more beautiful in my eyes. Today, in an unexpected way, I discovered one of these places.
I woke up to my regular 6:30 alarm, got ready, dragged myself to a coffee shop, and headed to an 8:45 philosophy lecture as I would on any normal day. The problem? I was heading to a lecture that didn't exist. I made the university student's fatal mistake: sacrificing valuable, beautiful, precious sleep by reading the time table wrong! Turns out I actually didn't have class until 4:45. But all hope was not lost! I now had a completely open day to explore the city (rather than stay in bed all day eating crisps and watching Love Island).
I decided to go to the Fitzwilliam Museum, a gorgeous museum that sits about 200 feet from where I am living this summer. I don't know how it has taken me so long to get around to visiting this museum, but it was finally time and I was not disappointed.
To give you all some background on the museum itself, it was founded in 1816, finding its home in the current building in 1848. The museum houses a very eclectic mix of time periods, mediums, and regions represented, creating a very diverse and interesting experience that lends itself well to many different interests of visitors.
My favorite gallery was the French Painters gallery! To be completely honest, I did not expect the museum to have such an incredible collection of famous painters, but I was very pleasantly surprised!
One of my favorite parts of this gallery was the collection of Degas' sculpted dancer figures (as seen in the picture to the left).
In addition, the gallery housed an incredible collection of nineteenth century french paintings. Pictured below are three of Monet's works (left), as well as Philip Steer's painting titled "Walberswick, children paddling". The mix of pastels and dreamy summer scenes, like those depicted by these painters, are really my favorite style when it comes to paintings. I love getting lost studying unique brush strokes and color mixing the artists use. The third picture (center) is an early study Georges Seurat did for his master work, "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte". Living in Chicagoland myself, and visiting the finished work in the Art Institute of Chicago quite frequently, it was interesting to see this step in the process Seurat took before completing the finished product.
This unexpected gem made for an incredible day, and even made me glad that I mistakenly woke up so early. I would definitely recommend the museum to anyone who is planning their time in Cambridge, if only for a short visit. It is hard to believe I walk past this museum every day and have yet to visit until today! But I will definitely be returning again over the rest of my time here in Cambridge.
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