Sunday, Mar 12,
2017: Washington
Zootopia, an
Impressionist Masterpiece and a Turkish Repast
We awoke on our second day in
Washington to eat breakfast while listening to the telly that predicted the
coming of a massive blizzard on Tuesday. Temperatures were supposed to get
successively lower as the days progressed—so much for our desire to get away
from the cold! Notwithstanding the predictions, we hurried through breakfast of
muesli with yoghurt and hot buttered toast with coffee before we showered and
got ready for a day outdoors.
By 9.00 am, Corinne was driving us
downtown—a very generous gesture on her part, although we were more than happy
to take the metro (underground) from the nearest stop. As we drove through the
main streets of the capital, I realized how much I was relishing the architecture
of every building for each façade was completely different from the other. As
we passed through churches, private residences, apartment buildings and the
like, I felt silly that we had stayed away from the capital for so many years
and made only cursory stops through it.
Exploring
Washington’s Zoo:
It
is a little hard to imagine that we, who are devoted to museums and art
galleries, would make a bee-line for the Zoo in a city that boasts the
treasures of the Smithsonian . But since
our aim was to explore places we had never seen before and because the
capital’s zoo is reputedly one of the country’s finest, it made perfect sense
that we should head there first. Corinne dropped us right outside the main gate
which is flanked by gigantic sculptured lions and, within minutes, we found
ourselves at the Visitor’s Center. Sadly, they were unable to offer us maps,
but our guidebooks did the trick in leading us to the most important parts of
the zoo.
The zoo is located in a sprawling
mass of well-landscaped property. Laid out in the middle of the 19th
century, it is surprisingly natural in outlook and design. The highlights are
the giant pandas that are always present in the zoo on loan from the Chinese.
As one only rarely sees these animals, in the wild or in captivity, they are a
huge attraction and most visitors head to their section first.
Imagine our delight when we found
the pandas (in the Asian section) bright, alert and hungry when we arrived at
their pits. Bamboo grows in luxurious wildness all around their enclosures and
for very good reason—pandas spend 18 out of 24 hours of each day eating—and all
they eat is bamboo!!! Fortunately, bamboo grows very quickly. There has,
therefore, been no dearth of food for their munching pleasure. To our good
luck, one of the pandas decided to ham it just for our cameras and deliberately
ambled towards a straw hammock where he parked himself with a huge stalk of
bamboo that he slowly proceeded to consume. Our video cameras whirred and our
still cameras and phone cameras had a field day as we tried to record the
delightful sight. It was difficult to tear ourselves away from the sight but
there were other pandas in the enclosure that also demanded our attention.
Other creatures that left an
impression on us were flying orangutans, massive black gorillas, lion-faced
tamarins and a scary-looking anaconda (the world’s largest snake). There were
loads of poisonous snakes such as adders, vipers and cobras in glass tanks but
it was the boa constrictor, all curled up, together with the anaconda that was
more memorable to me. In addition, we saw seals, sea lions, Asian elephants
and—get this, a white Sumatran tiger (all seemingly within a few feet from us).
There were birds galore, alligators, crocodiles, giant tortoises that were as
big as small cars, and a host of other interesting animals that had us swooning.
It truly was a wonderful morning and by pacing ourselves carefully, resting
wherever we could, stretching our calves to avoid discomfort or foot soreness,
we managed to see everything worthwhile in about four hours.
Would we recommend a day at the
Washington Zoo? Most certainly…and especially for children. Best of all it is
free of charge!
On a Date with
Renoir at the Phillips Collection:
It is astonishing when you come to
think of it, that one of the world’s most renowned Impressionist paintings is
not to be found in the Louvre or the Musee d’Orsay in Paris, not in the National
Gallery in London or even in the National Gallery in Washington---but in a
small, nondescript private collection in Washington DC called The Phillips
Collection. What is also astonishing is that we have never seen it
ourselves—despite making several trips to Washington DC over the years. Hence,
it was a priority on our To-Do List and since it was open until 7.00 pm on
Sundays, it made sense to head to the Phillips.
Located on a quiet side street not
far from the famous Dupont Circle, The Phillips Collection has a hefty entry
fee—fortunately, my Metropolitan Museum of Art ID card gets me (and a
companion) into most of the world’s finest art collections for free--and the
same perquisite prevailed here. Armed with our entry tags, we entered the
lovely private mansion of a very wealthy couple called Duncan and Marjorie
Acker Phillips whose love of contemporary art, led to their amassing of some of
the most significant works in the 1920s. Although the canvasses hung initially
in their home—a genteel mansion--they acquired the property next door to theirs
and converted it into an art gallery for the browsing pleasure of the public.
Over the next few decades, they
collected works by all the leading lights of the era. However, their most
famous acquisition and the one that all art lovers head directly to see is the
gorgeous painting entitled Luncheon of
the Boating Party that occupies a room almost entirely by itself. Its vast
proportions and pleasing composition leave the viewer stunned. Featuring as its
central character, the model who would become Renoir’s wife, Aline Charigot, it
was exhibited in 1882 and caused an immediate sensation. Duncan Phillips bought
it in 1923 from its owner, the art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel for
$125,000—probably the costliest painting he had ever owned.
Posed at the Maison Fournaise, a restaurant on the Seine at Chatou, are a host
of friends and acquaintances that Renoir knew well, including the woman who
would become his wife. They are casually dressed and seen making conversation
over glasses of wine. The color in the composition is stunning but it is the
soft images created through the famous blurred lens of the Impressionist
painter that renders it delightfully charming. Needless to say, we spent a long
while in front of the painting and whipped out our phones to get some Wikipedia
notes on it—in order to appreciate its nuances more deeply. I am delighted to
note that with the viewing of this painting, I have, in fact, seen all 100 Masterpieces of Art that the art
critic Marina Vaizey provides in her book of the same name. I had bought the
book several years ago in Bombay and it has taken me about 33 years to see them
all as I have made my way through cities like Paris and Florence and small
towns such as Cambridge and Oxford to see each of them in the flesh.
In addition to this masterpiece, the
collection boasts works by Picasso (The
Blue Room which features a canvas by Toulouse-Lautrec in the background was
especially interesting), Degas, Van Gogh, Pissarro and Sisley which make the
collection quite remarkable. What was even more interesting was a special
retrospective on the work of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec which occupied almost an
entire floor of the museum. Filled with the publicity posters that he designed
for such night clubs as the Chat Noir, the Moulin de la Galette and the Moulin Rouge, viewers were able to see
his works in progress. A large number of
the printed lithographs of the originals had been acquired by Phillips and they
form a substantial part of his collection. From Aristide Bruant to the famous
La Goulue, from Jane Avril to May Milton (whose figure hangs in a poster in
Picasso’s Blue Room), the big names
of the period are to be seen in glorious color as they reproduce the gaiety of
a bygone era. It was simply delightful and we loved every second of the
exhibition. We then walked across via a bridge to the mansion of the Phillips
where a specially fitted Music Room with a splendid grand piano had been the
venue of a concert that we could hear from the outside (tickets were required
to enter). Inside we saw some of the most interesting paintings from
Constable’s View of the River Stour
to works by Bonnard and Degas.
It was 7.00 pm when we finished our
perusal of the museum (at which point, it was being shut). We spent a short
while in the gift shop and then called Corinne who was supposed to pick us up
for our next appointment: dinner with herself and her friends in a restaurant
nearby.
Dinner at Ottoman Taverna:
It was not long before Corinne and
her friend Bill picked us up from the famed book shop at Dupont Circle called Kramerbooks which is also known for its Afterwords Café. We browsed about for a
little bit while awaiting our pick-up and then coasted along to a Turkish
Restaurant called Ottoman Taverna
where our friends have eaten before and felt compelled to share their finds
with us. Over the next couple of hours, we got to know another couple that
joined Corinne and Bill—Debasis and his wife, Jyotsna Basu, who were originally
from Calcutta. We ordered a number of delicious dishes—the lamb chops were a hot
favorite. I ordered the Shrimp Stew as a starter and the Turkish lamb sausage
over a white bean stew for my main course. Dessert was a sampler of kanafi (which Llew and I have relished
all over the Middle East) and baklava—the
layered dessert made with phyllo pastry and thyme honey. Not long after, we got
back into Corinne’s car and made our way to her home for another restful night.
One thing was sure: we’d had a
superb day and had crowned in with a memorable meal in the company of people
who were tons of fun.
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