Visited the utterly deserted museum of Mr Mohammed Mahmoud Khalil, which contains all the pieces he collected over his lifetime, displayed in his former residence. I knew in advance it contained eighteenth- and nineteenth-century works, but was rather taken aback by the collection – it has pieces by all the ‘core’ Impressionists, and assorted hangers-on: there’s a handful of Rodin bronzes, a couple of Degas pastels (one indifferent, one good), several Monets, Gaugins and a Van Gogh. Oh, and an excellent Mary Cassatt piece.Â
Highlights – Monet’s depiction of Westminster and Cleopatra’s Needle on the Embankment, Mary Cassat’s pastel of a young girl, Monet’s daliahs. I’m not a huge fan of the later Gaugins, especially ‘Life & Death’ which is given pride of place, but there’s a good breadth of work without being so large as to cause overload. If the museum was in a major European city, it’d be heaving with people (and have some decent security) – as it is, I was the only visitor.
As an aside, I’d link to the pieces, but there doesn’t seem to be an ‘IMDB for art’ on teh intarweb. If I’ve missed such a thing, please let me know.
