That depends. Who’s one’s favorite artist? Which artist will be highlighted? And, how much time is one willing to invest in the Louvre—the largest art museum on the planet?
To find the best art museums in Europe is as diverse as the food. But, to start with the giants of the art world—van Gogh, Picasso, Da Vinci, Michaelangelo, Rembrandt—is to get an idea of museums one can visit for more unknown, but just as talented artists, besides (and it isn’t the Louvre).
The Musée d’Art de Moderne de la Ville de Paris houses a good deal of avant-garde faire, including a few Picassos, Léger, Matasse, and a German designer’s large scale model in tribute to electricity. If avant-garde isn’t your thing, there’s always the Musée Marmottan-Claude Monet and the Musée Picasso. Here, these museums offer antiques of historic relevance (Renaissance tapestries, First Empire furniture in the Claude Monet) and almost 3,300 chronologically ordered works of the estate of Pablo Picasso to dot the museum landscape in his name.
Of course the Louvre is mentioned in this collection. But the Vincent Van Gogh Museum and Church in the Netherlands is a wonderful place to visit the artist’s birthplace and painting destiny. And, well, if the more sexier side of life works for you, traveling through Europe offers sex and erotic art museums there, too. The Beate Uhse Erotik Museum in Berlin is one place to browse your steamier side, where the Eroticamuseum Barcelona is another place to visit for a Spanish flavored perspective of sex.
And that’s what it’s about, really: perspectives. Whatever one’s visit in Europe is, no doubt that’s the best museum for the traveler.
I've done a lot of study on
I've done a lot of study on Monet. Is the museum (aka his home) in Giverny still available to tour?