Underrated places: the Phillips Collection and Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

This week, the Travel section regaled readers with places we felt were highly underrated — an eclectic list that includes spots as diverse as Carpinteria, EuroDisney and Goblin Valley State Park in Utah.

I have two art museums to add to the underrated list: the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. In each museum, you feel like you’re in someone’s home as you move from one painting to the next.

The Phillips is a far cry from the land of the huge Smithsonian buildings on the National Mall; instead, it’s tucked in a somewhat residential neighborhood near Dupont Circle at 1600 21st St. NW.

Its most famous painting by far is Renoir’s “The Luncheon of the Boating Party” (above), an enormous painting that founder Duncan Phillips bought in 1923. (Check out “Who’s Who in the Boating Party” at the museum’s website that identifies Renoir’s pals).

[Do you have a favorite underrated travel spot? Send us a comment]

So what makes a trip to the Phillips so magical?

“The Phillips Collection offers an intimate, homelike atmosphere that gives visitors time and space to consider its works of modern art — many of which were first created to hang in private homes, rather than large public spaces.”

–from the museum’s website.

The Stewart Gardner has the same feel: a stunning museum with a courtyard most often filled with flowers and sculptures. Art collector Isabella Stewart Gardner opened the museum at 280 the Fenway in 1903.

One of the most breathtaking pieces is a commissioned portrait (above) of her by John Singer Sargent that stands more than 6 feet tall. (There are others by Sargent as well, including the rather famous image “El Jaleo,” 1882).

These are great places to find when you are next in Washington or Boston — particularly if you think you’ve seen all the art those cities have to offer.

–Mary Forgione, Los Angeles Times staff writer

[Photo credits: Phillips Collection and Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum]

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 21, 2009 at 10:33 am by Mary Forgione and is filed under Boston, East Coast, Washington D.C.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.