A Weekend in Philadelphia
- Rachel
- Oct 24, 2021
- 2 min read
Last weekend, my mother and I spent a couple of days in Philadelphia, Pa. We went because there was an exhibit of her favorite artist's work, Suzanne Valadon, at the Barnes Foundation. I'd been to Philadelphia once before but I was happy to go back. It's a very cool city that has a mix of the new and the old, and chockfull of American history. It also reminds me of a smaller, less-overwhelming version of New York City.
In lieu of making the 8 hour drive, we took about an hour and a half-long plane ride. We arrived Friday afternoon and discovered our hotel was very close to Chinatown.
For dinner, we walked to one of the nearby Asian restaurants. I ordered dumplings and vegetable lo mein.
After we ate, we walked to Independence Hall, a historical building where both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were debated and signed. The last time I was in Philly (last January) I was able to take a tour but it was closed when we there this time, so we just looked at it from outside. We also saw Ben Franklin's grave, which is nearby.
We saw a beautiful view of the skyline on the way home.
The next day we saw another historical building, Philadelphia City Hall. This was an extremely large and beautiful structure. We walked though the outdoor entrance into a courtyard and spent some time admiring the architecture.
Then we walked to the museum to see the Valadon exhibit. Suzanne Valadon is not very well known, especially in America. She was French and started out as a model for artists like Pierre-Auguste Renoir and and Henri Toulouse Lautrec. She was self-taught and eclipsed in fame by her son Maurice Utrillo, who painted cityscapes. This was Valdon's first exhibit ever in North America, so it was pretty special to be able to see so many of her paintings in person. Below are some of my favorites.
After we walked through the exhibit, we went to see the permanent collection in the rest of the museum. They had lots of other famous artists like Van Gogh, Monet, Modigliani, Renoir and Valaond's son Utrillo.
That concluded our short but sweet trip to Philadelphia. The next day we flew home. I'm so glad I got to take this trip with my mom. Do you like going to museums? Would you travel to a different city to see your favorite artist?
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