While in NYC in October of 2020, Pam and I visited The Cloisters in the northern climbs of Manhattan. The subway station let us out at the base of the highest hill in Manhattan and we took a trail that chris crossed its way upwards.I once lived in Washington Heights so I have quite a few prints and sketched of the area around the Cloisers.
The museum in Fort Tryon Park in Washington Heights, Manhattan, New York City specializes in European medieval art and architecture, with a focus on the Romanesque and Gothic periods. Governed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it contains a large collection of medieval artworks shown in the architectural settings of French monasteries and abbeys. Its buildings are centered around four cloisters—the Cuxa, Saint-Guilhem, Bonnefont and Trie—that were purchased by American sculptor and art dealer George Grey Barnard, dismantled in Europe between 1934 and 1939, and moved to New York. They were acquired for the museum by financier and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Other major sources of objects were the collections of J. P. Morgan and Joseph Brummer. The Cloisters were built right before WWII.
We took a guided tour but I lagged behind doing several sketches along the way. I spent some time doing a sketch of the Tomb of Ermengol VII the Count of Urgell who died in 1314, and a quick study of a standing sculpture of the Virgin and child by Nicolaus Gerhaert Von Leiben. Nicolaus was a seminal artist of the generation preceding Albrecht Dürer’s, and was presumably born in Leiden active in Strasbourg and Vienna, as well as in several cities between them. The tour guide stopped for a long time in front of the limestone doorway of Moutiers-Saint-Jean.
I miss sketching while traveling. I miss traveling in general.