Baltimore: Baltimore Museum of Art (June 2018)


Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) (June 2018) - View the Largest Collection of Matisse in the World

My spouse and I visited the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) on a Saturday afternoon in early June 2018. The museum is open from 10:00 am until 5:00 pm on Wednesday through Sunday (closed Monday and Tuesday). General admission is free because of a grant given by several foundations in conjunction with Baltimore city and county. (The Walters Art Museum also offers free admission from the same grant.) You may have to pay a fee to view rotating special exhibitions, however.

The museum is located just outside of downtown Baltimore, adjacent to the Homewood campus of Johns Hopkins University (between the Charles Village, Remington, Hampden, and Roland Park neighborhoods). A small (paid) parking lot is onsite, with additional public lots and street parking available. A coat/bag/umbrella check room is available, as is a gift shop and a full-service restaurant (called Gertrude’s). 

The museum opened in its present location in 1929. Prior to that, beginning in 1876, it occupied a downtown location and then another temporary location. Currently, it occupies a 3-story, 10,000-square foot building of the classic revival style. Its architect also designed the National Archives Building in DC, the American Museum of Natural History in NYC, and the Tate Gallery Sculpture Hall in London. 

The BMA’s 95,000 work collection includes pieces from the ancient world (like the Antioch mosaics displayed in a sort of enclosed cloister) to contemporary modern art. The BMA collection includes sculptures (both indoors and outdoors in its landscaped 2.7-acre garden), decorative arts, drawings, prints, photos, and paintings. The highlight of the museum is the Cone Collection, donated by two local sisters who amassed a collection by painters including Matisse, Picasso, Cezanne, Manet, Degas, Gauguin, van Gogh, and Renoir. In fact, the BMA owns the largest public collection of works by Matisse. It also displays several rooms that were reconstructed/replicated from six local Maryland historic houses. 

We enjoyed our brief visit to the Baltimore Museum of Art; we only spent about an hour there, but we could have easily spent the entire day!












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