#morgan-library--museum

#morgan-library--museum

The grand marble entrance on Fifth Avenue is a stunner that only hints at the beauty inside. With its stately lions (Patience and Fortitude) guarding the steps, the library looms as a temple of knowledge. Inside, mesmerizing architecture and finishings can be found around every corner, celebrating the art, history and literature within. The NYPL system was founded in 1895, but its main branch opened in 1911 after nearly a decade of construction.

I say surprising because, of course, when it comes to Renoir, we think almost at once of his paintings: all those apple-cheeked ladies and children living in a kind of bourgeois haze of comfort. But what Bailey shows us here is Renoir's process as an artist, one who was seriously engaged in the personal act of drawing for most of his career.