St Petersburg #3. Hermitage.

I was in to some culture, and the next day I found some time to realize an old dream of mine: Visiting the Hermitage museum. It is located in seven huge buildings, and its collection is just huge. I concentrated on impressionist paintings, with the side-effect that I didn't feel like an absolute novice in artibus, because I knew a few works and yelled "Ah! So here you are!" to some of them. Here is a list of the works I liked most. Wonder what they look like? Google them...

Gijsbrecht Lijtens - Winter landscape
Frans Snijders - Fish market
Rinaldo Rinaldi - Taloni
Tizian - portrait Paul III
Louis le Lain - Milkmaid's family
Rouault - tete de jesus Christ
Picasso - trois femmes (1908)
Gauguin - femmes au bord de la mer
Gauguin - ou vas-tu?
Renoir - L'enfant au fouet
Georges Michel - landscape with mill
Hippolyte de la Roche - Portrait of Henrietta Sontag
Matisse - dance! (my favorite)

After a visit that turned into a bit of a rush near closing time, I headed back through very dirty streets. Yesterday's snow had turned into a grey ugly mash that entered my shoes. But it was okay. I wrote some six hours, and slept very late.