Saturday afternoon I walked over the 56th hundred block of Madison Avenue and visited the Dahesh Museum. A lovely venue. The collection was assembled by Dr. Dahesh (ne, Salim Moussa Achi) in Beruit, Lebanon. The focus of the collection were works of the European Academic tradition. Works that express the ideals of exoticism, romanticism, neo-classical genres. His dream was to establish a museum in Beruit, but when the civil war erupted in the late 1970's, it became clear that his dream would not be possible. And so the works were shipped to the US for protection. Later, friends in the US convinced Dr. Dahesh to sell his collection on the proviso that a museum would be established in his honor and the works would be open to the public to enjoy. This painting is by Peder Mork Monsted, a Danish painter, called "Portrait of a Nubian". It's representative of the entire collection.
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