Gulbenkian Museum
Calouste Gulbenkian was an Armenian businessman, philanthropist, collector and possibly one of the richest chaps to walk the face of this mortal coil. He is widely credited with opening the oil-fields of the East to the Western market, but the incredible collection of art pieces and objects that he amassed and preserved for the public is what I think defines this fellow.
Calouste had become a British citizen, but he had also lived in France for a period and he eventually settled in Portugal. Here he would found the Gulbenkian Foundation’s head office in 1956 (and also create a branch in the UK too). It was set up to be a charitable organisation with positive aims to reduce social exclusion, nourish the arts and create unusual relationships that changed people’s perception for the better.
The Gulbenkian Museum was later founded from his will to house his huge collection for the public and to exist as a functioning arts space. It was designed by a team of the Portuguese architects and is reminiscent of the College buildings that Mies van der Rohe designed in the US. It’s a superb example of modernist architecture done well. The cool concrete lines merge effortlessly into splendidly tended landscaping. Subdued blinds diffuse the hard sunlight inside through the great floor-to-ceiling windows. Occasionally, in front of larger objects or well-lit cabinets there is the odd comfortable armchair – perfectly positioned as a crutch to ailing eyes and feet.
There’s everything in here from Rembrandts, to Portuguese tiles, to insane examples of aristocratic European silverware. But one piece in particular stopped me in my tracks. It was a realist painting I saw on the way out titled Les Bretonnes au Pardon by Pascal Dagnan Bouveret. I don’t think I have ever seen anything quite like it. All the images I have seen of it online, don’t even come near to the mesmerising effect of seeing it in that quiet corner of the museum. This is a relaxed, contemplative place with no pretension and if you’re in Lisbon on a relentlessly hot day looking for solace (and maybe even some enlightenment too) the Gulbenkian museum is your place.