I had forgotten what a wonderful display of works by Thomas Eakins the Philadelphia Museum has, bequeathed by his widow, Susan McDowell Eakins in 1929, and Mary Adeline Williams in 1930.

The Pair-Oared Shell (1872):-

Mending the Net (1881):-

This is what he looked like, in the portrait by his wife:-

Not to forget The Agnew Clinic (1889):-

I spent so much time last time I was in Philadelphia looking at the medieval collections, I thought that this time I would start on the other side of the great Grecian Entrance Hall.

I admired a fifteenth-century Florentine head:-

N early sixteenth-century French Virgin and Child:-

The Queen of Palmyra:-

One of Kändler’s Billy Goats (I remember Robert Charleston saying that if the V&A burned down, this was the object he would save):-

The Philadelphia Museum of Art, opened in 1928 on the site of an old reservoir, has acquired some unfamiliar statues at the top of its steps:-

Before leaving New York, I am posting some pictures taken on the High Line.

I like the way you can see over rooftops :-

The Statue of Liberty is visible in the far distance:-

And I like the sense of trees in the centre of the city:-

I had to drive out of New York part way up the lower parts of the Hudson Valley and stopped to take a picture of the wintry trees clinging to the side of the valley:-

I will be accused again of ripping off Walker Evans, which is entirely possible, but am nonetheless posting some photographs of the streets and houses of Soho and, now better, Tribeca, round the New York Academy, where I went to see its gallery space:-

And some details:-

It is strange being on the other side of the Atlantic and trying to explain what is happening to the British political system. Whatever happened to the British ability to compromise, to seek pragmatic and effective solutions to difficult situations ? We seem to have been driven up against a brick wall with a determination which sometimes seemed admirable, but now seems merely obstinate, unwilling and unable to back down, having lost the ability to listen to other people’s point of view and so without any obvious or possible way forward. Plan A in ruins and no Plan B.

After breakfast, I went on a tour of the Chelsea galleries: Milk (closed), Petzel, David Zwirner, who has a wonderful exhibition God Made My Face: A Collective Portrait of James Baldwin, which documents Baldwin’s friendship with Richard Avedon. They were at school together in the Bronx and collaborated on The Magpie, the school magazine, as well as beginning work on a book of Harlem Doorways, based on the work of Atget. In 1964, they collaborated on Nothing Personal:-

Gladstone and Gagosian, both closed. 192 Books. 520 W. 20th. turns out to be Comme des Garçons:-

W. 22nd. looking east:-

On to Matthew Marks and Lehmann Maupin. Luckily, Hauser & Wirth have installed a Roth Grill for a cappuccino:

The area is changing fast:-

On I went to Gagosian, Mary Boone and Lisson on 24th., Pace and Cheim and Reid on 25th. I ended up at Printed Matter Inc. on 11th. Avenue at 26th. and Paula Cooper on 26th.:-

On the corner of 26th. and 11th. is the Starrett-Lehigh building, designed for the contractors of the Empire State Building and Lehigh Valley Railroad:-

I am now posting photographs of my perambulations round the neighbourhood of the Meatpacking District/West Chelsea/West Village yesterday in the late afternoon:-

Being still on British time, I went out early to get some breakfast and see the sun rise on the east side of the city. It was an impressive sight:-