Something to Declare

“John Singer Sargent’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”

December 22, 2023

When we last left Stef and Stan, they were doing a sort of Stay-Cation, playing tourist in New York City. A lot of that involved the Gilded Mansions tour run by Untapped New York. Lots of references to “The Gilded Age: ”Astors vs. Vanderbilts, Old Money vs. New Money, in the late 19th Century, etc.

We were still working our way through Season 2 of “The Gilded Age,” when we came across a piece in the Times Arts section about an exhibit called Dressed by Sargent at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Lots of paintings by John Singer Sargent, the portraitist de jour of the Gilded Age. 

Remember “Madame X?” That 1883 portrait of the socialite Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau, with one shoulder strap down, which outraged 19th Century sensibilities? 

So that Sargent had to redo the painting, restoring the shoulder strap?

The current exhibit at the Boston Fine Arts Museum includes a slew of Sargent portraits, along with displays of the actual gowns and stuff worn by some of the subjects of his portraits. 

So the idea of seeing the Sargent exhibit in Boston was, to put it mildly, irresistible. 

After booking a visit to the Fine Arts Museum, and AMTRAK tickets to Boston, we were scoping out hotels in Boston near the museum. We came across a place called The Verb, a former motel near Fenway Park. The name derives from “reverb”, a reminder of the “Let the good times [rock ‘n’] roll” days of yore. Some pics of the hotel’s lobby:

Stef, as some know, is an aficionada of that music genre, so the idea of staying at The Verb was also fairly irresistible.

We left this morning on the AMTRAK Acela from the spiffy Daniel Patrick Moynihan Hall of Penn Station and arrived at Boston’s Back Bay station in the early afternoon.  In addition to The Verb’s lobby décor (see above), they provide reams of old rock ‘n’ roll vinyl LPs, to which guests can help themselves,

and which they can play on turntables provided in each room:

FYI, as I write this right now, we’re playing the Beatles’ album Something New (1964) (“I’ll Cry Instead,” “Tell Me Why,” and other early Beatles classics). Takes you back!

After checking in, we visited Newbury Street, to stroll in the chic Boston Back Bay neighborhood. This included a stop at Restoration Hardware, the home furnishings gallery. We were surprised to find that the building had formerly housed Harvard’s Museum of Natural History, designed in 1862.

And a short visit to the Boston Public Garden (est. 1837):

It was cold out, and we took refuge in the pleasant Street Bar, located in The Newbury hotel. 

Glasses of Pinot Grigio and Pinot Noir and crab cake made a nice repast.

We weren’t fully sated, however, and returned to The Verb, which houses a funky Japanese restaurant called Hojoko, where we enjoyed sake, salmon sashimi and charred cauliflower.

From our (Formica!) table in Hojoko, we could see other hotel guests enjoying the outdoor pool. 

We were told that the water was heated to 95 degrees F, but the air temperature (in the 30s F) was too intimidating for us. Besides, we had not packed bathing suits!

Back to the room to work on this post, passing the rock ‘n’ roll posters, one of which inspired the title of this blogpost:

Note detail from the lower left:

Tomorrow: To the museum and John Singer Sargent and the Gilded Age!