The Sunday Traveler~Courtyards of Honolulu Museum of Art

Walking in to the Honolulu Museum of Art is a bit unusual in that one walks into courtyards in a tropical climate, heavy with humidity the day I visited, and feel transported to other worlds.

Bertram Goodhue, a New York architect, designed the plans for the galleries surrounded by courtyards; he took advantage of the outdoor light, and Hawaii’s climate. The architect used elements of Chinese and Mediterranean features, along with the pitched roof popular in Hawaii. The Chinese Courtyard is surrounded by the Asian art galleries, and the Mediterranean Courtyard is surrounded by the collection of European and American art.  Paving stones made from Chinese granite slabs that were used as ballast in ships transporting Hawaiian sandalwood are used around the koi pond in the Chinese Courtyard. There are flagstones from Molokai, and Chinese green glazed tiles.

I’ve put a gallery together of different perspectives of the courtyards that I took those wonderful few hours that I was there.

Mediterranean Courtyard

Main Courtyard

Chinese Courtyard

Central Courtyard

Along Central Courtyard wall

Chinese Courtyard

It rained, the sun came out, and it rained again. No matter.

The lead photo is a sculpture entitled La Grande Penelope, dated 1912.  The sculptor is Emile-Antoine Bourdelle (1861-1929).