Gulbenkian Museum -- Did I miss something?

I wondered the same thing when I visited the museum. It was rather disappointing. I wouldn't recommend it as a top sight. I didn't go to the Tile Museum and wish I had. Oh, well, another reason to return to Lisbon! I agree that the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond is a great museum.

@jeff, I was hesitating to say "disappointing", but I know what you mean. I think for new tourists to Lisbon, Gulbenkian isn't worth your time. If you are a return visitor and have already done many of the main highlights, sure, by all means spend some time (although I probably wouldn't recommend it until you've exhausted your secondary attractions list).

I do wonder though: is the Gulbenkian museum one of the best art museums that Lisbon has to offer? If so, wow, I think there are many other better ones elsewhere in the world to visit :)

Regarding the National Tile Museum, I think it's worth a visit for new tourists to Lisbon. I can't say I was too impressed with it, but it is a little more "unusual", speaks very much to an aspect of Lisbon, so worth going from that aspect. Now that I remember, I think we ended up "accidentally" skipping a section of that Museum because when we first entered a part of it was full of people so we decided to see the other parts but at the end of our visit, forgot we had not seen that part yet. Oh well! I hope to visit Lisbon again really soon. We love the city and had such a fun time exploring.

I thought the Gulbenkian was really impressive. For me, it was such an interesting collection (antiquities, Islamic art, furniture, and paintings from some of the great masters). I did have a guided tour and that always makes a difference. I thought it was a must see

I too enjoyed the tile museum but if I could have only chosen one, it would have been the Gulbenkian.

@Laura, thanks for sharing your thoughts! An interesting viewpoint :)

Have you visited the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts? If so, how did you think that compared with the Gulbenkian?

I was in Lisbon decades ago so don't remember details, but I recall liking the mixture of art and decorative art at the Gulbenkian. And I think the size is manageable for folks who don't want to spend more than 1-1/2 or 2 hours in a single museum.

Taste in art is such a personal thing. I tend to love Islamic decorative arts and dislike the Baroque stuff found in a lot of popular palaces.

Indeed, the Gulbenkian Museum is quite manageable in terms of size. It's definitely not one of those museums that are an all day, or even half-day affair.

I haven't been to this museum in Lisbon, but I have a distinct recollection of a "masterpieces from the Gulbenkian" special exhibit that was at the Metropolitan Museum in New York about 20 years ago while the Gulbenkian was being renovated, and being quite unimpressed by what was supposedly their best.

I agree with acraven that art is very personal. If the museum wasn’t a highlight for you, that doesn’t mean you missed anything. I’m sure that many people would agree with you.

Surprisingly, haven’t been to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. But how the Gulbenkian compared to other museums in a different city was irrelevant to me as I was prioritizing based on the time I had and my interests.

I was in Lisbon for 5 days, 2 of which were on the RS Portugal tour and a guided tour of the museum was included. I thought it was worth the hour tour and the time I spent on my own following the tour. I wasn’t so interested in the paintings, but I was interested in the Islamic art and the art noveau pieces. It was worth 2 - 3 hours out of my 5 days. If I had had only 2 or 3 days, I probably would have skipped it. I probably should have said that the museum was a must see for me given that I had 5 days.

@Slate, interesting that you distinctly remember the exhibit wasn’t impressive. Yeah, the museum was eh. I can imagine though it’s a good institution for locals and people who have lots of time in Lisbon.

I just saw @lauren’s post. Don’t know how I missed it.

I asked how you felt the Gulbenkian compared for you in relation to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts just to get a sense of your assessment to something else that I had another barometer to.

In any case, sounded like the Gulbenkian visit was part of an RS tour packet. In that case it’s certainly worthwhile to go.

For us, we went in part because the Lisboa Card included a 20% (or was it 10%?) discount but more importantly because from stuff I read, the Gulbenkian seemed impressive. But I was sad to feel that little old Richmond’s art museum was miles better. It truly is surprising that Richmond (not a world capital) has such a great art museum, but that’s off topic :)

Anyhow, all good. We enjoyed our overall visit very much.

I visited the Gulbenkian Museum when on the superb RS Portugal tour in May 2023. To me, the Gulbenkian was the least interesting group activity of our entire tour. In Lisbon, I much preferred the Tile Museum, which I saw on my own. For a superb small art museum on the Iberian peninsula, I recommend the Thyssen in Madrid.

I visited the Gulbenkian museum while in Lisbon on my own - not on a tour - and enjoyed it very much. I spent several hours there, and especially liked the Islamic and Central Asian art - specifically the beautiful Turkish and Persian tiles and carpets. Interesting to see the variety of items collected by Calouste Gulbenkian. But everyone doesn’t have to like the same things or go to the same places.

I like your question. I have been to both museums, the Richmond Museum of Fine Arts (October, 2021) and the Gulbenkian (October, 2022.) I was trying to think how to answer your question, given that art is such a personal thing.

My immediate reaction (before going back to my photos) was that I LOVED the Gulbenkian. I was "dreamy" about it. I was pleasantly surprised by the Richmond Museum of Fine Arts and enjoyed it, but not in the same impactful way.

Gulbenkian: I had very strong reactions to some of the pieces.
I was entranced by some works and admired them at length, from a distance, up close, then back again.

I had just been to Turkey earlier that same year and so the roomful of Islamic Arts and (especially) the Islamic tiles gave me a very strong emotional reaction.

Some of the pieces kept me mesmerized: "Cupid and the Three Graces" by Boucher, a scultpure of Diana, "The Mirror of Venus" (Sir Edward Burne-Jones.) "The Blessings" by Rodin is elegant and beautiful - I couldn't tear myself away. I loved some of the Lalique jewelry pieces - though not as much as the Lalique pendant I just saw in Budapest.

I had really strong reactions to these pieces at the Gulbenkian.

At the Viriginia Museum of Fine Art, a few paintings stood out for my tastes: "Yachting the Mediterranean" (Julius Leblanc Stewart) and "Friendly Advice" (William Merritt Chase) and one of the 3-D modern art pieces.

And no, I don't remember all of this, these are the ones I took photos of .... which brings me to "the numbers."

At the VMFA I took photos of 3 pieces of art; at the Gulbenkian 18. (It's possible I was just in more of a picture taking mood at the Gulbenkian, or maybe the art made the decisions.)
I spent 90 minutes at the VA Museum and 2 hours at the Gulbenkian, going around twice to revisit some of my favorites.

So, for me, both qualitatively and quantitatively, I preferred the Gulbenkian. I think I connected more with the pieces in the Gulbenkian because I had some relation to other such works, such as just having been to Turkey. And the Gulbenkian has definitely stayed with me longer as I remembered the pieces that I loved most without going back to my photos.

Oh, I also loved the National Tile Museum. And yes, I would recommend it higher for a foreign visitor because it's so characteristic of Portugal. I had 8 nights in Lisbon, so I was able to go to it and to the Gulbenkian.

I do wonder though: is the Gulbenkian museum one of the best art museums that Lisbon has to offer?

This, I cannot answer. But if I'm not mistaken, the Gulbenkian was a man's collection. So it is his taste that is on display. It's not a group of art directors making the decision about what to buy and display for a wide audience, but one man making his own choices.

Thanks for these thoughts and for sharing your experiences. You’re right that the museum is one man’s collection.

My husband and I rented an apartment for a week in Lisbon in 2011. It was in the Alfama, just up the hill from the train station. Being a total tile nut, one day we spent a long time simply taking the metro from there to the fair grounds and back for lunch as well as riding the lines to and through most of the stations. This link gives a taste of what we saw: https://www.wheretwogoto.com/exploring-lisbon-underground-art/

We also went to the tile museum. We had just enough time to go through it before heading back to the magnificent church to see a kids program featuring a procession of children representing many countries around the world and visitors from outer space. They were bringing gifts and paying homage to Poseidon. The church was packed with the kids' families. It was standing room only and absolutely delightful. We were told about it when we entered the museum and when it would start so we could get back in time. This is a fairly decent link to info on the tile museum: https://www.lisbonportugaltourism.com/guide/azulejo-tile-museum.html

I don’t remember going to the Gulbenkian at all or even that it was on the itinerary for the RS Portugal tour I was on in the summer of 2019. I may have skipped it for something I found more interesting -- a visit to Fábrica Sant'Anna, the tile factory that's been there since 1741. I signed up for a tour and was the only person there. I took a bus there and back.

The basic website has some serious flaws, but I found this recent article about the factory. This is a quote from the article, "Sant'Anna Ceramica Lisbon is Europe's oldest still active ceramics factory. It was founded in 1741 and is still profitable. Actually, it is the only bigger ceramics and pottery production factory left in Europe." This is the link:
https://leanbase.de/network/post/cf3g8-how-sant-anna-factory-lisbon-thrives-since-1

Unfortunately, the images aren't clickable, but you can see some here:
https://descubralisboa.com/azulejos-em-lisboa-fabrica-santanna/

Yeah, my times in Lisbon were definitely tile centric. It was very tempting, but traveling light, I didn't take anything home with me except pictures and memories.

The genre of "Dead Rich Person's Private Collection as Museum" is more often a letdown than a highlight. Chances of delight go down when the collection was moved to its location because of tax incentives and/or promised government support. The Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid is another example.

Two caveats:

-Chances of delight go up when the museum is in the dead rich person's former home, still fully decorated as when they lived there.

-I absolutely loved this painting at the Gulbenkian. My eyes were moist. I wanted to fall in love with him.

@ Scudder The Peggy Guggenheim Collection sets the standard, in my opinion, for this type of museum.

I really enjoyed the Gulbenkian Museum and it’s collection. I will happily return just to see this beautiful Rembrandt again https://gulbenkian.pt/museu/en/works_museu/portrait-of-an-old-man/
And I absolutely fell in love with this statue; https://gulbenkian.pt/museu/en/works_museu/statuette-of-a-child-2/

Went to the Gulbenkuin in 2014 and absolutely loved it. For me there was an amazing variety of very unique and beautiful works of art. Perhaps it has changed since then although museums usually don’t change much. To each his own I guess.

@Jeff- The Isabella Stewart Gardiner is at the top of my list. And the Frick Collection.

What @Scudder said. It's important to go into the Gulbenkian knowing that its focus is the private collection of a very wealthy well-connected art aficionado. It reflects Calouste Gulbenkian's personal taste, and what he was able and interested in acquiring. That's the story it is really telling. IMO, it also suffers from a common problem specific to art museums - lack of interpretation. They assume visitors come in already well-versed in art and art history, and if you aren't - well too bad.

It's a fine museum. Beautiful and important pieces. But unless you are a well-educated art history fan, it's not real high on the list of places to see. And let's face it, if you are in Lisbon, you are generally there to learn about - Lisbon. And Portugal. That's not what this is.

I really enjoyed the museum, but full disclosure, I went there after just discovering that my purse ( that I had left in a taxi in my jet lagged state) had been turned in to a police station ( intact!). As a result I went there very happy , and remember enjoying the pieces very much. I liked the variety, and perhaps it was my mood, but thought it was a lovely little collection. The picture I remember best is below.

https://gulbenkian.pt/museu/en/works_museu/john-lewis-brown-with-wife-and-daughter/

@scudder -- I haven't been to either of those museums, but my son (who is in college near Boston) loves the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

What I'm also finding interesting about this thread is that some of the pieces mentioned by others are works that I either didn't see or don't remember, so perhaps they weren't a favorite at the time. When I look at the photos now, I wish that I could go back to have a (better) look.

I guess when you find a collector whose tastes you find compatible with your own, there is a lot to enjoy.

And directors at art museums like the VMFA must have a very difficult job when they make purchase and display decisions for a broader audience.

I've been 3 times. And never set foot inside the building.

I think the gardens are great, small cafe for a snack or coffee/beer, people watch, check out the baby ducklings in Spring, nice paths through the bamboo grove along the creek. It is a pretty spot away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

Potential visitors should consider that half of the garden (Jardim) is closed for an amazing renovation as is the Modern Art Collection. Both are scheduled to reopen next year. At that time a visit to both museums and time spent touring the beautiful surrounding gardens (7.5 hectares) should be on most visitors agenda.

I enjoyed my visit to the Gulbenkian in 2019. As other have mentioned and I knew this prior to my visit, it's his private collection. There are two buidlings - the one that has his collection and another building with the modern collection. I went to both. I bypassed the sculptures in the modern collection as it didn't interest me. There were many paintings from Portuguese, not known to me artists that I enjoyed and appreciated.

I really enjoyed my visit to the Tile Musuem - it exceeded my expectations, based on the generally 2 out of 3 star attractions rating it gets in several guide books - explanations of the tile making process, tile displays in chronological order up to modern tile designs/ art and the view of the over the top convent church gilded in gold and the multiutude of supposed bones of ancient saints.

The Tile Museum should not be missed as it is dedicated to Portugal’s famous and beautiful tiles that are omnipresent.

@Lo wrote:

Yeah, my times in Lisbon were definitely tile centric. It was very tempting, but traveling light, I didn't take anything home with me except pictures and memories.

I wish I knew about the tile factory. Tile is such a iconic thing for Lisbon (and I guess for a big part of Portugal) that I'd put that on top of my list had I know.

@Scudder wrote:

The genre of "Dead Rich Person's Private Collection as Museum" is more often a letdown than a highlight. Chances of delight go down when the collection was moved to its location because of tax incentives and/or promised government support. The Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid is another example.

Ha! Funny but accurate way to put it! I think we only went to the Gulbenkian because there were quite a number of guidebooks and posts that conveyed to us it was a must-see, so we went.

@Jeff wrote:

The Peggy Guggenheim Collection sets the standard, in my opinion, for this type of museum.

Oh interesting! I did visit Venice but did not go to Peggy Guggenheim Collection. I guess it was a "good" thing I didn't. On the other hand, when I return to Venice, I suppose I might actually visit because since that collection (and that person!) is so much associated with Venice, I probably want to know what the fuss is all about although it wouldn't necessarily be my top thing to do.

@Dutch_traveler wrote:

I really enjoyed the Gulbenkian Museum and it’s collection. I will happily return just to see this beautiful Rembrandt again https://gulbenkian.pt/museu/en/works_museu/portrait-of-an-old-man/
And I absolutely fell in love with this statue; https://gulbenkian.pt/museu/en/works_museu/statuette-of-a-child-2/

Very nice indeed! I think I discovered something about myself after visiting the Gulbenkian. If I lived in Lisbon, I probably would visit the Gulbenkian and might appreciate it more. On the other hand, as a passer-by/tourist who is not a great fine arts aficionado, I think it is better to pass on this museum, do other things, and then go to this museum if one has time. I guess what I discovered is that I don't specifically travel abroad for art museums, and unless there's something really iconic about that art museum, I should do other top sites/sights first.

This does make me think whether I would visit the Louvre if I'm in Paris. Well, I was in Paris a while ago and I didn't visit the Louvre. A friend recently visited it and she mostly talked about how crowded it was. I think I would absolutely hate experiencing an art museum when it is so crowded! I do want to see the Louvre, but do not want to be so sardine packed with others. It makes being able to have silence and stillness to enjoy the art very difficult.

@TheOrdinaryRebecca wrote:

It reflects Calouste Gulbenkian's personal taste, and what he was able and interested in acquiring. That's the story it is really telling. IMO, it also suffers from a common problem specific to art museums - lack of interpretation. They assume visitors come in already well-versed in art and art history, and if you aren't - well too bad.

I think that's a great point! The time I need to invest in and therefore enjoy art museums can be "significant" if I really were to enjoy the museum and not much interpretation is already provided. I think many contemporary art museums are getting better in providing interpretation and food for thought.

It's a fine museum. Beautiful and important pieces. But unless you are a well-educated art history fan, it's not real high on the list of places to see. And let's face it, if you are in Lisbon, you are generally there to learn about - Lisbon. And Portugal. That's not what this is.

Another excellent point. I wish more guidebooks would state that, although maybe they did and I just didn't receive the message as such.

@Susan ToCA wrote:

There are two buidlings - the one that has his collection and another building with the modern collection. I went to both. I bypassed the sculptures in the modern collect

AHA! So there is another building and that's for the modern collection. I did not know that at all. Or rather, as my original post indicated, I did see another building with words to that effect but I did not read about it in any guidebook. Good to know there are two different collections in different buildings.

A few years ago, we were in Paris and went to a Gulbenkian Museum exhibit there. Does anyone know if it still exists? It was in the 7th. Thanks for your help!