As you might have gathered from Brian’s last post, we prefer our art bigger and bolder than a white canvas no matter how intricate the monochromatic layers are supposed to be.

Claude Monet’s Nympheas (Water Lilies) is one of the many colorful paintings on display in the Carnegie Museum of Art, which was founded more than a century ago and has one of the best collections we’ve seen during our U.S. travels.

Tycoon Andrew Carnegie envisioned a cultural temple where ordinary folks could marvel at European wonders they would never be able to afford to see in person. He conjured up the Hall of Architecture, a specially-built, sky lit room housing the third largest collection of plaster casts in the world.

A façade of a French Benedictine abbey takes up one entire wall, measuring about 40 feet high and 78 feet wide. We’ve seen the originals of  some of the pieces, like the ornate bronze doors on the Baptistry in Florence. It’s a dazzling display. No convincing needed.