David and Carmen Kreeger (6 cents)

David Kreeger was the founder and long time head of GEICO, an almost-professional violinist, and a patron of the arts in Washington. He and his wife built their Foxhall Road home, designed by Philip Johnson, with the idea of creating a museum after their deaths. The museum has now been opened about 15 years.

It has always been open by appointment only, but now can be visited without a reservation on Saturdays.

The house is architectually unique and hard to explain. You enter a see through vestibule. There are stairs and a living room on your left. There are other rooms to your right, perhaps the dining and kitchen areas. And the garages. All the rooms are oversized. All have marble walls and floors with a canvas-like material on the walls which is designed for the hanging of art work. The ceilings are high, particularly in the center section which is two stories high. There is a full basement (or lower level) and a second floor which is off-limits to the public. There is a large deck behind, and a large swimming pool.

But the highlight is the artwork. The selection is large for a private collection (it is not being added to), and the quality is almost completely top rate.

Picasso (5 or 6), Monet (even more), Degas, Renoir, Sisley, Cezanne, Pissaro, Braque, Van Gogh, Mondrian, Beckmann, Stella, Rosenquist, Avery, Gorky, Chagall, Man Ray, Malliol, Henry Moore, Lipschutz, Noguchi, Kandinsky, and a host of others. All well hung in comfortable, and uncrowded conditions. There is also an impressive collection of African masks.

Many favorites. Perhaps I like best a particular Picasso; my wife likes a Van Gogh vase with flowers. Hard to dislike anything.