The highly regarded I. M. Pei–designed Portland Museum of Art Art (7 Congress Sq., 207/775-6148, www.portlandmuseum.org, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Tues.–Thurs. and Sat.–Sun., 10 a.m.–9 p.m. Fri. year-round; 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Mon. late May–mid-Oct., $10 adults, $8 seniors and students, $4 youth 6–17, free children under 6 and free to all 5–9 p.m. Fri.) is a world-class collection of Impressionist and American pieces. You won’t find any earth-shattering masterpieces here, but what you will find is uniformly excellent.

A highlight is the paintings of Maine artist Winslow Homer, who made a genre out of the powerful depiction of sea breaking against ledges of the coast. The paintings are made even more dramatic by the fact that the subject of the paintings is only a few miles away, at the artist’s studio on Prout’s Neck. The artist’s portraits and domestic scenes are less well known, but just as masterfully done.

The Portland Museum of Art also contains fine Impressionist work by Monet, Renoir, and Pisarro, along with their American cousins, including the underrated Maine artist Rockwell Kent, many of whose mythic landscapes and woodcuts were made on the nearby Maine island of Monhegan.