Musée d'Orsay - all new!

From the viewing platform

We (Paul, Emma and I) went to the Musée d'Orsay last Tuesday: It's a completelly new museum, all re-decorated and the art is all re-distributed throughout; so if even if you've been there before, it's most definitely worth revisiting. Des Racines et des Ailes did a special report on the refurbishment a couple of weeks ago. (Click the link to the show to check if the video is still available.) It was an excellent show that incited us to schedule our visit for after my return from England.
One thing that bugged me is that this museum still has a "no photo" rule, although photos from the viewing platform or in the non-exhibit areas are tolerated. I saw plenty of people taking pictures, trying to hide or hold their smartphones awkwardly to do it. Why not just allow it and request people not use flash. Plenty of the artwork has been photographed and if you open the links to articles here, you'll see them.

In no particular order, if you head right from the sculpture gallery on the ground floor (that hasn't changed, but they've cleaned the white sculptures that had been dirtied from so many hands caressing them over the years) you see many of the pre-Impressionist influencers and post-Impressionist influenced. Actually it's quite mixed. I started making associations. For example in Gustave Moreau's symbolism I saw the influence on Ensor (wrote about that in Jan. 2010) who was about a generation later. Moreau has his own museum in Paris, In Puvis de Chavanne I saw an influence on A. Wyeth. (Maybe I'm thinking of Wyeth because there's an exhibit I'd like to go to at the Mona Bismarck foundation.) Puvis de Chavanne also did some patriotic, sepia-colored art during the Franco-Prussian war -- a woman holding a rifle, looking out over the city. Very sad. And I loved the vibrant colors in Odilon Redon's pastels.

5th floor, in front of the clock

There is a collection of Vuillard (Jardins Publics), Bonnard (En Barque), and Toulouse-Lautrec (cabaret scenes) and they all go together perfectly. One of the new things at the museum is the wall paint. They've gotten rid of the white walls. The walls are deep green, red, blue-gray, slate colors. They pick up the colors from the paintings and the paintings stand out all the better for it. The lighting is perfect.

There's a tryptique (three paintings framed together): a Sisley, a Pissaro, and a Monet.You could think it was all done by a single artist. On the ground floor, the artists are all mixed together, in collections. I loved the Mollard collection of Degas, Renoir, Pissaro, and Sisley, and more, all jumbled together.

Then you go through the Barbizon school of painting: Daubigny, Rosa Bonheur's cows, Millet's peasants, and Corot's landscapes. You still haven't hit the Impressionist exhibit! That's now up on the 5th floor. I've seen so much Monet in the past year, at Rouen and then at the Grand Palais, and Renoir at the Grand Palais, so I was able to skip around a bit. Manet's Olympe is on a deep red wall -- fantastic effect.

I didn't make it to the 2nd floor for Van Gogh and other post-Impressionists, Art Nouveau and so on. That'll be for another time. I did take a look at the temporary exhibit "Beauty, Morals and Voluptuousness in the England of Oscar Wilde". Lots of Whistler! And beautiful furniture (William Morris and Godwin), ironwork (Thomas Jeckyll) and silverware (Christopher Dresser)!

As you can see, I loved it!

Made it to the Monet exhibit

This is a picture by Jacques Demarthon/Agence France-Presse, used to illustrate the critical review in the New York Times. I'm glad I didn't read the review before seeing the show for myself. It's a great review and a great show, but I'm glad I decided it was great on my own. Well, not entirely on my own since Rita also got up before the break of dawn this freezing morning to get the RER and be at the exhibit entrance at 9:00.
There was already quite a line, but since I had that Sésame card, we went in first and didn't have to stop at the cashier's desk. We got rid of our coats and went into the absolutely empty Grand Palais. They weren't empty for long; Rita and I took our time and by the time we were through the first room, the crowd had caught up with us. It wasn't a horde, though, we were able to go at our own speed and look carefully at whatever we wanted to. That brings me back to why I chose this picture; I was most impressed by the many series. 
Back in September, when we went to Rouen with Jackie and Ed, we saw the Impressionists in Rouen exhibit and, of course, the series of the Rouen cathedrale were there. Well, they finished the exhibit in Rouen just in time to make the trip to Paris. Each painting in a series belongs to a different owner -- museums for the most part -- all over the world, so you really don't get to compare the cathedrale, haystack, or parliament paintings. Here, you do. They really did get paintings from all over the world, with the exception of the Marmottan museum in Paris, which has its own Monet exhibit and doesn't want to share. So you get to see the haystacks at different times of the day with colors and shadows more or less intense, or in sunlight or under snow. I just loved the Parliament paintings from the early 1900s. 
Another thing I noticed about Monet is that he doesn't seem to have a signature brush stroke. Each painting is done differently. Reflections on the water are fantastic, but there doesn't seem to be a certain way to get that result; it's all in the color, and there doesn't seem to any right way to do that, either. Sometimes the little people in a painting are really vague tiny splotches, but with a little different color in the middle of the splotch, it's a woman's dress. On the other hand, the details in large paintings with people are exquisite and exact. 
So now, I'm back home. No library today. Anne has kindly taken the afternoon slot for today. She has to stay in town for an evening activity and just preferred staying at the library. I understand her reasoning. It's such a schlep to go back home that the mere idea of schleping back out makes you want to just crawl under the covers and not go. I've had an excellent left-over turkey lunch. It's very cold, but the sun has come out. Rita and I walked up the Champs Elysées from the Grand Palais to the RER station at Etoile and then, of course, I walked home from the Fontenay station. That added to my walk to the station should be enough for today. 
Here is the link to the exhibit again: Monet 2010 and another to the post about our trip to Rouen in September.

Got a cold

painting by Joan Becker

I've got a cold. The kind that makes your throat scratchy and your eyes tear up constantly. I spent last weekend doing nothing except watch TV and try to read. Before that, though...
Last week, on Saturday, Paul and I went to the Salon de la Photo. We had invitations and just as we were leaving the house, we called Louis and Gwen and discovered that they were also on their way there, so we met them at the entrance and visited it together. There were too many people to do any real shopping around. I did manage to stop in at the Darqroom stand and see the different paper quality they use. (If you watch the  Salon de la Photo  report, it shows Darqroom at the end.) Nico V. wasn't there on Saturday and I was sorry to miss seeing him. After about an hour, we left, had lunch, and then headed over to Louis and Gwen's for a while. It was a nice way to get out on a gray and drizzly day.
Monday,first I went to see Candace. We were supposed to have met at the dubbing studio on Saturday, but that got cancelled because she had other meetings and on Monday she was recovering from a bout of something and not yet in condition to go to the studio, so we met up at her hotel. She worked a bit -- caught up on phone calls and e-mails, but mostly we were able to chat. I introduced her to Joan Becker's site. (Erica's sister-in-law). I hope she doesn't mind my plugging it here on the blog with a picture reference. Candace and I zoomed in on several of her paintings (especially the one above), trying to identify the details. I think I would love to have one of her paintings.
I went to see the movie, Sarah's Key (Elle s'appelait Sarah). I had read the book last month. I must say, for once, I think the movie is better than the book. I felt the characters were too cut and dried in the book, too predictable. They seem to have more depth in the movie. The acting is excellent.
On Friday, Paul and I headed into Paris to see the Monet exhibit. When we got out of the metro, the line was already there, at the corner. The entrance to this exhibit is about half a block away. Our Sésame card allows us to cut the line, but the entrance for that was also full and we figured that it would be mayhem inside, so we decided to go to FNAC voyages to set up the reservations for the big birthday weekend at Disneyland Paris in April. I have now cancelled the option I had with our local travel agency -- they were so useless thinking outside the box!
Then came the cold. After the weekend indoors, on Monday, Paul set off for Toulon to help Pierre take the small pieces and knickknacks from their mother's apartment, so it'll be more presentable to prospective buyers. I went to painting, but spent most of the morning coughing and not very up to painting. In the afternoon, since I was all alone in the house, I decided to put some papers away.
Tuesday I did some more organizing on the computer and then went to the library, but the book dust setting off coughing spasms was such that Ed sent me home early. I went to bed early.
Wednesday, the cat had me sequestered in my room a good part of the day. We can't let him in the house unless it's under complete supervision, now. There have been too many accidents, so unless he's in our arms or laps, he's to stay outside. And ouside, he meows constantly. He does seem to know if we're home, or not. It's unnerving. My only solution is to hole up in my room with the door shut, so the meowing only comes in faintly. I did manage to read, though. I'm almost finished with A Life of Picasso, Vol. I.
Thursday -- Paul was supposedly coming home this evening, but apparently he's staying down south another day or two. Not that he called me to let me know. I called to ask if he had indeed left and at what time in order to know when to expect him, but Gillette told me he was staying. To think, I cleaned up the house for nothing! Well this gave me time to catch up on the blog.