Sunday, June 19, 2022
Avenue des Champs-Élysées
L‘Avenue des Champs Élysées, which literally means ‘Elysian fields’, the mythological paradise of the dead, were originally nothing more than fields outside the ancient city of Paris (that had begun as the Roman city Lutetia). Marie de Medici decided in 1616 to install a long tree-lined pathway and in 1667, André Le Nôtre, master garden architect to Louis XIV, the King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715, extended the vista of the Tuileries and the Champs-Élysées making it suddenly a fashionable promenade.
The Champs Élysées did not, however, become property of the city of Paris until 1828, when footpaths, fountains and gas lights were added. The avenue today runs 3km through the 8th arrondissement in northwestern Paris, from the Place de la Concorde’s Luxor Obelisk to the Arc de Triomphe. The Arc de Triomphe, placed in the centre of what is still commonly known as the place de l’Étoile (now renamed in honour of the founder of the 5th republic, General Charles de Gaulle) is the world’s largest triumphal arch and stands at the avenue’s end.
Translation:
Macron: It’s been so hot … luckily, it’s going to go down today.
Mélanchon: What? Participation? Again?
My last petit déjeuner would be at la Brasserie Nord Sud which is located diagonally across from Jules Jo, better yet, le Nord Sud is north-west and le Jules Jo is south-east of Place Jules Joffrin. I would be back later that night for one last meal and lots of laughs.
After breakfast, I was off to le 7ième and 8ième arrondissents for a stroll and checking out stores along “the world’s most beautiful avenue”, Avenue des Champs-Élysées. This was the only day of my vacation that was overcast.
(left) Pont de la Concorde, a 153 meters long and 35 meters wide stone-arch bridge crossing la Seine at la Place de la Concorde. The bridge was built between 1787 and 1791 (architect Jean-Rodolphe Perronet), and freestone from the destruction of the Bastille fortress was used. The bridge consists of five arches carried by columns 3 meters in diameter. Le Pont de la Concorde connects Quai Anatole France and Quai d’Orsay on the left bank to Quai des Tuileries and Place de la Concorde on the right bank.
(right) Passerelle Léopold-Sédar-Senghor (background), formerly known as la passerelle Solférino, a footbridge over la Seine.
Assemblée Nationale – Palais Bourbon
(National Assembly)
The centre of parliamentary life, the Assemblée Nationale seats 577 members of parliament who represent the French people. It legislates and controls the actions of the government, adopting some 100 laws per year. The Palais Bourbon, finished in 1728, was built for the Duchess of Bourbon by architects Giardini, Aubert, and Gabriel. The structure therefore evokes that of the Grand Trianon de Versailles. It was then updated by the Prince of Condé between 1765 and 1789.
Declared as ‘property of the people’ in 1791, the Palais Bourbon had many different uses and had a national representation from 1795 with the Council of Five Hundred. The colonnade on the façade dates back to the Napoleonic era. The building’s transformation continued throughout the 19th century, particularly with the help of painter, Delacroix. Today, the Palais also displays numerous works of contemporary art.
Statue of Jean-Baptiste Colbert
Colbert was a French statesman who served King Louis XIV during the 17th Century.
He earned the nickname “The Great Colbert” for economic reforms he put in place as France expanded its colonial empire overseas.
In the 1680s, he helped write the Code Noir on the orders of the king. It set out a number of regulations for French colonies in the Americas and the Caribbean, including banning Jewish people from all France’s colonies, defining how slavery would work, and restricting the freedoms of free black people.
In 2020, the statue was vandalised over slavery code. This was not the first French statue to be vandalised. In the northern city of Lille, protesters wrote the words “murderer” and “colonist” on the statue of Louis Faidherbe, a 19th Century governor of Senegal when it was a French colony.
Located on the left bank of the Seine in the 7e arrondissement of Paris, the Quai d’Orsay extends from the Pont de la Concorde to the Pont de l’Alma.
Among the famous addresses located on the Quai d’Orsay are the building housing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (built in the middle of the 19th century), to which it gave, over the years, its nickname, as well as the Palais Bourbon, the meeting place of the National Assembly, the Hôtel de Lassay, the official residence of the President of the National Assembly, the headquarters of the Association of Mayors of France, the American Church of Paris and the Paris Sewer Museum.
The Quai d’Orsay owes its name to a French magistrate (advisor to the Parliament of Paris and Councilor of State), Mr. Charles Boucher (1641-1714), Lord of Orsay, who was given the office of Provost of merchants of Paris from 1700 to 1708.
Henri Pilot was the son of Marc and Marie Bouchard, originally from La Ferté-Macé in Normandy. He was a law student and lived at 28 avenue Carnot, in Paris (17ième arr.).
He was killed during the battles for the liberation of Paris on August 20, 1944, at the corner of boulevard Saint-Germain and rue De Bourgogne, in Paris (7ième arr.) and his body was transported to the Institute Medico-Legal, Place Mazas, in Paris’ 12ième arrondissement.
Aristide Briand
The monument erected in memory of Aristide Briand at the Quai d’Orsay, alongside the gates of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, was made possible through public donations and unveiled in 1937.
It is the work of architect Paul Bigot and two sculptors: Paul Landowski, who created the group in the foreground, and Henri Bouchard, who built the background.
It is made up of a group representing the Mother and Child, under the aegis of Peace. The lower section depicts the procession of Nations, led by France, listening to the message of conciliation delivered by Briand. Above, a panorama portrays a number of rustic work scenes, symbolizing the future of humanity when war itself will finally be conquered.
Aristide Briand (1862-1932) was one of the foremost French Foreign Ministers of the 20th century, holding the position no less than seven times between 1915 and 1932.
Known as the “pilgrim of peace”, throughout his diplomatic career Aristide Briand continuously strived to bring about lasting peace in Europe.
“Arrière les canons, les mitrailleuses, les voiles de deuil | Place à l’arbitrage, à la concilation, à la paix!” (discours à la Société des Nations – 1- septembre 1926) “Away with the cannons, machine guns and mourning veils: instead, conciliation, arbitration, and peace!” (speech at the League of Nations, September 10, 1926)
He is remembered for the reconciliation policy between France and Germany after World War I, the earliest plans for “European Federal Union” and the “General Treaty for the Renunciation oof War” (Briand-Kellogg Pact), which was signed at the Quai d’Orsay on August 27, 1928, was approved by 69 States and prohibited the use oof war.
In 1926, along with German Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition oof a lifetime of diplomatic action for peace.
Do you want to practice your French?
Les bandes dessinées is what got me started reading in french.
left – In 1962, the creation of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) responded to the need for increased agricultural productivity, market stabilization and security of supplies. The dual objective also stated at the time: guaranteeing satisfactory income for farmers as well as suitable prices for consumers.
centre – The vast majority of European Union (EU) countries use a single currency for all economic exchanges: prices, salaries, contracts, negotiations. It was on January 1, 1999 that the euro became the official currency.
Decided when the Maastricht Treaty was ratified (1993), the adoption of the euro aims to consolidate the European market by increasing the fluidity of trade between member countries.
right – During a meeting taking place in Athens, Greece, confirmation was given that ten new countries will be able to join the European Union on May 1, 2004. These are Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Czech Republic.
She’s doing her best to hide.
Pont Alexandre III is Paris’ most beautiful bridge with its decorative features. Who says the Gold Sector is out of favour?
Since its creation in 1905, le Musée de l’Armée des Invalides has continued to enrich its collections, becoming one of the reference museums in Europe and around the world in terms of military history collections. To take an interest in the history of the collections of the Musée de l’Armée is to discover the History of France in a different way.
“We shall never surrender” always reminds me of Supertramp’s first 2 to 3 minutes of Fool’s Overture, where you hear an excerpt of Churchill’s famous speech to Parliament in May 1940.
Charles de Gaulle (1890-1978) was elected the first president of the Fifth Republic.
Il y a un pacte vingt fois séculaire entre la grandeur de la France et la liberté du monde.
(There is a pact of twenty centuries between the grandeur of France and the liberty of the world)
Georges Clemenceau served as Prime Minister of France from 1906 to 1909 and again from 1917 until 1920.
Clemenceau was a long-time friend and supporter of the impressionist painter Claude Monet. He was instrumental in persuading Monet to have a cataract operation in 1923.
Avenue des Champs-Élysées, the world’s most beautiful avenue.
I had to check out the Longchamp store at Champs-Élysées to see if they had anything new. I had purchased my first Longchamp wallet at Italie Deux (shopping center) the first time I travelled to Paris in the summer of 2019.
Le Petit Palais was built for the 1900 Universal Exhibition, like its neighbour the Grand Palais, on avenue Winston Churchill. It became a museum in 1902. Designed by Charles Girault, it is based on a trapezium shape and is made up of four wings around a semi-circular garden bordered by a richly decorated peristyle.
Locally nicknamed La dame de fer (Iron Lady), the Eiffel Tower was constructed as the centerpiece of the 1889 World’s Fair, and to crown the centennial anniversary of the French Revolution.
The Pont Alexandre III was commissioned in anticipation of the 1900 World Fair in Paris. The bridge was named in honor of the Russian Tsar Alexandre III. This diplomatic gesture was intended to celebrate the Russian-French alliance established in 1891.
The tricolore (three-colour) flag is an emblem of the Fifth Republic. It had its origins in the union, at the time of the French Revolution, of the colours of the King (white) and the City of Paris (blue and red). Today, the “tricolour” flies over all public buildings. It is also flown at most official ceremonies, both civil and military.
Bin ich in Deutschland? Hôtel de Beauharnais or Hôtel de Salm?
Hôtel de Beauharnais, the official residence of the German Ambassador to France. I was on my way to le Musée d’Orsay when I noticed this German flag. The residence is just 230 metres or a 3-minute walk up the street from the museum. Hope my German wife likes the photo.
The Hôtel de Salm has housed the seat of the Legion of Honor since 1804, when it was acquired by the Count de Lacépède, the first Grand Chancellor of the Order.
Musée d’Orsay
I was so glad that I pre-purchased my ticket for le Musée d’Orsay. I was able to get 13h:00 for a time slot. Time slots do sell out fast.
Housed in a train station built for the 1900 World’s Fair, le Musée d’Orsay is known throughout the world for its rich collection of Impressionist paintings including masterpieces as iconic as the Bal au Moulin de la galette from Renoir or The room at Arles de Van Gogh.
Its collections include works of architecture, decorative arts and photography in addition to traditional artistic fields (painting, sculpture, graphic arts). They thus draw a broad panorama of French and European art from 1848 to 1914.
Le Musée d’Orsay was once le Palais d’Orsay, built in the early 19th century. It served as a government building, but during the Paris Commune in 1871 the neighborhood was engulfed in flames and the ruins of the building represented the violence of the civil war.
At the turn of the century, a railroad company commissioned Victor Laloux, the architect who had just finished the Hôtel de Ville, to transform the ruined Palais into the Gare d’Orsay, a train station that served most of southwestern Paris.
The station served as a mailing center for prisoners of war during World War 2 and after liberation, a place to reunite with loved ones. Towards the end of the 20th century, the Gare d’Orsay was closed and the museum was born.
I spent two and a half hours here for the Impressionists. What an incredible museum. I was also planning on seeing the more than 24 paintings by Van Gogh on display, but was too tired. I will be returning.
Maximillien Luce (Paris 1858 – Paris 1941)
Une rue de Paris en mai 1871 (A Street in Paris in May)
Between 1903 and 1905 – Oil on canvas
Maximillien Luce, whose work and life were inextricably associated with his commitment to anarchism, painted this scene more than thirty years after an event in his youth which made a deep impression on him. It depicts Bloody Week (May 21-28 1871) and the brutal suppression of the Commune, a revolutionary movement with a very strong social agenda which advocated workers’ management of the City of Paris. This movement emerged from the political chaos after the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 which led to the fall of the Second Empire.
Georges Seuret (Paris 1859 – Paris 1891)
Le Cirque (Circus)
1890-1891 (Oil on canvas)
This work, which was incomplete when the artist died prematurely, was inspired by the hugely popular Fernando circus. This is a true Neo-Impressionist manifesto embodying the scientific theories of the era on the perception of colours and the psychological effect of directional lines. Colours are made as intensely bright as possible using optical mixing (creating shades using small dots of pure colour which are joined up by the viewer’s brain). The painter also sets up an opposition between the dynamic, curved and broken lines used for the performers and the static, horizontal and vertical lines oof the tiered seating and spectators. He takes the innovative step of also painting the frame to create a harmonious overall effect.
Port-en-Bessin, avant-port, marée haute (Harbour at Port-en-Bessin at High Tide)
1888 (Oil on canvas)
Every summer, Seuret would visit the Channel coast. This view of a harbour on the Normandy shore is surprising in its extreme simplicity.
The sinuous coastline contrasts with the straight lines of the harbour walls annd horizon. The painter treats the houses and harbour walls as simple volumes and the boats in silhouette, excluding any human figures. The brushstrokes applied as tiny dots recreate the dazzling pale light in subtle shaded tones.
Étude pour une baignade à Asnières
1883 (Oil on wood)
Payage rose
Around 1879 (Oil on wood)
Étude pour un dimanche après-midi à l’île de la Grande Jatte
1884 (Oil on wood)
Ruines à Grandcamp1885 (Oil on wood)
Les Petites poseuses de Seuret (Seuret’s Models)
1887 (Oil on canvas)
Seuret worked throughout the winter of 1886-1887 on the very large painting entitled Models (Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, USA). He wanted to prove to his critics that his technique could be used to paint nudes, a genre traditionally considered to be the pinnacle of artistic achievement. In order too rise to this challenge, he made a number of small-format studies. These studies belonged to Félix Fénéon, an art critic and friend of the painter, who had a special pocket made in his coat so that he could always keep them close.
Paul Signac (Paris 1863 – Paris 1935)
Le Démolisseur (The Demolition Worker)
Between 1897 and 1899 (Oil on canvas)
This work belongs to a series of large decorative panels on the theme of work envisaged by Signac. The Demolition Worker iis an allegory embodying the abstract idea of a new Golden Age in a modern, egalitarian and peaceful society. However, according to the painter’s anarchist beliefs, this new era would be achieved by applying “a hefty pickaxe blow to the social edifice” represented here by ruined former monuments.
(click on image to enlarge)
Entrée du port de La Rochelle (Entrance to the Port of La Rochelle)
1921 (Oil on canvas)
Signac was passionate about the sea and sailing and painted numerous views of French ports. This painting depicts La Rochelle with its famous medieval towers guarding the entrance to the harbour. The composition contrasts these vertical masses with the fluid swirls of the clouds and waves. This late
workk by the painter demonstrates his loyalty to Neo-Impressionism, whose theoretician and leading exponent he became after the death of Seurat.
(click on images to enlarge)
Les Andelys dit aussi La Berge
1886 (Oil on canvas)
Bords de rivière, la Seine à Herblay
1889 (oil on canvas)
Route de Gennevilliers dit aussi Faubourg de Paris
1883 (oil on canvas)
La Bouée rouge
1895 (Oil on canvas)
Femme à l’ombrelle (Woman with a Parasol
1893 (Oil on canvas)
This is a portrait of Berthe Roblès, the artist’s wife and a distant cousin of Camille Pissarro. Signac paints her face in pure profile without any sense of perspective and exploits the very sharp contrasts between complementary colours: yellow with purple, and orange-red with green. He adds a multitude of curves and swirls to create the folds of her sleeves, the edges off the parasol, and the flower. This stylised approach brings a decorative aspects to the work which has an affinity with Art Nouveau posters.
Femmes au puits
Esquisse I
Esquisse II
Esquisse III
1892 (Oil on wood)
Femmes au puits dit aussi Jeunes Provençales au puits
(Women at the Well, also known as Young Girls from Provence at the Well)
1892 (Oil on canvas)
In 1893, Signac began work on “Au Temps d’Harmonie” (In the Time of Harmony), a large painting on the theme of an ideal society. He lifted the two figures of women drawing water from a well from his preparatory studies for this work and featured them in their own painting. This composition follows the principles of Neo-Impressionism to the letter by celebrating the contrasts between the primary colours yellow and blue and the complementary colours purple and yellow. The painter uses particularly vivid acid tones as it is a decorative panel designed to be displayed in low light.
Henri-Edmond Cross (Douai 1856 – Saint-Clair 1910)
Madame Hector France
1891 (Oil on canvas)
Irma Clare, the painter’s wife-to-be, is posing in an evening gown facing the viewer with an air of surprise more reminiscent of a snapshot. The composition draws discreetly on the art of the Japanese print. This can be detected in features such as the floral rhododendron motif and the row of fans, but more particularly inn the perspective, which is not typically European. The scene has two simultaneous points of view – a high-level view of the ground and a full-frontal view of the figure.
(click on image to enlarge)
Les Iles d’Or (The Golden Isles)
1891-1892 (Oil on canvas)
Henri-Edmond Cross was born Henri-Edmond-Joseph Delacroix. The pseudonym Cross was chosen by the painter to avoid unwelcome confusion with his illustrious predecessor, with whom he shared a taste for colour.
This French Riviera landscape offers a glimpse of the Hyères Islands which are “so beautiful that they are called the Golden Isles” according to Emile Verhaeren, a poet and friend of the artist. The different planes of sand, sea and sky are condensed into three coloured strips, whose colours blend in subtly shaded tones.
(click on images to enlarge)
La Chevelure
Around 1892 (Oil on canvas)
L’Air du soir
Around 1893 (Oil on canvas)
Cross had been living in the South of France for two years, when he designed, at the instigation of Paul Signac, a work in homage to this region. For this large canvas, he transforms the neo-impressionist technique of small dots into a system of large rectangular strokes. In 1904, Henri Matisse saw this work at Signac in Saint-Tropez and was inspired by it to paint Luxe, calme et volupté. He quickly abandoned this technique in favor of a work in flat areas of bright colors that the critics would designate under the name of fauvism painting.
Le Naufrage
Around 1906 (Oil on canvas)
Charles Angrand (Criquetot-sur-Ouville 1854 – Rouen 1926)
Couple dans la rue
1887 (Oil on canvas)
Paul Cézanne (Aix-en-Provence 1839 – Aix-en-Provence 1906)
La Femme à la cafetière (Woman with a Coffee Pot)
Between 1890 and 1895 (Oil on canvas)
This rather strange portrait may depict a domestic servant at Le Jas Bouffant, the family property in Aix-en-Provence, as the painter shunned professional models who made him feel uncomfortable.
The painting shows how far Cézanne had moved from Impressionism as it seems to demonstrate his desire to “treat nature by means of the cylinder, the sphere, and the cone”. This strongly geometrical approach is enhanced by the sense of imbalance created by two simultaneous points of view within the same picture – the full-frontal view of the figure and the high-angle view of the table.
(click on images to enlarge)
Rochers près des grottes au-dessus du Château-Noir
Around 1904 (Oil on canvas)
Baigneurs (Bathers)
Circa 1890 (Oil on canvas)
From the 1870s until the end of his life, Cézanne produced a multitude of compositions featuring bathers both male and female. His aim was to achieve a perfect fusion of the human figure and the landscape by using identical brushstrokes for the people and the scene.
The painter stated at the time that he wanted to “make Impressionism solid and durable like art in museums”, effectively producing a type oof painting that would combine features of Impressionism with the art of the old masters he admired – Michelangelo, Veronese, and Poussin.
Nature morte aux oignons
1896-1898 (Oil on canvas)
Cour d’une ferme
Circa 1879 (Oil on canvas)
Portrait de l’artiste
Circa 1875 (Oil on canvas)
Renoir-Cézanne
From the origins of the movement, the Impressionists affirmed their artistic individuality and their autonomy. This is even more true from the 1880s and the beginning of the 1890s. Renoir like Cézanne that binds a mutual friendship and admiration seek to “make impressionism something solid and lasting like the art of museums”, in the words of Cézanne. The observation of the model and of nature, which remains essential, is supplemented by emulation with the masters and translation.
Cézanne and Renoir explore a reduced number of subjects from which they seek to bring out the timeless dimension. Cézanne deconstructs the rules of perspective and rearranges the patterns on the board, paving the way for Cubism in the early 20th century. At home, painting invents a “harmony parallel to nature”, a comforting vision aimed at “brightening the walls” added Renoir. What could be called the classic modernity of this latest research has nurtured artists like Matisse, Picasso, but also Denis, Bonnard or Maillol.
(click on images to enlarge)
Le Joueur de cartes
Between 1890 and 1892
Oil on canvas
Paysan assis
1900 and 1904
Oil on canvas
Les Joueurs de cartes
Between 1890 and 1895
Oil on canvas
Pierre Auguste Renoir (Limoges 1841 – Cagnes-sur-Mer 1919)
Jeunes filles au piano (Young Girls at the Piano)
1892 (Oil on canvas))
In 1892, the French State placed a commission with Renoir through the intermediary of his friends the poet Stéphane Mallarmé and the art critic Roger Marx. This picture for the Musée du Luxembourg, which was the museum of living artists at that time, became the first work by an Impressionist to enter this museum. There are three other known completed versions, and a pastel. This reflects the painter’s fascination with the subject and his absolute insistence on achieving perfection in a work destined for the museum.
(click on images to enlarge)
Jeune fille assise
1909 (Oil on canvas)
La Toilette: femme se peignant
1907-1908 (Oil on canvas)
Gabrielle à la rose
1911 (Oil on canvas)
Grand nu, dit aussi Nu sur less coussins
1907 (Oil on canvas)
Colonna Romano
Circa 1913 (Oil on canvas)
Les Baigneuses (Bathers)
1918-1919 (Oil on canvas)
This is the most significant painting produced by Renoir in the closing years of his life. He asked his models to pose in the olive grove at Les Collettes, his home in Cagnes, near Nice. In subject matter and technique alike, it represents the culmination of his pictorial experiments and embodies his artistic legacy in some respects. For the artist, these fleshy bodies with their childlike expressions, in a luxuriant natural setting bathed in sunshine, represent a final dazzling celebration of life and the pure pleasure of painting, seemingly undimmed by the appalling suffering he endured as a result of his arthritic condition.
(click on images to enlarge)
Pont du chemin de à Chatou, dit aussi Les Marronniers roses
1881 (Oil on canvas)
Julie Manet dit aussi L’Enfant au chat
1887 (Oil on canvas)
Maternité, dit aussi Madame Renoir et son fils Pierre
(Motherhood also known as Mrs. Renoir and her son Pierre)
1885 (Oil on canvas)
In La Roche-sur-Yon, where Renoir spent the summer in 1885, he asked his partner Aline Charigot to pose for
him breastfeeding their son Pierre, who would become a famous actor. This was a period of self-doubt for the artist. He wanted to rework his art by introducing a strong graphic element. The drawing is actually visible through the paint at times. Renoir increasingly alluded too the old masters of the past whom he revered, in this case the Madonna with Child of Raphael, whose simplicity he admired.
Danse à la ville (City Dance)
Danse à la campagne (Country Dance)
1883 (Oil on canvas)
City Dance and Country Dance were designed as companion pieces. The artist exploits the contrast between the cold colour palette of the former and the bright red and yellow notes of the latter, and between the reserved attitude of the middle-class dancers and the very relaxed manner of the working-class dancers and the very relaxed manner of the working-class couple. In the early 1880s, Renoir’s style developed, leading him to depict human figures in a monumental way. His female model for the city painting is the painter Suzanne Valadon, and the models for the country version are the artist’s partner Aline Charigot and his friend, the dancer and journalist Paul Lhote.
Bal du moulin de la Galette (Dance at the Moulin de la Galette)
1876 (Oil on canvas)
Dance at the Moulin de la Galette depicts the famous guinguette – an open air drinking establishment with food and dancing – located at the foot of a former windmill on the Butte de Montmartre. The dance is attended by workers, as well as Renoir’s artist and writer friends who mingle with the crowd.
This is one of the artist’s most ambitious paintings on account of its size, the number of figures, and in particular the play of shadows and dappled light which brings a sense of unity to the composition. The vigorously applied touches of colour are not bounded by drawn outlines. They blend together and create a sensation of movement. The painting was presented at the Impressionist Exhibition in 1877 and was hailed as a masterpiece when it entered the French national collections twenty years later.
Claude Monet
1875 (Oil on canvas)
In this portrait, Monet is represented as being busily at work on a painting of his own, wearing his working frock and holding his colour palette and paint brushes.
He stands at a window, gazing up momentarily from his work, with the light from behind him illuminating his face – making this the central focus of the painting, with the deeper blue of his clothes serving as a counterbalance.
An oleander tree branch serves to frame the scene, and even perhaps to symbolically crown Monet as a titan of the then-nascent French Impressionist movement – a humorous nod of deference from Renoir to his colleague and friend, and likely representative of the relaxed, and yet productive relationship the two painters shared.
Claude Monet (Paris 1840 – Giverny 1926)
Les Rochers de Belle-Île, la côte sauvage
1886 (Oil on canvas)
(click on images to enlarge)
Le Mont Kolsaas en Norvège
1895 (Oil on canvas)
En norvégienne, dit aussi La barque à Giverny
Circa 1887 (Oil on canvas)
Meules, fin de l’été (Haystacks, End of Summer)
1891 (Oil on canvas)
Haystacks, which were commonplace in the countryside around the painter’s home inn Giverny, provided an outstanding motif for Monet’s experiments. With these haystacks, he launched a new style of work, a “series” of twenty-five paintings which allowed him to experiment with using colour to reproduce the infinitesimal variations in light in different seasons or at different times of day. In this painting, the haystacks are silhouetted against a
background of greens and blues as pale as a cold Normandy morning.
(Acquired with funds from an anonymous Canadian gift.)
(click on image to enlarge)
Tempête, côtes de Belle-Île
1886 (Oil on canvas)
Camille sur son lit de mort (Camille on her Death Bed)
1879 (Oil on canvas)
On September 5, 1879, Camille, Monet’s wife and the mother of his two sons, passed away. The poignant painting is a pictorial response to her death in which the artist tries to capture her in a final portrait “[…] finding myself at the bedside of a deceased person who was and still is very dear to me, I was surprised […] to catch myself in the act of mechanically observing the sequence of changing colours that death had just imposed on her rigid features.”
Cathédrales de Rouen (Rouen Cathedrals)
1892-1803 (Oil on canvas)
With the Rouen Cathedrals series, which was the successor to his Haystacks and Poplars, Monet pushes his experiments with variations in light to the brink of abstraction: the façade of the building fills almost the entire canvas. Each work becomes a fragment of the lacy stone tracery whose unusual features are captured by Monet in a multitude of different light conditions. Critics were astounded. “Reality is present and becomes transfigured,” wrote Gustave Geffroy.
(click on images to enlarge)
Falaise de Fécamp, dit aussi Falaise près de Dieppe
1897 (Oil on canvas)
Found in Germany after the Second World War and entrusted to the custody of the National Museums (national museums recovery), 1950
Nymphéas bleus (Blue Water Lilies)
1916-1919 (Oil on canvas)
At the end of his life, Monet produced hundreds of works featuring the pond which he created and planted on his Giverny property with the patience of a true gardener. This motif became the laboratory for a multitude of pictorial experiments in which the artist’s brushwork becomes increasingly loose, freeing himself from the accurate description of the shapes he observes. This culminated in the Water Lilies cycle – a monumental work on display at the Musée de l’Orangerie – which influenced painters belonging to the Lyrical Abstraction movement in the United States after World War II.
Le Pont d’Argenteuil dit aussi Le Pont d’Argenteuil et les barques
1874 (Oil on canvas)
(click on images to enlarge)
Étretat: la plage et la porte d’Amont
1883 (Oil on canvas)
La Seine à Vétheuil, effet de soleil après la pluie, dit aussi Vétheuil, vu de Lavacourt
1879 (Oil on canvas)
Les Tuileries
1876 (Oil on wood)
Les Glaçons, dit aussi Débâcle sur la Seine
1880 (Oil on canvas)
Le Givre, effet de soleil
1880 (Oil on canvas)
Vétheuil, soleil couchant
Circa 1900 (Oil on canvas)
Effet de neige à Vétheuil, dit aussi Église de Vétheuil, neige
1878-1879 (Oil on canvas)
Intérieur d’appartement, dit aussi Un coin d’appartement
1875 (Oil on canvas)
Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe (Luncheon on the Grass)
Between 1865 and 1866 (Oil on canvas)
These elegant figures picnicking in Fontainebleau forest are members of Monet’s intimate circle – his partner, Camille Doncieux, and his painter friends Bazille (in the pale suit), and Courbet. The young artist was attempting to rival Manet’s Déjeuner sur l’herbe and to create a stir at the 1866 Salon, but he never finished this huge composition. Unable to pay his rent, he offered the painting as security, however it was in such poor condition when he redeemed it that he cut it up to salvage the main section.
Armand Guillaumin (Paris 1841 – Orly 1927)
La Place Valhubert
Circa 1875 (Oil on canvas)
Édouard Manet (Paris 1832 – Paris 1883)
La Dame aux éventails
1873 (Oil on canvas)
Edgar Degas (Paris 1834 – Paris 1917)
La Femme à la potiche
1872 (Oil on canvas)
Estelle Musson (1843-1909), first cousin and sister-in-law of Degas, could be the model of this work painted in New Orleans, where her family lived.
L’Orchestre de l’Opéra
Circa 1870 (Oil on canvas)
The composer Chabrier dominates the pit where the cellist Pilet appears on the left, the tenor Pagans in the background, the painter Piot-Normand on the violin and the bassoonist Dihau (1833-1909) in the centre.
(click on images to enlarge)
Répétition d’un ballet sur la scène
1874 (oil on canvas)
Le Foyer de la danse à l’Opéra de la rue Le Peletier
1872 (Oil on canvas)
La destruction de l’Opéra de la rue Le Peletier en 1873 favorise l’achèvement de l’Opéra de Charles Garnier, inauguré en 1875.
La Classe de danse (The Dance Class)
Begun in 1873, finished in 1875-11876 (Oil on canvas)
Degas was a regular patron of cafés-concerts, and more particularly the Opéra located on the rue Le Peletier until 1873, and its successor, the Palais Garnier. He was enthralled by life behind the scenes in this world. Here, he depicts the daily reality of dance rehearsals supervised by ballet master Jules Perrot. The composition focuses perhaps more closely on the gestures of the resting dancers rather than those still working. The high viewpoint and receding lines of the parquet accentuate the importance of the floor in dance, and the presence of a watering can reveals that it was dampened to stop dancer’s feet from slipping.
(click on images to enlarge)
Danseuses bleues
Circa 1890 (Oil on cannvas)
Course de gentlemen.
Avant le départ
1862, resumed in 1882 (Oil on canvas)
Jockeys amateurs près d’une voiture
Between 1876 and 1887 (Oil on canvas)
Le Défilé dit aussi Chevaux de courses devant les tribunes
1866-1868 (Oil on paper mounted on canvas)
Henri Fantin-Latour (Grenoble 1836 – Buré 1904)
Hommage à Delacroix
1864, Salon de 1864 (Oil on canvas)
1. Edmond Duranty (1833-1880), écrivain (writer)
2. Henri Fantin-Latour (1836-1904), peintre (painter)
3. James Abbot McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), peintre (painter)
4. Jules Champfleury (1821-1884), écrivain (writer)
5. Édouard Manet (1832-1883), peintre (painter)
6. Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867), poète (poet)
7. Louis Cordier (1823-?), peintre (painter)
8. Alphonse Legros (1837-1911)
9. Félix Bracquemond (1833-1914), peintre et graveur (painter and engraver)
10 Albert de Balleroy (1828-1873), peintre (painter)
View from the top floor.
The clock is 32 meters high.
I checked out the gift shop at the museum, and to my surprise, they were selling a 100th Anniversary Edition of Marcel Proust’s masterpiece, À la recherche du temps perdu. I picked up the last copy (2,400 pages).
I had a very interesting 15-20 minute conversation with a female Sales Associate at the gift shop. Even though I was born in Ontario, the French tell me that I have a Québécois accent. I guess it doesn’t matter where you’re from in Canada, we all the same accent. I tell this very nice lady of the odd experience I had prior to going to the Catacombes on Friday. “Est-ce que je peux avoir une bière s’il vous plaît?” (Can I have a beer please?), I asked the 20-some year old female server at le Café du Rendez-Vous.
What I believed to be English was so terrible that I DID NOT UNDERSTAND ONE WORD that came out of her mouth. “Je parle français” (I’m talking french) I told her. I guess she did understand the french word bière because I helped her out with my index finger next to the beer name printed on the menu. I did not go into details (index finger) when recounting this story. The Sales Associate explained to me that the server was likely not from France, and that French was not her mother tongue. The Sales Associate then turned to the cashier next to us and asked her “Avez-vous compris son accent?” (Did you understand his accent?). The cashier (from Spain) shook her head.
After two and a half hours at a museum, I was tired and hungry. It was time for a gastronomic museum. Les Deux Musée is a great restaurant, and just across from le Musée d’Orsay.
When I saw Croque-Monsieur with salad on the menu, my mind was made up. I ate my first one in Pontoise on Tuesday at a bakery named La Marquise des Délices. I then had my second one at Le Ronsard Café where I had a nice view of Sacre-Coeur Basilica. On the first two occasions, these establishments make these sandwiches in advance and then they just heat them up.
My beverage of choice was a beer. For dessert, it was a delicious crème caramel, along with a café crème.
Le Croque-Monsieur is a hot sandwich made of 2 slices of buttered bread with the crusts removed, filled with thin slices of Gruyère cheese and a slice of lean ham. The croque-monsieur is lightly browned on both sides, either in a frying pan or under the grill (broiler). The top may be coated with a Gruyère béchamel sauce and cooked au gratin.
The first croque-monsieur was served in 1910 in a Parisian café on the Boulevard des Capucines. It is still a popular dish in cafés and snack bars, and is also served as an entrée.
The service was excellent. It was nice to chat with the older male server and have a few laughs. When I told him that I might see him the next time I was in Paris, he told me that he was near retiring soon. I could tell from our conversation full of laughter that he was really looking forward to retirement.
With today being my last day in Paris, the evening would be spent with la Dame de fer. La tour Eiffel built by Gustave Eiffel for the 1889 Exposition Universelle was to celebrate the 100th year anniversary of the French Revolution. Its construction in 2 years, 2 months and 5 days was a veritable technical and architectural achievement. La Dame de fer never fails to impress. I had booked in advanced a “Skip the Line Access with Summit” tour with a small group for 21h:30, and so I had plenty of time to return to my hotel to drop off purchases I had made earlier before returning to le 7ième et 8ième Arrondissements to stroll around and take more photos.
Obélisque de Louxor
Granite column from the temple of Luxor, Egypt, installed here in 1836.
Move along, nothing to see here.
Wait a minute, wasn’t she over there just a few minutes ago?
What’s (s)he building in there?
What the hell is (s)he building in there?
Palais de Chaillot
Located on the Place du Trocadéro in le 16ième Arrondissement. Built in 1937 for the Universal Exhibition, it is made up of two neo-classical wings separated by a terrace leading to the Jardins du Trocadéro.
Parc du Champ-de-Mars
Opened in 1780, the Parc du Champ-de-Mars extends from the École Militaire to the Eiffel Tower. A hotspot for national events, it offers the most beautiful view of the capital’s landmark monument. Parisians and tourists gather on its lawns to picnic, play music, and watch the Eiffel Tower’s twinkling lights at nightfall.
Stade Émile Anthoine
A stadium in the heart of Paris. It is part of the Centre Sportif Émile Anthoine in le 15ième. The sports center with a track and a swimming pool, on the Champ de Mars, in the Eiffel Tower district in Paris, bears his name.
Émile Anthoine (1882-1969) was a French race walker. In 1925, he founded the French Federation of Racewalking. In 1926, Anthoine also founded the International Walking Federation and the Paris-Strasbourg race.
Dôme des Invalides
Under the authority of Louis XIV, Architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart had the Royal Chapel of the Invalides built in 1677. The Dome remained the tallest building in Paris until the erection of the Eiffel Tower.
La dame de fer all dressed up for girls night out.
On my way home, I was going to drop in at Jules Jo but it was packed. No problem, I ate at Le Nord Sud, another brasserie just across the street. I did make it on time before their kitchen closed at 23:30.
I laughed out loud with Guillaume, the server, talking about his country’s national sport, and the upcoming World Cup, but also slipping in some hockey talk. The cabillaud (cod) fish and chips really hit the spot.