old family blog

Crepes & Rembrandt's

When someone tells you need several days to do the Louvre, they are not lying. Yesterday Clem and I got up early, around 930am, the earliest yet. We stopped by Starbucks and then headed over to the Louvre right away. We decided to start from the bottom and work our way up. Viewing the French sculptures first and then on to paintings then interiors. Well the French sculptures took us over 3 hours alone.

When we arrived at the museum they were having a special exhibit of work by Gidoet, a French painter our the school of David. He was well known for his works done during the Napoleon Empire. The collection as a whole was okay, but they did a great job with the larger pieces. Two pieces I just fell head over heels with. One was of Jude being taken up to the heavens. The facial expression and body language was so powerful.

The second painting was one of Artemis (Diana) in the woods and a nymph is moving the branches of a tree to shed a beam of light down upon her. Now this is what’s interesting, Gidohet painted Artemis as a Man rather than a woman. One will notice that she is naked with no breasts and she has a wee wee. Questioning the gods sex as well as sexuality. After viewing the remainder of the collection you see how Gidohet focused his energies on the subjects eyes, facial expression and hands. In some paints the hands were almost as big or bigger than the subjects head.

In the French sculpture section I did like a few of the pieces. I loved the Saint Valarie sculpture with her holding her decapitated head and two angels on either side of her. Sadly the museum has no record of what year it completed. I also found the sculpture of a dead Catherine de Medicis by Della Robbia very striking. She is lying on her back and naked. The detail of her lifeless body is amazing, I know it sounds morbid but it was interesting and something I have never seen before. Its something you won’t see in your art history textbooks for sure.

In the garden sculpture sections there were a lot of sculptures of Artemis (Diana). Now in the museum they recognize the Roman name for the goddess, I only recognize gods as their Greek name. But every so often I did see a Greek name listed on a piece. Like the Zephyr & Psyche piece by Rutxhiel, completed in 1813. This piece was amazing, the ability to cut the marble so thin to allow light to come through the garment. Artemis was everywhere; it made me home sick to be honest.

After the Gidohet exhibit we heading up to the second floor to see more paintings. We decided to knock off the European painters from Germany, Holland, Flanders and Netherlands. Unfortunately this is not a period or countries I studied in school. Although most of the Ruebens and Vermeers. What was interesting, there were a couple of Rembrandts here and there. Definitely out of place.

After we left the Louvre we had plans to have dinner over at our friend Chrystelle’s apartment. She has told me so much about how she over looks a convent and its huge private park. When we arrived she immediately showed us the view and the sunset. It was beautiful, an amazing view, but I noticed that the garden was not well kept at all which is rather sad. No perennials and the grass was sparse or dead. But the view was amazing. Unfortunately a huge apartment building blocks her view of the Eiffel tower.

For dinner, it was going to be a crepe party. Chrystelle has this little hot plate designed for making 6 crepes at one time. And of coarse there were six of us. Chrystelle’s sister Valerie joined us and another friend of Eric’s who does photography and is an editor. We had a blast and me being the American I made a big mess. I’ve never made crepes before – well maybe back in college.

After dinner we headed back to the apartment with Eric and he showed us the Gates of Paris. Which are two enormous pillars with bronze statues on top. Flanked by two building which are now apartments. The sad part is the gate is not presented as landmark rather it just sits there unattended. Its really sad. They were beautiful.

posted by turlie @ 10:24 PM