Detail from La bouée rouge by Signac.
Today we spent pretty much the whole day at the Musée D'Orsay. If you think it looks like a railway station, you are right. It was one, lay derelict for many years and then was turned into a museum.Now it may shock some of you but I came to Paris with no intention of visiting the Louvre.
The main museums of Paris are the Louvre (Ancient and Renaissance art), the Musée D'Orsay (Impressionists) and the Pompidou Centre (Modern art). My likings fall squarely in the impressionist camp. (I am also probably the only person around who thinks Leonardo DaVinci is awfully over-rated. But there you go.)
So we spent seven hours or so at the Musée D'Orsay. Loved it.
Can I keep the desire to return to painting alive until I return home? I hope so.
(No, painting on the road doesn't appeal.)
◊◊◊
Postscript: I think I should have been a Parisian. The number of statues and paintings and buildings that honour the female nude is absolutely delightful!
...
Been enjoying the Paris part of the trip immensely - you should be a travel writer! (Professionally, I mean.)
ReplyDeleteAs for being a Parisian, you'd have to work on the accent...
Paris never disappoints, I think. I can really only remember one thing from the Louvre, lots of stuff, but only one individual thing, a small Rembrandt.
ReplyDeleteWhich I could have got there to meet you...
And God knows that's why you're not a Parisian..LOL..
ReplyDeleteDo you speak French BTW? (Surprisingly I never know what language you can speak other than English and a few mutters of Arabic.)
I would spend most of my time visiting the Impressionists as well, Lee. My husband and I argue every time we visit an art museum over the legitimacy of Impressionism as "art". He basically thinks the impressionists are what he calls "hacks". I try to explain to him the talent it would take for one to paint in this manner that, when viewed up close, look like nothing more than just splotches of paint, but, when the viewer backs away from the painting, the splotches pull together into a beautiful scene. I'll take a Monet or a Sisley or a Degas over a Da Vinci any day of the week.
ReplyDelete