I came to Paris with an ambitious list of things to do and the idea that a month would last forever. Now my time in Paris is more than half gone and I am way behind on all my earnest to-dos. Nevertheless, this past weekend was a bit of a tourist break.
The Grand Palais has two extraordinary exhibits going on and one of my new friends and I decided to take in
both of them on Friday afternoon. But with time for tea in between and a leisurely dinner afterwards, it totally worked for us.
The first we visited was "Picasso Mania." I had planned to visit the newly redone Picasso Museum as it has been closed for three or more years, but this exhibit has gotten such rave reviews that we decided to see it instead. And it certainly lived up to its reputation. The goal was to collect in one place works of art influenced by Picasso and in some cases created in tribute to this giant of 20th century art. So, there were several of Picasso's most influential pieces and then many others produced over the years that used Picasso's work as a point of departure. There were so many artists and schools represented -- Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns and David Hockney to name a few. I confess that Marcie and I were a little cross-eyed by the time we had wandered through so many disorienting works of art. Some of my favorites, though, were by Hockney and others who used cameras to create the effect Picasso got with cubism. Here's one that I particularly liked, a landscape -- I suppose you could call it a collage -- of photos taken over and over of the same street scene.
 |
Picasso Mania Exhibit
|
After resting our feet and fortifying ourselves with some tea, we returned to another entrance to the Grand Palais to see the Élisabeth Louise Vigée LeBrun exhibit. The first thing we both thought was "this is so restful!" I found it utterly fascinating because, to tell the truth, I had never heard of this extraordinary portraitist before. She was born in 1755 in Paris and died there in 1842. Her father was a well-known artist in pastels and recognized the enormous talent of his daughter early on. At first painting members of her family and friends, she developed a charming style that seemed to bring out the personality of her subjects, especially the women, in the most positive light. Moving in aristocratic circles because of her father's connections, she began to gain commissions for official and informal portraits of France's nobility and eventually became the portraitist of Marie Antoinette and her family.
Don't we all know this picture of Marie Antoinette? Well, it was painted by Vigée Le Brun. Élisabeth fled Paris with her daughter during the revolution and lived abroad in various European capitals like Naples, Vienna and St. Peterburg for 12 years before returning to France. Her technique with fabric, lace and fur is about the best I've ever seen and since all of the people she painted wore lots of same, these portraits are simply glorious to look at. So realistic one wants to reach out and touch the taffeta and lace. What's also amazing is that the curators tracked these paintings down all over the world. One was even leant by Queen Elizabeth of England!
 |
| An Early Self-Portrait |
I particularly liked the informal family portraits and self-portraits she did.
 |
| A self-portrait of Le Brun and her daughter |
On Saturday, I made a pilgrimage to the Musée Nissim-de-Comondo on the rue Monceau, an outpost of the Louvre's Musée des Arts Decoratifs. Lloyd and I had intended to visit it when we were here to see Meredith during her fall term in Paris. Unhappily, it was closed the day we trekked over there, and I have never gotten back. Since reading
The Hare with Amber Eyes, Edmund de Waal's book about the Ephrussi family from which he descends and who were contemporaries of the Rothschilds and the Comondos (and collectors also), I've been even more interested in going. The Comondo Museum is actually the mansion built by Nissim's father, a superb collector devoted to paintings, sculpture, furnishings and objects of the last half of the 18th century. Wanting a building suitable for living but in the style of his superb collection, in the late 19th century he tore down the family mansion that abuts the park and had a home built in a style to match his collection. The result is a tour-de-force. Unhappily, his son Nissim was killed in World War I and his father determined to leave the entire thing intact to the French government. How lucky we are that this collection was not scattered. Here are a few views of the house:
 |
Entrance Hall
|
 |
Grand Salon
|
On Sunday, I met Mary and Fred Davis, Margaret McKeown's friends, for a chamber music concert at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées featuring Schumann's Trio No. 3 and Schubert's Trio No. 1. There is a lovely series of hour-long concerts starting at 11 am on most Sunday mornings at the theater and this one was superb. We had lunch afterward at one of the Davis's favorite spots.
Altogether an amazing weekend!
Don't we all know this picture of Marie Antoinette? Well, it was painted by Vigée Le Brun. Élisabeth fled Paris with her daughter during the revolution and lived abroad in various European capitals like Naples, Vienna and St. Peterburg for 12 years before returning to France. Her technique with fabric, lace and fur is about the best I've ever seen and since all of the people she painted wore lots of same, these portraits are simply glorious to look at. So realistic one wants to reach out and touch the taffeta and lace. What's also amazing is that the curators tracked these paintings down all over the world. One was even leant by Queen Elizabeth of England!
