Day 4 in Paris - Musée de l'Orangerie

walking home at the end of the museum-fest

 Museum day again!   

This time to l'Orangerie, mostly to see Monet's Waterlilies.  

From the hotel, the same bus (the 84), and getting off at the same stop, and then a walk across the bridge to get to Tuilleries. 

the lovely geys in the earlier morning light

Yes, there are lots of lots of adaptations for the Olympics (areas blocked off as tents are now going up for the Paralympics).  My back is still killing me, but, whatever.  It was  a lovely walk over the bridge and through the park.

Yesterday was an afternoon and evening of rain, but today the prediction of rain was low.   

Loved seeing the clouds in the sky looking to the left and to the right on the bridge over the seine, between the Musee d'Orsay on the one side, and Tuilleries on the other.

First goal at the museum was to see Monet's Water Lillies. 

They have 8 large panels as part of their permanent exhibition, set up in two large oval shaped rooms. 

  

Basically you are surrounded by Monet. Again, all the pleasures of placing yourself in relationship to the panels, moving along side them, or coming in close. 

 

The willow tree

I found it hard to easily settle on perspective (is it water, or reflection of sky or lillies or willows, etc.). 

And the closer you get, there is the beauty of the paint itself, a bit unrelated to any kind of image.

getting close to the trunk

close up to the 'bark'

I tried doing a bit of a 'walk through' to capture a memory of what it feels like to walk alongside these paintings.

 

When you say goodbye to Monet, and wander down the stairs to the next level, you run into another huge panel by Sam Francis, "In Lovely Blueness", which took its inspiration from the Water Lilies.  Totally different style, but the connection is evident.

Then, I headed off to wander through "Les Arts á Paris" featuring works from the collection of Paul Guillaume.   First, Maurice Utillo.  He is not someone whose work I had really looked at before.  I loved the lightness in the paintings (particularly the 'white period') and listening to the audio track focus on Utrillo's attempts to add in actual plaster to the paint he worked with.   

As always, proximity and distance creates the context for additional happiness

They also have a huge collection of  André Derain (cofounder of fauvism with Matisse).  I did spend some time in front of one of the still life pieces, partly because it didn't seem so interesting to me.  :-).  But the longer i stayed there, the more interesting the blue blackground.   The photo just cannot do it justice, but the blue is somehow layered with orange in ways that felt almost shimmery.  I am not yet ready to pick up oils myself, but i was struck by the beauty and depth of the colour.

Here are three other Derain pieces that I loved

portrait of Coco Chanel

You leave the Derain rooms, and run into Marie Laurincin, who was also doing sets and costumes for Diaghilev's Ballet Russes.  (yea! female artists!). Totally different colour palette!  Coco Chanel was doing some costumes for them too, and commissioned a painting by Laurcin, but didn't like it.  lol.   I like it.

And then, another massive change in style with Chäim Soutine.  Actually, a bit jarring.  And his 'still life' pieces are particularly so. I decided to keep my eyes on the portraits, particularly the woman in the red jacket (whose eyebrow placement felt like something I have frequently seen in the mirror!)

There were others there to be seen.... some picasso to be sure, but my eye gets drawn rather to Modigliani.

i love the eyes

As an aside, in the exhibit, they also were displaying a number of African masks that were part of the artistic conversation of the time (and in collections), and you can really see the influence of that style in the Modigliani noses!

OK.  That was the end of a lovely day in the museum.