On a Friday afternoon, because they're open late on Fridays, I swung by le Musée de l'Orangerie. It is in cahoots with le Musée d'Orsay and since I have the card for free entry, it was too easy. The Orangerie est plus connu pour les Nymphéas de Claude Monet. It is eight large panels and they are placed in large oval rooms. It's very nice. What was a nice surprise was the lower floor. There's quite a nice collection down there. Here are some pics that grabbed my attention...
This is L'Alzaia, Cascine di Firenze (1864) by Telemaco Signorini. I frustrated how things get lost in translation. In Italian (which it is) it means The Towpath, Farm Florence. However, when the French decide to translate the painting, it becomes, "Scène de halage dans le parc des Cascine à Florence" which is "scene of hauling in the Cascine Park in Florence". Regardless, the painting was cool.
There were some great paintings by Chaïm Soutine (1893-1943). Above left is le Garçon d'étage (vers 1927). And on the right, is Le Poulet plumé (vers 1925). I like how Soutine removes himself from realism and just paints the emotion of the image.
I don't normally acknowledge paintings simply due to a famous painter, but this Picasso (1881-1973) was actually very nice. He seemed to capture the girl's real emotion. It is Femme au peigne (woman with a comb), 1906. If you get a chance to visit l'Orangerie, I would recommend it - and not just to see Monet's waterlilies.
After the Orangerie, I swung by the Louvre. There was an exposition I had been wanting to see - de l’Allemagne, 1800-1939. German Thought and Painting, from Friedrich to Beckmann. On the way, I took some pictures in the Tuileries...
This lion statue had a crazy mouth (I'm sure with the intent of emphasizing the mouth itself) and after I'd seen it, I began noticing the same style elsewhere in Paris. On the right, a nice shot of the "square" trees surrounding the south wing of the Louvre.
I had to take this picture of the pyramid from the inside.
I thought it was a good contrast with the modern and the historic.
Photos weren't allowed at the exposition, but this time I actually took some notes. Here's what I recorded...
Jacob Steinhardt, le Prophète (left). I appreciated the rawness of the image. It made me think of the rawness of how many of the prophets and apostles ended their lives. Or more correctly, how their lives were ended for them. On the right, is a piece from Otto Dix. These were quite dramatic and were primarily images from the war. I wish I could have taken pictures...the Louvre!!!
Max Beckmann was the next artist in the exposition. Because I thought the web would have great data and because of my bad note-taking skills, I don't remember the paintings that grabbed my attention. Regardless, he has some very dramatic images. Very similar style to Steinhardt.
Adolph Menzel had some works in the expo. Interestingly enough, he was the painter of Living Room with the Artist's Sister, 1847, which is a painting that hung in my house from the day I remember. My dad told me it reminded me of his wife. I have to show it if for no other reason...
Sadly, I just wrote down "mine de plomb" which is graphite, i.e., not very descriptive.
En fin, Caspar! Caspar David Friedrich - an artist I love wholeheartedly. And he is know as Caspar - which is pretty cool in the 17 and 18 hundreds. Although they weren't there, I'm going to show two paintings of his which I absolutely adore...
Left, The Abbey in the Oakwood, 1809-10, Oil on canvas, 110 x 171 cm, Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin (saw it!) and on the right, Monastery Graveyard in the Snow (Cloister Cemetery in the Snow), 1819, Oil on canvas, destroyed 1945. And another of his paintings that I have really fallen for is below. It is The Sea of Ice,
1824, Oil on canvas, 96,7 x 126,9 cm, Kunsthalle, Hamburg. I need to go to Hamburg and see this.
Anyway, the works of Caspar at the Louvre were the Cross in the Mountains and Morning Mist in the Mountains. He actually has a few crosses in the mountains, but the one of the left is the painting in the expo. On the right is the Morning Mist.
It was a great exposition but I don't understand how the Louvre decides when and when you can't take pictures. You can take pictures throughout the musée but in this expo it was prohibited. Bummer. The Louvre is a cool place.
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