Paris Art Nouveau, 2012

So one day, probably Saturday--I should have posted this before the Louvre--Vicki and I took the RER to the 18th to do a Paris Art Nouveau walk. It mostly featured the work of turn-of-the-century architect Hector Guimard, but much else too.

The walk began with something decidedly not art nouveau,
the contemporary Radio France building, which Parisians
derisively call "Le Camembert"

But quickly got into the spirit with Guimard's
Castel Beranger

Entry; it's an apartment building, early 1900s

More Castel Beranger; it was the best

Ditto

Ditto again

Then we walked into a real flea market--real people selling
things off tables--and probably spent an hour or more there
shopping and modestly stimulating the local economy

But then resumed the walk

Rue Agar, in Art Nouveauese

After WWI, Guimard designed this build-it-
yourself (!) wonder, which never really caught
on

Interestingly, nearly all the buildings we saw were signed,
so to speak

After the build-it-yourself experiment, Guimard emigrated
to New York, and art nouveau morphed into art deceau

There were many other things to see: here,
the only Rodin sculpture that is life-size; the
jury for the prize he was competing for accused
him of casting directly from the model, and he
never again did anything that might be open
to this accusation

And still more beautiful buildings

Paris...

Louvre Again, 3, Out-takes

Love the new museum humor

This is what the Mona Lisa crowd looked like at 9:06 AM

By mid-afternoon it looked like this; you could barely push
your way into the hall

The Louvre's impressive collection of Rembrandt self-
portraits; more than any other museum, I fear

Love the silly hat pose, evidently a genre in
the 17th

Ecce homo; Watteau's famous clown; the
Louvre's Watteau collection was in a far
cul-de-sac it took us a while to find; this is
what happens when you really get into art
history; I can nonetheless recommend the
Watteau collection as a fine place for a nap
in the Louvre

18th century road rage

Torment by fart...

Mary and Jesus do not seem pleased with the new bikini
underwear fashion

Louvre Again, 2

I can't help myself!

One of Leonardo's lesser known lady portraits

Never could get a decent shot of this...Titians' outdoor
concert, said to be the inspiration for Manet's greatest hit...Le
Dejeuner de l'Herbe

Four Arcimboldos for Vicki; we'll many more in Vienna

Love these gallery shots, popular in the 18th century

Theotokopoulos' Crucifixion; the Louvre
does not have many El Grecos, but it does
have the Crucifixion

Ribera's Club-footed Boy

All this again thanks to Tawana and Wes

Louvre Again, 1

Sunday Vicki and I did the Louvre, for the upteenth time, but this time better prepared than ever before. We stayed the whole day, opening to nearly closing--with lunch and 2 short breaks--a personal best for me at an art museum. Despite the heat of the Louvre, and the crush of visitors, we had a most enjoyable and edifying time.

Being so far behind in the blog, and visiting places I have blogged about before (see 2009), I'll try to limit the pix posted to a few classic things, a few we particularly enjoyed, and a few about which I can offer some special insight.

I can never resist this one

After enough art history videos, reading, and museum visits,
even Rubens begins to interest and appeal; I'll have a lot
more Rubens in a succeeding post; here, the coronation of
Maria Borghese 

A particularly good Vermeer, his Astronomer

Rembrandt's Bathsheba, being copied

Norway's Nordkapp, the northernmost point of Europe,
by Peder Balke; special meaning for those of us who
have driven there...

Rene Descartes, by, of all painters, Franz
Hals; no broad brushing here, though;
don't get Descartes before Deshorse, as we
used to say

Bruegel's Mendicants; many more and better Bruegels
coming up in Vienna, Munich; nearly our favorite

Cranach's Eve; he used this model and this
pose for several works, both religious and
secular; we'll see her many more times

Durer's youthful self-portrait; we'll see his
later, much celebrated, 1500 self-portrait in
Munich

Jan van Eyck's, Chancellor Rolin, having a chat with
Virgin and Child; van Eyck was the first to work
extensively with oil; a very old painting, even by
Louvre standards; note the landscape in the background

Ingres' Turkish Bath; a work of imagination, no doubt

Ghirlandao's Old Man and Youth

To be continued...

Summer 2012 European Travel Interim Report

It has been a month since I posted last, in the midst of our wonderful week in Paris with Tawana and Wes. I owe three or four more posts from Paris, and then much, much more. In my defense, I can say we have been busy. Very busy.

From Paris we flew to Amsterdam to pick up the Grey Wanderer, which had been in storage there nearly 11 months. Thanks to Gerard and Caravanstalling van der Zwaan, our camper was in perfect working order. We took a day to unpack and move back in, camping in Aalsmeer, and to make a few repairs and improvements. Then we spent a day in Amsterdam, mostly at the Rijksmuseum, revisiting a variety of other spots in town and enjoying more servings of the great Amsterdam pommes frites; and Heineken.

Next day we were off to Berlin for two days' sightseeing—mostly the Pergamon and the Gemaldegalerie—prior to the arrival of Rebecca, Jeremy, and Penelope. For the next two weeks, while Rebecca and Jeremy enjoyed a vacation, our principal task was to care for 14 month-old grand-daughter Penelope. P stayed with us in the camper at Wohnmobil Berlin while Rebecca and Jeremy toured, and then we all drove to Dresden, where we continued that arrangement, P with us at our favorite stellplatz, Pension Werner Knopf, and Rebecca and Jeremy touring from a hotel downtown. We got together for various meals and museum tours, etc. P took to all this, including jet-lag and a minor cold, with her usual equanimity and good humor. She is a happy baby, now a happy and inquisitive toddler, and a joy.

Next we drove to Prague where Rebecca and Jeremy had rented a three bedroom apartment in New Town (1358), in which we all stayed for several days, relaxing, seeing the great city and its sights, enjoying meals and more together. We stored the camper at our previous stay-place, Camping Drusus, outside of Prague. Prague has become one of our favorite places, all the art and architecture, and we were happy to share it with R and J.

Next we drove to Vienna, the terminus of Rebecca and Jeremy's vacation. They again had rented an apartment, somewhat smaller, and P stayed with us at old friend Camping Vienna West, but again we got together on a number of occasions, biergartens, heurigens, the Naschmarkt, and more. The weather was very warm that week in Vienna, but we all had a good time and got R, J,and P off, at length, Monday a week ago. They are safely back in Menlo Park now, joined for a few days' visit by daughter Rachel.

Vicki and I stayed another few days in Vienna, seeing old favorites like the Kunsthistorischemuseum, acquiring some new favorites, like the Hundertwassers architecture, and having a great time despite the heat. Thursday, we pulled up stakes finally and turned back west, following the Danube past Melk and then wending our way back into the Czech Republic to see Cesky Krumlov. We spent a crazy night and day there—it is a crazy place this time of year—and then drove on west. We spent three nights in Erding, outside Munich, at Therme Erding, reputedly Europe's largest “thermal world”, a massive water/sauna/water slide/spa complex that permits free wohnmobil stays for its clients. We took the cure Saturday—it requires its own post. Sunday we trained into Munich to revisit the Alte Pinakothek, one of our favorite art museums. Durer's 1500 Self Portrait remains my favorite painting. Well, apart from several Botticellis, Breugels, Cranachs, Boschs and Turners...and don't forget the Courbets and Renoirs and of course Dali...and some others, maybe even a Watteau or two. And then we we did a day in Augsburg and are now doing a couple in Ulm, where this morning I climbed the Munster's 700 foot steeple.

So, yes, we have been busy, internet has not always been available, especially in wifi-challenged Germany, but now, after perhaps a dozen world-class museums and some 3300 pix taken, I am back into posting. More tomorrow.

Penelope does jet-lag; with Grandma at Wohnmobil Berlin 

Church of St. Sulpice

Next stop that day was the Church of St. Sulpice, on the Wrong Side. I think this was another station on the Vinci Municipal Code pilgrimage. Understandably, my wife and friends do not speak to me of such things.

The artistic masterpiece, Delacroix's Jacob's  Struggle with the 
Angel (Angel won by (divine) decision)

The great organ at St. Sulpice

But St. Sulpice's claim to fame is here, and the brass line
that marks the (then) prime meridian, before France lost
yet another war with the Brits; hence, it's Greenwich Time,
not Left Bank Time

On winter solstice, or possibly summer, or maybe the vernal
equinox, the sun comes through a high window and
illuminates this area (the church was built about 1.5 meters
off to the right, by my calculation; or possibly the window was
off, as Wes suggested)

This explains it all; as if...

St. Sulpice, another great Baroque church; if it ain't Baroque,
don't fix it

Happily, there was a statue of Danton nearby