Monday, October 4, 2021

Musee Jacquemart Andre: Botticelli In Paris

The Musee Jacquemart Andre is a small formerly independent museum, originally the home of an interesting Paris couple, Eduard Andre and Nelie Jacquemart. She was a painter, he the scion of an enormous banking fortune. Together they shared a love of art, particularly Italian, and pretty much devoted themselves to their mansion on Boulevard Haussmann and filling it with the treasures they acquired on annual trips beyond the Alps. They left the mansion and its contents to the Institute of France. The museum this fall is doing a special exhibition on "Botticelli: Artist and Designer," and, Botticelli being one of our two or three favorite painters, we had to go. The Musee Jacquemart Andre is worth a post by itself. I'll do the Botticelli exhibit separately.

Standing in line outside (timed tickets, etc.)

Entry view

She did a portrait of him; that's how their relationship
began

Fragonard, Head of an Old Guy, 1769

Gorgeous staircase, etc.



Medici "pills"

Among the salons

Warin bust of Richelieu, 1643; when the Cardinal was a young man 


Atop the staircase, the enormous fresco by Tiepolo, Arrival of
Henry III at the Villa Contarini
, 1745; trompe l'oeil illusionism,
etc.

Guide to the atelier

Thus; part of it; art history clutter

Personal favorite

Beautiful choir seating, marquetry, Pantelone, 1510

Mantegna, Virgin, Infant and Three Saints, 1485

Mantegna again, Ecce Homo, 1500

Workshop of Mantegna, Virgin, Infant, and Two Saints, 15th century

Luca Signorelli, Virgin, Infant, St. John, and Old
Guy
, 1491

Nice ceilings throughout

Exiting the gift shop















































































































































































































Sadly, for me, the one item in the regular collection I really wanted
to see, Uccello's St. George and the Dragon, 1430, was out on loan,
probably in order to get one of the Botticellis; this from the museum's
website

Saturday, October 2, 2021

Julien, Galeries, And The Village Joue Club

Impressed by our experience at the Bouillon Racine, I undertook a little research and found another bouillon, Julien, just three blocks up from our apartment on the Rue Saint-Denis. We combined lunch there with another visit to the Galeries Lafayette and from there to the Jouet Club Village. 

Other side of the Porte Saint-Denis

Julien...Belle Epoche decor, furniture, tile floor, the works






My bream ad zucchini pancake

Her steak and potatoes
Galeries Lafayette again...OK, it's not Sainte-Chapelle or the
Palau de Musica Catalana...but it's also not something you just
pass by...

Galeries Lafayette (incredibly) did not have what
we were looking for, but helpfully referred us to
the nearby JoueClub, a toy department store located
in a beautiful arcade...different toy ages and genres 
in different shops

Thus
The usual department store decor



Acting childishly


Clignancourt Markets

Like Gaul, the Clignancourt cluster of markets may be divided into three parts: the funky/weird/ interesting, the over-priced antiques and collectibles (mostly in small shoppes), and the crap under tents and awnings that you can see in any market in the less affluent areas. We visited Clignancourt in 2014, I think, although I can find no blog posts on it. Anyhow, we visited again, enduring a long bus ride out and back, on Sunday, September 26. 

We focused on the interesting/goofy stuff






Largest pipe ever

You'd be the toast of the town if you had a flying saucer for a
lawn ornament; or maybe you'd just be toast

Antique gas pump store


In the biggest/best vintage clothing store ever, so far




Worst Academy Award-winning movie ever;
and in English too



Fixer uppers

Crystal, almost life-sized

Now entering the swankier precincts

My patience for all the Louis XXIII and 5th Empire Strikes Back
furniture and such is pretty limited; but Vicki says it was really
pretty good, varied, better than what we saw in London; but she
doesn't take many pix




My one photo from the crap precinct: for decades I
have been predicting that leisure suits will be back;
here, we are getting pretty close...