College friend Tawana and her daughter Cara arrived mid-week, staying at a nearby hotel. They had their own visit priorities, but we spent considerable time together, at museums, walking around, and eating. The eating will require its own post. We visited the D'Orsay together and particularly its Paris 1874 exhibition, celebrating the 150th anniversary of the exposition that kicked-off Impressionism. (Wes stayed back in Fayetteville (so French), guarding the fort.)
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Monet's Boulevard of the Capucines, 1872; pre- Impressionist, although he spent the Franco-Prussian war in England, had seen the later Turners, and thus got the idea... |
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| A pre-Impressionist Berthe Morisot; more on her below |
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| So the goal of every artist in the 1870s was to exhibit at the Salon, the long-standing annual juried show of the year's best...juried in accordance with the very conservative tastes and principles of the day...having been rejected on numerous enough occasions in the past, the soon-to-be-called Impressionists banded together and held their own show, the catalog from which is above |
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| The Orsay's presentation of all this was so smart...first they show you, in this hall, some of the paintings submitted or actually exhibited at the Salon of 1874 |
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| Including this (rejected) Manet scene in front of the Opera Peletier; Manet was ever closely associated with the Impressionists, but never formally joined with them... |
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This one, outside the Gare St. Lazaire, was accepted, though bitterly criticized (for its subject matter) in the press; Mallarme, certainly the most influential intellectual of the day, famously came to Manet's defense... |
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An array of Berthe Morisot works at the time; five years ago we attended the opening of the Orsay's great retrospective of her work; one of the two early female Impressionists |
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| In the next big hall are some of the works that were included in the 1874 Exposition; this Monet view of Le Havre clearly in the style he came to be known for... |
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| But it was this, his 1872 Impression soleil levant that gave Impressionism its name, intended derisively at first in the press, but it stuck; note the Turneresque sun |
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| Monet's Gare St. Lazaire, a favorite |
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| While the others finished the exhibition, I took to wandering, looking for more favorites |
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| Serious art history: three different tour groups looking at Millet's Gleaners... |
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| Courbet's Berlioz |
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| Street scene |
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| Love the Fantin-Latour groupies; Manet is the strawberry blonde |
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| Iconic scene passing through the cafe on the 5th floor; I have re-joined our little group; hoping for a snack |
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| At the other end of the building |
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| Manet's still shocking Luncheon on the Grass; still so poorly displayed... |
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| Manet's portrait of Mallarme |
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| News to me department: Monet also did a Luncheon on the Grass scene, mid-1860s; frequenting the Louvre, as all the artists of the day did, there was ample opportunity to study the great Giorgione/Titian masterpiece |
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| Resting en route to a late luncheon at Le Louis-Philippe |
