The Road Goes Ever On

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Rijksmuseum I

In the 17th century there were more painters in Amsterdam than bakers,* and much of their work, and more, has come down to the Rijksmuseum. As with the Louvre and a few other places, there is little that is not recognizable, famous, or a masterpiece. Here is a not quite random sample...

You buy your ticket, walk in the door, and there, much
larger than life, in your face, is Bartholomew van der Helst's
Banquet in Celebration of the Treaty of Munster, 1648

Just a little detail...reflection on the belt buckle of the
captain (fat guy in black on the right)

Anyhow we rushed past the entry stuff and all the rest,
even Vermeer, to see Rembrandt's Night Watch, before the
turbuss onslaught

And the also celebrated "Meager Company" by Frans Hals
and Pieder Codde; Hals did the left half but was fired and
replaced by Codde

Judith Lester's Serenade

Hendrik Avercamp's Winter Landscape with Skaters; there
were so many painters in Amsterdam that they specialized:
Avercamp was the guy to see about skating scenes

Frans Hals' very famous Merry Drinker

Hals'equally famous Wedding Portrait

Finally! A portrait of Rembrandt not by
Rembrandt! Jan Lievens' 1629 Portrait

We fell in love with Jan Steen's moralizing work; here his
Merry Family

And Teaching the Cat to Dance; about noisy
neighbors?

*This was during the Gluten-Free Wars, however

Amsterdam Scenes

We jetted to Amsterdam and picked up the Grey Wanderer from Gerard at Caravanstalling van der Zwaan. Somewhat surprisingly, as we moved back in, reconnected the pump and hot water heater and so, everything worked. Even after 11 months' (indoor) storage. We have not always been so fortunate.

Anyhow, after a day of unpacking, moving back in, installing new equipment, etc., staying at a campground in Aalsmeer, we bussed into Amsterdam, principally to see the Rijksmuseum, but much else along the way.

Canal scene

Ditto, with tower

Typical old city buildings

The Euro 2012 voetbal games were on that day, and everything was crazy orange;
sadly, Netherlands lost to Germany the next day

Concertegebouw

The Van Gogh Museum, which we'll visit in August before
returning to the US

New (to us) bicycle style; saw them everywhere

Art deco Amsterdam

The Rijksmuseum, backside

Frontside undergoing much construction

Paris Out-takes

On a tree next to the Jim Morrison grave;
much meaning and symbolism, we supposed,
particularly the bubble-gum

Great name for a bar

Parisian take on the impending London Olympics

I love found art, and street art, though I am not sure this
qualifies as either; anyhow, I call it Le Mort du Pigeon,
or, as Wes suggested, Winged Defeat; or possibly Goo de
Grace

One more look at an unforgettable sight, and
one more thank you to Tawana and Wes

From Paris, June, 2012

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