Sainte-Chapelle

After a pleasant rest in the solitude of Delacroix's garden, we felt our second wind, and decided to go for the hat trick, three sites in a day, something we rarely do now in our dotage. European Heritage Days no doubt had something to do with it. The third site was Sainte-Chapelle, the royal chapel in the Capetian palace area of the Ile de la Cite, dating to the 1240s, commissioned by Louis IX to house his collection of holy relics (bought at a big discount from Baldwin II, emperor of Constantinople), that is one of the greatest gems of Gothic architecture. Of course, we have seen it before, more than once, as well as its siblings at Saint-Germaine-en-Laye and Vincennes. Sainte-Chapelle is one of those places that, at the right time of day and season, never fails to amaze, even transport. We hit the time (late afternoon) and season (not winter) just about right. There was a line, but it moved quickly. For a fuller view, see the above posts.

We always skip the bargain basement (for courtiers, 
palace employees, hangers-on) and head directly for
the upper floor, for royal use only (and close personal
buds)

The windows and light are always glorious

Rose window at the stern

Revelation 

Definitely Revelation

Outside, the sculptural program is a Judgement

Hell is in the archivolt, Vicki observed (her Southern Baptist
upbringing has given her special insight)

Downstairs not obscured by gift shoppe and 
turbuss mob

Spare parts

An Annunciation, said to be the oldest fresco in Paris

Why the north windows are never as well lit as the south...well,
latitude has much to do with it, but the Conciergerie building 
almost flush next door doesn't help

Musee Delacroix

After the d'Orsay, we walked up the river, turned a droite, weaved in and out a bit, and eventually arrived at 6 rue de Furstenberg,* the Musee Delacroix. Delacroix is one of the most revered of French painters, by the French anyway. Fantin-Latour's Homage a Delacroix, one of my favorite group portraits, gives evidence of this, and we have seen plenty of Delacroix's work, at the Louvre and elsewhere (e.g., Saint-Sulpice), and especially at the wonderful exposition on "Romantic Paris" we saw at Petit Palais in 2019. Everything quickened in the 19th century...not that the preceding centuries were dull and uneventful. Art was no exception, and went through at least as many "periods" as the French had governments...neo-classicism, Romanticism, Realism, Impressionism, post-Impressionism, etc. Delacroix was the acknowledged leader of the Romanticists, although in later life he was a supporter also of Courbet and the Realists. In any case, his admirers bought his last apartment, studio, and garden, on rue de Furstenberg to save it from destruction, maintained it as a museum for many years, then handed it over to the Louvre, which manages it today. We'd walked passed it many times, never entered it, but finally went for it, for European Heritage Days. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. If you get my drift.

Entrance to the house, which is pretty undistinguished on the outside

Delacroix is most famous for Liberty Leading the People, 
celebrating the 1830 revolution (not the American revolution),
which, like its predecessor, succeeded in simply replacing one
monarchy with another; Liberty resides at the Louvre, where
we've seen it and will see it again; we've also seen it at the
Louvre outpost in Lens, where it lived 2012-2014

The Musee Delacroix has this small sketch...

Also his Seated Nude, aka Madamoiselle Rose,
1820

Also his Education of the Virgin, 1842

His palette

Mirabeau before Dreux-Breze (23 June, 1789), 1830; patriotic
stuff, especially if you're not a monarchist; for the actual paintings,
that's about it; granted, Delacroix's most famous stuff is in 
museums around the world, in French state buildings, churches,
etc....but we'd hoped for rather more; oh yes, there was a video 
loop playing of some of the other paintings...

Delacroix lived into the 1860s and is thus

one of the few "old masters" of whom there

is a photograph; looks pretty much like the bust

(thanks, Wikipedia)

Outside, in the garden, looking back at his studio

All in all, we were happy to have done this one for free

*If you're really missing Thailand, the Jim Thompson store is just a door down the rue...

Musee d'Orsay

We had set aside two days--European Heritage Days, when lots of places are open with free admission--to see the d'Orsay. (The Louvre does not participate in the Heritage Days scheme; too big to fail, I guess.) In any case, we managed to do the d'Orsay in just the one day. Whole floors and rooms were closed, for whatever reasons. But the stuff we came to see, the Impressionists and post-Impressionists, and the Art Nouveau furniture, etc., were all open and there and just as we'd remembered from our last visit in 2019. I think this was probably our 8th or 9th visit to this museum, whose scope is limited pretty much to just the latter half of the 19th century. The museum had a "no fotos!" policy at various times, which I complied with casually, but on our last visit I took lots of pix, which are mostly at https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2019/06/musee-dorsay-favorites.html, and https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2019/07/musee-dorsay-art-nouveau.html. An additional post from the wonderful 2019 Berthe Morisot exhibition is at https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2019/07/musee-dorsay-berthe-morisot.html. Anyhow, we were there September 18th, loving it all over again. I'll limit the pix to just a few things I haven't posted before.

Sorry; I've been taking these d'Orsay clock pix since 1998 and
can't resist, especially with the ugly crane now in view; I'm
fascinated by the changing light, the seasons, the time of day...

Three wall pano of Renoir females

I could only get two walls of the Monet Houses of Parliament, Rouen cathedral, etc.

Renoir's City Dance and Country Dance

Renoir's portrait of Monet

Relatively rare Monet still life, nature morte, as the French call it:

his Le Quartier de Viande; 1864, way before he or anybody else

was doing Impressionism (except maybe Turner, a generation

earlier)

Another Fantin-Latour group portrait I like: Un Atelier Aux
Batignolles, 1870; right at the birth of French Impressionism
featuring Manet (with the palette), Renoir, Monet and Emile Zola,
among others

Stand right up next to it and every minute the huge mechanism 
clanks and the hand moves half a foot...

Evidently I was in a sort of Fantin-Latour mood that day; here
his Coin de Table, 1872; Verlaine and Rimbaud the two left-most

Interior train station clock...works, too

Really bad hair day

Now we are in the Art Nouveau furniture section,
referenced above: Hector Guimard, whom we
adore, doors

I'd drink out of those...but only the really good stuff

Moving right along...Andre Devambez, Le Seul oiseau qui vole
au-dessus nuages, 1910; "the only bird that flies above the clouds";
clearly one of Bleriot's early monoplanes; the French didn't get
there first, but they've never been very far behind; witness Airbus

We'd missed a turn, but are now back in post-Impressionism:
an 1886 Van Gogh, perhaps before he found his voice, so to speak:
his La Guinguette a Montmartre le Billard en Bois

Changing style: Le Restaurant de la Sirene a Asnieres, 1887

La Salle de Danse a Arles, 1888

The Starry Night, 1888

Chaumes de Cordeville au Auvers sur Oise, 1890; among his last...

Done, and outside; along the top of the building are named the
various French cities served by the station, once one of Paris'
largest and most famous 

Strolling along the Seine to our next museum...