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Musée Marmottan Monet

// Entry 5 - museum visit

I have always had a love for Monet, so as soon as I saw the Musée Marmottan Monet on the list of museums we could choose from for this project I knew where I would be going. The Marmottan Monet museum is named after the art historian Paul Marmottan and is located in his house. He kept a personal collection of tapestries, furniture, and paintings, all of which he donated to the Academie des Beauz-Arts in 1932. Donop de Monchy also donated part of her father’s collection to the museum in 1950. Her father Georges de Bellio was a doctor to many impressionist artists, including Monet, and kept his own collection of impressionist art. 

Morisot -- Le Jardin A Bougival

The first floor of the museum contained art by other impressionists besides Monet, such as a collection from Berthe Morisot, the first woman impressionist painter. 

Below was the permanent collection of Monet’s work. The space was very open and well lit, with his works divided into three groupings. 

The first wall, backed in red, was filled with some of Monet’s more abstract pieces. The brush strokes were looser, the colors more muddled, and overall the subjects were more blurred and less recognizable. Overall these pieces portrayed more emotion; you could imagine the passion behind the gestural brush strokes.

A smaller section of the room contained many of Monet’s smaller pieces. These were mostly landscapes as well as some of his Rouen Cathedral paintings.

The largest portion of the space was devoted to his more grand pieces. Several of his famous waterlily paintings as well as many paintings I had never seen before filled the walls. 

I have always admired Monet, as well as other impressionists, for the way he uses so few brushstrokes to represent his subject matter. In his piece below he only uses a few dry brush strokes of green and yellow, yet he places them so perfectly that the viewer can still easily imagine the lily pads that Monet saw when he was painting. His masterful use of light also brings each piece to life without needing the detail of more academic pieces. 

To the right of Monet’s work was an exhibit titled Unexpected Dialogues. In 2017 the museum Marmottan Monet launched a program to work with contemporary artists. Two artists every year would be asked to produce work in dialogue with the permanent collection.

Inspired by the impressionists themselves, he painted portraits of impressionist painters. 

Mixed within his own work he included three pieces by Monet, most notably “Impression, Sunrise.” This was the first piece that Monet showed in an exhibit and it is from this piece that the Impressionist movement derived its name. 

The Unexpected Dialogues exhibit made manifest the influence that past artists have on those making art today. Fromanger illustrated this concept when he said: “My canvas is never white. It is black with all the other artists, with all the art history and all the things I have already done. My solitude is swarming with people.”

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A Vision for Impressionism

// Entry 2 - Temporary Exhibit - The Courtauld Collection: A Vision for Impressionism

As an avid lover of impressionism, I was excited to see Courtauld’s collection: “A Vision for Impression” which claimed to include works that had not been shown in Paris for the past 60 years. Among the collection boasted names such as Manet, Seurat, Cezanne, Van Goph, Gauguin, and Turner. It was housed within the building Foundation Louis Vuitton, whose architecture lived up to its prestigious name.

Samuel Courtauld was an industrialist, artist, and art collector. He was a pioneer of industrial democracy and advocated for workers to own shares within the businesses that employed them. He believed that the psychology behind owning part of what you are working for would benefit both the person and the company. He also wrote a manifesto for the renewal of society after the second World War. He saw how consumerism was degrading society and believed that a re-balance away from the material and towards the spiritual was necessary. One way in which he sought to achieve this balance was through his collection of art. He had an affinity for impressionism art pieces and, in order to share this openly with the public, he designed the Courtauld Institute which gave public access to art and its history. He set aside half of this collection to be free for students. Courtauld also influenced the popularity of the artists who produced much of the work he collected. For example, the popularity of Cezanne in the United Kindgom is attributed to Courtauld who held one of the largest collection of Cezanne’s work. 

Manet --  A Bar at the Folies-Bergère

Exhibited in 1882, this is Manet’s last major work before his death. Folies-Bergere, a cabaret music hall in Paris, was notoriously known for the access it gave to prostitutes. The barmaid in this piece is assumed to be one of these prostitutes. Her placement at the bard, on the same plane as an array of food and drink meant for sale, implies that she has also become an object or piece of merchandise to be sold. The reflected image in the right corner shows the woman conversing with a male customer, however the foreground is void of this figure. Her gaze into the eyes of the viewer is unsettling and almost forces the viewer to place themselves in the scene as the man seen in the reflection.

Cezanne -- Pommes, Bouteille at Dossier de Chaise

This piece is unique because of its material. Previous to the impressionist movement, watercolors were seen as only sketching material and would have never been seen inside a museum. Impressionists and post impressionists rejected this idea from the academy and began showing these “unfinished” pieces as complete pieces of art. 

Van Gogh -- Champ de ble, avec cypres

Vincent Van Goph completed this piece during his stay at a mental hospital in 1889. He enjoyed painted these cypress trees in St. Remy de Provence as he thought they resembled “Egyptian obelisks” and has three almost identical paintings of them. 

In the smallest and final room of the exhibit were several watercolors by William Turner. I had not expected to see his work in this exhibit as I have only ever heard of Turner in the context of Romanticism and had never made the connection between him and impressionism. I first learned about Turner’s work when studying his piece The Slave Ship during aesthetics class senior year of high school. The ten pieces in the Courtauld collection span across Turner’s life and demonstrate his ongoing interest in natural scenes where he captures the complexities of interplay between light and fog, waterfalls, storms, and mountains. 

William Turner -- The Falls of the Rhine at Schaffhausen

Graphite, watercolour, pen, red ink, scratching out on grey toned paper

1841

Turner captures the emotion so typical of the Romantic style in his watercolor. his brush strokes and scratching away of the color bring movement and excitement to the piece. Romanticism emphasizes the experience of the individual and puts a strong emphasis on the emotion within art as well as the glorification of nature. His tones remain earthy, mostly using browns, greens, and blues, with some underlying red pencil. In the background fades green landscape adorned by towers drawn in pencil. Next you can see the blue water and billowing white fog rolling into the foreground which depicts boats or buildings closest to the viewer. 

Throughout our museum tours over the past weeks we have talked frequently about how the academy of art would have responded to what was being produced. Turners work would have definitely been reviled by the academy. He is using watercolor, a medium considered to only been used for sketching and never shown in public. His work also boldly shows the hand of the artist. You can see his brush strokes as well as areas where he has scraped away the color. As you look closer you can also see that he left the under drawing of his piece quite visible in red pencil.

I especially liked this piece because you could see so much of the artist’s process in his work. I also really enjoy the grey areas that Turner is working in here between abstraction and realism. At first glance this painting can appear to merely be abstract smudges of watercolor and pencil, yet if you look closely you can see the outline of towers, the curve of hillsides, and a landscape begins to appear. 

Ernst Vegelin van Claerbergen, the head of the Courtauld Gallery, said that Samual Courtauld viewed art as  “an essential antidote to the materialism of modern life . . . he believed that it could bind people and nations together. He always intended the collection to be shared as widely as possible.” I am thankful for what Courtauld has shared and for being able to experience it.

Sources: exhibit description and plaques within the exhibit

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Final Hunt: Cardinal Lemoine

On our second to last day studying in Paris we awoke early to begin our final exam. We were split into pairs and handed a slip of paper detailing 9 locations around the city. It was our task to find and take photos of each one while only using our small map books of Paris. After being instructed that we had 6 hours to accomplish this task, we immediately searched through page after page of streets to find our locations and map out the most direct route. 

[photo from Paris Stories at Hope College]

My favorite place that we discovered was the Parc de Belleville. Located on the second highest hill in Paris after Monmartre, this park was converted from a quarry to a park in 1988. It has stone steps going up the now tiered gardens. At its top is a small amphitheater decorated with art and overlooking a view of the city. You could see the Eiffel tower and other landmarks from this view as well as the 11 acres of beautiful gardens and roses below. The streets at its top, which we walked through to reach the garden, are full of colorful street art to discover. 

We also found a scenic view at the Passerelle Bichat, a pedestrian bridge over the Canal St. Martin where the Quai de Jemmapes meets rue Bichat. The canal had many small foot bridges similar to ours down its length and was a pleasant place to meander along as the sun peaked back out from behind the clouds. 

Another exciting discovery was the train station that I have seen so often in Monet’s work. Gare Saint-Lazare is a SNCF station that was designed to connect north-west France to Paris, allowing those from the suburbs into Paris and those from Paris to town or the seaside. It was famously painted in Monet’s impressionist works. After moving to Paris in 1877 he painted 12 different views of the station. Impressionist work often appears to come from another world and yet here in front of me was the exact view that Monet would have had in years past. Although the trains are now modernized, it was the same glass roof and scene that he would have gazed at from behind his easel. 

[Photo from Art Institute Chicago]

Pro tip: don’t step too near the trains because the alarms and looks from the armed guards have taught us that it is frowned upon :)

Lastly, we found a mural by Pierre Alechinsky. We were worried at first about finding this one since the street name was not in the index of our map, but thankfully we found the correct station and were able to find the mural from there. Here Alechinsky is illustrating the poem “L’arbre des rues” by Yves Bonnefoy. The English translation of the poem reads: 

Passerby, look at this great tree     and through it, That can be enough. For even rent and sullied,     the tree of the city is all of nature,     all the heavens, the bird alights there,     the wind moves there, the sun there expresses the same hope in spite     of death. Philosopher, if you are lucky enough to have the tree     in your street, your thoughts will be less arduous,     your eyes more free, your hands more desirous,     at least at night.

After completing our scavenger hunt early we stopped for lunch before making our way to the end. We met our professors at their apartment where we rested our tired bodies and finished with some celebratory food. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the scavenger hunt and the whirlwind tour it gave us of some of the more unknown gems of Paris. Many of the locations were hidden away and it was exciting to search for these lesser known pieces of beauty in the city.

[Sources: Michelin Green Guide, Saint Lazare Monet, Bonnefoy poem translation]

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Worship in Paris

// Entry 1 - religious diversity in Paris

Our first Sunday in Paris was originally designed to be spent in Notre Dame. However, due the recent fire our worship was instead moved to Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois where we joined the church for its Gregorian Mass. It was fascinating to see a small neighborhood church worship together inside such an impressive building. Their choir only consisted of three women, but their voices resonated and the simple but beautiful notes filled the highest parts of the church.

St. Germain is a classic example of Gothic architecture. Its most recognizable features, the pointed arches, draw the eye upward and push weight downward, allowing architects to build higher. Gargoyles adorn the outside walls, meant to protect its worshipers. Inside the building is a long central nave and transept creating the Greek cross shape. The walls are lined with stained glass depicting various stories from the Bible. When mass was only performed in Latin, these windows told the Biblical stores to those who could not read or understand the teaching. They were also my main focus during the sermon given in French.

The following week we toured the Grande mosquée de Paris, the third largest and most important mosque in Europe. It was built to thank the French Muslim soldiers for their contribution in WWII.

Unlike the US, France has no national survey to gather statistics or religious data. Their separation of church and state is such that they believe the government has no right to ask its people their religious status. However, individual groups have collected their own data and found that Islam comprises about 7% of the French population. It originally caught on quickly because Islam takes a skeleton of the Christian religion and builds upon it. The two religious are different however as Islam rejects the incarnation of God in Jesus and instead sees him only as an important prophet. 

Similar to Gothic architecture, this Moorish style mosque has many pointed arches. These draw the eye upward towards the open roof in the center of the courtyard and towards the symbol of the star and crescent moon adorning the top of the building. This focus upward, towards the sky and towards god, is meant to impress a sense of smallness on those inside, reminding them that they are a tiny grain of sand in a large universe and thus are in need of a god. 

While I do not share their beliefs or worship the same god, I still found aspects of Islamic practices that I admire. For example, in their daily routine they stop every 3 hours, usually about 5 times a day, to pray. They use this time to remind themselves that they are a creature of god. The design and architecture within the mosque is very beautiful and deliberate. They do not include images of people as it is important to them that they never stumble into worshiping an object instead of god. Instead they inscribe many of their walls with text from the Quran, as for them the Quran is the most pure and true form of art. They also always include water and gardens inside their mosques in order to represent heaven. 

While I felt that neither the mass nor the mosque were places for my personal worship, I did enjoy experiencing their diversity and the beauty they offered. I found God in the song and the emotion of the architecture and stained glass within St. Germain as well as within the design and and intentionality of the mosque. In my mind beauty does not need to be designed to worship God in order to bring Him glory. A mosaic can be made to worship Allah, but if it has beauty in the intricacy and skill of the work then it cannot help but reflect the nature of the first Creator and true Artist. It was God who gifted the hand of that earthly artist and an outpouring of God’s image has now become manifest in that work, thus bringing God glory despite the intention. 

Sources: Professor Kraus and tour guide

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Cimetière de l’Est

// Entry 3 - Pere Lachaise Cemetery

Cimetière du Père-Lachaise was unlike any cemetery I have seen before or could have expected. This massive cemetery holds 70,000 tombs and covers over 99 acres of land. The city of Paris purchased the land in 1763 and Napolean Bonepart commissioned Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart to design a cemetery on it. Because it is located on the outskirts of Paris, Parisians originally did not want to visit or use it to hold their funerals. In order to draw in more traffic, city authorities decided to move several famous graves such as Moliere and the lovers Abelard and Heloise to the cemetery. They were successful and the cemetery now pulls more than 3.5 million visitors per year and holds notable figures Chopin, Camille Pissarro, Oscar WIlde, Eugene Delacroix, Theodore Gericault, Georges Seurat, and many more. It has been expanded six separate times to accommodate its inhabitants. 

Before arriving I had expected the typical American style cemetery with low, unassuming head stones, each almost identical to the last and set in rigid rows. Instead I was met with a sprawling collection of intricate monuments decorated with statues, design work, and small buildings. More traditional individual headstones were in the minority and instead most of the monuments were dedicated to entire families. Many graves sat under small, chapel-like buildings designed to be just large enough for a person to enter, pray, pay their respects, and perhaps leave a few flowers behind. There was a wide array of styles, from more modern dark granite headstones to structures that almost appeared like miniature churches and contained cast iron doors and stained glass windows. 

The first grave that really caught my eye was that of Paul Baudry. While I was not familiar with his name, the elaborate statues of the angel and woman resting over a painter’s palette made me linger. Baudry was a French artist known for his historical or mythical compositions and decorations. After researching him more I recognized him as an artist involved in the construction and paintings within the Opera Garnier. Napoleon III tasked Baudry to design the foyer of the Opera Garnier (seen below) and he spent 10 years completing it.  His monument was designed by his brother Ambroise Baudry and the sculptures were made by Paul Dubois and Antonin Mercie. The flow of the piece begins with the woman in veils on the left who is meant to represent pain and who leans on the grave in sorrow while gazing at a painter’s palette, brush, and a palm branch. In the center stands a bust of Paul Baudry next to an angel of glory raising her arm in the air as she prepares to place a laurel wreath on his head. His brush and palette lean against palm branches which have been used as symbols of peace throughout history, most likely symbolizing how his art was a source of solace amidst the pain of earthly life. He has now been released from all the pain of this life and can move on to the next with triumph.  

We also found the grave of Eugene Delacroix, famously known for his contribution to the Romanticism movement in art and his painting “Liberty Leading the People.” The dark, heavy design of the casket shaped headstone stood in stark contrast to the usual light grey ornamental work on most of the graves. 

Because of the massive size of the cemetery, small streets were built into its layout. They could be followed to find certain famous graves marked on sporadic maps along the way, although the cemetery was dense enough that you would often have to climb through the maze of growth and grave stones to find the one you were searching for.

Pere Lechaise provided an interesting dichotomy. There was an interplay between beauty and diversion, and respect and memorial. This was made for families to remember their lost loved ones, yet also created as an atmosphere designed to be appreciated on its physical merits as well. The diversity of architecture and growth of the forest provided an environment which could simply be enjoyed for its peacefulness and beauty. It was at this location that I marveled at the wealth of inspiration that Parisians have at their finger tips. When allowing myself to daydream about living in Paris, Pere Lechaise has a unique pull and it is here that I imagine myself wandering alone to sketch or think. The intertwining of nature, art, and remembrance provides an uncommon avenue for meditation and reverence. 

It embodies a unique discussion on what the role of a cemetery can be. Is it only a place of remembrance for families or can it become a place simply for the public to enjoy an afternoon? Can it perfectly be both? Does a cemetery becoming a “tourist attraction” weaken its purpose or has its purpose been expanded through its beauty? I cannot say that I have come to a personal conclusion on all these questions. But Père-Lachaise has managed to turn a cemetery into a piece of art, turning a place of sorrow into a place for comfort, and I wish there were more like it. 

[Sources: Michelin Green Guide, websites on Paul Baudry (1), (2)]

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First Steps in Paris

// Siene boat tour / Cafe Louis Philippe // Opera Garnier // 

After 8 hours of overnight travel, we boarded our first RER ride and arrived at our appart hotel at Place d’Italie. There was just enough time to shower before heading back out for our first group excursion.

Along the Siene we cought our first glimpses of landmarks like the Eiffel tower, the Louvre Museum, Notre Dame, and many more. 

We completed our evening with a group dinner at Cafe Louis Philippe. 

The next day we spent the morning in IES training before being released to explore the city. 

Our first stop was a local boulangerie. We eagerly disregarded IES’s education on how French people never eat on the go and munched on our baguettes while wandering the streets of the 14th arrondisement. 

Later that evening we met up with our fellow Hope students in the “Leap of Faith” dance may term to tour the Ballet Garnier together. 

This opera house was also a product of Napoleon III’s reconstruction of Paris. He opened up a competition for the design of the building and received 170 entries. The competition was won by Charles Garnier, a young and previously unknown architect. His was praised for the way in which he combined both complexity and simplicity in his design. The auditorium is full of ornate sculpting and gilding, yet he limited his color pallet to rich reds and golds. In the center of the room hangs an 8 ton crystal chandelier. Its 340 lights illuminate the theatre as well as the ceiling painting by Marc Chagall. On this fresco Chagall depicts scenes from many famous French operas. The ceiling’s previous painting actually still remains underneath Chagall’s work and could be revealed by disassembling the polyester panels. 

The Phantom of the Opera was set in the Opera Garnier and box number 5 is inscribed with “Loge du Fantôme de l’Opéra.” While there is no actual underground lake as described in Leroux’s Phantom of the Opera, there is an underground cistern built to relieve pressure on the building’s walls as well as be used in the event of a fire. It even has fish in it to help keep the water clean. The fallen chandelier from the Phantom of the Opera is also based on a time when the one of the chandelier’s counterweights broke and killed a women sitting in the theatre below. 

The opera even hosts a Phantom of the Opera themed escape room / immersive adventure at night. 

Having been in Paris for just over a week now, I have to say that I’m enamored with the culture and the city. Parisians take their etiquette, food, and architecture very seriously. The shop owner, not the customer, is king because he is welcoming you into his space. Boulangeries or fromageries are specialized because they want to only sell the very best baguettes and cheese. Meals are late and long, always done sitting down, because they are a time for community and companionship. Limits on building heights have been enacted because the people do not want them to effect the aesthetic of their skyline. Beauty is important to them and because of this Paris has truly remained a beautiful city. 

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A Place for the People

// Entry 4 - Place de la Republique

It is difficult to imagine Paris as anything other than the beautiful city it is today where every street boasts open views, intricate architecture, and appears to be designed purely with aesthetics in mind. However, Paris was not always such a beautiful city. 

At the beginning of Napoleon III’s rule as emperor, the city of Paris was populated by dark, narrow streets. The center of the city especially was known as a dangerous and unclean place teaming with disease. Wanting to rid the city of these connotations, Napoleon III hired on Georges Eugene Haussmann to launch his reconstruction of Paris. Napoleon III wanted the design of the city to reflect the idea that Paris was the new center of power. To accomplish this, Haussman began clearing space in front of monuments, adding grand boulevards, and building new parks and squares. These newly widened streets, now conveniently too wide for the French revolutionaries to barricade easily, opened the atmosphere of the city while also providing avenues for France’s troops. Place de la Republique, built in 1854, is one of the locations that resulted from this renovation.

Directly outside the Republique metro stop, Place de la Republique lies at the intersection of the 3rd, 10th, and 11th arrondissement. In its center stands a 75 ft. statue of Marianne. Her figure, first seen in Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People, personifies liberty and reason, and is often used to signify the French Republic. On her head is the phrygian cap which signifies freedom. Her left hand rests on a tablet inscribed with Droits de L’homme (the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen) while in her right hand she hold aloft an olive branch. Around her are three figures personifying the French motto: Liberté, égalité, fraternité. At the front of the base stands a lion stepping forward to protect a ballot box. If you walk to the left of the lion around the base you will find many small relief sculptures depicting important events for the Republic from its conception to the first national celebration in 1880.

This structure was built in 1879 after city authorities hosted a contest for the design of a monument to celebrate the establishment of the new Republic. Leonard and Charles Morice won, with Leonard designing the center sculpture and Charles constructing the base. 

Place de la Republique was built to celebrate the freedom and power of the individuals of the Republic and still remains as a symbol of the people’s power today. It is a common location for the frequent protests that characterize Parisian culture as they continue to demonstrate the power of the individual. It has become a rallying point which can bring people together both in defiance and in remembrance. 

[Photo from Times Live]

After the terrorist attacks in January of 2015 at Charlie Hebdo, it was at Place de la Republique that the people built their memorial. Candles covered the ground and letters, poetry, and art made to remember the people lost engulfed the rest of the monument. Just as they gathered to demand that their voices be heard in protest, so did they join their voices again to cry out against the injustice their city had suffered. 

[Photo from Yahoo News]

Place de la Republique square remains a beacon that unifies. A symbol of what many individual voices can accomplish together. Truly a place for the people. 

Sources: Michelin Green guide, Professor Janes