The virus hit me hard as I wandered around the Musee d’Orsay yesterday. On the way there I happened to find the Sennelier store. I was so happy, they had all of their pastels of course, but some I hadn’t seen before. They were giant ones, 3/4 to 1 inch in diameter. I bought a set in grey, they will be too much fun to work with when I return to the studio.
The Musee was lovely. There was a Rodin exhibit which is fortunate because I got lost for the first time later in the day trying to find the Rodin Museum, which is not far from d’Orsay. I took friends’ advice and ate in the cafe. It was decorated as if it were part of a palace, with gold trimmings and frescoed ceiling. The food was good, though it might have been better at some time in the past when the cafe earned its reputation. They sat me at the end of a row of two-tops. I heard my neighbors speaking English and soon had a 3 table conversation going between Americans from Virginia, and an Irish couple celebrating their anniversary. That’s the only way I’ve found to beat the isolation of traveling alone, to just speak up when possible.
Musee d’Orsay houses late nineteenth to early twentieth century artworks. I saw Whistler’s Mother, Degas’ ballerinas, and Van Gogh’s bed chamber. Toulouse-Lautrech’s line was incomparable, but I especially loved seeing the few Mary Cassatt pastels they had in a small room on the main floor.
Two Rodin sculptures had me staring and circling for a long time. My brain is a bit muddled by cold medicine, so I’ll have to look up the names later. Yes, he knew how to capture subtle and strong emotion in the form of the figure.
After getting lost looking for Rodin and the Invalides, I became an invalid myself. Feeling feverish and as if my feet could take no more, I got a taxi. The driver could not understand where I wanted to go, so I told him to take me to Pompidou. The Pompidou Center is Paris’ contemporary art museum and exhibition space. The building is turned inside out, its structural and mechanical systems exposed, inflated and attached to the outside making the building look like a giant machine. This design leaves large expanses on the interior which are perfect for exhibition space.
The building was in the midst of a very congested area, crowded, dirty. I went the wrong way to the entrance and a man watching this mistake immediately got in my face and started talking to me. I nearly had to scream to get him away from me. The highlight for me, as well as a 6 year visitor apparently, was the Debuffet room. I don’t have much positive to say about the rest of the exhibits, so I’ll just leave it at that.
After a week of what I hear is unusual sunshine in Paris, today, my last day here, it is cloudy. I won’t be doing much as the virus has me in bed. I will venture out to the Art Fair and hopefully dinner later.
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