I arrived in Paris at about 9:30 and got to Ile St Louis at about 10:30. After a short break, I headed off by the metro to the d'Orsay Gallery for a second visit.
By a stroke of luck, an exhibition of Manet had just opened and I paid a minuscule 2 euro supplement to see it.
The Manet exhibition was really good. Many of the old favorites, Olympia, Berthe Morisot. I was disappointed to see only a preliminary painted sketch of the "Gare Saint-Lazare" the real painting is still in Washington. Likewise, Manet's great work, the "Girl behind the bar at the Folies-Bergere" was still in London. I would have hoped, for an exhibition of this size, that they would have been included. It was great looking at the brush strokes and following Manet's development as an artist fighting the critics all the way. I was surprised at how hard he tried to please them.
The main d'Orsay gallery still has a huge collection of his work.
The main d'Orsay gallery is really the major impressionist gallery. It has, I believe, all the best of Monet's paintings. The Japanese bridge, the water lilies, and the Rohan Cathedral (x 4) plus many others. I know I raved over the water lilies in the Orangerie gallery but I've changed my mind. The d'Orsay wins. But I still stand by my comment on the Mammottan it has all Manet's practice paintings.
The same applies to the other impressionist d'Orsay who have the best of Renoir and Degas plus Cezanne, Bonnard, and the others. I found myself re-visiting rooms to see the paintings again. Renoir's "Dancing at the Moulin de la Galette" is breathtaking.
the d'Orsay has a decorative art collection and the room which impressed the most was a complete reconstruction of a furnished room in Art Nouvelle woodworking.
I left the gallery at about 6pm and looked for a restaurant. After trying the top restaurant in the d'Orsay and a few others on the way home, I couldn't find a menu with a decent-sized helping and a reasonable price. So I pick up some veges etc and walked back to the Ile St Louis and cooked my own dinner.
No comments:
Post a Comment