Return to the Musee d'Orsay

Friday, April 8 - Paris
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.

Modernism and Old Masters

Wednesday April 6 Berlin
My plan today was to go to the Potsdamer Place area and I decided to get the metro to the Tiergarten and walk through the gardens to the Bauhauz Museum.

The garden were all being prepared for spring and workmen were planting large bulb plants along the bordher of the gardens. The walk took me along the river Spree and I passed a lock for river shipping to pass. Spring forts were starting to appear and daffodils and a variety of small flowered plants were showing some colour. The track was heavily used by cyclists and I had to be very careful. It was a very pleasant interlude.

The Bauhaus Museum was extremely interesting. I was here to push my understanding of modernism. I found their description of the Bauhaus teaching methods very good. Students had first to learn how to use their respective media. To understand colour and how to mix oil paints. How to blow glass. How to work with metals. Form follows function and Jean Miro's idea of shape & colour. So many of the simplest household items and furniture were first conceived in the Bauhaus. Chairs and light fittings. Things that we today regard as ordinary. It was a great movement and other art centres should follow the example. Ku-ring-gai art centre has all the courses correct they could easily present them under a philosophical Bauhaus cover sheet. I'll have to talk to them. There are some great wordings they could use.

I walked towards Potsdamm to the Gemaldegalerie of old masters. This was a wonderful gallery and I stayed until it closed at 18:00. This ment that I could not go the the New National Gallery.

I check my guide and found that the Jewish museum was open until 20:00 and jumped on the M41 bus to get there fast. It was impressive architecture but the stories make me so sad and depressed about our humanity that I had to move quickly through some sections. I walked through the garden of concrete towers. The shape of the building made it very hard to navigate (maybe that is the main point - confusion - where do I go next - I'm not in control of myself). They have put little arrows on the floor as a guide.

The M41 bus took me straight back to the hostel (via a long tunnel ?). I had a simple meal as my meal last night will last me a number of days.

Travels in the modern art of Berlin

Tuesday April 5 Berlin
Today the museums are all open it is going to be a big day. I got away 20 minutes behind schedule and was off on the S ban for Hackescher Market station. My plan to go straight to the main Alte National Gallery and I finished up spending more than 3 hours covering all the floors. It was another excellent gallery. I went straight to the impressionists on floor 2. It was an excellent showing of many paintings which I was not familiar. An excellent Manet and Renoir. German painters of personal note were Carl Spitzweg and Max Liebermann. See following notes (if I get time).

I now had to revise my plan to go to the Bauhaus for the afternoon so plan B was the museums in Challotteburg. They were all in the same street and I would be able to do them efficiently.

Back on the S ban to Charlottenburg then changed to Richard-Wagner place. A short walk and I was at the museums. The first was the Brohan museum which was featuring Art Nouveau art, furniture, porcelain & beware. I'm trying to extend my appreciation of modernism. The wooden furniture by Ruhlmann & Enduring van de Else were very good and so was the porcelain and steel tableware. I found the painting very good. I will have to research the artist: Jean Lurcat, Mart Hagemeister, Emile Claus, Theo van Rysselberghe, Leon de Smet, George Lemmen, Xavier Mellery, Maris Slavona & Willy Jackel. Their degree of abstraction is about where I would like to be in my work.

The next museum was The Berggruen museum. This had been a private collection of Picasso, Martese, and Klee. Found it very interesting and it extended my knowledge of their philosophies.

Across the road was the third museum Scarf Gerstenberg. and that was concerned with the surrealist. Salvidor Dali, Klee, Max Ernst featured. I'm always interested in surrealism but it is not my main interest.

They kicked me me out at 6pm and I walked down to the shopping centre at bought a meal - a huge pork knuckle, potatoes, sourcrout and purayed brocelle. It was far too much. At 10:30 euros it was excellent value. By the time I finished the meal it was dark and I made my way back across the city on the metro to the hostel.

Learning the history of Germany

Monday April 4 Berlin

It's Monday and most of the museums are closed so I use my Berlin Welcome card to get a discount in the German History museum and spent the whole day learning German history from the Celts though various kings and despots, to Napoleon and then the 1st and 2nd world wars. I missed out on the last few rooms on post war industrialization. Extremely interesting.

Map of Berlin walk on Sunday April 3

Walk around old Berlin April 3

Sunday April 3 Berlin.

I got the 9:04 from Dresden to Berlin arriving at Berlin on-time at 10:14. I immediately bought all the maps and guides at the tourist office. I also bought a combined 3 day museum and 5 day all transport pass for 52 euros. 3 museums and 2 ride/day will break even. I then walked to the hostel and dumped my gear. I was on the streets at noon.

The first thing I now do in a new city is to get to know it. So I caught the metro from the hbf to the Markisches Museum station. Here I started a self-guided walk through the old area of Berlin and the churches which defined the original communities. There were 2 cities originally, Berlin on one side of the river Spree and Colln on the other. Industry and trade were based around a river port and a mill. When they decided to construct a bridge the became the city of Berlin. The most important church in the area was the St Nikolai Church and I could see its two steeples all the time during the walk. The area is called Nikolai Quarter. We traced a depressing route around some ancient and bombed out churches. We passed the old parliament house and the old mint. Getting back to the Spree river again we entered the grounds of St Nikolai. Almost all of the buildings here have been rebuilt retaining the small shops and cafes. This was a truly delightful place. The restaurants with their umbrellas lined along the river bank (wall) and spring colours starting to show. All the Berliners were out enjoying the Sunday in the spring sun.
Crossing the Spree again to an island where there were many important buildings built over many years. This island is called the museum island as there are 5 very large museums built on it. A number are still undergoing extensive repairs.

After 65 years Berlin is still a reconstruction site with large holes and big cranes all over the city. Some individual projects are said to 1 billion euro. The amount of money the tourists are pouring into these cities I'm sure they will get the money back.

I continued along Unter den Linten Boulevard, which was the horse trail for the Kings to ride to their hunting grounds in the Tiergarten, to Bebelplatz where the Nazis book burning took place. I believe that this was where the Berlin opera house was (now call the State Opera) located. When Churchill bombed this Hitler retaliated by bombing London and Covientry. I walked on 1 km or so to the very famous Bradenberg Gate. The Boulevard was full of tourists and there were many restaurants. There was an excellent guitar player drawing a large crowd. It was late in the day and I hope the photos are ok. Particularly the one of myself.

Although there were a large number of people on the street all the side roads were completely empty. Together with construction going on at every turn this gave the city-scape a surreal and artificial feel. I could have been on a movie set.

After sitting and studying the gate for a while I felt it was time to find food. It was not the best place to look as it was one huge tourist trap. I got the U Ban back to the hostel and I had to settle for some take-a-way. I negotiated some steamed fish with onions and fried potatoes. Not the best meal I have had.

My hotel room was now filled with its quota of 4 and I set myself up in the lobbie cuddled up to a spare power point for a few hours.

Dresden - Friday April 1

Friday April 01
I was up early and after a short breakfast was off & running for the 8:31 am train to Dresden. I got in the 1st class carriage and set myself up for the 2 hour trip down great  Elbe river to Dresden. It as good to do this section of the river twice (coming & going to/from Prague) as the river scenery was superb. I was unable the spend all my Czech Money so I bought a coffee & chips on the train to get rid of the money.

The train arrived on time and I walked to the Cityherberge, dumped my big pack and was off to the Alte Masters Art Gallery before midday.  The hostel was well positioned and I could walk to all sites.  I first brought a museum pass for 22 euros.  

The Old Masters Gallery was quiet a surprise as an astute gallery director moved all the art work out of Dresden a few months before the bombing, hence they are all here today for me to see. Some famous local artists lost all their work.

I was not allowed to take photos and I took copious notes (at the end of this post) Excellent 16 c work by Cranach & Bottticelli and more.  The quality of the works were high and the restoration skills of the conservators were impressive. The Dutch painters were prominent including Steen, Vermeer, Durer, Rubens, Bol, Rembrandt and Van Dyck.
 I was thrilled to see Giorgoine 'The Sleeping Venice' which provided so much inspiration for later artists (eg Manet). There were more Italian artist as Velazquez and some Spanish El Greco.

After 3 hours I had finished this gallery I  headed off to the New Masters Gallery across the city. 10 minute walk.

Looking at the city of Dresden it has been truly amazing how they have repaired the major buildings and old streets is very impressive. There were many groups who took responsibility for each building in particular the churches. Entire buildings and streetscapes have been rebuilt to the old specifications. Artists and craftsmen have worked hard. Most of the work has been done since 1990. Churchill has a lot to answer for. The Geneva convention makes it clear that the deliberate targeting of civilians is a war crime. After the bombing of Dresden Churchill never would discuss the bombing. He knew what he had done.

Back to the gallery.  This gallery was also good and they had some very early 16c works and these were the earliest paintings that I have seen that bring design elements to importance in the composition. Carl Gustav Caris was the most important artist in 18c in this respect.   Whereas a good representation of French impressionists and the German painter Max Leberman got me interested. Max Slevogt was good and I'll research him more home. Others are in my notes. After this point in the gallery the link to representation in the subsequent painting displayed was completely severed and I lost the plot. I kept some notes.

FOOD became very important as I missed lunch and only had a quick breakfast in Prague. As it was late I found a small street restaurant and had a beer and chicken in a spicy sauce.