Louvre - 1st visit

Arriving early has its benefits...

...almost no queue!

Venus de Milo is always shown in postcards and books front-on.

I think that there is a reason for this - she seems to show a serious case of 'plumber's crack' - an inevitable side effect of wearing your robe so low down on your hips. Not just an early 21st century fad.

Hey! Don't point that camera up MY NOSE!!

But.. I think she is very elegant from every angle.

Musée Rodin III - Balzac

The upper portion of the finished commission prior to going to the foundry for bronze casting, photographed in Rodin's studio in Meudon, 1897.

Rodin was commissioned to sculpt the writer Honore de Balzac by the writer Emile Zola in his capacity as president of the Société des Gens de Lettres, in 1891. The finished bronze casting was completed in 1898 - all the studies below were done over the intervening years.




On the Wikipedia site for Balzac's biography, an undated (assumed contemporary) portrait shows the writer bore a distinct likeness to Australian comedian Mick Molloy. Sculpted close to five decades after Balzac's death, most of Rodin's studies gave me a flavour of former Federal leader of the Australian Labour Party, Kim Beazley. Not only the body shape - also the brow, the proud stance, even his nose and cheeks from some angles.

Balzac's ball-sack - a nude study Rodin executed to get the right bulges under the gown in the final commissioned cast:



... though those aren't really his genitals there - Rodin gave the model what I think is referred to in Hollywood nowadays as a 'modesty pouch'.

Oddur's sketch of the Balzac study

Loni's sketch of the same Balzac study, from a slightly different angle

Drawing the big brassy study of Balzac in the nude was a great chance to sketch an unconventional body. Most of what we saw in Paris was sculpture based on classical Greek notions of representing humans. Rodin certainly sculpted archetypes - but he was also interested in getting some realism in commissions for historical figures. Balzac's features are quite probably exagerrated, but do not stray into caricature.

Turn off the bloody flash, will you!?

Musée Rodin II - 'Meditation' enigma & collected painters

'Meditation' 1894

This sculpture could be Rodin's Venus de Milo, or maybe his sculpted Mona Lisa - or perhaps even both. I get the feeling this shape mattered more to Rodin personally than his Thinker or any other work he might be more famous for. Read more on the above hyperlink from Musée Rodin, also in the image below, which you can click on to enlarge:

Loni sketched her from this angle

The work is sometimes also known as The Inner Voice. Here's two more snapped from other angles:
Some paintings collected by Rodin, or acquired by the museum after his death:

Edvard MUNCH 'Rodin's "The Thinker" in the garden of Dr Linde in Lubeck' (undated)

Vincent VAN GOGH 'View of the viaduct near Arles' 1888

Vincent VAN GOGH 'The Harvesters' 1888

Some more detailed images of 'The Harvesters':







































You can also see the famous van Gogh, Father Tanguy, here at the Rodin website.

Lastly, two snapshots of a Monet that was guarded under thick greenish glass. The island in Brittany where this was painted was, for many years, home to a little-known Australian painter, John Peter Russell. The house where he lived on the island was frequently visited by both Monet and Henri Matisse.

Claude MONET 'Belle-Ile' 1886

Musée Rodin

There is a song that goes, 'I love Paris in the springtime'...
...well you have to love it in late Autumn too when the weather is as mild and delightful as this. Hard to believe it is 1st November! In just a few more days, Loni's family arrives; and it does get cold - bitterly so - for the first time in my five-week stay in Europe.



Thanks to the country of my birth, the coldness does not bother me. However I will not complain about warm or mild weather either. Of course, if this is in fact due to climate change... well we're all screwed.





What did you say?

You mean, I can bare more than just my upper thigh? Hooray for togas!

Aargh! No! Don't encourage him! He'll streak at the drop of a hat!

Yes, global warming is probably welcomed by some sections of society - naturists who advocate a clothes-free lifestyle, and life drawing models who make a living out of posing naked for artists (and perverts posing as art students).


Well, that's it for silly stuff in this posting. Now to a pose that Rodin obviously liked (or maybe it just didn't sell as well as 'The Thinker' so there were lots of these left over when his estate was handed over to the people of France).















Apologies for the mixed-up layout of these images. Of course, there were meant to be lots of these left over and lying around - they are studies for an ensemble of people who are interacting within a large assembled group. It's one of the figures arranged in Rodin's Monument to the Burghers of Calais.

Mr Porter did actually write further:

I love Paris in the fall.

I love Paris in the winter

when it drizzles

I love Paris in the summer

when it sizzles.

I love Paris evry moment

ev'ry moment of the year

Musée d'Orsay VI

Henry NOCQ 'Yvette Guilbert' (singer) 1893

Georges BASTARD 'Coupe (bowl?)' 1913

Eugene GRASSET ' Apparition ' 1900 Brooch in cloisonné enamel, precious stones & ivory

Rene LALIQUE 'Sarah Bernhardt' (described in gallery plaque as 'tragic actress and sculptor') 1896

French Salon Exhibitor 'Bowls' 1914

Musée d'Orsay - fifth post

I'm still uploading images from the wonderful five hours I spent in this old railway station!

Just one work I want to show you on this entry:

Pierre BONNARD 'In a boat' circa 1907

Bonnard is as Bonnard does. I cannot help though but think of some pictures by Brett Whiteley when I see this. His tamer, less drug-influenced / mentally ill work, that is!

les enfants et animaux

It is at the same time idyllic and sinister. Who is facing towards the children and their pets in the boat? The child closest to the viewer has a passive facial expression hidden in darkness. The two children behind her are a little more anxious. Are their pets doomed? Is the weather about to turn?

Only the ducks are relaxed - they approach the boat even.

Well, they are in their element.

les canards

Musée d'Orsay - Art Nouveau - Guimard

The museum hosts a substantial collection of decorative art from the period 1848 to 1914. There are rooms and rooms and more rooms dedicated to Art Nouveau. It's a thrilling thing to experience an entire living area or bedroom decorated in astonishingly original and beautifully crafted pieces of functional art-furniture.


Hector Guimard is the name behind the gorgeous, swoopy-shaped turn-of-the-last-century Metro signs and banisters still in use at some iconic Paris stops. Here in d'Orsay the breadth of his talent is on display.

Hector GUIMARD 'Crossed balcony section' 1905-07 cast by Saint-Dizier Foundry

Hector GUIMARD 'Smoking Room Bench' 1897-98


Hector GUIMARD 'Coffin Handles' 1907 (left) 'Door Handles' 1897 (right)





Some more balcony grilles by Guimard
(L & R)

Musee d'Orsay III

Edouard MANET - 'Berthe Morisot on the range' (?) [original caption: á l'éventail]

Four images of another Manet; the title of which I did not record:

Musee d'Orsay II

Paul Cezanne 'Christ with limbless man' 1867-69

It's obvious when I get excited by a picture - I go all wobbly when holding the camera shutter : )

Vincent VAN GOGH 'L'Arlesienne (Madame Ginoux)' November 1888

Vincent did not wobble so much when composing this one. Maybe he was saner than usual at the time... or perhaps his finances in this period limited his absinthe consumption.

Pierre-Auguste RENOIR 'Young woman with veil' around 1875

Isn't this exquisite? Make sure to click the image and look at it close-up. I'm proud of the fact I snapped this one sans-tripod with minimal shudder. It still makes me weak in the knees looking at it now.

It's Halloween today - students visiting the Musee dress to mark the date. No pumpkins were sighted however.

Gustave CAILLEBOTTE 'Planers of flooring' 1875

I'm certain every Australian who sees this does a double-take. No, they're in a European apartment house, not an outback shearing shed! The poses are amazingly similar though. Maybe skin tones shown here are paler than workers from the sunburnt country. A wonderful, under-rated painter - not strictly Impressionist, but from the same era - and enjoying the same gallery space among Cezanne, Pissarro and van Gogh.

Alright, now for a couple more silly pictures:


'Da Vinci Code Blartibartfast'

Eediot! You're posing in the wrong Museum! Anyway, aren't you supposed to take your clothes off?

'Loni in Paradise'

Wait on, make your right arm more vertical. Oh, you can't? Why not? Oops - boobies in the way. Ah well...

Koloman MOSER 'The Paradise' 1904 (design for stained glass panels, intended for the Cathedral Am Steinhof)






Angels to my left... angels to my right. Sleeping babes all around. A wonderful Art Nouveau-themed religious composition.

Musee d'Orsay I

A large crowd lines up to enter the museum. This is the last long queue we endured - a 4-day Paris Museum Pass cuts us directly to the front every time after this visit.

So much to enjoy... where do I start? Loni suggests the top floors with late career impressionists. I was not disappointed with her recommendation:

Paul CEZANNE Uncle Dominique the lawyer 1866

This picture struck us both dumb in our tracks . We found a place to sit and sketched. Lots of people blocked our view, however lots more respectfully stepped out of our way as soon as they noticed us at work:

Oddur AUGUSTSSON pencil copy of Cezanne's uncle dominique 31-10-2006

Loni MILLS pastel copy of Cezanne's uncle dominique 31-10-2006

Well, you can tell who has kept up their technique over all these years!! Yes, Mr Cezanne, we're not worthy!

; )

Loni should have laughed at my effort but instead she was very encouraging and constructively critical. She's a very nice human being. I think she could design some lovely fjords too.

Heeere's Loni

My host in Paris is a friend from one of my Brisbane community choirs, Tongues of Fire. It is in fact her sister Yani who runs the ensemble. Loni is not as outgoing as her sister and does not like to be photographed normally - unless it is posing to do something silly:

Autumn splendor - make like an enlightened Eve after tasting forbidden fruit

..not that I am much different from Loni - you do not see many pics of me on this blog but here is my Adam pose snapped by the Lonsta:



Only 9 more days of silliness remain before my departure. Either with Loni, or alone sometimes, or in the company of Yani, Pete (Y's partner) and Helen ( L and Y's mother) we also got down to the serious business of Paris museums and galleries.

Loni is a theatre nurse however she also boasts a degree in Fine Arts and has taught drawing. Loni never leaves home without a sketchbook. She has a fine visual eye and is a great companion for these visits.

In the coming days we visit Musee d'Orsay, Louvre, Auguste Rodin's museum, Gustave Moreau's apartment-museum, l'Orangerie and the Musee de Quai Branly. Outside of hushed halls guarded by rope and security guard we also ascend the Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower and freeze our arses off looking for Jim Morrison's grave in the Pere Lachaise cemetary. We also celebrate Loni's birthday with some fun outings, some low-key meals, and also some quite serious activities.

But silly and fun was the dominating theme:

Silliness rules at this shop in the Marais district

Arrival in Paris

It's the 29th of October and I farewell Marc and take the TGV to Paris. Arriving there, I get a call from Loni on mobile who gives me advice on the best Metro stop to get off and which exit to take. She waits for me there . We leave from Goncourt station and make our way to her apartment just a few streets away in the 10th arrondisement.


Loni is pleased I'm visiting; she's bought bread, cheese and bubbles to celebrate:

On tasting, we discover the cheap bubbly is not champagne; no it's not even sparkling wine: it's fizzy apple cider! I soon learn to my surprise that Loni can barely understand a lick of French and speaks even less.

We're soon out the door again to enjoy the last hours of daylight. I snap a few sunsets near her place - they're all blurry though:...but never mind, I took many more. I will be uploading uploading lots in the coming month. I'm sacrificing social outings to spend more time at the PC for this purpose. Promise!

Farewell Grenoble - movies in town

Watching movies at night

DVD
Japanese Story
I had not watched this film for a long time - owning DVDs makes you lazy and you often think 'Oh, I can watch that anytime'. Seeing this in France with Marc allowed me to watch it again with fresh eyes. I loved the red dust and Toni Collette's raw performance the first few times I saw this. Marc enjoyed the way Japanese actor Gotaro Tsunashima struggled with English and his simple, poetic dialogue - especially the letter he wrote to Toni's character, which she read posthumously. Marc was also very taken with the music in this film - some sections were very reminiscent of Ryuchi Sakamoto's compositions. He recorded grabs of the soundtrack onto his tape deck and played it in the car as we drove around Grenoble and the Rhone Alps region. Curiously, he did not record Toni's scratchy a cappella rendition of 'On the road again', a tune made famous by Willie Nelson. When he played the tape, I would say to him, 'Marc, we're driving, yet you overlooked the best driving song ever! Then to his horror I would start to sing it, worse than Toni does in the film. Of course, she is not a half bad vocalist when not in character as a tone-deaf mining engineer. She sang 'Don't dream it's over', a Crowded House tune, on the closing credits of Cosi, as well as 'Stand by me' during the course of the film itself. Also, just this year, she has released an album of her own recorded in collaboration with her musician husband.

House of flying daggers
Not a great film but visually stunning. Music makes the majesty of certain scenes in it much more grand. The standout sequence is without a doubt the 'Duel of the drums' game. Marc recorded this as well ... does not sound as cinematic as Japanese Story on tape but the feeling of China is evoked nicely.

Cinema
Poltergay
'Can't vait for zhat vone' - the premise of this film just cries out for a synopsis by Marg Downey, as the stoney faced SBS presenter from the kooky old days when you could only get UHF channel 28 by connecting a fragile cable to your backyard Hills Hoist.

A cute young couple - spunky building site manager and wife, played by Gerard Depardieu's daughter, move to a run down old house. At night, wife sleeps well, but husband is woken by the sounds of Boney M coming from the basement. He ventures down to the basement to discover the ghosts of five homosexuals from the La Cage au Folles era who died in a horrific electrical accident during a 1970's foam party. Cute straight guy learns to cohabit with the flouncy gay ghosts, with hilarious consequences.

In a non-Marg voice, I thought it was funny but not RoFL hilarious. It owes a bit to 'Queer eye for the straight guy' and a lot to Boney M and Patrick Hernandez - Depardieu sings 'Born to be alive' as a slow ballad during the film and it is quite beautiful. I do not know if she has plans to do a whole album like Toni did.