Musée de L'Orangerie in Paris: A Peculiar Visit

While living in Paris, I felt very fortunate to visit the L’Orangerie many times.  I never got tired of going.  On one occasion, as I entered the first oval room beyond the entrance, I noticed something a bit peculiar.  The room was almost completely empty aside from four gentleman strategically standing at each entrance and exit,  and two in the middle along the perimeter of the oval.  They were all dressed in black suits and neatly coiffed with tight short hair cuts, sporting ear pieces.  I felt like I was walking onto a movie set, however, there were no cameras or lights.  In the center of the room was a very tall African America man with a women who appeared to be one of the curators of the museum. 

Claude Monet's "Water Lilies, Reflecions of Weeping Willows," ca. 1918, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. A study for the the grand paintings in the L'Orangerie in Paris

 The men in dark suits watched my every move.  Wherever I want their eyes followed me.  It felt rather creepy.  The tall African American gentleman looked familiar but I couldn’t place who he was.  I knew I had seen him before.  As he proceeded to the next room all the "suits"  surrounded him and staged themselves as before, in the second room.  I followed.  I sat on a bench in front of one the water lily paintings where I could also get a good look at the tall gentleman all the “suits"   seemed to be  protecting.  It finally dawned on me!  It was the former Attorney General of the Untied States Eric Holder, obviously being surrounded by US Secret Service Agents. However at the time he was “the” Attorney General under the Obama Administration.   This was almost ten years ago.  I’m not so sure they would even let other patrons in the same room with the Attorney General now.  The crowd was very light that day.  Myself and a handful of others aside from these very special guests were the only ones there.  They kept a very watchful eye on where we were all pointing our cameras!

Here is a short video to give you the idea of the space.  Forgive the quality this was taken on a small Sony camera pre cell phone!  It will sill still give you an idea of the scale of the paintings in this one room.  This video was shot on a different day than the one described above.  I wasn't taking the chance of getting my camera confiscated by the Secret Service!   

Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet & the Paintings of the Water Lilies, Part II

Today I’m posting the second part to a previous blog post about Claude Monet and the book Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet & the Paintings of the Water Lilies, continuing my blog series on Monet, Giverny, and Other French Musings.

As  mentioned in my previous post,  the Museé Claude Monet a L’Orangerie des Tuileries had opened to little fan fare, which was perplexing since Monet had become one of the most well known, and collected artists of his time.  His long time friend, Georges Clemenceau, noted bitterly that a sign announcing a dog show in another part of the building was much more prominent than the one announcing the inauguration of the Museé Claude Monet in May of 1927,  just five months after Monet’s death. 

It was as if France had turned on Monet.  France’s most important daily art newspaper claimed his water lily masterpieces, what he called his "Grand Decoration," “The work of an old man.”  An assistant curator at the Museé Luxembourg, exclaimed, “For me this period is no long Impressionism, but it’s decline.” 

Detail of a panel of Les Nymphéas

 Art lovers and critiques at the turn of the century where ready to move on.  Tastes were changing.  But instead of praising the Impressionism movement, they scorned it and the artists that were part of it.  In a special issue of L’Art Vivant, which devoted six articles to Monet in 1927, one critique claimed Monet’s paintings were, “postcard niceties of a certain American taste purchased by the vulgar nouveaux riches."  They had nothing nice to say about the museum itself claiming the space was sterile, uninviting and viewing the paintings in the two oval rooms was a “disagreeable experience.” 

Monet’s donation and the newly opened museum continued to plummet in popularity.   The museum was poorly maintained the light quality was dismal and the oval rooms housing these great masterpieces were used for other functions.  At one point, an exhibition of Flemish tapestries was hung in front of Monet’s paintings. Water was known to leak down through the skylight and drip on the canvases, and one of the two rooms was used as a storage area.  Monet’s godson, and son of artist Camille Pissarro, claimed Monet had been twice buried, once after his death and the second time with the opening of the museum. A retrospective of Monet’s work in 1931, supplemented by canvases that were in his studio when he died, brought even more scathing comments of his work and those of the Impressionists.  

Detail of a panel of Les Nymphéas

During World War II, the L’Orangerie was bombed and one of the panels was damaged.  The lack of concern was so great, the shrapnel wouldn’t be removed for another 20 years.  The building itself was renovated in the 1960’s with another story added to the top eliminating the skylights that illuminated Monet’s work. This after the French Ministry acquired the Jean Walter-Paul Guillaume collections consisting of works by Picasso, Cézanne and Renoir.   Essentially the magnificent water lily panels were relegated to the basement in a gloomy dark space. 

Detail of a panel of Les Nymphéas

It wasn’t until after World War II that things started to change.  The L’Orangerie became a place of pilgrimage for Americans, especially the American art students on the GI bill in the late  40’s and 50’s, who rushed to admire the Nymphéas by Monet.  Ellsworth Kelly, an ex-soldier studying in Paris reached out to Michel Monet and Jean Pierre Hoschedé, Monet’s son and step-son to ask if he could visit Giverny which had been abandoned and was in disrepair.  Monet’s studio still housed a number of canvases sharing the space with birds and other creatures.  He produced Tableaux Vert now housed at the  Chicago Art Institute as an homage to Monet and Giverny.  

In the 1950’s and 60’s American and Canadian painters kept Monet’s spirit alive living and working in the area around Giverny.  American artist Joan Mitchell purchased and lived on a property in Vétheuil. The gardener’s cottage there had once been Monet’s home.  Mitchell and the painters of the Abstract Expressionists movement were greatly influenced by Monet’s later work seeming to fit  right in with the works of the time by Pollack, Rothko, and Mitchell.  

It is ironic that the renewed interest in Monet’s work would have been brought on by Abstract Expressionists, especially American ones.  Monet disliked work of the Americans and “avant garde” contemporaries of the 1920’s.  He did not want to see or have anything to do with Cubism and it probably would have gotten his goat that his works were being compared to the “Abstract Expressionists” of the 1950’s and 60’s.  It was the renewed interest of this group that brought attention to his later water lily paintings and once again American collectors came to snap them up.  Walter Chrysler purchased a large scale water lily canvas for the Museum of Modern Art in New York.  Unfortunately it was destroyed in a fire and was replaced by another work purchased from a dealer in Paris who had bought  most of the remaining work of Monet from his son Michel. Word spread to American collectors as it had when Monet was alive. Joseph Pulitzer III, a passionate collector of modern art purchased a six foot wide water lily canvas in which he decorated his pool house at his mansion in St. Louis.

Fast forward to 1996, the French Minister of culture at the time realized the curation of the placement of the Jean Guillaume collection to the Monet Nymphéas were completely backwards.  The doors to the Musée de L’Orangerie closed in 2000 and a major renovation to the museum began in 2003. During the demolition the paintings were hermetically sealed in reinforced boxes and temperature and humidity controlled.  The second story added in the 1960’s was removed with the water lily paintings often being in distress, setting off alarms during the jack hammering of  the demolition.  The project would take six years and $36 million dollars.  Now Monet’s  Grande Decoration, takes the place of prominence lit with natural light from skylights above, just as Monet would have wanted it.  The Guillaume collection is exhibited in the annex below along with a space for special exhibitions.  

I have visited the L’Orangerie before and after the 2003 renovation.  Today, it is hard not to find a line stretching out the door into the the Tuileries Gardens.  Avoiding weekend crowds, on cold gloomy winter days it became a place of meditation for me when I lived in Paris.  Monet had come full circle, his grande vision of the space to house his last momentous project of his life, is appreciated and visited by thousands.  

Come back for the next post which will tell the story of a very peculiar visit to the L'Orangerie! 

Links:

Musée de L'orangerie, Paris France

Part I: Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet & the Paintings of the Water Lilies

Opening Reception for "Pick Your Passion" 127 SoBo Gallery, Winter Garden, Florida

It was a great opening reception last Thursday, well attended by about 100 people. Thanks to everyone who came and supported the gallery and me!  It has been very exciting and an honor to be featured, and especially to see my larger watercolor paintings framed and hung together!

I will also also be doing a workshop at the gallery October 16 & 17.  Teaching is something I have been interested in doing for quite some time and I'm really looking forward to it!  The workshop is called "Bold & Dynamic Watercolor."  I plan to talk about my techniques for creating my work as all as some general information about watercolor in general: papers, brushes, pigments, and ratio of pigment to water.  I will also cover how I go about designing my paintings, touching on design and composition. I welcome beginners and intermediate painters.   If you are interested click here for more information and here to sign up at the Winter Garden Art Association's web site.  If you don't live in the area, and would like to come, there is a quaint bed and breakfast inn, The Historic Edgewater Hotel, right downtown.  The hotel and the gallery are in the heart of the historic district of Winter Garden.

After all the excitement from the show, I have made some progress on the painting I am doing for Hope City Orlando to benefit victims of human trafficking.  I will post some more work in progress photos this week and maybe even the finished painting!

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Featured Artist at the 127 SoBo Gallery in Winter Garden Florida

I have shared everywhere else, Facebook, Newsletter, etc. that I am going to be the featured artist this month at the 127 SoBo Gallery in Winter Garden, Florida, but haven't shared on my blog!!  I helped hang the show yesterday at the gallery with some wonderful fellow volunteers at the Winter Garden Art Association.  The  theme for this months show is "Pick Your Passion" and is only open for members to exhibit.   The collection of work I've put together for the show represents two of my passions, painting and travel.

Although it has been a few years since I've lived there, I am greatly influenced by my time living in Hong Kong and France and traveling throughout Asia and Europe for many years. I have thousands of reference photos that are a never-ending source for inspiration!  I just wish I could paint faster!

If you are in the area, the opening reception is Thursday night, August 7 from 5:30 to 8:00. The address of the gallery is 127 South Boyd Street, in Winter Garden Florida.   The show will be up the month of August, if you can't make the reception and would like to see it.  The gallery hours are Wed. through Sat. 10:00 am to 6:00 pm.

I was getting my work framed which is such a nice feeling, not only to see it all framed which feels like the icing on the cake but to protect it as well.  I posted this photo on Facebook of Odd Man Out with yours truly standing next to it to give an idea of scale.  Many friends have commented since seeing it they had no idea it was that big!  It's really difficult when we see work on websites or in Facebook without a human standing next to it, to judge the scale of one's work.  Many of my paintings are quite large.

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Peel Street Guardian

On the South end of Peel Street, in Hong Kong,  is a tiny temple I would pass by on my way to Central when I walked from our apartment in the mid levels.  This little guardian lion was always covered in ashes from the joss sticks lit for offerings and prayers.   Since I passed by often I wanted to create a painting that would remind me, and be a momento of my daily life there.  To add interest I used Chinese worshipping papers in the upper left corner.

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My Web Site’s Limited Edition Prints & Note Cards Shop is Now Open!

Hope you all had a Happy Halloween and aren’t on too much of a sugar high today!

I am thrilled to finally announce that my Limited Edition Prints & Note Cards on-line store is finally open on my website!  I have been asked by many friends and collectors if I would offer prints of my work, to make having one of my pieces more affordable.  I spent the past summer researching various options to give everyone the best quality giclee prints that are as close to my originals as possible.  I am supporting a local business here in Orlando, who will scan, color correct and provide me a color proof of each painting, which I approve, before any prints are made.  Each print will be signed and numbered by me and will come with a letter of authenticity. I have a few prints available now and will add more this month, and as I create new works!  I am offering note cards too!  Keep checking back as there will be more prints and cards available. Prints and note cards  would make wonderful Christmas gifts!  All sales will go through Pay Pal, and will be shipped directly to you!   And better yet, all prices include shipping! You can start shopping now!

I will be announcing a couple of give aways this month, so stay tuned!  You can subscribe to my blog via the Subscribe section on the side bar,  Subscribe to my Monthly Newsletter, or like my Facebook Fan Page to stay in the loop.

Thanks to everyone for your continued support of my work! I very much appreciate it!! And now, on to eating more chocolate. :-)

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Artists That Inspire: R. Tom Gilleon

I have been wanting to do a new feature category on my blog, “Artists That Inspire.”  When I lived in Paris, I had the fortunate opportunity to visit many museums and special exhibits in France and throughout Europe.  I’ve been wanting to share some of those experiences as well as feature artists whose work I admire and inspire me that are working today.  So without further adieu.... today I am featuring a good friend R. Tom Gilleon.

I know Tom through working at Disney.  Tom was born in Florida, his grandmother was a full blood Cherokee Indian.  After playing baseball on a scholarship with the University of Florida and putting his dreams of becoming a professional base ball player aside, he worked as an illustrator for NASA’s Apollo Space Program.  Later he want freelance and eventually worked as an illustrator for Walt Disney World designing and doing conceptualsketches for the Florida theme parks.  This eventually led to his move to California to work with Walt Disney Imagineering, where he was involved with the planning and design of Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland, Hong Kong Disneylandand Disneyland Paris.

During the 1980’s he and his wife Laurie, also an accomplished artist, went to Montana for an outdoor painting workshop, fell in love with it and moved there. He has lived and worked in Montana ever since.   Tom’s work encompasses the West with landscapes, Native American imagery and his iconic Tee Pees, all with a freshness of color and innovative compositions.   His work appeals to many collectors.  Even though his subject matter is traditional, he represents these images with an almost contemporary feel with his use of color, composition and brush work.   I have admired his work for years and am proud to say I own a couple of his paintings.

Tom at his easel (image via Tom Gilleon's web site)

I am also honored to know this living artist who this year has had two one man museum retrospectives of his work.  Last year at the Booth Museum of Western Art in Cartersville, Georgia, and opening August 16, 2013 “Let Icons Be Icons” opening at the C.M. Russell Museum in Great Falls Montana.  Way to go Tom!!

For more information on Tom and his work please visit his web site by clicking here.

P.S. For a good laugh check out the BS section on his site. :-)

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John Singer Sargent's Dorothy, Portrait Study

When I visited the Musee d’Orsay in Paris, I often saw artists copying some of the masters' works. There is a program where you can sign up and request to do this on certain days in the museum.  I heard the Orsay even provided the easels, and they have the ledgers from when the artists currently hanging in the Orsay signed in to do copy studies at the Louvre.   This is one thing I regret not looking into and doing when I lived there.

When I returned home I took a portrait painting class in oils.  The assignment was to do a study of apainting by John Singer Sargent.  I was very excited to do this study of his painting Dorothy because I rarely paint portraits, this one would be a good exercise in painting whites, and an opportunity to really study Sargent’s brushwork.  If you have never done a “copy” study, I would highly recommend it.  Here is the link to Sargent’s Dorothy which is at the Dallas Museum of Art.

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Banana and Peanut Seller

Keeping with the banana theme, this time an oil.  This sweet older lady and her daughter sold only bananas and peanuts in the shell at a corner stall in the Soho area of Hong Kong.  She weighed your bananas on an old fashioned counter weight scale. One of my favorite past times while living in Hong Kong was wondering the many outdoor markets. The colors and all the fantastic asian fruits and vegetables were such an inspiration.  However, the seafood and meat sections were not for the squeamish!

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Lori Putnam Demo

I was very fortunate to attend a demo given by plein air painter Lori Putnam during the Women Painters of the Southeast Annual Exhibit opening festivities.  Lori is an extremely dedicated and hard working artist and her passion for painting shows in her work.  She is also one of the nicest and most sincere artists you could ever hope to meet.  During the demo she painted a painting from a plein air sketch she had done on a recent “painting snow” trip to Wisconsin with Dawn Whitelaw,  and she also had many inspiring words of wisdom about being and artist and how she got started on her journey.  (Note:  She had the photo to her right on a screen just for us to see the scene she was painting.  During the demo, she referred to her actual plein air sketch, to create a bigger work.)

There were 2 take aways I have been pondering in my mind since the demo.  One is to think about the purpose of your painting before you get started.  Are you wanting to emphasize form, light and shadow, light and dark patterns, line, color?  The painting she did in the demo is a relative value painting.  Essentially just 3 values and how you make them relate to one another.  There is a lot to think about during the painting process and hopefully part of that process will be intuitive  but, to start with a plan of what you are going for instead of just haphazardly starting to paint resonated with me.

Lori was also the judge for awards for the show, which I can imagine must be a daunting task with so many great paintings to choose from for a select few.  She said while viewing all of the work she was "looking for paintings that had not been painted from ego, but from the soul."   I have heard this same idea, not exactly in these words,  from other judges too.  If we try and paint from that place where as Lori says, “soul” or our personality is reflected in our work and we feel we have achieved that it in the work we show, maybe the judges will feel it too.  Something to think about.

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