Amis du Louvre

Thanks to my colleagues in Marseille I am a Friend of the Louvre. As a goodbye present I got a membership card valid for a year, so now I can visit one of the greatest art collections in the world whenever I like to. No queueing, no expensive tickets, no obligation to see it all in one go. Is it time for a confession? I have not been to the Louvre since we went there in scondary school...... This was back in the early eighties, before the Pyramide and before the Carousel.  It is time to return, isn't?

On this rainy (yet again!) Saturday morning I decided to visit two exhibitions that were ending tomorrow. Knowing that it is your last chance to see something is so motivating.... With my little photo plastic membership card I went to the special entrance for members and was inside the Pyramide within a minute. I only realised my luck when I left the museum and saw the long, long queues to get  in. I am glad that I did not have to walk in front of those poor tourists standing in line for what must be several hours in order to get into the building only to find out that they then had to queue to buy their ticket.......  

The first exhibition was one about the way Rembrandt painted Christ. Apparently before Rembrandt Christ was always painted as a gorgeous athlete, and the pain he suffered at the crucifixion was kind of stereotyped. Then came along Rembrandt, and he showed a Christ who had a body less than perfect, who interacted with people, and who expressed feelings and suffering. There were examples of what would have been the inspiration and reference for Rembrandt, but I admit that the model he used for his paintings and drawings was rather gorgeous (Johnny Depp?). Judge for yourselves. link

 

The second exhibition was about Claude le Lorrain who spent most of his life in Rome, apparently influenced by Nordic painters. That might explain why I appreciated his early works (perhaps from the 1630ies) of landscapes in brown and grey ink. Very modern, perhaps Japanese, almost like a comic stripe. There was a very cute painting of some goats..... His later work in oil I did not like at all. link

After this I decided to race by Mona Lisa (La Joconde), just to say hello, and then get the Hell out of there. There were hordes of people, yes, but how encouraging it is that people come from far to see not only the Mona Lisa but also Venus de Milo and Victory and the Egyptian collection, among others. On my way to Mona Lisa I saw some splendid Italian wall paintings, but that will have to wait for another day.

One should be careful not to get an overdosis of art, so I decided to return to modern times: a latte at Starbucks followed by a romantic comedy in the cinema ("Late Bloomers" with Isabella Rossellini and William Hurt). It is quite a shock to see these actors showing their baldness, wrinckles, etc, but what a good laugh!