Museum time!

Hello everyone!

I've decided to post the two recent museum trips I went on. I visited the famous l'Orangerie and the Petit Palais museum, both of which I got into free of charge. (yay immigrant parents) You can just look at the pictures if you prefer, or you can read my honest reviews of both places I visited below.

Petit Palais: Av. Winston Churchill, 75008 Paris

The entrance alone is a spectacle of ornately carved, muscular statues on horses, something I've come to notice the French have quite an affinity for. It additionally emphasizes the fact that you are about to enter the territory of the French Bourgeoise. I was not disappointed by the hallway I first entered, which boasted sprawling marble floors and ceilings covered in fresco-like paintings of cherubs and other Jesus-y depictions. The first hall contains beautiful sculptures from Rodin and a surprising variety of artwork, including a few unfinished paintings with just the shadows and basic figures drawn in, which l found unexpectedly haunting. I had expected to be overwhelmed with ostentatious Louis XIV era art, and believe me there was no shortage of that in the first rooms. Pretty soon I was beginning to grow resentful of French art's obsession with depicting only the most beautiful, rich and perfect things , a feeling that can become very pervasive when you are an average-looking person in Paris. But I trudged onto the next room.

I adored this room. It was worth the pain of the first two. As if answering my thoughts, the walls were covered in depictions of the 19th century French working-class; portraits of washerwomen, bakers, mothers, and fishermen with wrinkles, skin texture, and laborer's hands, all painstakingly portrayed in oil paint. It seems at least some French people think they are worthy of portraits too. Life-size statues of women carrying fish and loaves of bread are scattered around the room. But the piece de resistance of the room is unquestionably Léon Lhermitte's "Les Halles", which depicts a bustling market (now a shopping mall in the modern era). A woman carries a large wicker cage with chickens in the forefront, while packed around her shoulder-to-shoulder are women hawking fish, vegetables, fruit, cloth, and bread. Behind her, a man bows his head under the weight of a basket of washing. You can almost smell the portrait, and hear the din of the market. If it's anything like the metro, it probably smelled like pee and hot trash. But it is delightfully overwhelming to look at.

The bottom floor contains a mishmash of Eastern European, German, and French medieval art. I enjoyed looking at some ornate samovars and hair combs, and giggled inwardly at the hopelessly flat and strange looking people in the paintings. In the middle ages it seems that it was quite alright, desirable even for women to have sallow skin and large noses. The objects were interesting, in particular some bone carvings that depicted what seemed like the entire bible on the space of one large cow horn. I also liked the portrait of Rembrandt with his dog! But I wasn't nearly as dazzled as I was by the previous room. An opportunity presented itself though. As I was taking a picture of what looked like a cult gathering on the wall, a French couple sat in front of me. The woman leaned on her partner's shoulder, resulting in a sweet, candid photo with minimal data privacy violation.

Bonus room that I discovered on walking up: There was a small room off to the side with some admittedly very elegant portraits. It was there that I spotted the woman from my art class. A slender, graceful looking brunette gazes at you from her golden frame, clad in a strikingly red dress. Her wealth is obvious (the pigment and cut of the dress speaks for itself), yet somehow not ostentatious. Her portrait was the perfect antithesis to the excess of the previous rooms. She is alone in her frame and looks to be perfectly tranquil and content with her being. She may have been a bitch in real life, but I find peace in looking at her.

Thanks for reading, if you made it to the end. L'orangerie coming soon :)Read more