Remember when I went to Paris? Well, I sure do! I went to the Musee de Orsay and saw original paintings by some of my favorite Impressionist painters: Renoir, Manet, Monet, and Degas. I believe I also saw a Cassatt painting there as well. I would have liked to see more of her work, but she is apparently less-famous, or at least has her main collections housed at other museums. One thing I love about Degas' paintings is that he paints two of my absolutely favorite things: dancers and horses! I particularly like his depictions of dancers. He frequently uses pastels, which create a sense of immediacy and ephemerality. He also depicts dancers in uncommon angles and views, showing them as working girls, not just the fairy-beings they create on stage. His art shows the reality behind the facade. So when I actually saw his paintings for myself, in real life, I sort of went nutso. Thankfully, I was with Amy and she completely understood my reaction. (Hers may or may not have been startlingly similar. But then, any art lover goes nuts when they see the real thing!)
What inspired this post is the fact that today I bought awesome frames for the two prints I bought in Paris. They are my souvenir from that city, and I can't think of a better one, except perhaps a reason to go back and see more museums! The first picture I have mounted is Danseuses bleues, by Edgar Degas, 1893.
The second picture I have mounted in these awesome frames is by Claude Monet. Most people are very familiar with his waterlilies series, his haystacks series, and his Rouen Cathedral series. He was fairly prolific, though, creating beautiful pictures of landscapes, waterscapes, portraits, and combos like the following: Coquelicots (Poppies), 1873.
One day I will have more money and I will have both a library (already well-stocked at this point, as my back can attest) AND an art gallery! Admittedly, it will not be original pieces, but I don't even care. I'm happy to display the great works of others. Below is a piece that totally blew me away when I saw it in the museum - see above for description of my reaction. I did not expect to see this in a Paris museum, mostly because the artist is English. It's also a very famous piece, which further increased my surprise at seeing it on a random wall in the Musee de Orsay. Commonly mis-named "Whistler's Mother," it is Arrangement en gris et noir no. 1, James McNeill Whistler, 1871.
