Toby and Allan in Paris 2016: Fantin-Latour at Musée du Luxembourg and more wandering

Saturday was another good day for walking- a high of 11C and cloudy. From our apartment window on the 2nd floor (3rd floor in Canada), we can see a photo studio. We took a picture of a photographer working with two different models. A bit like "Blow Up".

Photo studio with large lights across from our apartment

Model in the window

Photographer and Model

We walked to the Musée du Luxembourg, first passing an exhibit on the gates around the Luxembourg gardens. The exhibit was entitled Le Patrimoine, une Passion, des Hommes and celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Fondation du patrimoine (Heritage Foundation). The exhibit is presented by the Senate. It featured photos of restoration work done on sites mainly in France.

Exhibit information on the fence of the Parc de Luxembourg

Jean de Blanc Pigeonhole in Saint-Astier- restored and used for opening of harvest celebrations

Caroline Hospital-Frioul Islands in Marseille-restored hospital that had been used
to quarantine people during a yellow fever outbreak in 19th century

La Fraternelle, People's House in Saint-Claude.
Built in 1881 as a food coop by Henri Panard, a socialist, restored since 1984 as a cultural centre

Laval public baths- Mayenne. Opened in 1927 with design based on Klimt- restoration work underway

I took a few pictures of the Luxembourg Gardens. Much different in the fall, but there are still flowers in bloom.

Luxembourg Gardens

Fall Flowers

Wreaths and leaves in the garden

Armed Guard across from the Senate, just before the Musée

The exhibit at the Musée was entitled Fantin-Latour: À fleur de peau (beyond skin deep). Henri Fantin-Latour (1836-1904) was born in Grenoble in 1836 was taught drawing at an early age by his father. He spent time making copies in the Louvre and began painting when he was quite young. His first attempt to exhibit at a Salon in 1859 ended in failure, so he went to London to join the artist James McNeill Whistler. This visit broadened his social and artistic horizons. He was encouraged to try still lifes, which soon became his favourite subject and greatest source of revenue.

Henri Fantin-Latour

For Fantin-Latour, art was his purpose in life. In 1861, he said "There is nothing I can do other than my art, nothing I can say." He began by painting his sisters and then his wife to be and her sister.
He also did many self-portraits in his early years.

Les Deux Soeurs 1859

La Liseuse (Marie Fantin-Latour) 1861

Autoportrait assis devant son chevalet 1858

Autoportrait, a tête légèrement baissée 1861

The painting of Victoria Dubourg, a fellow painter and wife to be (on the left) and her sister Charlotte (a German teacher) is one of my favourites. The lighting, colours and details are superb. Charlotte is putting on a glove, ready to go out and is very independent looking.

La Lecture 1870

Fantin-Latour also painted beautiful still lifes- the details and colours are amazing.

Fleurs d'été et fruits 1866

Fantin-Latour painted his most famous works between 1864-1972. He stated: "My artwork is everything, I just want to paint masterpieces, there is nothing else." He painted a series of group portrait masterpieces during this period.

Hommage à Delacroix 1864 (the artist is in the white shirt), Edward Manet has the reddish beard, James McNeil Whistler is standing in the foreground on the left side of the picture. Charles Baudelaire, the poet, at the bottom right.

The next painting, Un Atelier aux Batignolles was a distinct homage to Édouard Manet and drew great acclaim as did Coin de Table. His reputation was cemented as a brilliant and unusual portrait artist.

Un atelier aux Batignolles 1870 (with Edouard Manet (painting),
Auguste Renoir, Emile Zola, Claude Monet, and others)

Fantin-Latour later had a falling out with a number of the artists in Un atelier aux Batignolles, as he was not fond of impressionism. He thought that the impressionists' work was unfinished.

Coin de table 1871 (with Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud and other poets and writers) The man in grey was a journalist.

Chrysanthèmes annuels 1889

La Lecon de dessin dans l'atelier ( Portrait de Louise Riesener et Eva Callimaki-Catargi 1879

Portrait de Louise Riesener 1880

La Famille Dubourg- 1878- (his wife, her sister, and their parents)

Portrait de Charlotte Dubourg 1882 (his wife's sister)

Fantin-Latour was also a lover of music-- The painting below was of a number of composers, and music critics.

Autour du piano 1885

In later life, Fantin-Latour did many imaginative paintings. He had an extensive photography collection of nudes that he used as images for these paintings. The curators of the exhibit had unearthed a collection of these photos that had been gifted by Victoria, his widow, to the Musée de Grenoble in 1921. From 1890, Fantin-Latour would solely exhibit his imaginative paintings at the Salon, to an ever-increasing number of buyers.

La Toilette de Venus (Le jugement de Paris) 1901

We both really enjoyed the exhibit. While I had seen some of the large portraits at Musée D'Orsay, I learned a lot about Fantin-Latour and his exceptional talent. He was a master of detail, light and colour.

We then wandered into the Saint-Germain (6th) area and the 7th arrondissement. We first stopped at Bon Marché and the adjacent La Grand Épicerie. We had a look at all the goodies.

At La Grande Épicerie

One of the many food sections

We then stopped for a coffee at Coutume Café-- one of the newish coffee shops bringing good coffee to Paris. Bright and airy and very good coffee.

Coutume Café

We then walked down Rue du Bac, a wonderful shopping street. The Christmas lights were up.

Walking down Rue du Bac

We took some pictures of the amazing pastries at La Pâtisserie des Rèves. Many are sitting under bell jars. Almost works of art.

They often have a small and large size of the same pastry under one bell jar

The latest creations

We then walked back towards the 5th arrondissement along Boulevard Saint-Germain. We had made a reservation at 5e Cru, a wonderful small wine bar on Rue du Cardinal Lemoine. The short menu of charcuterie and cheeses is on the wine bottle and when we asked for the wine list, the man who seated us, said he was it. He suggested a lovely organic, non-filtered Beaujolais Nouveau, that was excellent. We had a small charcuterie plate. A wonderful appetizer.