FOR ME - VERY DIFFERENT!
Remember the exhibition on the garden?
How would you describe a garden?
It was following this that I had noted on my "To see List" an exhibition entitled "Le Pouvoir des Fleurs" ("The Power of Flowers" is a word for word translation). I mentioned it to quite a few people but no-one seemed in the least bit interested in joining me for a visit to the Musee de la Vie Romantique.
This museum is a little off my usual route - I guess that I was never a romantic! So had I been there? Once inside the museum it came flashing back that I had seen something with Gianni and that was "forever" ago. The artist was unknown to me. This resumes who he was...
This was the first photo I took. Kitsch is the only word that I have for it. I saw others which were equally so and you will see at the end of this chapter ...the painter was Pierre-Paul Prud"hon (1758-1823). He was one of the first artists permitted to paint heris of the Imperial Court...The babe is asleep in a natural setting. There are, if one looks at the detail, an abondance of laurel which are supposed to evoke his father, Napoleon ...it was painted in 1811
A little bit later, I tried taking another photo of Redouté's work. It's reasonably clear and is a flower from South Africa done in 1787
Much more exotic. A Ceruse Flower with small thorns . 1840
Another exotic flower but mainly because of its cactus type leaves. The flower itself looks like a daisy to me. But then I am extremely ignorant in this domain. In actual fact it is a study for the "Hottentots Figue" found in South Africa
There is something very "dainty" about this "fly catcher Dionée" (1804)
A flower from China. Perrenial, painted in 1784.
Apparently rather like a potato plant...1788
From Central America and the Antilles islands...1786. The botanical name is Tradescantia discolor
This shrub comes from New Zealand and painted in 1800
Another bit of exotica. A "Chironia". Perhaps from Africa? (no date)
This caught my eye because of the notations on the painting. This time the artist is Jean-François Bony (1754-1825). He was one of the main artists who worked in the Lyon Manufacture centre. The indications noted on the water colour define the colours to be used and possible variations once it is transfered onto a material.
This second decoration was done for Emperess's bedroom in her appartments in Versaille.
Now for a bunch of flowers...very "pretty-pretty". Camelias, primroses, auricile from Liege, nigelle from Damascus and plants originating from "Lobéliacées"...(no date)
It seems that Redouté worked relentlessly throughout his career on bunches of flowers. Probably this gave him the security which must have been for the indispensable for his botantical activities. The flowers are never in vases. Madame Prevost from the Royal Palace picked flowers for him whenever possible and laid them out on a little table which Redouté found when he came home in the evening.
This is a bunch of roses "Cent-feuilles"; Josephine Bonapart had an estimated 30 varieties ....
How strange ! (left had side photo) Howevever, it was not painted by Redouté but by a Marie-Alexandrine-Olimpe Arson who was one of Redouté's students. He gave 30 hours of lessons in the week in the Botanical gardens conference room. The student's main objective was to copy water colours done on vellum. Young ladies from privileged and less fortunte familes worked together.
In 1804, Redouté sold to the Imperial Sevres Manufacture 51 of his flower studies, bird and fruit studies too. This is a pear tree...
and a Thymélie from the Alps...
Another bunch of flowers completed in 1839
Along with this bunch painted by the King's sister, Eugéinie Adélaide Louise of Orleans(left).
And to finish this chapter on another "kitsch" note (for me anyway) - "The Gardener" painted by a Simon Saint-Jean in 1837. He wanted to become a known and celebrated artist. This is the painting which made his name. Displayed at the 1834 Salon, it was immediately bought by the State.
It had been a pleasant interlude. As I was leaving the museum, these three vases caught my eye. Modern and to my liking ! They were created by a Brigitte Pénicaud in 2016. She is a contemporary ceramic artist. What I saw of her work on Internet, I like very much.
How would you describe a garden?
It was following this that I had noted on my "To see List" an exhibition entitled "Le Pouvoir des Fleurs" ("The Power of Flowers" is a word for word translation). I mentioned it to quite a few people but no-one seemed in the least bit interested in joining me for a visit to the Musee de la Vie Romantique.
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| The museum's courtyard |
This museum is a little off my usual route - I guess that I was never a romantic! So had I been there? Once inside the museum it came flashing back that I had seen something with Gianni and that was "forever" ago. The artist was unknown to me. This resumes who he was...
Pierre-Joseph Redouté (10 July 1759 – 19 June 1840), was a painter and botanist from the Southern Netherlands, known for his watercolours of roses, lilies and other flowers at Malmaison. He was nicknamed "the Raphael of flowers" and has been called the greatest botanical illustrator of all time.The first water colour I saw, the flower had been discovered in Australia. As is so often the case with waterolours under glass, they are virtually impossible to photograph due to reflection. The flower didn't look exotic to me anyway - so after one try, I moved on. There is no doubt about it, his drawings were amazing. Very detailed but they seemed to breathe as well. His roses are supposedly the paintings which brought him into the limelight. I preferred his less sophistcated work.
He was an official court artist of Queen Marie Antoinette, and he continued painting through the French Revolution and Reign of Terror. Redouté survived the turbulent political upheaval to gain international recognition for his precise renderings of plants, which remain as fresh in the early 21st century as when first painted. He collaborated with the greatest botanists of his day and participated in nearly fifty publications depicting both the familiar flowers of the French court and plants from places as distant as Japan, America, South Africa, and Australia. He was painting during a period in botanical illustration (1798 – 1837) that is noted for the publication of outstanding folio editions with coloured plates. Redouté produced over 2,100 published plates depicting over 1,800 different species, many never rendered before. Today he is seen as an important heir to the tradition of the Flemish and Dutch flower painters Brueghel, Ruysch, van Huysum and de Heem.
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This was the first photo I took. Kitsch is the only word that I have for it. I saw others which were equally so and you will see at the end of this chapter ...the painter was Pierre-Paul Prud"hon (1758-1823). He was one of the first artists permitted to paint heris of the Imperial Court...The babe is asleep in a natural setting. There are, if one looks at the detail, an abondance of laurel which are supposed to evoke his father, Napoleon ...it was painted in 1811
A little bit later, I tried taking another photo of Redouté's work. It's reasonably clear and is a flower from South Africa done in 1787
Much more exotic. A Ceruse Flower with small thorns . 1840
Another exotic flower but mainly because of its cactus type leaves. The flower itself looks like a daisy to me. But then I am extremely ignorant in this domain. In actual fact it is a study for the "Hottentots Figue" found in South Africa
There is something very "dainty" about this "fly catcher Dionée" (1804)
A flower from China. Perrenial, painted in 1784.
 |
Apparently rather like a potato plant...1788
From Central America and the Antilles islands...1786. The botanical name is Tradescantia discolor
This shrub comes from New Zealand and painted in 1800
Another bit of exotica. A "Chironia". Perhaps from Africa? (no date) This caught my eye because of the notations on the painting. This time the artist is Jean-François Bony (1754-1825). He was one of the main artists who worked in the Lyon Manufacture centre. The indications noted on the water colour define the colours to be used and possible variations once it is transfered onto a material.
This second decoration was done for Emperess's bedroom in her appartments in Versaille.
Now for a bunch of flowers...very "pretty-pretty". Camelias, primroses, auricile from Liege, nigelle from Damascus and plants originating from "Lobéliacées"...(no date)
It seems that Redouté worked relentlessly throughout his career on bunches of flowers. Probably this gave him the security which must have been for the indispensable for his botantical activities. The flowers are never in vases. Madame Prevost from the Royal Palace picked flowers for him whenever possible and laid them out on a little table which Redouté found when he came home in the evening.
This is a bunch of roses "Cent-feuilles"; Josephine Bonapart had an estimated 30 varieties ....
How strange ! (left had side photo) Howevever, it was not painted by Redouté but by a Marie-Alexandrine-Olimpe Arson who was one of Redouté's students. He gave 30 hours of lessons in the week in the Botanical gardens conference room. The student's main objective was to copy water colours done on vellum. Young ladies from privileged and less fortunte familes worked together.
In 1804, Redouté sold to the Imperial Sevres Manufacture 51 of his flower studies, bird and fruit studies too. This is a pear tree...
and a Thymélie from the Alps...
Another bunch of flowers completed in 1839
Along with this bunch painted by the King's sister, Eugéinie Adélaide Louise of Orleans(left).And to finish this chapter on another "kitsch" note (for me anyway) - "The Gardener" painted by a Simon Saint-Jean in 1837. He wanted to become a known and celebrated artist. This is the painting which made his name. Displayed at the 1834 Salon, it was immediately bought by the State.
It had been a pleasant interlude. As I was leaving the museum, these three vases caught my eye. Modern and to my liking ! They were created by a Brigitte Pénicaud in 2016. She is a contemporary ceramic artist. What I saw of her work on Internet, I like very much.
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