Abundance in Life

Dejeuner Sur L’Herbre or Luncheon on the Grass was controversial when it was unveiled and deservingly so. The painting, by Edouard Manet, showed a group of picnickers sitting on the grass along with a naked woman. Her dress is shown flung off to the side and she looks at the audience with no shame, as if her nakedness was normal in a Parisian park. The scene looks like the viewers had stumbled upon the picnic or were just passing by.

Manet’s painting was considered ‘wild’ and ‘untame’ and most of the respectable population refused to hang it in their homes. However, some secretly bought the paintings to put in attics, basements or storage areas. By the beginning of the 20th century, close to World War I, Dejeuner Sur L’Herbre was considered okay enough to hang on parlor walls. Now, the painting has become one of the most iconic paintings by Manet.

It is strange how Parisians, who were supposed to be citizens of the most artistic city at the time of the Impressionists, could not recognize a great work of art when they saw one.

La Grenouillere is a scene for another painting by Pierre Auguste Renoir, another famous Impressionist. I would like to remind you that all Impressionists were pretty close friends in those days and would often stay at the same place wherever they are inspired by the scenery. For more information on La Grenouillere, see the post that I posted earlier.

La Grenouillere, a painting by the famous Impressionist Claude Monet, was painted in 19th century Paris during Monet’s stay there. La Grenouillere is now a hotel in Paris but before, it was a resort that catered mostly for young people. Monet painted many of his paintings of friends, mostly in sunny locations, there.

La Grenouillere used to be a small manmade island in the middle of the Seine that offered many summer and spring activities. For a small fare, renters could take a couple of boats and go rowing along the river. It is a popular bathing location, as can be seen by the swimmers in the water. A small cafe is also located at La Grenouillere where Monet painted another one of his fabulous paintings.

Seurat’s most famous painting is by far Sunday Afternoon on The Island of La Grande Jatte. Seurat was one of the Impressionists and practiced a new technique of shading in this painting: by using the pointy end of his paintbrush, he dotted the painting, sometimes using bigger or smaller utensils to make larger or smaller dots. It is very similar to the scientific method of stippling.

The painting shows Parisians relaxing on a hot day during a Sunday, the day of rest. Notice how the woman closest to the viewer of the painting is holding a monkey on a leash. Back in the days of the Impressionists, Parisian nobles were rich enough to afford exotic animals to be sent to their homes and treated them as pets.

The painting has been duplicated many times and has shown up in a lot of places, even on umbrella stands.

Liberty Leading the People by Delacroix is a famous French painting that has been parodied and reused in many forms of media. One notable example is the album Viva La Vida by Coldplay, which uses this painting as the album cover.

The painting has a symbolism of Liberty, in the form of a lady waving the French flag, leading a large mob at the time of the French Revolution. This painting was painted almost 20 years after then and is the last painting to depict the revolution in such a patriotic light. Paris stands in the background waiting for the change that was about to be brought through the revolution involving countless figures such as Louis XIV, Madame Roland, and Robespierre. 

The French Revolution marks the end of Absolute Regime of a King and the beginning of Democracy in France at the start of the 19th century. Bastille Day, a holiday which I blogged about once, is a legacy of this event. Some riots that happened, such as the March to Versailles or the Storming of the Bastille, have left their legacy in history books and can still have their aftershocks felt in the streets of Paris.

The Horses of Marly by Cousteau depicts a pair of grooms that are restraining their horses. The two sculptures are located in Paris, France and have been moved around to reduce the effects of pollution and pigeon droppings on the marbles’ shape and color. 

The Musee D’Orsay is yet another museum located in the heart of Paris. It used to be a train station until renovation into a museum that nowadays houses mainly paintings as exhibits.

Orsay is near the Louvre, another well-known museum in Paris.