Serious Art Student

Today I became a little more focused on art and less on shopping and went to the Gustave Moreau museum - I love this artist, who was part of the symbolist movement in the late 19th century. His paintings are full of classical themes, mythology, plenty of unicorns and scantily clad fair maidens. Lovely stuff! The museum is actually his apartment that he shared with his parents with the rooms completely furnished, as he left his apartment stuffed full of his paintings to the state. His studio covers two floors connected by an iron spiral staircase and is amazing. Feeling a bit dreamy I caught the metro up to Montmatre to get a view of Paris and to see one of the best surviving examples of the Guimard Art Nouveau metro entrances at Place des Abesses.  After climbing an endless number of stairs I did so and it was lovely but the sun was in the wrong direction for a good picture but trust me the view over Paris is amazing and you can see all the major buildings in Paris as far as the eye can see.

On Thursday, still full of zest for art I took the bus to visit the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais, both neo-classical survivors of the 1900 grand exposition. The Grand Palais has a huge sparkling glass dome held up by iron as you can see below but unfortunately was closed for an upcoming exhibition so I contented myself with just peering through the windows. The Petit Palais was open though and better still, free. It is a beautiful airy slighty art nouveau like building with beautiful glass windows and a lovely rotunda courtyard but the water was mostly frozen in the pools of the fountain! It is a very eclectic collection - kind of a mini Louvre - and has a very interesting antiquities and icon sections with lots if beautiful turn of the century portraits. Feeling on a roll I then decided to go across the bridge to the Musee D'Orsay museum which is chock full of wonderful impressionist art but also filled with too many people. Still it is an amazing museum full of lovely naked ladies and gorgeous colours.

I finished off the week with a visit to the Dali exhibition at the Georges Pompidou centre (see below) - me and half of Paris I think - the crowds were amazing and they say that some people waited for 2 hours to get in.  Luckily I only waited a half an hour but I soon got pretty frustrated with the way people stand close up to a picture and hog it for ages before moving on.  I think he was an amazing character and some of his early work was very impressive - he actually could paint some wonderful portraits.  His later stuff is fun but a bit disturbing - the aim I guess! And while I am not in general a fan of modern art, I decided to visit the Modern Art section while I was there and was blown away.  Firstly, as there were hardly any people but also because the art was wonderful - works by Picasso, Matisse, Braque, Kandinsky, the Delaunays and Chagall.  I left before the 1945- 1960 section though, as it was getting a bit dark and gloomy for me - the art I mean!