The Walls of the Musée d'Orsay that Tell a Story.

One of my favorite things about the smaller rooms of museums is how the curators organize 

the collection. Some rooms are dedicated to a single artist but the really cool ones are a mix of artists and when you really look you can see how each painting actually speaks to each other. 

There is one specific room in the Musée d’Orsay that I love and it is because of the paintings in the room and how each one has their own amazing story but together they tell another story.  On the ground floor of the Orsay in salle 12 you can find one of my favorite portraits, Berthe Morisot au Bouquet de Violettes by Manet.  I have a lot of favorites and if you have done a tour with me I will mention it about 1000 times but if I had to pick my top five favorite paintings, this would be one of them. 

I love the story of their friendship and how they met as she was a copyist in the Louvre and as soon as they met he wanted to paint her. Manet loved her dark looks and captured her for the first time in the painting just to the right. Le Balcon was painted in 1868 and Berthe is seen sitting holding a fan and looking off into the distance. 

The next wall, Manet’s Madame Manet au Piano, which is his wife Suzanne Leenhoff who arrived into his family as a piano teacher for the young Manet. Next to her is La Lecture also by Manet that shows a lovely Suzanne in a billowy white dress, that also resembles back to Le Balcon and in the background is her son, Léon who is also in Le Balcon. To the right is Monet’s painting of his wife also on a couch. 

James Tissot’s Portrait of Mademoiselle L.L. , another portrait of a very fashionable woman in her red jacket that pops from the wall. Back to the wall with Berthe that includes two Renoir’s Madame Darras and Jeune femme à la violette. Stand back and look at this wall and how they all are tied together and then look at the entire room and see how one theme leads to the next. 

Check out my video I made sharing this room as well as Manet’s Olympia and then up to the Impressionist gallery. And if you are coming to Paris this fall, reach out for a tour, days are filling up fast. Check ClaudineHemingway.com 

Also see video on my YouTube channel and subscribe. 

Lisa di Antonio Gheradini Giocondo, aka Mona Lisa

She is one of the most famous paintings in the world. The first lady of the Louvre has become a mythical creature far past the painting.  However, did you know there was an entire story of the woman before she hung on the walls of the kings? 

Lisa di Antonio Gherardini was born in Florence on June 15, 1479 to a noble landowning Tuscan family. Not far from The Palazzo Pitti where the Medici family lived was the home of Antonmaria Gherardini and Lucrezia del Caccia. The family lived on the corner of the via Maggio and via Squazza when Lisa was born and then moved to the other side of the river in 1494. Near Santa Croce between via del Pepi and via Ghibellina they discovered their new neighbors, the Giocondo’s. 

On March 5, 1495, at 15 years old, Lisa married the son of her neighbors,  Francesco del Giocondo. Francesco was from a rich family that made their money in the silk business, A widow, a father  and fourteen years older than Lisa who also had a somewhat famous family as a neighbor. Living just a few doors down from Ser Piero da Vinci, the father of Leonardo. 

 A year later they welcomed their first child, Piero, quickly followed by Piera in 1497, Camilla in 1499, Marietta in 1500, Andrea in 1502 and finally Giocondo in 1507. Sadly only two survived past adolescents. 

Francesco became a civil servant and was elected to one esteemed post after another from 1499 to 1512. Once thought to be working for the exiled Medici family he was tossed into prison until the Medici’s returned and bailed him out.  Contracting the plague in 1539 Francesco died and Lisa left Florence to live with her daughter in the Sant’Orsola convent where she died July 15, 1542. 

In 1502, Francesco commissioned Leonardo da Vinci to paint a portrait of his wife. Leonardo was at the height of his fame at the moment after just completing the Last Supper but was also in need of money so accepted the job. Having just given birth to her son Andrea she sat for the portrait, considered quite large at the time for its subject matter. 

She never saw the unfinished painting that Francesco had never paid for after he was sent to jail. Leonardo liked to “meditate” on his paintings, work a little on a painting then take a break to ponder what he would do next. So it wasn’t out of the norm that the painting of Lisa wasn’t finished. In 1508 he carried the painting with him to Milan, then onto Rome in 1513. 

On October 13, 1515 Francois I was in Bologna  for a meeting with Pope Leo X  that Leonardo was also in attendance. Francois already knew of the master and wanted him to create a mechanical elephant for him. He offered his chateau in the Loire to Leonardo but at the time Leonardo declined. On March 17, 1516 Julien de Medici died, it was his last protection and funding he had and he decided to take the French king up on his offer. 

A few months later he made his way to France on a donkey with his unfinished canvas in hand including the Mona Lisa. In his new home, Leonardo was named the first painter of the king as well as engineer and architect but also the party planner to the king. Yes, Leonardo was an event planner. As a recovering event planner I can say his ability to do many things at once came in handy, but the fact he took 20 years to finish a painting I have my doubts on how those parties turned out. 

Leonardo was old, his arm was partially parilized and he spent more time instructing students then painting on his own in his final years. On October 10, 1517 he met with the cardinal d’Aragon at the Clos Lucé and presented him with a few paintings including the lovely lady of Florence. On April 23, 1519, in poor health he had his will drawn up. The paintings he had with him had been given to or purchased by Francois I upon his death.

The basis of that royal collection of Francois I would become the Musée du Louvre. The Louvre owns 6 of the paintings of Da Vinci, more than any country or museum, and Italy is still mad about that. She stayed in the company of the kings and emperors until 1793 when the Louvre was opened to the public. 

Known in Italy as  La Gioconda, and France as La Joconde, her English name, Mona Lisa comes from a shortened version of Madonna, meaning my lady. Madame Lisa or Lady Lisa, either way she has become the most captivating face and smile in the world. As for that smile, Gioconda in Italian, means playful or happy. So the next time you hear the argument if that is a smile or not, you can say, OUI! 

Dante's Divine Comedy in Art

Dante’s Divine Comedy would be published in 1472. Dante spent more than 12 years writing the narrative poem and finished it in 1320 less than a year before he would die. Recanting the three levels of afterlife, Inferno (hell), Purgatory and Paradise (heaven) he follows the characters as they navigate their destined ending. Many have been moved by Dante’s piece including many artists. In Paris you can find him in the museums and even on the streets. Around 1307, for two years Dante attended the University of Paris living in the 5th, not far from the street that now holds his name. Walk a few blocks towards the school and in the Place Marcellin Berthelot you will find the bronze statue of him by Jean-Paul Aubé complete with his signature laurel wreath. 

In 1822, Eugene Delacroix completed his first major painting. Dante et Virgile, that now hangs in the Louvre, shows the poet and his trusty guide Virgile on a boat crossing the River Styx while the City of the Dead burns behind them. Dante stands in the boat while Virgile holds him as the waves and the wind are crashing around them. At their feet the damned can be seen fighting for life or resigning to their fate. Pulling the story from the 8 canto of Inferno it would appear at the Salon of 1822 where the French State would buy it and it would hang in the Musée du Luxembourg, later in the Louvre. 

William Bouguereau in 1850 also depicted a scene from the Inferno in one of the most thought provoking paintings in the Orsay. Dante et Virgile captures the moment in the 8th circle of hell that was for the falsifiers and counterfeiters. Dante and Virgil look on while Capocchio, a heretic, attacks Gianni Schiecchi who had taken on the identity of a man in hopes to steal his inheritance. The incredible forceful nature of the scene is intense. You can almost feel his knee in your own back. Get close enough to really take in this amazing painting. The way Bourguereau captures their bodies and muscles is astounding and adds to the dimensions of feelings you get when looking at it. 

One of the best paintings Ary Scheffer ever did could be his Les Ombres de Francesca de Rimini et de Paolo Malatesta Appraissent a Dante a Virgile. From the 2nd level of Hell reserved for the lustful he captures the moment after the death of the two lovers, Francesca and Paolo. Francesca was married to Giovanni Malatesta but fell in love with his brother Paola. Giovanni caught the two together and killed them. In this painting you can see a wound on his chest and her back a reminder of the horrific crime. The two are seen floating as Dante and Virgil look on, it is almost too beautiful looking to be hell. Scheffer’s piece was also displayed at the Salon of 1822, in the same room as Delacroix’s painting which received all the accolades. However today, they both hang in the Louvre for millions of people to appreciate each year. 

Perhaps the most famous piece of art based on Dante’s Divine Comedy would be that of Rodin’s Porte de l’Enfer  and all the pieces that accompany it. You may have recognized the story of Francesca and Paolo as they are the subject of La Baiser. Paolo and Francesca are locked in their embrace holding a copy of Lancelot and Guinevere in his hand. Carved from sparkling white marble it appears to be the perfect image of love, but evil awaits them. Just as they lean in, Giovanni kills them.  

It was to be a part of August Rodin’s monumental work The Gates of Hell, commissioned for the Decorative Arts Museum in 1880. He would work on it for 37 years, until his death and the museum for which it was intended would never be finished. Today a plaster copy sits in the Orsay and a large bronze model at the Musée Rodin.

At the Rodin as you stand and admire his stunning piece filled with the chaos of the moments he so perfectly captured lurking over your shoulder is what Rodin originally called  "the poet". The Thinker was imagined to be Dante himself, holding the characteristics of Adam and Prometheus. He wanted a grand figure reminiscent of Michelangelo and one that would reflect the intelligence of the subject. At first the statue was to be a standing full length Dante, but he changed to the crouching and tense figure we know today. The Gates of Hell based on Dante's Inferno would never fully come to fruition, but the Thinker and the Kiss would go on to become two of the most famous statues in the world.

Déjeuner sur l'herbe par Pablo Picasso

Towards the final years of Picasso’s life, he spent a lot of his time re imagining some famous pieces by other artists. In 1958 Picasso was discouraged by the building up around his beloved La Californie home in Cannes and one night after being with some friends he set his sights on a new home and bought it the next day. The Château de Vauvenargues near Aix-en-Provence, would be where he and his second wife Jacqueline would live from 1959-1962. He fell out of love with it as fast as he fell into it and they moved onto a home in Mougins. However, while he was at Vauvenargues he spent the bulk of his time from 1959 to 1961 on 140 drawings and 27 paintings, lino-cuts and cardboard models all on the theme of Manet’s Le  Déjeuner sur l’herbe. 

When Manet painted this monumental piece in 1862, much like his painting Olympia, this one also was met with much controversy. Rejected from the Salon and displayed at the Salon des Refusés with his other Impressionist friends in 1863, the subject of a nude woman sitting between two fully clothed men was a scandal for the time. Although, Émile Zola proclaimed it “the greatest work of Édouard Manet”.

In 1932 Picasso said "When I see Manet's Luncheon on the Grass I tell myself there is pain ahead". On August 1, 1959 he began his dive into Manet’s masterpiece with a small drawing. The subject and structure of the painting was a bit out of the box for Picasso. He normally focused on one subject or model. Manet’s painting with four people was not what he was used to doing. His first drawing was the closest to Manet’s with all four subjects, but he quickly moved away from Manet’s original structure.

Picasso was known to be an extremely fast painter, when he would tackle this theme he would work in torrents of activity for months at a time before putting them down to come back to them later. He would play with the theme and the amount of people in the landscape, sometimes with three women in the back. Picasso would add the woman washing her feet that he would continue into other paintings. Removing the men all together at times, making the trees larger than life, but most of the time staying with the blue and green palette. He had never spent so much time devoted to one theme in his entire life.   

In March 1960, Picasso painted his first larger version of Déjeuner. Mostly green with a bit of blue focusing on the main figure, Victorine. Later versions included the men who Picasso decided needed to be nude as well. In the Musée National Picasso-Paris on the upper floor is a room dedicated to his Déjeuner paintings. They do change them out during the year and is one of my favorite rooms of this well done museum. Every time I walk into this room it brings a huge smile to my face. Hanging on the walls are just a few of his paintings, drawings and even a cardboard model. I usually spend a half an hour in this one small room, listening to the people as they walk in and comment on the paintings. Some even see the resemblance to Manet which pleases me to no end. I love how Picasso dated his paintings and drawings, knowing now when he started this series you can see how the paintings displayed fit into his timeline. 

On this date in 1973, the great Spanish painter would take his last breath in Mougins. He would be laid to rest at the Château de Vauvenargues, high above the hill in Provence. 

Portrait of Émile Zola by Manet

Emile Zola was born on this day, April 2, 1840. The French writer who is known for his famous headline J’ACCUSE in defense of Alfred Dreyfus but did you know he was also a marketing genius. It was Zola who while working for  Librairie Hachette in 1862 where he spent his days packing books, until one day they recognized a hidden talent. He told them they should paint signs to sit outside the doors of shops that people would see as they walked by, and with that the sandwich board was born.  

There are so many tales that can be told of Zola but this one I have been waiting months to share. Inside the Musée d’Orsay off of the main lower gallery in a small room are a few of Manet’s most amazing pieces.  In 1865 when Manet presented his painting Olympia to the jury it did not go over well. They hated it, they hated what she represented and how she was positionioned and rejected it from the Salon. However one day, the young writer Emile Zola heard about the painting and wanted to see it. A friend of Cézanne, he was already a great fan of the arts and the artists. He thought Olympia was a masterpiece by an artist that was a master of the future, deserving to hang in the Louvre. 

Zola did what he did best and took pen to paper. At the time he was enthralled with what was happening in Paris with the artists that were being turned away from the hallowed Salon and being forced to build their own exhibition. He wrote a pamphlet in defense of Manet titled “La Revue du XXe Siecle”. He would write another one the next year when Manet went out on his own to set up his very own exhibit during the Universal Exposition that many other artists mocked him for. 

In a way of thanking his new friend, Manet offered to paint him. He invited him to his studio on Rue Guyot in 1868. Manet set the scene on the desk with elements of Zola's personality and himself. You can see the blue pamphlet that started their friendship on his desk while the quill and inkwell remind us of Zola’s life as a writer. 

Zola is reading “L’Histoire des Peintres” by Charles Blanc, a book both men loved. Although, it is what hangs above the desk that makes me love this painting so much. The print of the Japanese wrestler by Utagawa Kuniaki II suggesting the influence the Japanese woodblock paintings had on the art style at the time. The screen behind Zola is another nod to the influence of the East on the artists. 

To the left of that is an engraving by Velazquez of Bacchus hints at their shared love for Spanish art peaks out from the top of Olympia. 

I have a fascination anytime there is a painting within a painting. So many questions come to mind, why is it there, what does it mean to the artist and what are they trying to tell us. For this one, it is quite simple.  Olympia represents not only the way the two men met and a painting Zola loved, but it was also Manet’s way of righting the wrong of the Salon of 1865. 

Adding Olympia into the painting of the man that in a way legitimized her meant so much to Manet.  He made one small adjustment in this version, he changed the direction of her eyes away from the viewer and onto Zola himself. 

In May of 1868, he entered the painting of Zola into the Salon. This time they welcomed it with open arms. Was it Manet’s work or was it that they were more afraid of what the pen of Zola would say about them? Hanging in room M of the 1868 Salon there was Zola high up on the wall, but even more so, there was Olympia hanging above the same people that rejected her so vehemently just a few years before. 

The painting remained in the personal collection of Emile Zola, hanging in his home until 1925, twenty three years after his death, when his wife Alexandrine left it in her will to the Musée du Louvre. It would hang in the Louvre until 1986 and then move over to the newly opened Musée d’Orsay. 

And in the end Zola was correct, Manet was an artist that would become a master and hang in the Louvre.  

The Regalia of le Sacre de Napoleon

Not exactly hidden, but away from the key moments within Jacques-Louis David’s monumental tableaux “The Consecration of the Emperor Napoleon and the Coronation of Empress Joséphine on December 2, 1804” are a few pieces you can find today.  The royal regalia used on this day and depicted in this painting include the Crown of Charlemagne, Scepter of Charles V and the Sword of Charlemagne all of which can be seen in the Musée du Louvre.  It’s the living breathing pieces of history that are my very favorite parts of Paris. to unwrap and explore.

The Crown of Charlemagne was the name given to the coronation crown of the Kings of France dating back to 1237. Named for the great medieval King of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne was first used to crown his grandson, Charles the Bald. A simple band topped with fleur-de-lis was added onto over time with jewels and velvet cap.  A matching open worked crown was made for the coronation of the queens, but only one would survive the 1590 Siege of Paris. The surviving crown would be used all the way until the last King of France was crowned in Reims, Louis XVI.  The crown would then be destroyed during the French Revolution, never to be seen again.

When it was time for Napoleon to take his throne of power over France he of course needed a crown. Martin-Guillaume Biennais was given the task. Using drawings from the 15th C of Charlemagne and a bust Napoleon had once seen in Aix-la-Chapelle showing the Emperor topped with a crown covered with cameos and carnelian jewels the design was born.  Eight cameo covered arches attached to a band, come together at the top and are met with a gold cross. In the painting the crown can be faintly seen on the left in the hands of le marechal Kellerman. (seen between the two men in the dark hats) At the actual event, Napoleon, being Napoleon picked up the crown and placed it on his head over his laurel wreath, crowning himself Emperor of France

.The scepter of Charles V dates back to the 14th century and is one the few remaining pieces left of the medieval French reliquary. Created for the coronation of the son of Charles V in 1380, it would then be used by every ruling sovereign up until the very last, Charles X in 1825.  Sitting on a lily, that was originally enameled white, is Charlemagne on a throne. In his left hand, he holds an orb that represents the world, topped with a cross. In the large painting, David depicted the scepter in the hands of Le marechal Perignon just to the right above the Crown of Charlemagne.

Both the crown and the scepter can be seen today in the Musee du Louvre, in the Richelieu Wing on the 1st floor in salle 504, it’s rarely crowded and something you must see.

In the Notre Dame de Paris, the site of this monumental event sits in the chevet behind the choir in the Chapel of Saint George a mostly unnoticed set of candlesticks and a crucifix.  At the time the cathedral was falling into disrepair and needed a lot of work to be ready for the coronation. Tapestries with the eagles, the royal bees, crowns, laurel wreaths and N’s were hung to cover the pillars that were falling apart. Galleries and raised seating was built to hold the royal onlookers and even a new altar would be built.

In addition, placed on the new altar would be a set of large candlesticks and a crucifix brought from the Arras Cathedral. Today in the Chapel of Saint George against the stained glass windows depicting the life of Saint Stephen those same candlesticks can be seen.  Jacques-Louis David did an amazing job representing them in his large piece that would commemorate the day. The altar they sit upon is a recreation in 1976 of the one that was in the cathedral at that time of le sacre de Napoleon.

There are countless more amazing things to notice in this painting, the true moments of that historic day and some that were added in to alter is along the way. I hope the day never comes that I actually learn every one of those small elements that make this one of my favorites works of art.

Le Sacre de Napoleon

On December 2nd a very very long time ago, 214 years to be exact Napoleon Bonaparte crowned himself Emperor of France in the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris. Napoleon wanting to set his own rules and traditions and not wanting to "descend from anyone" he bucked the old ways of  French rulers being crowned in the Cathedral Notre-Dame de Reims and set his sites on the historic cathedral in the birthplace of Paris on the Ile de la Cite. Napoleon was so adamant to have Pope Pius VII in attendance but as the ceremony started he grasped the crown out of the Papal hands and placed it on his own head. 

Laure Junot, Duchess of Abrantes was in attendance on this historical day and had kept very detailed diaries. Later when she became the lover of the Honore de Balzac, lucky for us,  he convinced her to complete and publish her 18 volume memoirs. She had said " But just as the Pope was about to take the crown, called the crown of Charlemagne, from the altar, Napoleon seized it and placed it on his own head! At that moment he was really handsome, and his countenance was lighted up with an expression of which no words can convey an idea. "

It was now Josephine's turn, the great love and first wife of Napoleon and the devoted subject to his hundreds of love letters. She ascended to the throne, with his sisters reluctantly behind her. Junot stated  "One of the chief beauties of the Empress Josephine was not merely her fine figure, but the elegant turn of her neck, and the way in which she carried her head ; indeed, her deportment, altogether, was conspicuous for dignity and grace. I have had the honor of being presented to many real princesses, but I never saw one who, to my eyes, presented so perfect a personification of elegance and majesty." Josephine clasped her hands, lowered her head as tears fell down her face and just then he placed the crown on her head, over her tiara.

All of this is so perfectly captured in one of my favorite works of art inside the walls of the Musée du Louvre. The Coronation of Napoleon (Le Sacre de Napoléon) is the immense painting that stretches 33 feet across room 75 of the Denon wing. Jacques-Louis David was commissioned by Napoleon himself a few months before the big day. He didn't start the actual piece until a year later, with Napoleon making a few specific changes and additions to the painting that were a bit different from the actual event. The biggest being his mother, sitting in the balcony above him. She was not the biggest fan of Josephine, and she was still in Rome and refused to attend, Napoleon had her added in. The original drawing of the Pope had him sitting and looking on and the little Emperor said "I didn't bring him her to do nothing" so he was altered in the final piece to be anointing the ceremony.  Also looking down from above is the artist himself, David added himself into the balcony over the Emperor's mother. There are many other little secrets hidden in this painting, more on that tomorrow and where you can find the living pieces seen in this amazing painting

Seeing this vast amazing work of art filled with symbolism, history and all the regal touches makes it one of the many must sees every time I am in Paris. I could never get tired of sitting on the bench so perfectly placed in front of this for an hour every time and just take in every single face and detail and every time I find something new.  As the hundreds of people walk in front, snap a selfie and walk on by to the next must see item on the list. It always makes me sad, that they truly don't SEE anything or the beauty that is in front of them.