Episode 100- Rachel Felix

Before there was Catherine Deneuve or Bridget Bardot there was Rachel Felix. Mademoiselle Rachel, as she was known, was the first international star. Born on February 21, 1821 in Switzerland into a family of peddlers they all headed to Paris in 1830.  Rachel started taking acting lessons upon her arrival from Alexandre Etienne Choron, director of the Paris opera. 

In January 1837 she took the stage for the first time at the Theater du Gymnase and the next year in Pierre Corneille’s Horace. It was after the fall of Napoleon and the people of France were trying to move away from anything that was of the period and the old French playwrights Napoleon adored were falling out of fashion. However Rachel loved the tragedies of Moliere and Corneille and she continued to perform them and kept them alive.

The public couldn’t get enough of her and as much as they loved her the news of her personal life would take its toll. Rachel had very dark exotic looks which was popular at the time as Europe was becoming obsessed with anything from Egypt or Greece and her dark features attracted all admires. Those admirers would include Emperor Napoleon III, his son Price Napoleon and also the illegitimate son of Napoleon Bonaparte, Alexandre Colonna-Walewski. 

The list of men is long and she had a large collection of rings gifted from her lovers. She strung the, on two bracelets that were so heavy she could only wear one at a time. Alfred de Musset, also lover of George Sand can be counted in the mix and Arthur Bertrand who she also had a son with. Gabriel-Victor was born from her relationship with Arthur and her first son was with Walewski, who would be the grandson of Napoleon. 

Rachel would go on to perform on the stages of Russia, Cuba, all over Europe, Canada and in the US in Boston, Philadelphia, South Carolina and New York. She was known throughout the world by only one name, long before there was ever a Madonna or Cher. 

In 1858, after suffering from tuberculosis she died in her beloved Le Cannet at just 36 years old. Returning to Paris to her apartment at Place des Vosges a multi day vigil was held before 100,000 people followed her procession to Pere Lachaise.

Episode 99 - 100 episodes of fascinating ladies and museums of Paris

100 episodes of Paris History Avec a Hemingway on La Vie Creative!!! We can’t even believe it! In the last two years we have shared the stories of the amazing women that were inspired by Paris and many of the places, stories and art that we love. 

Numerous stories of the talented artists, authors, actors, singers and dancers. The trailblazing women that built champagne houses, forged a path at 50 years old and the courtesans who bucked all traditions. We have shared the life at the court of Marie Antoinette and the many women that lived there and  survived the Revolution. 

I put together a handy guide of the first 100 episodes by theme that you can spend a day listening to the artists or whichever subject that fascinates you. All episode numbers correlate with the overall podcast episodes. 

Artists: 

Episode 8 Suzanne Valadon, the model of Toulouse-Lautrec and Renoir who became a painter herself. Be sure to visit the Musée du Montmartre and see her former studio. 

Episode 20 Victorine Meurent also was a model whose image is one of the most famous in the world. As the face of Manet’s most controversial paintings she is never forgotten. Victorine also became an artist but very little sadly remains. 

Episode 36 Berthe Morisot from an early age trained to be an artist. In the Louvre alongside her sister she met Manet and he instantly wanted to paint her. Morisot is the subject of a few of my favorite Manet paintings but she also became the leading lady of the Impressionist. 

Episode 51 Camille Claudel. She is known as the muse and lover of Renoir but that doesn’t give her enough credit for the amazing artist she also was. After her fathers death her brother and mother chose to toss her into an asylum where she spent the last 30 years of her life. Much of her art was destroyed but luckily her niece still fights to the day to share her art. 

Episode 55 Elisabeth Vigee le Brun the 18th century painter was the darling of the court of Versailles and became the personal painter of Marie Antoinette. During the Revolution she was able to flee France and today her paintings hang on the walls of the Louvre. 

Episode 67 Mary Cassatt The American that broke into the French  Impressionists.

Episode 77 Marie Bracquemand Another of the female Impressionists and part of the “trois grandames” with Morisot and Cassatt. 

Episode 89 Eva Gonzales the only student of Manet, also modeled for him. Her own paintings were so close to Manet’s style, you would think they were his.

Episode 91 Rosa Bonheur From the time she was a child she loved to draw animals. Her paintings would be popular with the Queen of England and for wealthy Americans. She was able to go where few female artists were ever able to go.

Episode 95 Berthe Weill  The first woman to own a gallery supported many of the female artists of the early 1900’s and the first to hold Picasso paintings. 

Episode 115 Nélie Jacquemart An accomplished artist it's her vast art collection that she is mostly known for. Leaving her collection to the State, the former home of Jacquemart and her husband André became the Musée Jacquemart André. 

Episode 125 Dora Maar We love to share more of these ladies' lives than what we think they are known for. Dora was the love and muse of Picasso but she was a well established artist before Picasso came along. 

Episode 127 Ladies of Manet A deeper dive into the paintings of Manet and the women he captured. 

Episode 143 Ladies of Monet Not about the ladies he painted, although he did paint each of his wives Camille and Alice. This is about the love triangle he created and the heartless thing his second wife Alice did as soon as Camille died. 

Episode 157 Finding many of our ladies in the Paris museums. So many of these wonderful artists don’t have a museum dedicated to them but can be found hanging on the walls of Paris. 

Episode 161 Marie Benoist she trained under Vigee le Brun but it is her stunning Portrait of Madeleine that is jaw dropping. One of the very first paintings of a black model. It hangs in the Louvre and is gorgeous. 

Episode 167 Marie Laurencin A painter of the avant-garde known for her images of Tout-Paris and of her lover Apollinaire and friends including Picasso. Her paintings in pastel colors stand out in any gallery. 

Episode 171 Sonia Delaunay The Ukrainian artist came to Paris and met Robert and the two paved a way with their very own style of art. She branched out and created textiles, clothing and decor. 

Episode 175 Masters in the Churches Charles le Brun, Eustache Le Seuer, Delacroix and many more can be found hanging in the first museums, the churches of Paris. A free visit to see the masters. 

Episode 185 Vivian Maier  a photographer that’s amazing photos were almost lost in a storage unit. Many of her 100,000 photos were never developed until after her death and then became an internet sensation. 

Episode 193 The Romantic Era One of my favorite periods in the history of France, the Romantic Era was ruled by Delacroix, Chasserieau and Barye. 

More next week, as I decided to write too much about each and every one of these great episodes.

Episode 98 - Musée Charles X

Charles X, the second to last king of France wanted to leave his mark on the Louvre like all the kings before him. A lover of Roman and Egyptian antiquities, he sent Jean-Francois Champollian to Egypt to purchase the collection of Henri Salt. Salt’s collection of  more than 4,000 pieces was just the beginning. Adding the Edme-Antoine Durand collection of more than 2500 Roman, Egyptian and medieval items and also the collection of Drovetti. Champollian would become the first curator of the antiquities department, after he deciphered the Rosetta Stone, of course.

These rooms once served as the winter apartments of Anne d’Autriche and were renovated under Napoleon Bonaparte by Pierrre Francois Fontaine. From 1819 to 1826 it was the salon and studios of many of the greatest living  artists at the time. In 1826 it would become the shrine for the antiquities collected under Charles X. The first four rooms of the Musée Charles X opened on December 15, 1827 showcasing Homer, Pompeii and Herculaneum on the ceilings. 

The rooms are located in the Sully wing, on the first floor on the southern side closest to the Seine. To reach the rooms, enter the Denon Wing and head towards the Winged Victory of Samothrace. Please stop and enjoy this beautiful treasure and when finished head up the few steps to the left of her and then right. You will pass through a few rooms before you reach the rooms of the Musée Charles X. On the Louvre map you can pick up under the pyramid; it is  on the 1st floor and in rooms 649 to 641. 

Premier Salle 

Ceiling by Jean-Aguste Dominique Ingres 

L’Apothéose d’ Homère, painted from 1826 to 1827. Ingres was given one hour to come up with his idea for the painting. He based it on Raphael’s painting Parnassas, but with a bit of a stiffer look. Homer is seen in the center being crowned by Victory and at his feet the allegories of his two biggest works. Odyssey in green holding an oar and Iliad in red holding a sword. 

The painting shows many of the greats including Raphael being led by an allegory in blue, Dante and Virgil and Aesop. On the lower part of the painting the more modern artists of the time of Louis XIV include Jean de la Fontaine, Mozart, Shakespear, Poussin, Moliere, Racine and Cornelle. In 1855 the painting was replaced with a copy by the Balze brothers. The original can be seen in the Salle Daru, the beautiful red room in the Denon wing. 

In the arches the muses and allegories of the seven cities that claim the birth of Homer and Apollo against the red background. And in the grisailles Nicolas Gosse and August Vichon are eight scenes from Homer’s epic tales. 

Deuxieme Salle 

Ceiling by Francois-Joseph Heim

Vesuve Recevant de Jupiter le feu qui doit consumer Herculanum

Vesuvius receives fire from Jupiter which is to consume the cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae. Vesuvius is seen rising from a crater as he is given the destructive fire from Jupiter. In the lower left three women representing the three cities destroyed by the eruption. Minerva in her signature helmet tries to interfere and stop the exchange. 

In the arches Heim painted six scenes, four of which show the destruction by the eruption and the other two of Piny the Elder’s death and Piny the Younger writing his letters. The medallions show the genies with works of art by Nicolas Goss and Auguste Vinchon. 

Troisieme Salle 

Ceiling by Charles Meyner 

Les Nymphes de Parthénope emportant leurs penates sur les bords de la Seine. 

Nymphes of Naples, the ancient Parthenope brought Pompeiian objects to Paris. 

The pediment of the Percier Colonnade Perrault, the eastern edge of the Louvre can be seen near the bottom of the painting. 

The arches are also by Meyner depict the life in Pompeii before the eruption, a little more PG rated then some of the original views.  Nicolas Gosse and Auguste Vinchon painted the grisailles below of ancient life in Pompeii.

Quatrieme Salle

Ceiling by Francois-Edouard Picot 

Cybèle protege contre le Vesuve les villes de Stabies, Herculanum and Resina. 

Cybèle protects against Vesuvius the cities of Stabies, Herculaneum and Resina. This painting replaced the original ceiling that was dedicated to Francois I accepting the gifts of Italy which was moved to the Gallery Campana on the other side of the Musée Charles X. Picot’s painting is rather dark and gives a sense of dread. Picot also painted the arches of the cities destroyed by the eruption. 

The grisailles by Alexandre-Evariste Fragonard represent the genies of science, industruty, arts, history and arms. 

Salle des Colonnes 

Separating the first and second part of the Musée Charles X is the beautiful room first created by Louis Le Vau under Louis XIV. It was the Sun King's addition to the Palais du Louvre that he would begin but never finish. Completed under Napoleon and given an update it would briefly serve as the Exposition of Industrial Products before it was turned into a makeshift chapel for the son of Charles X. The Duc de Berry was killed just outside of the Opera Garnier and from February 17 to 22, 1820 it became the site for devotion to his beloved son. 

In 1824 work continued and in 1826 Antoine-Jean Gros painted this beautiful ceiling. Made up of three separate sections on the ceiling, in the center is La Veritable Gloire, based on virtue and is surrounded by a garland with the names of many of the great military leaders, artists and writers on the ribbon. On the left is Mars Listening to Moderation and on the right, Time Elevates Truth to the Throne of Reason. 

Surrounding the room is also six rectangles of the illustrious patrons. Each of the busts can be seen with scrolls and the names of their biggest artists and writers of their period.  Augustus with Virgil and Horace; Leon X with Raphael and Michelangelo; Pericles with Homere, Socratice and Artistole. Francois I with De Vinci and Montaigne; Louis XIV with Le Brun, Molier, Le Sueur and Fontaine and last but not least Charles X with Malesherbes and Delille. 

Sixeme Salle

Ceiling by Edouard Picot 

L’Etude et le Génie devoilent l’antique Egypte à la Grèce. 

Study and Genius unveil ancient Egypt to Greece.  Egypt is seen seated and surrounded by antiquities as Mercury/Hermes guides the genie. 

Picot painted the arches as well with the beautiful garland again the Pompeii red background inspired by the Villa Albani Torolina in Rome. The grisailles by Gosse and Vinchon represent the birth of the arts. 

Septieme Salle

Ceiling by Alexandre-Denis Abel de Pujol

L’Egypt sauvée par Joseph, Egypt saved by Joseph. 

Joseph had saved the people of Egypt many times by providing food and even saving them from slavery to the Pharoh. 

The arches are trompe l’oeil imitation bronzes of the life of Joseph each separated by the depictions of the Nile flood and couples with garland. The grisailles by Pujol of the daily life of Egyptians 

Huitieme Salle 

Ceiling by Horace Vernet 

Jules II ordonnant les travaux du Vatican et de Saint Pierre, entourne de Bramante, Michel-Ange et Raphael

Jules II ordering the works of the Vatican and Saint Peter, surrounded by Bramante, Michelangelo and Raphae

Michelangelo later altered the plan going with the Greek cross form for the Baroque Renaissance design. Below are medallions of each of the Vatican proposed artists and 

Abel de Pujol painted the grisailles with fourteen artists and writers of the Renaissance. 

Neuvieme Salle 

Ceiling by Antoine-Jean Gros 

Le Genie de la France anime les arts protege l’Humanite

The genie of France animated the arts protecting humanity

France is seated on a throne with the horns of plenty at her feet while genies fly above representing the arts. A genie in the sky with his bleu, blanc, rouge plumes holds the shield of Louis-Philippe and Victory is coming out of the clouds with a laurel wreath.  This painting replaces a previous work depicting Charles X giving the gift of the museum. The painting is now at Versailles. 

Episode 97 - Women of the Resistance

On this week's new episode of Paris History Avec a Hemingway on La Vie Creative Podcast we share the stories of a few of the bravest women in French history. During WWII many women stood up to fight for France in any way they could and for many years they were left far from the pages of history. 

Marie Madeleine Fourcade was born on November 8, 1919 and at 20 years old was married and quickly fled to Paris. As a young journalists she did a radio show with Colette and became more and more outspoken against the fascisms  that was quickly spreading across Europe.   

At 27 she met Georges Loustaunau-Lacau who she met through her brother in law and who went by the code name Navarre and served in the Resistance.  Marie served as his chief as staff and when he was arrested in 1941 she took his place heading up the “Noah’s Ark” network.

Marie went by Hedgehog and recruited over 1000 people to serve in the network as pilots, curriers and radio operators. She was fearless and faced death every day. When the Germans figured how who she was and found her in a chateau and arrived to arrest her, she convinced them she needed to take a bath first. When the officers went outside to smoke she slipped out the door and made her way to Lyon. 

She had two children with her first husband she rarely saw. During the war she had an affair with Leo Faye, a French Air Force pilot and became pregnant. Marie never stopped, she still kept up her role in the resistance and eventually made her way to London and to Charles de Gaulle. 

Following the war in 1947 she married Hubert Fourcade a fellow Resistance leader and had three children. She slopped away to raise her children and in 1968 wrote her story in “Noah’s Ark” 

Fourcade died on July 20, 1989 at 79 years old at the Val de Grace and is buried at Pere Lachaise.

Cécile-Rol-Tanguy and her husband Henri met when she was a “godmother of war’ and sent hum letters during WWI. The two met and on April 19, 1919 the two married. A move to Paris followed and the two began working underground for the Resistance. She stroll through checkpoints with her baby stroller that could be filled with guns, money and grenades. Changing her name and paper she was always one step ahead of the Germans. 
When the war ended and de Gaulle arrived in Paris and marched down the Champs Élysées he held a reception in the Hotel de Ville. Cécile was the only woman in attendance and was only because of her husband. After WWII she was a Friend of the Fighting Spanish and when Francois Holland wanted to award her she declined, at first. 

Eventually she decided she would accept it but only on behalf of all of the women that had fought in the resistance. Henri died in 2002 and Cécile lived to be 101 years old on March 8, 2020. She should be in the Pantheon. 

Simone Segouin is a bit of the poster child of the ladies of the Resistance. Born on October 3. 1945 she was raised on her families farm in  Thivars. Her father worked in the Resistance as well in the local government. When the Germans came to town and took over the nearest chateau they wanted all the young girls to come and work there. They asked her father for a full list of all the girls and he listed Simone but that she was already a seamstress. 

Simone was able avoid working for them but when one day a knock on the door led to the officers dropping off a pile of items to be mended. Simone had no idea what to do so she fled to Chartres. Her first mission was to steal a German bicycle and then used to deliver her own messages. 

She was just 16 years old and had the courage to blow up bridges, damage German villages and laid traps for them. On August 23, 1944 she took part in the Liberation of Chartres and two days later arrived in Paris for the big fight, the Liberation of Paris. It was on the streets of Paris that her most famous image was shot. A young girl standing against a wall holding a large gun.

In 1946 she was given the distinguished cross and went onto medical school and became a nurse. Never one to stick to the roles she was supposed to have she had 6 children and never married. 

Helene Studler at 18 entered the Sisters of Saint Vincent of Paris. In 1939 she transported the wounded in her white truck and as an authorized driver to the prison camps was able to sneak hundreds of prisoners out. Her network helped transport over 2000 men and women to the Free Zone. She even saved further president Francois Mitterand. 

The Germans caught onto her and in February 1941 arrested Helen. She was frail and in poor health so they released her. That didn’t stop her for the next year to continued with her network of saving the French. 

Helen died 2 years later in November 1944 at 53 years old. 

Episode 96 - The Romantic Authors

In episode 193, we shared the stories of the artists of the  Romantic period. The period covered more than just art, it stretched to music and some of the most beloved pieces in French literature. 

The king and father of French Romantic literature has to be Victor Hugo. On June 5, 1832 he was sitting in the Tuileries when he suddenly heard gunfire. Heading towards it on his way home he had to hide on Rue Saint Sauveur behind a pillar for hours. The moment would then be used 30 years later when wrote Les Miserables. 

Hugo’s most famous novel, Notre Dame de Paris was inspired by the once glorious cathedral that was now falling into ruin. He took his time much to his publishers dismay but once the book was released in March 1831. As soon as it was published the public fell in love, not just with his book but also with the cathedral and in the end saving it. 

Another author of the time that did more to inspire the romantic artists and writers was François-René de Chateaubriand. Born in 1768, Chateaubriand wrote a lot about nature in his passionate ways that in turn inspired Balzac and Hugo. His story Atala, was depicted in the beautiful painting by Anne-Louis Girodet that we also talked about in the Love in the Louvre episode. 

Honoré de Balzac is a name many know from his La Comédie Humaine multi-volume tale. A combined 135 finished and unfinished pieces in many volumes was one of the first novels with recurring characters. They are fascinating to read. 

Alfred de Musset, is well known for his volatile relationship with George Sand but the man himself was a brilliant writer and also quite the ladies' man. After their relationship ended he wrote a novel about it, La Confession d’un Enfant du Siècle in 1836. It’s a real page turner and has been translated into english as well as into movies a few times. 

Episode 95 - Widows of Champagne

Veuve Clicquot may be the most famous of the widows of Champagne but she isn’t the only one. Lily Bollinger, Louis Pommery, Mathilde Emile Laurent-Perrier and Marie-Louise de Nonancourt each forged their own path and helped create a legacy that lives long past them in that lovely glass of perfect champagne. 

For a very long period in France, a woman was not allowed to head a company or even own one unless she was a widow. A few women he chose not to remarry after their husbands died because they had more rights as a widow. Veuve Clicquot paved the way and even inspired these other trailblazers. 

Lily Bollinger was born October 2, 1899 and in 1923 married Jacques Bollinger. Jacques was the grandson of Jacques Joseph who built Bollinger with Paul Renaudin and Athanase de Villermont  in 1829. Jacques Joseph married Charlotte de Villermont, daughter of his partner. In 1918 his grandson Jacques took over the winery and with Lily modernized and expanded shipping to Russia and England. 

Lily took over Bollinger when her husband suddenly died in 1941. It was during WWII and her caves were used to tend to the injured and hide families while she kept sending the Germans champagne to keep them away. 

Just a few decades after the winery originally started the Phylloxera aphid arrived in France. Around 1858-1863 more than half the vineyards in France were destroyed. With a stroke of luck or divine guidance one of the Bollinger vineyards was left untouched. It is to this day one of the only vineyards and wines you can buy that his from the original old vines. A bottle labeled “Old Vines Francaise” will set you back a few thousand euros and is still bottled today. 

Lily also revolutionized champagne by resting the wine four times longer on the lees than anyone else, giving champagne that “brioche” flavor we now love so much. She was also the first to add discorging dates onto the bottles. 

For most of her life she could be found riding her bike through the vineyards and town until she died in 1977 at 77 years old. 

Louise Pommery born in 1819 was inspired by Clicquot and after her husband’s death focused only on champagne production. Louis married Alexandre Louis Pommery in 1856. He was a wealthy wool trader and after their first son was born he decided to retire. 

Seventeen years later Louise became pregnant again and he thought he better get back to work. Louis bought into the champagne business in 1857. The next year he died and Louise took the helm of the company. 

As a school girl in London she noticed how everyone loved dry cider. Pommery created the first brut champagne in 1874. Before that champagne was very sweet. Today most of the champagne sold in the world is brut. On March 18, 1890 she died at her chateau in Chigny-les-Roses near Reims. The Champagne house stayed in the Pommery-Polignac family until 1979. 

Mathilde Emile Laurent-Perrier born in 1852 and in 1871 married Eugene Laurent on November 11, 1871. Eugene worked at the champagne house of Alphonse Pierlot as a cellar master and when Alphonse died without an heir he left the champagne house to Eugene. 

In 1887, Eugene died in a freak accident as a result of the newly installed freight elevator. Mathilde was now the head of the winery she renamed Veuve Laurent-Perrier et Cie. Exporting to Belgium, Germany and England where they couldn’t get enough of it.  The Laurent-Perrier Grand Vin Sans Sucre, inspired by Pommery, was very dry and debuted at the Brébant restaurant on the Eiffel Tower. After her death in 1925 her daughter Eugenie-Hortense Laurent took over until she sold it to Marie-Louise de Nonancourt. 

Marie Louise de Nonancourt had champagne in her blood. Her father was Henri Lanson and was from a wealthy champagne family. On January 25, 1918 she married Charles de Nonancourt who led the 102nd infantry in WWI and died just a few years later in 1922. 

She had been leading her family vineyard, Delamotte, that her father had given her in 1930. Marie bought Mathilde’s winery in 1939 and brought it under the umbrella of her Lanson Champagne family.  During WWII Marie outsmarted the Nazis by hiding her champagne behind a wall and sealing them away. A strategically placed Virgin Mary watched over them. Her son would later take over the company elevating both labels.  Her sons would later lead the company until Maurice was captured during WWII for his work wit the resistance and killed. Bernard remained at the helm in 1948 after Marie made him work in every single job and aspect of the wine making process. Bernard was one of the few to ever do that and made him beloved by his employees until his death. 

Listen to the story of each of these amazing women that forged a path for all those that came after them. Next time you are at a wine bar in Paris ask the story of the winemaker of each wine you try. Every bottle has a family and a story behind it filled with love and passion. 

Out now on La Vie Creative - Pari History Avec a Hemingway 

#podcast #paris #champagne

Episode 94 - Comtesse de Ségur

In France children since the 19th century grew up with the stories of Comtesse de Ségur. The tales of Sophie the impish little girl always getting into trouble and trying to learn from her mistakes still shape generations.

Comtesse de Ségur was born as Sophie Rostpchine in St Petersburg on August 1, 1799. Her family was of Russian nobility that dated back to Genghis Kahn. Her father, Count Fiodor Rostopchine was a lieutenant in the army and later the mayor of Moscow. In 1812 Napoleon and his Imperial army had Russia in his sights and when the Count heard he decided to evacuate the city and set fire to all of Moscow. When Napoleon arrived the city was in flames. More than 11,000 homes and businesses were destroyed and as the residents returned the Count and family were public enemy number one. 

The Rostopchine family fled to Poland, Germany, Italy and finally France in 1817. Young Sophie found a community of other expats and her future husband. Éugene de Segur who came from a long line of French military. The two married on July 13, 1819 and it had a few good years and then he returned to his old ways with the ladies. They had to have had a few good moments because the marriage resulted in eight children. 

Living at the Chateau des Nouettes in Normandy, a gift from her father as her children grew up and left to have their own families. In 1849, at 50 years old Sophie began to write stories for her grandchildren. Each of the stories had a moral and were not always filled with rainbows and butterflies. She used the names of her children and grandchildren in the stories but her most popular was based on her life and shared her name.

Growing up her mother was horrible. She was often locked in a room for days at a time without any food or water. In public she would be hit and ridiculed and all of that stayed with her and came out on the pages of her stories. 

At first they were just for her family but they were quickly shared with others. Her husband was not the president of the Compagnie des Chemins de Fer de l’Est rail company. Friends with Louis Hachette who also started the very first publishing company in France, he read the stories and wanted to publish them.  Hachette also had a big idea of setting up a newsstand in the Gare de Lyon, the first of its kind in 1852. That little newsstand turned into Relay which is found on four continents and over 1600 train & metro stations, hospitals and airports. 

Hachette published her “new fairy tales” as she named them and sold them in his series of the Pink Library for children ages 6 to 12 that are still published today.  Sophie’s deal with Hachette named her as the author and allowed her the copyright and royalties from all sales, unheard of for a woman at the time and in the following decades. 

In 1863 Éugene died and in the following years Sophie became a Franciscan nun, Sister Marie-François, but continued to write fairy tales. When the sales of her books declined she was forced to sell her chateau and moved to 27 Rue Casimi-Perier in the 7e near Sainte-Clotilde.  She would die here on February 1, 1874 at 74 years old.

Her stories are still popular today and have been reproduced many times and also made into movies and tv shows. Ségur’s most popular was based on her own childhood and at times is quite disturbing. In the Sophie series the young girl lashes out, often playing horrible tricks on her cousin Paul and neighbor girls, giving them tea scooped from the dirty dog water and sugar cubes of chalk. Her mother’s beloved goldfish were chopped up to be fed to her doll, leaving her mother and the staff at their wits' end. A trip to America would change the entire family when a ship caused the disappearance and death of her mother at sea. Little Sophie and her father survived and he quickly remarried and after a short illness passed away. 

Now Sophie was left with her stepmother who was based on the real mother of the Comtesse. A hard and brutal woman that yelled at her and beat her. Returning to France and her former home she was thankfully reunited with friends whose parents took Sophie under their wing and showed her what a loving family should be.

As recently as 2016, the story of Sophie hit the big screen in France and can be found online. The children of the Comtesse went on to keep her memory alive as well as write their own stories. 

Today you can find a bust of the Comtesses de Ségur in the western corner of the Jardin du Luxembourg. Created by Jean Boucher, it was inaugurated in this spot in 1910. 

Episode 93 - Romanticism

In this week’s new episode of La Vie Creative - Paris History Avec a Hemingway we share a slice of French art history known as Romanticism.  

Maybe a few of these are your very favorite artists or paintings and know when you put it all together you realize you love the Romanticism era as much as I do. Charles Baudelaire said in 1846 that “The period could not be defined by its subject but by the way the artist feels”.  
Through color, intimacy, spirituality, fluid forms and visible brushstrokes the paintings of Delacroix, Géricault and Chassereau come alive and defy the period. The period begins  at the end of the Revolution and charging their path far away from Neoclassicism with its porcelain skin and void of any sign of the artist in brushstrokes. 

Jacques Louis David’s students Jean-Auguste Ingres and Antoine Jean Gros tiptoed over the line when they brought a bit more emotion into their pieces. In 1804 Gros jumped head first into the Napoleon propaganda machine when commissioned by the man himself to rewrite the narrative of his time in Jaffa. Gros painted Napoleon Visiting the Plague Victims of JaffaI. An episode that happened on March 21, 1799 but the visit in truth was the poisoning and killing of over 50 people. That is not what is in the painting, bien sûr, instead Gros paints the Emperor reaching out and touching an infected victim.  

This stance was a well used biblical scene, Christ healing the sick, and gives the feeling that Napoleon could heal the sick and that he was immune to any disease making him god-like. In the right corner men are dead or dying and others reach out for help. When he returned to Paris and word began to spread of what really happened Gros was brought in for damage control. 

Jean Auguste-Dominique Ingres born August 29. 1780 was just 11 when he enrolled in the art academy in Toulouse and at 16 was in the atelier of David. His most gifted student quickly moved away from the master. In 1827 Ingres was commissioned to do a ceiling in the Musee Charles X inside the Louvre and inspired by Raphael’s Vatican fresco he gathered the great artists and authors in European history including Raphael, Michelangelo, Poisson and Dante. It was also his way of letting these young up and coming artists that were beginning to blur the edges of art to remember where it came from.

Théodore Géricault born in 1791 studied under Pierre-Narcisse Guérin who trained many of the Romantic greats including Ary Scheffer and where Géricault met Delacroix. As with many artists in the 19th and 20th century they also would learn at the feet of the masters within the walls of the Louvre. Copying the paintings of Titian, Rembrandt and the artist that influenced the period Ruebens. 

Géricault’s masterpiece Raft of the Medusa stretching across the wall twenty-three feet was painted when he was just 27 years old. So large he needed to rent a larger atelier and to get the bodies just right he built a lifesize model and even brought body parts from the morgue to study as they rotted. Based on the actual shipwreck and rescue of the crew it was a huge political and controversial episode in French history. Géricault brought in all the emotions of the scene. In the top it shows a man waving a rag to alert the ship on the horizon but in the foreground of the piece a father holds his son that is dead from sliding into the water. 

As the men died, the others used them to survive as they floated out at sea. Close to 150 men crowded on a large raft and only 15 survived the two week ordeal. So devoted to the theme Géricault even interviewed the survivors to get every horrific detail correct.

For the models, he used one of his favorites, a gorgeous Haitian named Joseph. It’s Joseph we see waving the rag at the top of the raft. A few years ago the Musée d’Orsay held an amazing exhibit dedicated to the black model in art and giving them a name, as well as sharing other sketches and paintings. It was fantastic. You can find more HERE. 

Another model was a young artist that was so moved when he saw the painting in his atelier that he ran through the streets screaming. Éugene Delacroix was just 19 and couldn’t believe what he saw. Many people incorrectly attribute the man in the top hat in Delacroix’s Liberty to either being the artist himself or Géricault. It is actually in the Raft that we find Delacroix. The man lying on his stomach reaching out his hand to the board is the young Delacroix who would become the leader of the entire period. 

Just 5 short years later Géricault died at 32 years old, but left behind one of the most amazing pieces of the period and can be seen in the Louvre not far from his friend Delacroix. 

Walk over to Liberty Leading the People and notice the bodies in the lower left side and see if they remind you of the Raft and a nod to their great friendship. 

Delacroix wasn’t going to be an artist, he was going to be a writer but at 17 he could be found in the Louvre copying the masters hoping that one day his name would be mentioned in the same category. The romantic words of Lord Byron, Shakespeare and Greek dramas came to life on his canvas with the master touch of color.

In January 1832 he went to Morocco and was given special permission to visit a harem and sketch the women. In 1834 it became the Women of Algers that has recently been restored and return to the Louvre on January 12, ninety years after he first sketched it. The stunning restoration removed the yellowed varnish and restored the colors. A temporary banner shows you an up close before and after. The same painting inspired Picasso to reimagine the same scene in his own Picasso way.

Delacroix died on August 13, 1863 and Baudelaire also said that with the death of Delacroix so was the death of Romanticism. His works still hang in the churches and government buildings and of course the Louvre and Musée Delacroix and inspire artists even today. 

A young Manet would visit the Louvre and copy the same masters that taught those that came before him. He would later also copy Delacroix.

Join us as we walk through a few of the artists of the period and what end up being some of the most popular paintings in the Musée du Louvre. And in a few weeks check back as we explore the authors of the period who not only wrote some of the most loved pieces in French literature but also saved a beloved monument.

Episode 92 - Love in the Orsay

The Musée d’Orsay is the beacon of Impressionist light sitting on the edge of the Rive Gauche. Of course it is known for those amazing paintings of Monet and Renoir but it also holds a fw other treasures and some of the most lovely sculptures in Paris. On this month of LOVE we will take a look at a few others that have their own little take on love.

The relationship between Camille Claudel and Rodin was one of inspiration, love and eventually anger. As his muse and lover, Camille wanted to marry the famous artist but he was still with his longtime partner Rose. In 1892 she ended the relationship but her feelings for Rodin were still there. In 1895 the French government commissioned Camille to create a sculpture for the State. Her striking, beautiful and heart breaking sculpture L’Age Mur was her answer. 

It depicts an older woman leading an older man away while his arm reaches back to a young woman on her knees pleading with him to stay. Believing that the older woman was Rose leading Rodin away as Camille reaches out while on her knees.  Many including Roden thought this was a message to their relationship and were outraged. The French government canceled the commission when they saw the subject and how it offended Rodin. Camille would still complete it and it would be exhibited in 1899, much to the chagrin of Rodin.  Up until this point Rodin supported her financially but that ended with L’Age Mur and her final break from the sculptor. He would later do all he could to help save her from the fate her brother put her in, but sadly it wouldn’t work. 

For more on Camille, listen to our podcast episode about her tragic life

Painted in 1865  by Gustave Moreau, Orphée tells the story of Orphée  or Oprheus  from  the poem Metamorphoses by Ovid written in 8 AD, complete with more than 250 stories of Greek mythology.  Orpheus was the son of Apollo and the Muse Calliope and was a talented musician and poet who could charm anybody including the wildest of beasts. But it was a follower of Dionysus, the Maenads who ripped his body to shreds after the death of his wife, Eurydice. In the painting by Moreau his head is seen laying on his lyre being held in the arms of a young girl who looks at him lovingly. Set against the landscape reminiscent of a da Vinci painting, it is beautiful and serene in the face of such a barbaric act. Exhibited at the Salon of 1866 it was purchased by the state for the Musée  du Luxembourg, where the art of living artists was displayed until it eventually moved to the Louvre and finally landed at the Orsay. 

Now look closer at the face of Orpheus. Does it look familiar at all? The face Moreau used is that of the Dying Slave by Michelangelo.  The two unfinished statues that were created for the tomb of Pope Julius II but never came to fruition. Instead he gave 2 of the 6 statues to Roberto Strozzy who would then give them to King Francois I of France and would eventually end up in their final home, the Musée du Louvre.  The Dying Slave appears to be young and handsome and thought to be asleep. He looks rather sensual and at peace, more so then his friend the Rebellious Slave next to him. 

Claude Monet was enamored with Camille Doncleux, he would use her for the model of every woman in Les Femmes au jardin et Le Dejeuner. Look closely at each of the women, they are all Camille. She would also sit for Renoir and Manet, Manet even painted the couple and family a few times. In 1870 the two would finally marry and in 1878 they would have their second son Michel. Camille would develop cancer shortly after and a year later she would be gone. 

As Monet watched his beloved wife Camille slip away he said “I caught myself watching her tragic temples almost mechanically searching for the sequence of changing shades which death was imposing upon her rigid face. Blue, yellow, grey. My reflexes compelled me to the unconscious action in spite of myself”, he picked up a canvas and painted her. Everything about this painting, even as heartbreaking as it is, is beautiful and shows how the painter tried to hold onto her until the very last possible second.

Listen to the story of his three way love affair and the horrible second wife that destroyed Camille’s memory.

The sculpture Oedipe á Colone by Jean Baptiste Hughes found on the upper terrace tells the story of love between a child and parent. Created in 1885, Hughes pulled the theme from Homer and created it out of marble. “Here we are under the olive trees of Colones in the first scene. Set me on a rock, said Oedipe and look after your blind father”. Beautifully sculpted, the older Oedipe shows his age while his daughter Antigone sits next to him with her head on his shoulder looking up adoringly at him. It’s amazing how much emotion can come through in a chunk of stone.

Thomas Couture’s Les Romains de la Décadence was shown at the Salon of 1847 and left a very memorable impression. The history painter wanted to remind the quickly changing Paris heading into the Industrial Revolution that French painting was rooted in Greek and Renaissance style. Following the Romantic movement of color, emotion and movement Couture wanted to bring back the academic style. 

The center of the painting is pure debauchery with half naked drunk men and women. The lower left has a sad gentleman at the base of a statue looking down and on the right two fully clothed men look on in judgment. They all are framed by the very classic columns and marble statues reminding you of the past. What Couture was also doing was making a statement on the current climate in France. The excess and moral decay of the July Monarchy and to tell us not to forget our values deeply set in culture. 

When it appeared at the Salon critics thought it was a blend of Classicalism as well as Romanticism which didn’t please Couture. The female bodies were inspired by the paintings of Ingres which you will see more of next week. 

Couture might be remembered more for his students including Manet and Pierre Puvis de Chavannes as well as Berthe Morisot.

No one captured motherhood like Berthe Morisot and in 1872 she painted what could be her most popular painting, Le Berceau, The Cradle. The subject is her sister Edme who also started out as a painter and her new daughter Blanche who is sleeping in the cradle. She lovingly looks down on her and we see her little face through the sheer fabric hanging over her cradle. 

It was Berthe’s first painting of motherhood and when she gave birth to her own daughter in 1878 she would become her favorite model. The Cradle stayed with the family and to Blancehe Pontillau who was the baby until 1930 when it was given to the Louvre and eventually to the Orsay.

Learn more about Berthe Morisot’s life and the legacy she left behind in an early episode of the podcast.

Pierre Bonnard was a founding member of Les Nabis inspired by Gauguin and the Japanese woodcut prints. His painting Man and Woman around 1900 is of his wife Marthe and himself. He stands nude in the foreground and she sits back on the bed. The two seem very separate and apart and could be because of their real life story. 

Marthe Boursin Bonnard was born in 1869 and moved to Paris to work in a flower making shop. Shortly after she met Pierre and told him her name was Marthe de Méligny and of Italian royalty. She told him the truth after they were married but their entire marriage was filled with jealousy, anxiety and bouts of madness that sometimes separated them. She was his model for the first years of their life together then disappeared from the canvases all together. 

A stunning sculpture of marble created by Auguste Clésinger appeared at the Salon of 1847 at the same time as Coutures Roman Decadence, which is widely known as the Roman Orgy.  Clésinger was commissioned by rich industrialist Alfred Mosselman to create a sculpture of his mistress Apollonie Sabatier. She was known as La Presidente for her popular salons and also as the muse of artists and poets. Baudelaire was so inspired by her he wrote a few poems in Les Fleur des Mal about her. 

She lays with her back arched in what appears to be ecstasy. The title of the piece is Woman Stung by a Snake and if you look closely you can find the small snake wrapped around her wrist. Theophile Gautier said of the piece “Pure orgasmix delirium, the disheveled Maeriad tumbles at the feet of Bacchus, father of liberty and joy. A powerful spasm of happiness” 

However that is not what freaked people out. It appeared to be created from her actual body. In the 19th century there was a controversial technique known as body sculpting that was natural molding of the body. Look closely at the back of her upper thighs, the dimples of cellulite set off an alarm with everyone that saw her. 

To plead his case he recreated a slightly larger version now in the Petit Palais. Rodin was also accused of this in 1840 for his Age of Bronze lifesize figure of a man. 

Renoir was commissioned in 1883 to create three paintings with the theme of dance by Paul Durand-Ruel. He used his favorite model Suzanne Valadon who he had worked with for five years. The young model soaked up everything she saw and at night painted her own canvases hidden away from everyone. Visiting his studio on the Rue d’Orchampt she stood for hours with his friend Paul Lhôte posed into the three separate themes. 

Renoir lived with his future wife Aline Charigot and one day she had enough and was tired of Suzanne and thought Renoir was having an affair with her. She entered the studio and scratched up the face of Suzanne on the Dance in the Country. Renoir relented and repainted the model to be of Aline instead of Valadon. 

Two of the three are in the Orsay. Dance in the City with Valadon and Lhôte in a very beautiful dress and with all the very stiff and proper etiquette of a society ball. 

Dance in the Country with Aline is more relaxed and under a chestnut tree and two small faces can be seen watching the couple from below the terrace. 

The third, now in the Boston FIne Arts museum is of Suzanne. The Dance at Bougival took place just outside of Paris and popular with the Impressionist. Behind the dancers are cafe goers enjoying an afternoon while the couple enjoy a moment of their own. 

Listen to the tale of Suzanne Valadon in the very first episode we did of Paris History Avec A Hemingway.

Episode 91 - Love in the Louvre

To celebrate this lovely Valentine’s Day we are exploring more of the art of the Musée du Louvre and all the definitions of love that they convey. Last week we shared Psyché and Cupid, and today we uncovered a few more. 

From Catherine de Medici and her monument to her husband’s heart that inspired a beloved Paris monument you all know today to the father’s love and appreciation for saving his daughter. Along with the painting of a king's beloved that always arises a few giggles and the throws of passion that are surrounded by suggestive hints. Each of these and more that we cover in episode 92 are filled with beauty and can be found in my favorite valentine, the Louvre. 

You can even take this episode with you on your next visit to the Louvre and discover them on your own.

German Pilon 

Monument to the Heart of Henri II 

Richelieu Rez-de-chaussée salle 214 

In 1561 Catherine de Medici commissioned this monument to be created to hold the heart of her husband Henri II and later hers. Pilon was inspired by Hecate, the ancient Greek goddess and the Three Graces. Capturing each of these women in a moment of dancing, each in a different pose. Pilon inspired one of the most beloved fixtures of Paris, the Wallace Fountains. Sir Richard Wallace saw this monument and inspired him in his creation of the fountains that would appear across Paris to help combat public drunkenness. 

Steps away is Jean Goujon’s Diane d’Anet created for Henri II’s actual great love Diane de Poitiers 

Podcast episode about Catherine de Medicis 

Podcast episode about Diane

Peter Paul Rubens 

Presentation of the Portrait of Marie de Medicis 

Richelieu 2nd floor Salle de Medicis 

Marie asked Rubens to create two grand paintings on moments of her life for her Palais du Luxembourg. Before they were finished she loved them so much she asked him to create 19 more. Painted in just four years, the monumental paintings depict pivotal moments of her life, with a bit of creative license taking on the retelling.  

In this painting Henri IV appears to look adoringly at his soon to be second wife who would bring him the long awaited heir to the throne. The two would marry by proxy October 5, 1600 and finally meet in person on December 12, 1600

Podcast episode about Marie de Medicis 

Ecole de Fontainebleau

Gabrielle d’Estrée and Her Sister 

The favorite mistress and love of Henri IV is depicted with her sister. Her sister is pinching her niple, a symbol of pregnancy. In her left hand she holds the coronation ring of Henri IV, a pledge of his love for her. She is thought to be pregnant with their son, the future Duc de Vendom. Henri went to Pope Clement VIII in March 1599  requesting the annulment of his first marriage to Marguerite de Valois which he would eventually allow but not in time. Gabrielle would die of eclampsia before Henri could return. He would marry Marie de Medici by the end of the year. 

Listen to the episode of the life of Gabrielle d’Estrée

Philippe de Champaigne 

Ex Voto 1662 ou Ex Voto Mother Catherine Agnés Arnauld and Sister Catherine Sainte-Suzanne de Champaigne. 

The painter's daughter, shown sitting in October 1600 developed a horrible fever that lasted 14 months that caused her arms and legs to become paralyzed. Living at the Convent Port-Royale, Mother Superior prayed by her side, shown in the painting for 9 days and nights. The painting shows the moment that the miracle happens with the beam of light flooding her face and hands. 

Jean-Antoine Watteau

The Voyage to Cythera 

Sully 2nd floor salle 917 

Painted in 1717 it depicts one of the many Fête Galantes inspired by the Sun King, Louis XIV. Watteau captures a group of people but when you look closer starting from right to left it shows the many stages of courtship under the watchful eye of the bust of Venus. Cythera is thought to be the island where the Goddess of Love was born Claude Debussy visited this painting many times and inspired him to write L’Isle Joyeuse in 1904. 

Take a listen https://youtu.be/9xNfmsN_8hQ

Jean-Honoré Fragonard 

The Bolt 

Sully 2nd floor Salle 929 

Up to much interpretation the painting is filled with erotic symbolism. Is she in the throws of passion or is she being held against her will. Fragonard also added the single apple to the table to give an idea of Eve giving into her temptations. 

Anne-Louis Girodet de Boussy-Trioson 

The Entombment of Atala 

Denon 1st floor Salle 75

Based on Chateaubriand’s Atala ou The Love of Two Savages in the Wilderness

The young Atala in 17th century America meets and falls in love with the Indian Chacta. She had pledged her life to God and to remain a Virgin, a promise she also made to her mother. Falling in love with Chacta she couldn’t give into her passion and killed herself. Chacta and Father Aubry dug her a grace in a cave as he clings to her legs. On the walls the artists added Chateaubriand’s words inspired by the Book of Jobs. “I have faded like a flower, I have withered like the grass in the field”

Ary Scheffer 

The shades of Francesca da Remini and Paola Malatesta appear before Dante and Virgil 

Denon 1st floor room 77

Francesca fell in love with her husbands brother Paola. Her husband, Giovanni came across them in an embrace and killed them. From Dante’s Divine Comedy the lovers are in the 2nd level of hel reserved for the lustful as Dante and Virgil look on. Roden aslo captured the couple just before their death in La Baiser. 

For even more, check out the live chat I did in 2021 with many of these pieces as well as a few of last weeks Psyché et l’Amour

Episode 90 - The History of Psyché and L'Amour

As you walk through the Musée du Louvre you may come across a few figures over and over captured in the paintings and statues and wonder who they are. In this week's newest episode of Paris History Avec a Hemingway on La Vie Creative Podcast we share a little more about one of the most popular, Psyché et l’Amour.

Pysché was the beautiful daughter of a Greek king and had two sisters. Her sisters were joined in marriage to other royalty but Psyché was so beautiful that the men only wanted to look at her and not ask for her hand. Her father was distraught and went to the Temple of Apollo to talk to the Oracle of Delphi who told him Psyché was destined to be married to a beast that even the gods would fear. 

There was only one thing to do. She was to dress in funeral attire and go to the highest peak in the area and meet her fate. Psyché and her father did just that and as they waited nothing happened. To end her pain she decided to jump to her death. As she fell Zephyr, the god of the West Wind arrived and carried her off to a meadow. When she awoke she wandered into a house of golden columns and cupboards filled with gold. 

Heri-Joseph Rutxhiel 

Zephyr enlevet Psyché

Richelieu Ground floor Salle 225 

That first major moment of her story was captured in marble. Look closely at his hair, so amazing.

Drawn to the bedroom she lays down and an invisible being makes love to her. Night after night this man that she can not see comes to her. When she tells her sister about her nightly visitor they tell her that she needs to see who she is and make sure it is not the beast the Oracle had promised. One night while her mysterious love slept she crawled from bed and picked up an oil lamp and held it close to the face of Cupid. As she leaned over to take a closer look she was stunned at how beautiful the god of love was. Backing away suddenly she pierced herself with one of his arrows, the oil dripped on the handsome god and he was awoken. 

Francois Nicolas Delaistre 

Cupid et Psyché 

Richelieu Ground Floor Ministers Staircase 

This is one of my favorites and captures the moment of her betrayal. He lays back asleep and over his head she holds the lamp. It is one you need to see from all sides. On the base it also has a relief of Jupiter listening to the pleas of Venus, the departure of Mercury to take her to the gods and Psyché begging for cupid as he leaves her.

Cupid suddenly flees and is stunned by her betrayal. Psyché, abandoned and distraught, goes to the temple of Ceres and asks for help to find her love. However, she is a mortal and the gods could not assist her, but Venus might be able to. Venus was the mother of Cupid and she was already well aware of the beautiful mortal that was stealing the heart of her son. 

Venus was known as the most beautiful woman in the world and wasn’t happy that her title was being threatened. She told Psyché she needed to complete four tasks and if she did that she would consider helping her, but these tasks were impossible and Venus figured she would be rid of her once and for all. 

Augustine Pajou 

Psyché Abandonée 

Richelieu Ground Floor Salle 221 

As she sits distraught after she lost her love Cupid due to her betrayal she hangs her head in shame. On the base it says “Psyché loses love by wanting to know it”

The first task was to separate a large pile of grains and beans. Psyché decided the task was too difficult and instead went to  a wedding.  That night when she returned drunk she was amazed to see the task was complete. The insects were drawn to her beauty and separated the grains and beans for her. 

Task number two was to return to Venus the golden wool of the sheep of Helios. These sheep were very violent and as she tried to get close they would run her off. Suddenly a strong wind came through and their golden wool was blown off and caught on the briars which she could easily gather. Venus couldn’t believe she completed each of these tasks. 

The third was to collect the black water from the river Styx that fell from the high rocks guarded by dragons. Jupiter saw the young girl struggling and sent his eagle to combat the dragons and to gather the water. 

Adriaen de Vries 

L’Enlevement de Psyché 

Denon Ground Floor Salle 403 

This bronze statue will stop you in your tracks. It captures the moment Mercury takes her and the vial to the heavens. Make sure to walk all the way around and catch every gorgeous detail.

The final task must be harder, she needed to put an end to this girl that was charming the gods and creatures. Her last task must  be impossible. Psyché must bring back the drops from Proserpina, the queen of the underworld that would promise every lasting beauty. Psyché felt there wasn’t any way she could survive this and climbed to a tall peak where she was going to end her life. Suddenly she heard a voice that told her what she needed to do to pass the tests of the  underworld. She must remain silent, bring cakes for the three headed dog Cerberus and two coins for Charon the ferryman and she would succeed. 

Antonio Canova

Psyché Ranimeé par le baiser de l’Amour 

Denon Rez-de-chaussée Salle 403, Galerie Michel-Ange 

One of the most beautiful sculptures in the Louvre. Canova captures the moment when Cupid comes across Psyché after her curiosity got the best of her and opened the vial that Venus asked her to obtain from the underworld. She fell into a deep sleep and Cupid discovered her and picked her up in his arms and gave her a kiss. Canova created this in 1787 it would end up in the hands of Joachim Murat, brother in law to Napoleon who later gave it to the Louvre.

She did just that and obtained the vial and was instructed not to open it and began her return to Venus. Mercury takes her in flight to Venus but when she arrived her curiosity got the best of her and she opened the vial. With one whiff she fell into a deep sleep. In a lovely meadow of flowers Cupid discovered her and thought she had died. He picked her up and placed a kiss on her lips and she awakened. Knowing his mother was going to be a problem he took Psyché to Zeus and asked for his help and that he could marry her. He gathered the gods and they all agreed. Psyché was given a vial of Ambrosia to drink that would transform her to the Goddess of the Soul and Venus would have to accept her.

Francois-Edouard Picot 

L’Amour et Psyché ou Psyché abandoned by Cupid 

Denon 1st floor Salle 702 

Cupid leaves their bed as he reaches for his arrows. Psyché reaches out to where is was beside her while she stays in her peaceful slumber

Francois Gérard 

Psyché et Cupid 

Sully 2nd floor Salle 934 

Painted for the Salon of 1798. Cupid visits Psyché, but she doesn’t see him. He has fallen in love with her after his mother Venus sends him off to find the young beauty and to shoot with one of his arrows so she would fall in love with a hideous beast and fade away so Venus can keep her crown of the most beautiful. Above her head is a butterfly, her future symbol as the goddess of the soul.

Episode 89 - Vivian Maier

Vivian Maier stacks up next to some of the greatest photographers of our time, but she never planned on being seen. Born February 1, 1926 to a French mother and an Austrian-American father she would be remembered as never without her camera after the age of 10. Vivian’s parents separated when she was just three and in 1932 she left for her mothers native France. Influenced by Jeanne Bertrand and artist and photographer and close friend to her mother, she began to take photos around the small Haute Alps village. 

In 1951, Vivian was hired as a  nanny  for a Southampton family. In 1956 she moved to Chicago and began to work with the Gensburg family and their three boys who would remain in her life until her death. A series of families followed and each move included her 200 boxes filled with every single piece of her life including hundreds of undeveloped film canisters.

In 2007, Jon Maloof, a young Chicago real estate investor bought a new house and wanted to write a history of the area and needed some old photos. At the auction house across the street he found a large collection of negatives and film. He placed a bid on the largest box for $380 and that was the start of a obsessive hunt. Once he began to look at the photos he was stunned by how amazing they were. He tried to find info on the photographer but she was totally unknown. 

Maloof hunted down the buyers of the other boxes and purchased everything he could and found the artist's name, Vivian Maier. A google search came up with nothing but he continued to put her life together like a puzzle. In 2009 he happened to search for her online again and this time found her obituary.

Vivian worked as a nanny for more than 50 years. In her final years without any of her own family left, the Gensburg boys stepped in and took care of her. She lived a very quite life venturing between the park and her apartment until November of 2008 when a fall on the ice landed her in a care facility. The boys took care of her and also rented a storage unit for her things. On April 21, 2009 she took her last breath and finally came out of the shadows. 

In 2008, a year before she died Jon Maloof began to upload her photos one by one onto Flickr and became a instant sensation. In 2009 after he found her name it led to the Gensburg boys and they told him to take whatever they didn’t keep. Her life now came together before their eyes. 

The rest of the world finally discovered Vivian in 2013 when Finding Vivian Maier's documentary came out and was a hit. There was a court case against Maloof wondering if he did enough to find her heirs and a foundation in her name and a scholarship created by Maloof. Today her collection is featured in museums around the world and recently in Paris at the Musée du Luxembourg which constantly had a line to attend.

The photos in black and white are amazing and a slice of time that is long gone. Vivian had an amazing eye and her photos are some of the best I had ever seen. A few pulled you in and still have not let me go. To see more of her work visit VivianMaier.com and keep an eye on where and when you can see the images yourself.

Episode 88 - The Statues of Notre Dame

On the night of April 15, 2019 as we watched the flames reach the sky from the roof of Notre Dame de Paris it was hard not to be heartbroken. The cathedral of Paris belonged to the entire world and there was a collective gasp as we watched and hoped it for the best. 

In an unbelievable stroke of luck just four days before the fire the statues of the roof were removed one by one. On April 11, 2019 the twelve apostles flew over the streets to head south for a bit of a freshening up. The plan was to return them two by two to Notre Dame to be placed on display before their return to their roof. The plans changed but we are very lucky they can now be seen up close, an opportunity that you don’t want to miss. 

In 1795, my hero Alexandre Le Noir jumped into action to save the monuments of France that were in the path of destruction by the Revolution. The tombs of the kings and queens in the Basilique Saint Denis would have been lost if not for Alexandre. The rescued monuments made their way to the Ecole des Beaux Arts and became the first Museum of French Monuments. It lasted until 1815 when the contents were returned to their rightful homes Emmanuel Viollet-Le-Duc, an architect that plays a major part in Notre Dame had a dream to recreate the museum and in 1879 it was revived and opened at the Trocadero. 

Filled with the casts of French churches and monuments it was the perfect home for the statues of Notre Dame until they can return to their peak over the Seine.

In 1842 Viollet-le-Duc and Baptiste Lassus were selected to rehabilitate the grand lady. HIs early plan included the addition of two spires on the roof. The former spire had been removed in 1797 for safety issues and an entire generation never knew the church with a spire. Coming off the renovation of Sainte Chapelle, Viollet-le-Duc wanted to add statues to the roof and tapped Adolphe Victor Geoffroy-Dechaume who he had worked with on Sainte Chapelle. 

Work began on the Apostles in 1848 and they were a bit more than meets the eye. The inner structure was created with iron and then covered with copper sheets making for a much lighter statue that could stand far above the streets. In the Périgeux offices of SOCRA the statues arrived and the work began. Many of the internal structures had to be partially replaced. Micro-sandblasting with apricot powder the outer layer of patina was removed. A dark bronze colored paint was added and coated with wax and after a month of work the statue was complete. 

There are 16 total statues, twelve  Apostles and four Evangelists and they can all be found in the rarely visited Cité de l’Architecture & Patrimoine. There are four different body types and Dechaume then made each unique with their head, hands and attributes. 

Saint Pierre (Peter), is of course holding a key as he is always depicted in almost every church you will ever enter. Waiting at the gates of heaven, the “Prince of the Apostles” is the first you'll also encounter as you walk in. Saint Pierre is the patron saint of clockmakers, locksmiths, foot problem and Las Vegas as well as a very long list of others. 

Saint Matthieu (Matthew) A former customs officer and tax collector that left to follow Jesus also wrote the first gospel. The open book he holds is a nod to that. Matthieu is the patron saif of accountants, Italy and perfume makers. 

Saint André (Andrew) The brother of Saint Pierre, he was a fisherman and one of the first disciples chosen. Sentenced to death by dying on the cross he asked that his cross be different from the one Jesus was crucified. A cross in the shape of an X was created and he magically attached to it instead of having to be nailed. Today he is the patron saint of fishermen, singers, pregnant women and Scotland which uses the cross of Saint Andrew as its flag. 

Saint Jude The same body as Saint Thomas he is without any attributes. 

Saint Simon In this statue he is holding a book, but is often seen holding a long saw that was the instrument of his death. 

Saint Bartholomew The first statue to be restored, he is holding a knife to signify his rather gruesome death. He had been skinned alive and beheaded and now is the patron saint of butchers and leather workers, which is a bit gruesome. On a lighter note he is also the patron saint of cheese and salt merchants. 

Saint Jacques Le Mineur (James the Younger) Holds a club that he was killed with, often depicted with stones that he was struck with. 

Saint Paul Once the persecutor of Christians he had a divine revelation and converted and became a preacher. Killed in 64AD with a sword that cut off his head, he now rests his hand on a sword and strokes his beard. 

Saint Jacques Le Majeur (James the Major) At the scene of many of the most important events he was one of the closest disciples of Jesus. He preached through Spain and was the first to be executed in 44AD. His names is given to the pilgrimage walk, the Compostela and can be seen with a walking stick. He also gives his name to scallops and is the patron saint of Spain, Seattle, pharmacists and oyster fishermen. 

Saint Jean (John) The youngest and beardless one is always easy to spot. One of the most loyal Apostles, he holds a cup that signifies his miracle of drinking poison and surviving. 

Saint Philippe Holds the cross from which he was killed and is the patron saint of pastry chefs and hat makers. 

At the base of each cardinal point leading to the spire is one of the four evangelists in the form of four living creatures. Each is in the same pose and has their heads turned towards the saints that look below. 

The Eagle of Saint Jean, the Angel of Saint Matthieu, the Lion of Saint Marc and the Ox of Saint Luc. 

The last saint you will find has a special added touch. Saint Thomas, the patron saint of architects, takes on the physical appearance of Viollet-le-Duc. Dechaume also added the architect's name to the ruler that he holds out from his right side as his left arm is raised. Unlike the other 11 statues of the Apostles, Saint Thomas turns to look up at his spire. 

I am relieved that he didn’t have to see his beloved spire burn on that early spring evening. 

Also on sight is the miracle rooster that once crowned the spire. As the fire ate away at the fleche, all I could think of was the rooster that held three precious relics. When the spire could no longer hold itself up it crashed into the transept of the church and the rooster was thought to have perished. The next day, architect Philippe Villeneuve was photographed holding the battered rooster with the relics still safely inside. 

Those precious relics include a piece of the Crown of Thorns. A relic of Saint Denis, the 3rd century patron saint of Paris that was beheaded and walked five miles holding his head. And a relic of Sainte Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris that saved the city numerous times during her life and many times in the 1600 years since her death.  I think she did it once more on April 15, 2019 saving the beloved Notre Dame from total destruction. 

Be sure to visit the Cité de l’Architecure & Patrimoine when you are next in Paris. Located at the Trocadero, just across from the Eiffel Tower it is open Wednesday - Monday 11am - 7pm and Thursday 11am - 9pm. 

However, don’t wait to explore, watch my video that shows you all these treasures of Notre Dame and more.

Episode 87 - Olympe de Gouges

There are always a few women in history that are remembered for shaking things up a bit. Olympe de Gouges is definitely one of them and she did it back in the 18th century. 

Born May 7, 1748 in Montauban, Marie-Olympe Mouisset wasn’t sure who her father was. At 17 in 1765 she married Louis-Yves Aubrey de Gourges. The next year son Pierre was born and just two years after their marriage her husband was swept away in a flood. 

In 1770 she moved to Paris with her sister and became the belle of the Paris Salons. Jacques Biétrix de Rozières who was a director of a military transport company who wanted to marry the lovely Olympe but she knew she had more freedom as a writer as a widow than married.

Olympe began to speak up through her words and on the stage. Creating her own theater company of women that would perform her plays. Her first play was Zamore et Mirza. The story of slavery in the colonies that never took the stage. It was 1784 and the Comedie Francaise received death threats and the controversial play would have to wait but would still send her to the Bastille. 

One play after another spoke out against women’s rights and those that couldn’t and would all lead her to her biggest accomplishment. As the Revolution neared she supported the monarchy until the day Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette tried to escape. She had hoped MA would support the rights of women including the freedom of speech, voting and running for office. The Rights of Men was published in August of 1789 and two years later Olympe would publish her own version.

On September 14, 1791 the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen was made public. The 17 articles were reimagined and many were the same as the mens, just changing the gender. 

Of course this didn’t sit well with Robespiere and had her arrested on July 20, 1793. She was charged five days later with “writing works contrary to the wants and needs of the people”. A trial followed in October, but the end was laid out long before. On November 4, 1793 she walked the scaffolding to her death by guillotine. She would live on as a symbol for centuries as the woman that stood up for so many and laid the path for equality.

Episode 86 - Sainte Genevieve Part Two

When you visit the many churches of France you will find small marble plaques in many of the chapels. The Ex-votos are messages of appreciation to a certain saint or to Christ. These can also come in other forms as well. 

There are many dedicated to Sainte Genevieve all over Paris in statues, art and even a grand piece of architecture.  After her relics were used to save the city and country members of the government and royalty thought it was a smart PR move to align themselves with Sainte Genevieve. 

In 1696 Nicolas de Largilliere had sketched out a design for a calendar but as the piece came to life it needed a large canvas. The Ex-voto for the Corps de Ville de Sainte Geneviève"  featured the leaders of the city government including the prevot Claude Bose and is surrounded by other officials seated inside of Notre Dame de Paris. Above them in the dark  cloud is Sainte Genevieve who looks down and reminds of the 1694 miracle of her relics bringing the rain back. 

The largest ex-voto was as a result of a promise made by Louis XV. On August 17, 1744. At war with Austria, Louis XV fell deathly ill in the city of Metz. He said a prayer that if he survived he would have a church built and dedicated to Sainte Genevieve. He survived and kept his promise, but it took ten years before the funds were requested and another ten before anything began.  

On September 6, 1774 the first stone was laid with the king and architect Jacques Germain Soufflot on hand. A large wooden model of the Pantheon stood at the top of the hill while fireworks exploded and cannons fired. In August of 1788 enough of the Eglise dedicated to the saint was completed that she was finally able to move in. It wouldn’t last long, by 1790 she was moved over to Eglise Saint Etienne de Mont. 

At the death of Mirabeau on April 2, 1791 the government decided they needed a temple dedicated to the great men of France and the Eglise Sainte Genevieve was changed to the Pantheon.

After the Revolution and through multiple rulers the building bounced back and forth between church and temple many times. While she never came back, the inside of the structure today still has some reminders of her. Between 1882 and 1885 four artists were commissioned to paint the many scenes of her life. Surrounding the Greek cross transept on the high walls are the paintings of Pierre-Puvis de Chavannes, Théodore Pierre Nicolas Maillot, Jean Paul Laurens and Jules-Elie Dalauny.  From her childhood meeting of Saint Germain l’Auxerrois to her death bed surrounded by dozens of people including Rodin. 

After all the moving around Sainte Genevieve has finally found her home in the Eglise Saint Etienne de Mont. Many know it as the Midnight in Paris church but it is so much more than that. Dating back to 1494 and named after Saint Etienne (Stephen) the first martyr saint and the namesake of the first church in Paris where Notre Dame stands today. Once connected to the Abbey of Saint Genevive the south wall was shared and served as an entrance. In 1804 when the former abbey was destroyed a stone believed to be the tomb of the saint was discovered. 

Another favorite is the tall statue by Paul Lendowski installed in 1928 on the Pont de la Tournelle just past Notre Dame, She stands behind a child that is holding a ship, the symbol of the city. 

The newly reopened Musée Carnavalet has many amazing pieces depicting the life of the saint and just about every church in Paris has a reminder of her.

Listen to todays newest episode of La Vie Creative - Paris History Avec a Hemingway podcast today

Episode 85 - Sainte Genevieve Part One

Today, January 3 on the 1,510th anniversary of the death of Sainte Genevieve we begin a special two part episode of the life of the Patron Saint of Paris. 

 She stands on the banks of the Seine guarding the edge of Paris. Geneviève, the patron saint of Paris, was born around the year 420  in Nanterre, west of Paris. At the age of 7 she was blessed by St Germain, bishop of Auxerre, and from then on she dedicated her life to God Following the death of her parents a young Geneviève  moved to Paris to live with her godmother, Lutetia. 

As a child she was visited in visions by angels and saints and her family and village thought she was crazy. Saint Germain l’Auxerrois was always a supporter spreading the word that she was a child of God to be listened to.  Her first miracle dates back to when she was just 8 years old. One sunday morning her mother told her she needed to stay home and not attend church where she was the talk of the village. Upset she spoke up to her mother which resulted in a slap to her face. Within minutes her mother went blind. 

Two years later in 430, her mother asked Genevieve to retrieve water from the well. She spilled a bit and made the sign of the cross on her mothers face. Her mother wiped the water away and within a few minutes her sight returned. 

 Marcellus, Bishop of Paris appointed her to care and look after the welfare of virgins, but it would be her future deed that gives her place as the patron saint of Paris .  In 451, Atilla the Hun and his army were on their way to Paris to take the city. 

 The young Geneviève gathered the frightened Parisians together to pray. Atilla's Huns changed their plans and headed to Orleans, saving Paris. In 464 she would do it again, this time during Childeric’s siege of Paris. She took a boat to Brie and Troyes numerous times, buying grain and returning to Paris and through his blockade to feed the starving people.  

Genevive died on  January 3, 512 and was buried alongside King Clovis and his wife Queen Clotilde in the Abbey of Sainte Genevieve built by Clovis. In 630, Saint Eloi had her shrine covered in gold and precious stones. Over time it was moved and somewhat destroyed. In 1240 Bonnard, a Parisian goldsmith repaired it and 400 years later in 1614 Marie de Medici had it rebuilt again. In 1793 during the French Revolution, she was moved to the Monnaie (mint) where her shrine was melted down and the precious stones removed. 

Between 1500 and 1793 the reliquary of Sainte Genevieve was called on more than 120 times to save Paris from weather events, plaques and attacks. In May 1694 France had suffered a very dry winter that turned into spring. Famine spread through the countryside and the government had exhausted every resource they had. They went to Louis XIV and asked if he would allow a ceremony to be held calling on Sainte Genevieve to bring them a miracle. 

On May 27, 1694 the abbey was filled with the sick and invalid and a grand ceremony was planned. Involving another saint, church and government officials and thousands of Parisians were part of the procession that started at Notre Dame de Paris. There were specific instructions that needed to be followed. The relics of Saint Marcel, held in Notre Dame had to first leave the Ile de la Cité. With church officials the procession traveled up the Montagne Sainte Geneviève to the door of the abbey. Once inside the reliquary of Saint Marcel was placed next to that of Sainte Genevieve on the altar. After a full mass the two then departed with hundreds in tow and thousands lining the streets back to Notre Dame. After another mass Marcel walked Genevieve to the end of the Petit Pont where he bid her adieu and then she returned home.  

As she was taken back into the church the sky turned dark and the clouds opened and after many long months rain had returned.  In 1725 she was brought out again, this time to stop the rain. These episodes were captured in Jollain Francois’s engraving that will later be turned into stained glass. 

On 21 November 1793 her bones were burnt on the Place de Greve in front of the Hotel de Ville. The Revolutionists paraded her remains slowly through the city wanting everyone to see their beloved saint burned so she could no longer save them. Her ashes were thrown into the Seine, the same Seine she used to save the people of Paris many times. 

The shrine seen today in the Eglise Saint Etienne de Mont holds relics of her that had been sent to other churches in France prior to the Revolution. In the large shrine, the stones from the original sarcophagus that her body had laid on for thirteen hundred years. 

Listen to todays newest episode of La Vie Creative - Paris History Avec a Hemingway podcast today and tune in next week for part two.

Episode 84 - Art in the Churches of Paris

Paris itself is a living museum. Filled with over 150 museums and the streets that ooze with history and architecture spanning centuries. Before we had my beloved Musée du Louvre we had the churches that filled their walls with art from some of the biggest artists of the time. The Louvre opened in 1793 and over three hundred years before Notre Dame de Paris opened its doors. 

Art of the past was very different then it is now. Today it is just as much about the artist itself sometimes selling for millions of dollars just because of their  name. Centuries ago the only way for an artist to be seen was in the churches and the Salons. For this we are very lucky and you can see some of the greatest French painters for free by just popping into a few of the churches in Paris. 

In the newest episode of Paris History Avec a Hemingway on La Vie Creative podcast we talk about many of the ones you should search out when you arrive. You can discover the painter of Louis XIV Charles Le Brun in Saint Nicolas du Chardonnet where he was also laid to rest. The designer of Vaux le Vicomte was appointed by the king to bring the vision of Versailles to life as well as the Galerie d’Apollon in the Louvre where you can find another master.

Just off Boulevard Saint Germain is the Latin Quarter  church of Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet and  is a treasure trove of art.  Charles Le Brun’s 1862 The Martyrdom of Saint John the Evangelist is striking and was a departure from the usual way the saint was depicted.  The painting shows the saint John being lifted by a rope towards the vat of boiling oil while the executioner blows on the fire below. Humanizing the Saint for the first time by showing his full body it gave the painting movement and life.  

Eugene Delacroix was the leader of the Romantic movement and believed the best way for an artist to be remembered was to hang large scale pieces in public spaces.

Follow down Rue de Turenne  for a few minutes and you will reach the gem of Rue Saint Antoine. The Italian and French Gothic church with its red doors is not to be overlooked.  The inside is beautiful with its high dome, stonework, statues and chandeliers. In 1824 Delacroix was commissioned to create a painting for the Eglise Saint Paul Saint Louis. On the left of the transept above the door is Delacroix’s Le Christ au Jardin des Olivers shows why he is the master of Romanticism. It shows Christ pushing back three angels that are hanging their head in sadness, which is a slight change from the printed word. It was his liberal use of the biblical text and the changing of the story he would continue in all his religious pieces. 

Often overlooked in the bustling Le Marais is the Saint-Denys-du-Saint-Sacrement church. This was the first public commission for a religious mural for Delacroix in 1840. The familiar scene of La Pietà depicting the body of Christ in the arms of the Virgin after he is pulled down from the cross, was painted directly onto the wall of the Saint Genevieve chapel. Using bright colors for the figures and placing them in the foreground of the painting give it even more depth and emotion.

You can’t mention Delacroix without a visit to the largest church on the Left Bank, Saint-Sulpice where we will find his finest of religious paintings that remain today. Just inside the door to the right in the Chapel of the Holy Angels where Delacroix was given free reign of the paintings, the only stipulation was that they referred to the subject of angels. For the two walls he chose; Jacob Wrestling the Angel on the left, and on the right Heliodurus Driven from the Temple. Painted directly onto the walls with a medium mixed with wax and oil, it would take him over three years to complete. Hanging above is the beautiful Saint Michael Defeats the Devil, painted on a canvas and later secured into place. Each of these three works is filled with symbolism and even some small features that are more reminiscent of modern times than that of biblical. A restoration was completed in 2017 where the layers of the years were removed so they can now be seen in all their glory.

Located in the 7th arrondissement is the Second Empire Neo-Byzantine church, St-François-Xavier. From the outside, it is not the most interesting of facades, but do not let that stop you. Inside you will lay your eyes on one of the greatest pieces by the Italian painter of the Venetian school, Jacopo Tintoretto. The Last Supper by Tintoretto was an image he painted many times, refining it along the way. Unlike the Leonard da Vinci version, Le Tintoret, as he is known in France, decided to gather the Apostles around a square table. It gives you the perspective that you are looking at them gathered from a hidden vantage point. A gift to the church in 1905, it can be seen today hanging in the wedding sacristy.

Before the fire at the highly visited Notre Dame de Paris, you could find a few of the greatest examples of French religious paintings. Tucked away in the very first chapel of Saint Éloi was a painting by Charles Le Brun, the official court painter of Louis XIV who would be instrumental in the construction of Versailles. The Stoning of Saint-Etienne and his other painting The Crucifixion of Sainte André are part of the collection called Les Mays. Between 1630-1707 the Saint Anne guild of Parisian goldsmiths commissioned paintings to be donated to the churches by some of the great 17th century French painters. While some of Les Mays have been removed and placed into museums, Notre Dame de Paris still holds most of these masterpieces that often go unnoticed. They all survived the fire and are currently being restored and cleaned after decades of candle soot and dust and might go on display in the Louvre for display before returning Notre Dame

Listen to the newest episode to hear all about these paintings and more.

Episode 83 - Hemingway's Arrive in Paris

One hundred years ago today, on 20 December 1921, the newlywed Hemingway’s arrived in Paris. After almost two weeks on the S.S. Leopoldina that left New York on December 8th the two finally arrived in the City of Light. Relying on Hadley and her eight years of French, the two found their way through day to day life. Friend and author Sherwood Anderson armed Hem with letters of introduction to other American expats and even made them a reservation at the Hotel Jacob et d’Angleterre on the Rue Jacob in Saint Germain-des-Près.

Filled with fellow Americans, the hotel fittingly sits on the same spot that Benjamin Franklin and John Adams worked on the Treaty of Paris in 1783 that would end the American Revolution. When Ernest and Hadley stayed it was just 12 francs a day and in a bit of disrepair. Holes in the staircase carpet that Hem would call “traps for drunk guests”, but the price was right. Today the staircase and the inner garden is still the same, although they have changed the carpet.

On those cold days of December the two would walk the streets of St Germain “arm through arm, peering into courts and stopping in front of little shop windows”. Dining almost nightly at the nearby Le Près aux Clercs on the corner of Rue Bonaparte and Rue Jacob, just steps from their hotel. They could get a fantastic meal for just 12 francs and dine like royalty.. 

Those next few months and years are the most documented of his life. The countless books change the facts or add in a bit of their own point of view. Listen to the newest episode of Paris History Avec a Hemingway on La Vie Creative Podcast to hear about these early days when everything was “poor and happy”.

Episode 82 - Sonia Delaunay

Many of the female artists we have shared on Paris History Avec a Hemingway on La Vie Creative Podcast have been hidden behind their male contemporaries. Sonia Delaunay is just as well known as her husband Robert, but there was a whole side to her art that I had never noticed before. 

Sonia Stern born November 14, 1885 in the Ukraine. Her parents were working class and at 5 years old her mother gave her up for adoption to her wealthy uncle Henri Terk. Henri showed the young Sonia a life of art and culture and exposed her to an education she would not have received from her working class parents.  At 18 she was fluent in four languages and was off to the Academy of Fine arts in  Karlsruhe, Germany in 1904. 

The next year she was in Paris at the Academie de la Palette. The same year Wilhelm Uhde arrived in Paris from Germany and opened a gallery on Rue Notre Dame des Champs and purchased his first Picasso and built a collection and circle of friends that would include Sonia. In 1908 she and Wilhelm married, a marriage of convenience between friends. Sonia wanted to avoid returning to Russia and Wilhelm needed to conceal his homosexuality. That same year she met French artist Robert Delaunay.

On November 15, 1910 Robert and Sonia married but she and Wilhelm remained close for the rest of their lives. Sonia had already begun painting and exhibiting at the Salon and the couple now influenced and inspired each other as a force few had seen in Paris. Sonia was constantly looking for other ways to share her art. She moved from the canvas to every other form of art she could find. 

Her focus would turn to home furnishings, fabric, clothing and even cars. During WWI while in Spain she opened Casa Sonia, selling her fabrics and home goods and opened 4 locations. In 1920 the Delaunay’s returned to Paris and opened another store, Maison Sonia and focused all her time on home decor even taking on clients as an interior decorator. Their new home at 19 Boulevard Malesherbes was completely furnished in her own designs. 

The couple gladly worked together with a few of the biggest names in ballet from Spain to Paris. Robert would design the sets and Sonia the costumes. Robert kept his mind on the canvas while he encouraged all of her ideas. Their style was born in Cubism and moved through Fauvism until they created a style all their own. Coined by friend Guillaume Appolinair, Orphism was their own bringing back all the colors to the canvas from the monochromatic world of Cubism. 

In 1940 they fled Paris for Montpellier and on  October 25, 1941 Robert lost his battle with lung cancer. Sonia for the next ten years made it her mission to share his legacy with the world. Writing books and putting together exhibitions from Paris to New York. Many of the gallery owners wanted to feature her work as much as Roberts and her art spread just as fast. 

Early in her time in Paris, she spent time inside the Musée du Louvre.  While most of the greats were inspired by the masters, she was drawn to the jewelry of Egypt and Messopotamia. In 1964 she was given the first living female artist exhibition inside the walls of the museum that inspired her. Even Picasso didn’t exhibit in the Louvre until 1971. 

On December 5, 1979 at the age of 94 she passed away at her home at 16 Rue de Saint Simon. Today her colorful legacy is left in museums around the world, many times next to her beloved Robert. 

Hear her entire story today at La Vie Creative Podcast - Paris History Avec a Hemingway.

Episode 81 - The Musée d'Orsay

35 years ago this week the Musée d’Orsay opened to the impressionist, loving public for the first time. It’s hard to image a time when the museum wasn’t part of the landscape of central Paris with the lovely clocks standing over the Seine.

We have to go back to the 16th century when it was once the garden of Marguerite de Valois first wife of Henri IV until her death when they turned the property into elegant homes. In 1810 under Napoleon a building was ordered for his expanding government and architect Jacques-Charles Bonnard who had restored the Tuilieres was tapped with the project. The first stone was laid April 4, 1810 but the fall of Napoleon would delay the finish until 1838.  The Council d’Etat decided to move in to finally complete the building in 1842. 

In 1845 the young painter Thédore Chassériau was asked to complete a series of paintings to decorate the Cour de Comptes stairwell. Chassériau had a gift for drawing as a child. In 1830 at just eleven years old he joined the atelier of Jean-Auguste Ingres, the great French classical painter. He was struck right away at his talent and told everyone about his young protege. Working with him for four years until Ingres left for Rome, he would find another amazing instructor, Eugene Delacroix. The leader of the Romantic movement was the opposite of Ingres. With Delacroix he discovered the magic of the Orient, the use of color and the large sweeping murals. Chassériau was the bridge between the classical and romantic style and it fit him perfectly. 

Chassériau’s paintings lined the stairwell and were partially destroyed that horrible night on May 23, 1871. However, it wasn’t the fire that did most of the damage. For 27 years the burned out remains of the Palais d’Orsay and the paintings stood through the wind, rain and sun damaging them further. 

In 1898 it was finally demolished and thankfully the paintings were saved. What is left of them can be found in the Musée du Louvre hanging high above in Salle 225 of the Richelieu wing. A few are painted in the grisaille fashion of shades of grey, those are more complete the the paintings that are torn and worn away. Chassériau died far too early at just 37 years old but lives on forever on the walls of the Louvre.

Laloux was tasked with creating a building that would fit into its elegant surroundings as well as balance with the Musée du Louvre seen just across the Seine. Running for almost 40 years, with over 200 trains a day it would stop in 1939 and again a team of people would argue over what to do with it.

On October 20, 1977 it was decided to turn the former station into a museum, bridging the Louvre to the Centre Pompidou. Three architects, Colbac, Bardon & Philippon embraced the structure that Laloux designed, keeping his many elements including the stone roses that rise up the walls. The salles and aisle was completely reimagined and now filled with art from 1848-1914 much of which once graced the salles of the Louvre.

On October 9, 1986, the doors of the Orsay were open to the public and today thousands of people come each day to see the art of Van Gogh, the Impressionists and statues of the Second Empire.  The idea of taking a building associated with noise and movement and turning it into one of quiet reflection and beauty is something only the French know how to do. 

The original facade of the Gare d’Orsay with its two large clocks and topped with three allegorical statues overlooking the Seine. It Represents Toulouse, Bordeaux and Nantes, each by a different artist, but with one characteristic that is all the same. Each has the face of Madame Laloux, a fitting tribute to the man that designed such a beautiful building.

The Musée d’Orsay is open Tuesday - Sunday from 9:30am - 6pm and each Thursday until 9:45pm

However, the greatest secret of all is how you can get in there before the thousands of art lovers arrive each day. If you come to Paris often or plan to visit the Orsay a few times on your trip or just want to have an amazing experience, become a member.

The Musée d’Orsay Carte Blanche can be purchased for 42€ - 65€ for a solo pass and with that little golden card you can enter the Orsay 30 minutes before it opens to the general public. Thirty minutes might not sound like much but while it takes a bit for the growds to gather you can have more than an hour of the museum somewhat all to yourself depending on where you are.

Another great way is to become a member of the American Friends of the Musée d’Orsay that also allows you inside early and depending on your level even more great advantages.

How ever you decide to see the Orsay be sure to have it on your list of things to see in Paris. And if you want a guided personal visit with me giving you all the history and behind the canvas stories book me for a tour.

Listen to the newest episode today at Paris History Avec a Hemingway on La Vie Creative Podcast