Tom Wolfe:
An intellectual is a person who is knowledgeable in one field but speaks out only in others.
January 16, 2011
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Missing the Musée d’Orsay
Going through old notes, I’ve found a list of my favorites from the Musée d’Orsay. The list also inspired me to google my French ex girlfriend to discover that she is, as of December 23, engaged to be married. This is bittersweet. The relationship was transatlantic and so meshed with Paris that it is hard to separate my feelings for her with my feelings for the city. I may need to find another French girl to marry or I will never slay the confusion.
These notes are for myself or for you.
- Aurore by Denys Puech. A sculpture of the goddess of dawn. Playful and inspiring.
- The landscapes of Alfred Sisley, including Snow at Louveciennes.
- Raboteurs de parquets by Paul Cezanne.
- Vue de toits, effet de neige by Gustave Caillebotte.
- The photos of Roger Fenton.
- The work of Felix Vallotton. Idiot that I am, my notes from the museum ask if Vallotton had been influenced by Edward Hopper. It was Hopper who was influenced (I think this is too weak a word) by Vallotton. It is interesting that Hopper won the fame game when the works are so similar in their portrayals of loneliness and boredom.
- Espirit de la nuit (“The spirit of the night”) by Sir Alfred Drury.
- Les docks de cardiff by Lionel Walden. Stunning realism applied to a train in the night—even in grit one of the most romantic visual metaphors of the industrial era.
- La neige by Charles Francois Daubigny.
Incidentally, the museum web site has an absolutely awesome search engine.
