Muguet de Paris

Causes for celebration, like many things, often come in threes, and today is no exception. First, there is the arrival of Spring (despite the absence of any noticeable winter in most places). The second is a day to honor a confection that has come to be applauded around the world, thanks in no small part to Ladurée and Pierre Hermé — le Jour du Macaron, the Day of the Macaron.

My personal favorite — not for daily consumption, bien sûr – while living in Paris was the Amarilys proposed by the local pâtisserie, two pale green pistachio macarons with fresh raspberries at the center, held together by a light pastry cream.

Do you have a favorite?

The third and most important reason to celebrate the day is the birthday of my younger daughter. Coincidentally, on my own birthday last month, this exceptional young woman gifted me with macarons from the New York outpost of Ladurée. I knew I raised that kid right!

Happy birthday, Mandy.

Jane del Monte, bridging the distance

(Photo, Le Phare dunquerquois)

© 2012 Jane del Monte

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Posted in L'Art de Vivre, Potpourri
Tags: Jour du Macaron, Ladurée, macarons, Pierre Hermé

This article first appeared in the New York Times. It is worth reading.

French Surgeon, 71, Saves Lives in Syria

PARIS — At the age of 71, Dr. Jacques Bérès, a veteran of war zones, left his comfortable Paris life last month to smuggle himself into Homs, the center of the Syrian revolt, to tend to the wounded and the sick. Read on… 

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Posted in People
Tags: Doctors Without Biorders, Dr. Jacques Bérès, Homs, Médecins Sans Frontières, Syria

Today I’m sharing a couple of links — one, an article from The Telegraph, gives us a delightful account of  the serendipitous origin of the Birkin bag; the other is a video preview of an exhibition now going on in Paris.

To learn how one icon inspired the creation of another, read on.

And here is the video:

The exhibition continues through 16 September 2012 at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs.

If you would like to receive daily updates on what’s going on in Paris and in the world of French arts, visit the ARTS in PARIS Facebook page and “like” us.

Jane del Monte, bridging the distance

(Photo credits: Bag, Yvette Religioso-Ilagan; Family Vuitton, PD-US)

© 2012 Jane del Monte

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Posted in ARTS IN PARIS, Exhibitions, Salons, Museums, La Mode, People
Tags: Hermès, Jane Birkin, Jean=Louis Dumas, Louis Vuitton, luggage, Marc Jacobs, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, purses

Today is International Women’s Day (March is Women’s History Month). The day seems to be commemorated more in other countries than in the States, celebrated in many as a national holiday. When I lived in Paris, certain shopkeepers offered discounts to women to mark the day. I think I’ll wear the necklace I bought (at a reduced price, bien sûr) from one of them. Our madeleines come in many forms.

Women have been changing the course of French history since 451, when a prayer marathon promoted by a certain Geneviève de Nanterre saved Paris, diverting Attila and his Huns away from the city. Instead, he attacked Orléans. Geneviève was rewarded with sainthood and became patron saint of Paris. Her tomb is in the Church of Saint-Etienne-du-Mont, one of the most charmingly eccentric churches in all of Paris.

Orléans was again under siege, this time by the English during the Hundred Years War, when a young girl liberated the city and paved the way to the coronation of Charles VII. Of course I mean Jeanne d’Arc, who became one of the patron saints of France and a political symbol to this day.

Marie-Antoinette changed the course of history by her presence more than her actions. A scapegoat was needed; she filled the role. Just to briefly mention her contribution to the arts, under her patronage two women artists flourished — Elisabeth-Louise Vigée-Lebrun, who chronicled the lives of royals and aristocrats, and Anne Vallayer-Coster. Both managed to keep their heads as the Revolution raged around them. Their works are featured in one of the exhibitions mentioned further down.

Many women changed the lives of other women. Simone de Beauvoir, of course, but there were others who came before, too numerous to name. Two whom I have mentioned before in these pages changed the lives of women in different ways – Marguerite Durand and Madeleine Vionnet.

Marie Sklodowska-Curie accumulated a series of “firsts,” She was the first person honored with two Nobel prizes – in physics and chemistry, the first female professor at the University of Paris, and, in 2005, the first woman to be entombed, on her own merits, at the Panthéon.

If, as claimed Coco Chanel, “Elegance is refusal,” Julie Récamier qualified, for not only did she rebuff the advances of Lucien Bonaparte, but she had refused to become lady-in-waiting to the Empress Joséphine, neither of which endeared her to Napoléon. Depicted by numerous artists of the time, she was renowned for her beauty, as well as for her salons where the illuminati of the day gathered. Sometimes just providing a place for the exchange of ideas facilitates the course of history.

Many women are noted for their association with a great man in their field. Camille Claudel was Rodin’s muse, mistress and student, yet today she is believed by many to have surpassed the master. Her work may be seen with his at the Musée Rodin. You decide..

Two exhibitions open today involving French women artists, one in Washington, D.C., the other in Paris.

In Washington, the National Museum of Women in the Arts will present the works of 35 women artists made between 1750 and 1850 in an exhibition entitled “Royalists to Romantics, Women Artists from the Louvre, Versailles and Other French National Collections.” The exhibitions runs through July 29. www,nmwa.org

And in Paris, on the heels of an exhibition in Madrid, the Musèe Marmottan-Monet will present a retrospective of the work of Berthe Morisot. Morisot was the sister-in-law of Edouard Manet, and it has been generally believed that he was the master, she the student. However, the relationship was reciprocal, and one can see her influence in his work in the form of stylistic characteristics originated by Morisot. The exhibition continues through 1 July. www.marmottan.com

Jane del Monte, bridging the distance

© 2012 Jane del Monte

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Posted in Exhibitions, Salons, Museums, People, Potpourri
Tags: Anne Vallayer-Coster, Bonaparte, Camille Claudel, Edouard Manet, Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, feminism, François Gérard, France, French history, International Women's Day, Jeanne d'Arc, Julie Récamier, Madeleine Vionnet, Marguerite Durand, Marie-Antoinette, Musée Marmottan-Monet, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Paul Landowski, Rodin, Sainte Genevieve, Simone de Beauvoir, women artists, Women's History Month

I’ll let you decide.

For those of you who haven’t yet visited the ARTS in PARIS Facebook page, click on the link for a few glimpses of Fashion Week.

I love Christian Louboutin’s comment (with the last slide) that the cabaret dancers were his inspiration.

Jane del Monte, bridging the distance

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Posted in Exhibitions, Salons, Museums, L'Art de Vivre, La Mode, Potpourri
Tags: Christian Louboutin, Crazy Horse, Fatima Lopes, Invalides, Julien David, Nicola Formichetti, Paris, Paris Fashion Week, Peachoo Krejberg, Romain Kramer, Thierry Mugler

By no means comprehensive, just a few things that may be of interest.

Paris

Through  19 March 2012 — “Fantin-Latour, Manet, Cezanne: Hommage à Delacroix” (Fantin-Latour-Manet, Cezanne: Homage to Delacroixà, Musée Eugène Delacroix (Métro St-Germain-des-Prés or Mabillon), www.musee-delacroix.fr

Through 16 April 2012, “New Frontier: l’ art américain entre au Louvre. Thomas Cole et la naissaince de la peinture de paysage en Amérique” (New Frontier: American Art Enters the Louvre. Thomas Cole and the Birth of Landscape Painting in America), Musée du Louvre (Métro Palais Royal), www.louvre.fr

Through 20 May 2012 – “Néon: Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue?” La Maison Rouge (Métro Quai de la Rapée or Bastille), www.lamaisonrouge.org

Through 3 June 2012 – “L’Invention du sauvage” (The Invention of the Savage), Musée du Quai Branly (Métro Alma-Marceau), www.quaibranly.fr

Through 2 September 2012 — “Les Histoires de Babar” (The Stories of Babar), Musée des Arts Décoratifs (Métro Tuileries or Palais-Royal), www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr

Through 28 April 2012 — “Doisneau, les Halles, ” Hôtel de Ville de Paris, Salon d’accueil (Métro Hôtel de Ville), www.paris.fr

Through 18 June 2012 — “Matisse, paires et séries” (Matisse, Pairs and Series), Centre Pompidou (Métro Rambuteau, Hôtel de Ville or Châtelet), www.centrepompidou.fr

Through September 2012– “Poèmes en cristal: De Gallé à Lalique, la verrerie Art Nouveau du Petit Palais” (Poems in Crystal: From Gallé to Lalique, the Art Nouveau Glass of the Petit Palais), Petit Palais (Métro Champs-Elysées-Clémenceau), www.petitpalais.paris.fr

Through 15 November 2013 — “Trompe-L’oeil: Imitations, pastiches et autres illusions” (Trompe-l’oeil: Imitations, Pastiches and Other Illusions), Musée des Arts Décoratifs (Métro Tuileries or Palais-Royal), www.artsdecoratifs.fr

8 March – 1 July 2012 — “Berthe Morisot,” Musée Marmottan Monet (Métro La Muette), www.marmottan.com

8 March – 5 August 2012 – “J.M. Sert, le Titan à l’oeuvre (1874 – 1945″ (J.M Sert, the Work of the Titan), Petit Palais (Métro Champs Elysées-Clémenceau, www.petitpalais.paris.fr

9 March – 16 September 2012 — “Louis Vuitton Marc Jacobs,” Musée de la Mode et du Textile (Métro Tuileries or Palais-Royal), www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr

13 March – 1 July 2012, “Degas et le nu” (Degas and the Nude), Musée d’Orsay, Métro Solferino, www.musee-orsay.fr

21 March – 21 May 2012 — “Art Spiegelman,” Centre Pompidou (Métro Rambuteau, Hôtel de Ville or Châtelet), www.centrepompidou.fr

21 March – 16 July 2012 — “Beauté animale – de Dürer à Jeff Koons” (Animal Beauty — from Dürer to Jeff Koons), Grand Palais (Métro Champs-Elyséée-Clémenceau), www.rmn.fr

23 March – 23 July 2012 — “Le Crépuscule des Pharaons: Chefs-d’oeuvre des dernières dynasties égyptiennes” (The Twilight of the Pharaohs: Masterpieces of the Last Egyptian Dynasties), Musée Jacquemart-André (Métro Miromesnil or Saint-Philippe-du-Roule), www.musee-jacquemart-andré.com

25 April – 29 July 2012 — “Eugène Atget, Paris,” Musée Carnavalet (Métro Saint-Paul or Chemin Vert), www.carnavalet.paris.fr

16 May – 25 August 2012 — “Paris, vu par Hollywood” (Paris, Seen by Hollywood), Hôtel de Ville de Paris Salle Saint-Jean (Métro Hôtel de Ville), www.paris.fr

12 June – 9 September 2012 — “Misia, reine de Paris” (Misia, Queen of Paris), Musée d’Orsay (Métro Solférino), www.musee-orsay.fr

20 September 2012 – 10 September 2013 — “Van Cleef & Arpels,” Musée des Arts Décoratifs (Métro Tuileries or Palais-Royal) www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr

25 September 2012 – 20 January 2013 — “Impressionisme et la Mode” (Impressionism and Style), Musée d’Orsay (Métro Solférino), www.musee-orsay.fr

Versailles

Through 13 May 2012 – “Les Guerres de Napoléon” (The Wars of Napoleon), Château de Versailles, www.chateauversailles.fr

Lyon

30 March – 2 July 2012 — “Emile Guimet et l’Egypte antique” (Emile Guimet and Ancient Egypt), Musée des Beaux Arts de Lyon, www.mba-lyon.fr

Giverny

1 April – 15 July 2012 — “Maurice Denis, l’Eternel Printemps” (Maurice Denis, the Eternal Spring), Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny, www.mdig.fr

Maastricht

16 – 25 March, 2012 – TEFAF Maastricht, Maastricht Exhibition and Congress Center, www.tefaf.com

London

Through 15 July 2012 — “Picasso and Britain,” Tate Britain, www.tate.org.uk

Liverpool

22 June – 28 October 2012 – “Turner Monet Twombly,” Tate Liverpool, www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/exhibitions/TurnerMonetTwombly 

Madrid

Through 29 April 2012 — “Odilon Redon, 1840 – 1916,” Fundación Mapfre, www.mapfre.org

Through 20 May 2012 — “Chagall,” Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, www.museothyssen.org

9 October 2012 -  13 January 2013 — “Voyage to the Exotic: Homage to Gauguin,” Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, www.museothyssen.org

Montreal

12 October 2012 – 20 January 2013 — “Une histoire de l’impressionisme: Chefs-d’oeuvre de la peinture française du Clark” (A History of Impressionism: Masterpieces of French Painting from the Clark) Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, www.mbam.qc.ca

New York

Through 13 May 2012 — “Renoir, Impressionism and Full-Length Painting,” The Frick Collection, www.frick.org

Through 3 June 2012 — “The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso and the Parisian Avant-Garde,” Metropolitan Museum of Art, www.metmuseum.org

4 May – 23 September 2012 — “Edouard Vuillard: A Painter and His Muses, 1890 – 1940,” The Jewish Museum, www.thejewishmuseum.org

Permanent Collection: Wrightsman Galleries for French Decorative Arts, Metropolitan Museum of Art, www.metmuseum.org

Philadelphia

Permanent Collection, Rodin Museum, Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 22nd Street, www.rodinmuseum.org

Washington, D.C.

Through- 6 May 2012 — “Snapshot: Painters and Photography, Bonnard to Vuillard, The Phillips Collection, www.phillipscollection.org

Through 6 May 2012 — “Picasso’s Drawings, 1890-1921: Reinventing Tradition,” National Gallery of Art, West Building, Ground Floor. See www.nga.org

Through 8 July 2012 — “A New Look: Samuel F.B. Morse’s Gallery of the Louvre,” National Gallery of Art, West Building Main Floor. See www.nga.org

Through 29 July 2012 — “Royalists to Romantics, Women Artists from the Louvre, Versailles and Other French National Collections,” National Museum of Women in the Arts, www.nmwa.org

Permanent Collection, “Small French Paintings,” East Building, National Gallery of Art, www.nga.gov

Permanent Collection, “Matisse Cutouts,” National Gallery of Art, East Building Tower. To protect the pigments and color, viewing hours are limited. See www.nga.gov

Richmond

Through 18 March 2012 — “The Jewels of Jean Schlumberger,” Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, www.VMFA.museum

Raleigh

21 October 2012 – 13 January 2013 — “Visual Feast: Masterpieces of Still Life from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,” North Carolina Museum of Art, www.ncartmuseum.org

Atlanta

Through 29 April 2012 — “Picasso to Warhol,” High Museum of Art, www.high.org

Denver

25 March – 8 July 2012 — “Yves Saint Laurent – The Retrospective,” Denver Art Museum, www.denverartmuseum.org

Fort Worth

11 March – 17 June 2012 — “The Age of Impressionism: Great French Paintings from the Clark,” Kimbell Art Museum, www.kimbellart.org

San Francisco

Through 17 June 2012 — “The Cult of Beauty: The Victorian Avant-Garde, 1860 – 1900″ Legion of Honor Museum, www.famsf.org/legion

24 March – 19 August 2012 — “The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk” de Young Fine Arts Museum, www.deyoungmuseum.org

Los Angeles

Permanent Collection: “Neoclassical, Romantic and Symbolist Sculpture and Decorative Arts,”  West Pavilion, Getty Center, www.getty.edu/museum

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Posted in Arts Agenda, Exhibitions, Salons, Museums
Tags: Art in France, Fremch art, Impressionists, painting, photography, Sculpture

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Thanks for your patience.

A très bientôt!

Jane del Monte, bridging the distance

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Posted in Uncategorized