Louvre - Les Choses Sill Life

 

The Louvre is always closed on Tuesdays except for a vernissage/an opening

Yesterday I went to the opening of the new exhibit, 

Called ‘Les Choses’, The Things, A history of still life since Prehistory, on from October 12, 2022 to January 23, 2023 . This early painting of a turnip/navet is surprisingly by Odilon Redon, from around 1875.

The exhibit is an extravaganza of still life painting, sculpture, photography, filmography 

And new ways of looking, like this film clip from ‘Dinner Scene’ by the ineffable Buster Keaton (1920). Not what you would consider a still life per se.

And new ways of thinking about the everyday things in our lives. A painting from the German school, i.e. by an unknown artist (I’m only showing the lower half) from the Colmar musee Unterlindden, which we missed on our jaunt to visit Mme Christine Ferber, (who creates still life subjects everyday but that’s another story). 

From the Dutch school, a renown sumptuous still life by Jan Davidsz de Heem, called La Desserte, 1640, where every object is painted in an intensely detailed manner, closely and equally explored and presented. 

Matisse, as a student, copied de Heem’s painting, changing the proportions somewhat, abstracting the objects, yet keeping the tight geometric grid composed of strong verticals and horizontals of the original. 

A later Matisse where it’s easy to spot the geometry.

Before him, Cezanne, one of the kings of still life geometry.  In Cézanne's letter to Emile Bernard of April 15, 1904: “May I repeat what I told you here: treat nature by means of the cylinder, the sphere, the cone, everything brought into proper perspective so that each side of an object or a plane is directed toward a central point”.

loved this straightforward Emile Bernard. He took Cezanne’s advice.

I know I’m jumping around historically but so many pieces to see in this exhibition. I’m showing my favorites after only a single viewing. An odd choice, a very abstract Bonnard, ‘Coin de Table’ of the many tabletops Bonnard painted. Is that a tiny chair at the far end of the table? 

Skipping to an earlier period of still life in the exhibit from the Herculanum in the Naples Archéologie museum around 50-79, valuable as a source of information about the Roman way of life.

 

Not in the exhibition, but I’m taking many liberties here, this exquisite glass painting from Pompeii. 

As a lead-in to  this exquisite glass painting in the show by Alsatian painter, Sebastien Stoskopff from 1630-1640. His works, which were rediscovered after 1930, portray goblets, cups and especially glasses. The reduction to a few objects, which is characteristic of early still life painting, can again be recognized in Stoskopff's painting. His chief works hang in his hometown of Strasbourg (I am going there next) 

In La Tour d’Argent Epicerie vitrine life follows art.

Impossible to show you the plethora of myriad pieces from ‘Les Choses’ So many witty and wonderful objet. This post is already too long. Hopefully your curiosity is piqued. 

I cannot not show you perhaps one of the most harmonious still lives ever - this deceptively simple yet complex arrangement by Jean Siméon Chardin (1699-1779). Chardin, more than any artist before his time, chooses exactly where he wants your eye to travel in the picture. Some edges are sharp and others are blurry. His acute understanding of the nature of tactile space is unique. We studied this painting at length in David Dewey’s watercolor classes. 

I’ve looked and looked at this cup more times than I can count and will keep on looking until something sinks in. It is the cup of cups. Wait..it is not from this Chardin, but another hidden away in the Louvre’s collection (the most complete Chardin collection in existence unless you can tell me otherwise). All still life lovers come here to pay homage.

 

If you’re in Paris and want to see this beautiful cup as well as the other 36 Chardins 

You will have to hunt In the Louvre’s collection. Room 39 in the Sully wing on the second floor in the French painting collection(closed on Mondays). 

But I digress. Interestingly the curator shows this Van Gogh bedroom painting 

(Which I’ve shown many times) as a still life, a collection of Van Gogh’s personal things that meant something to him.

There is so much more I could show you from this exhibit. 

And yet why is there only one Morandi? Surely an oversight.

And no Fantin-Latour in the show?

Also excluded photographer Irving Penn not in the show.

And no Japanese Surimono still lives? No Wayne Thiebaud?

Still an exciting, intriguing exhibit I can highly recommend. It is on till 23 January 2023. 

Immediately after I was thirsty and got a DIY pomegranate juice from Franprix. 

Here’s a recent still life from The Oyster Club in the Marais(excellent if you like shellfish & grumpy chefs). Just don’t go for lunch - it is closed. A simple cup watercolor I recently painted and feel brazenly like showing off, among the greatest of the great. Why not? 

Subscription Paris letters 💌, maps and watercolors are in my Etsy shop. With love💋from Paris🐻

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