Pierre kindly took the girls to a historical fiction workshop at the American Library and Nick and I headed to Musée Jacquemart-André to see Désirs et Volupté à l'épouque Victorienne. This was a good balance to my visit to Masculin at Musée D'Orsay.
The exhibit includes some paintings from the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood as well as others from the Victorian Era. The art from this exhibition all comes from the collection of a Mexican businessman, Pérez Simon. He has one of the largest private art collections in the world.
This is one of my favorite museums. It shows you just how wealthy the rich were during the Hausmann era.
The mansion houses the family's collection or art. Most of the art is from Italy, where they would travel each year to add to their collection. Whole rooms were taken from Venice and shipped to Paris.
In the Victoria Era, woman were depicted in contrast with the industrial revolution. They were lovely and took care of the home. However, this loveliness could be dangerous. Beware of the femme fatale who may cast a spell over you!
John William Waterhouse depicts a couple of beautiful and dangerous women.
She will capture you with her love potion.
The painters also looked to the past to find the ideal woman.
The following day we checked out The Alaia exhibit at Musée Galliera, the fashion museum. This museum has just been reopened after being renovated for a couple of years. I had hoped to see some of the permanent collection, but because of the fragile nature of its collection, the museum only shows visiting exhibition. Azzedine Alaia is a famous designer who has created dresses for all sorts of famous people. Some of my favorite, over the top, creations were made for Tina Turner. This exhibit was very busy, whether this is because the museum just reopened, or because Alaia is super popular, I don't know. The girls kept us moving through the exhibit at a fast clip. The exhibit continued across the street into the Musée d'Art Moderne.
Honestly, I was more interested in the building than in the exhibit. The Duke and Duchess of Galliera wanted to build a museum to house their collection of art and to give the museum and the art to France. The lawyer made a drafting error and the land was deeded to Paris rather than to France. The error could not be fixed and the Duchess decided to give everything to Paris.
According to Wikipédia, a couple of years after she gave this enormous donation, on 22 June 1886, Jules Grévy and Georges Clemenceau convened the Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic and adopted a law expelling any person who was a direct heir of a royalist dynasty that had reigned in France. The Duchess Galliera, who had descended from the House of Orléans, was outraged by the law, no less because she had already donated the Hôtel Matignon to France. Unable to revoke her gift of the new museum, she abandoned the rest of her planned legacy to Paris. Thus, her collection of paintings and fine art were given to Genoa, Italy, where they are now displayed at the Palazzo Rosso and Palazzo Bianco.
The gardens and the museum are beautiful. The Marché Presdient Wilson, which is open Wednesday and Saturday mornings, takes place right between Musée Galliera and Musée d'Art Moderne. We often buy a picnic at the market and enjoy it in the garden.
Thanks for visiting, Nick!
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