A Spaniard in the Works - Velazquez 7-09-15

In Madrid we came to admire the painting of Velazquez very much so when the Grand Palais offered an exhibition of his paintings we jumped at the chance.  Being members of the Louvre the tickets are discounted to us so we added to our already considerable savings on our membership yet again.

When we arrived there was a photographic frenzy outside with paparazzi and video cameras everywhere.  We thought, Oh Great! but it turned out to be models leaving the building from another exhibition on fashion.

Velazquez was very influential during his lifetime but amazingly had only one student, his son-in-law, who was in my opinion only a middling painter.  There were no photos allowed in the exhibition so this image is bad as it came surreptitiously from my Iphone. 

There was one young man who was skulking around the rooms and taking pics but it looked like too much effort.  And since we have pics from Madrid of many of his greatest paintings...    It was once again a bit of a shark tank with wall to wall people cruising around and cutting each other off, but pretty sedately for the most part.   It was fun to see 'old friends' and to see some new works as well, there was one particularly arresting painting of one of the heads of the Inquisition, from a private collection.   I for one would have not wanted to come under his scrutiny, his haughtiness was chilling.

After the exhibition we went across the street to the Petit Palais for lunch at their cafe and from there back to the apartment to catch the finish of the Tour de France.   Many crashes due to wet and windy weather coupled with slick roads.